Southern Pines Pilot -- Judge Keeps Academy represented by Shanahan Law Group open for now

Judge Keeps Academy Open for Now

By John Krahnert III

The Academy of Moore County won a preliminary victory Tuesday in its legal battle to keep the charter school open.

Administrative Law Judge Fred Morrison Jr. granted The Academy's motion to stay action by the State Board of Education not to renew the school's charter until a final ruling is made in the case.

Without the stay, the charter would have expired June 30, effectively shutting down the school. It has about 170 students.

The hearing was held at the state Office of Administrative Hearings in Raleigh.

The state board voted in March not to renew school's charter, citing low academic performance.

Kieran Shanahan, the Raleigh attorney representing the Academy, praised Morrison's ruling after the hearing, saying he used "practical and common-sense judgment."

"I think he ruled in favor not only of the school, but also the children and the community," he said.

The hearing lasted about five hours and included sworn testimony from Allyson Schoen, the school's director of education, and state education officials.

The Academy maintains that the state based its decision on old testing data and failed to consider academic improvements the school has made since implementing a corrective action plan in 2008 and that it moved into a new $2.2 million facility in Aberdeen before the school year began.

Though the Academy has had a troubled past, it met the state's expected academic growth standards last year for the first time in four years. Schoen said Monday that preliminary results from this year's testing also look positive.

Assistant Attorney General Laura Crumpler, who represented the State Board of Education, told Morrison that the board determined, after reviewing the school's performance, that it was failing its students.

"The petitioners are asking this court in three or four hours today to overrule the very body that has been vested with the authority to take care of the children in this state," she said.

A full hearing on the merits of the case - to determine if the state board acted "arbitrarily and capriciously" in deciding not to renew the charter - is expected to take place sometime in August. A decision could come by this fall.

An emotional Schoen said after the hearing that Morrison's ruling was just the beginning and a lot of work remained.

"This is a win for kids," she said. "These kids, they're the ones who are winning."