The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

May 16, 2008

Ruling awaited on Brookfield busing lawsuit

By Patrick W. Connelly

BROOKFIELD — A Trumbull County judge is deciding whether to dismiss a lawsuit contesting Brookfield Local School District’s refusal to bus students to a pair of Warren, Ohio, private schools.

Judge John M. Stuard heard closed testimony Thursday from school board solicitor David J. Millstone and lawyers Ronald J. Rice and Robert C. Kokor, who are arguing the students’ case.

“This lawsuit is to force (school directors) to follow the law,” Rice said of the court battle that the board has already spent over $60,000 fighting.

The board opted in September 2006 to pay a fine rather than bus four students living in Brookfield to and from the private John F. Kennedy High School in Warren.

“They’re partially following the law, just not fully,” said Rice, who is a judge himself at Eastern District Court, Brookfield, and has three children affected by the decision.

Paying a $600 fine per student saved the district $30,000 to $70,000 a year by avoiding the purchase of another bus and hiring of another driver, board President Joseph Pasquerilla has said.

Brookfield buses “drive right past” John F. Kennedy and its sister elementary school, Blessed Sacrament, Rice said.

The district won’t transport the 12 to 15 students who attend the private Warren schools, but does bus children to the Trumbull County Career Center in the same town and St. Patrick’s Parish School in Hubbard, Rice said.

The decision, which was ruled inappropriate by the Ohio board of education, was only “economical” and within the limits of the law, Pasquerilla said.

“Every one of the b.s. reasons were rejected (by the state),” Rice said.

Busing the students is feasible and could even turn a small profit, Rice said a Brookfield transportation supervisor testified to the state.

Under state law, a child’s home school district is required to provide transportation to schools no more than 30 minutes away unless parents opt to drive their child themselves, Rice said.

The decision by Brookfield school board members not to follow the law was a first among Ohio school districts, Rice said a state official told him.

The motion to have the case dismissed was filed March 24 by Millstone on the board’s behalf. Attempts to reach him for comment after the hearing on the motion were unsuccessful.

A state examiner recommended in January the board find a way to transport the students if parents could be flexible with drop-off times and locations.

The lawsuit was filed Feb. 21 by parent Valerie Luchette, of 7348 Northview Drive, after she learned from Superintendent Steve Stohla the district hadn’t made plans to put the recommendation into practice.

By state law, only one parent needed to file it on behalf of the students not transported, Rice said.

In the suit, Ms. Luchette has asked that a judge order the district to transport her child to the private school. If board members fail to do so, she wants each fined $500 and held in contempt.

School directors “know they have to” bus the students and will “ultimately lose” the case, Kokor said.

Stuard’s decision on the dismissal motion is expected by late next week, a court clerk said.

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