Cook County circuit judge Sophia Hall dismissed today a parent-led challenge to a Chicago Public Schools policy which results in some schools using appointed local school councils instead of elected ones.

The ruling means that the School of Technology and School of Entrepreneurship, part of the South Shore campus on the 7500-7600 blocks of South Constance, will not be a part of LSC elections next week. Hall had been asked to issue an emergency injunction.

"We're pleased that the judge agreed with us and dismissed the case," says Michael Vaughn, CPS communications chief.

"I'm disappointed," says the Rev. Charlie Walker, a member of the Mose Vines Academy LSC on the West Side and one of the plaintiffs.

However, the challenge will likely be back in the court within a month. Elaine Siegel, the head attorney for a plaintiff group which includes Walker and three LSCs, says she intends to re-file the case. Hall granted Siegel until May 12 to do so.

At issue in the case was a state law saying small and alternative schools without an existing elected LSC are not required to have one. The district is free to encourage parental representation in any way it chooses.
 
The School of Technology and School of Entrepreneurship are both smaller remainders of what used to be South Shore High School, which had an elected LSC until 2005.

CPS appointed school councils at those locations.

An elected LSC has power to hire and fire a principal, and consists of six parents, two community representative, two teachers and the school principal. A high school LSC also has an appointed student representative.

"We're disappointed," says Julie Woestehoff, executive director of the advocacy group Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE). "We also believe we'll prevail in the end because we think our case is correct."

When a judge dismissed without prejudice, as Hall did today, the case may be re-plead with new arguments.

Wiegel says that CPS attorney Bill Morgan acknowledged in his arguments and legal briefs that alternative schools located in buildings where elected LSCs existed would also continue as elected LSCs.

"The school code is mandatory," Wiegel says. "It states in mandatory language that there shall be an LSC in each attendance center."

Woestehoff says that means schools such as Carver Military Academy, 13100 South Doty West Ave., and Hyman G. Rickover Academy at Senn High School, 5900 N.Glenwood Ave., would have to install elected LSCs.

Mose Vines Academy, the third LSC named in the court challenge, will not have an election anyway because it is scheduled to be closed at the end of this school year and become a part of the larger Orr High School, a turnaround school, in September. Orr's new LSC will be appointed, CPS officials say, perhaps for as long as five years.

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