West Lafayette taxpayers look to join lawsuit against Indiana’s $1 charter school law West Lafayette has filed a constitutional challenge of a law that could give the former Happy Hollow Elementary to a charter school for $1. West Side taxpayers are joining the fight

Dave Bangert | Journal & Courier

WEST LAFAYETTE – West Lafayette Community School Corp., trying to prove that it has a case in its constitutional challenge of a state law the superintendent says could cost the district rights to the former Happy Hollow Elementary, is looking for a boost from West Side property owners.

A new petition that started circulating Wednesday offered taxpayers a chance to sign onto a West Lafayette lawsuit aimed at a 2011 law that allows a charter school to lay claim on a retired public school building for $1.

“During the (Nov. 25) hearing, the judge said on more than one or two occasions, ‘Where are the taxpayers?’” Bob Reiling, West Lafayette schools’ attorney said.

“For taxpayers, my understanding of the law is that if something has a direct consequence to them, they have standing,” Reiling said. “In this particular case, the West Lafayette taxpayers paid for these schools. Not the state. It came out of property taxes.”

Superintendent Rocky Killion said the district will collect signatures through Dec. 13 before filing a taxpayer petition in court that echoes the district’s claims.

IN COURT: Does charter school want West Lafayette’s Happy Hollow for $1? Judge wants to know before ruling

During that court hearing Nov. 25, Tippecanoe Circuit Court Judge Sean Persin was asked by Kelly Earls – a deputy attorney general representing Gov. Eric Holcomb, who was named as the defendant in the lawsuit – to dismiss the case.

Earls argued that West Lafayette’s beef with the state law wasn’t ripe. The school, she contended, was taking a pre-emptive shot at that law to save the Happy Hollow Elementary property at 1200 N. Salisbury St. just in case a charter school came along. She argued that West Lafayette couldn’t prove it was being harmed and that the district’s claims that the state law amounted to an unconstitutional threat to take property were based on a hypothetical scenario and weren’t ripe for a judge to consider.

Reiling argued that the mere threat the state law poses makes it impossible for West Lafayette to plan for what’s next for Happy Hollow Elementary, a property he contended was worth $6 million. The school closed in 2018 when the district opened West Lafayette Intermediate School less than a mile away. Since then, Happy Hollow has been leased to the city of West Lafayette during city hall renovations.

Killion said that eventually the school corporation wants to develop the property into an early childhood education center.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense for us to even consider doing any kind of renovations or doing things to improve our education system with an early childhood center without knowing, for sure, whether or not a group can come in and take the school for a $1 if it’s not being used for a K-12 use,” Killion said. “These things take time – years sometimes – just to plan. That’s part of the problem with all of this.”

According to the 2011 law, school buildings that remain empty for two years become fair game for charter schools looking to move in. The law says that a charter school, after notifying the state Department of Education, is entitled to lease the building – or buy it, if the school district chooses to sell it – for $1. Charter schools – public schools created under Indiana law as alternatives to traditional public schools – would have up to two years before taking on the space as classrooms.

In 2019, the legislature adjusted the law, requiring schools to notify the state within 10 days of passing a resolution to close or no longer use a school building that had been used for classroom instruction. Charter schools would get 30 days to submit a request to lease or purchase the building for $1.

Before he ruled, Persin said he wanted to take the hypothetical question off the table. He ordered West Lafayette to list Happy Hollow with the state Department of Education to see whether there was a charter school suitor.

COURT FILING: West Lafayette’s lawsuit against $1 charter ‘land grab’ law ‘merely hypothetical,’ state argues

Adam Baker, a spokesman for the state Department of Education, said West Lafayette did that on Nov. 26.

“At this moment, no one has expressed interest,” Baker said. “Barring anyone expressing interest, the school will ‘go back’ to West Lafayette Dec. 27.”

Persin also asked about taxpayers and what claims they might make in the case.

Doug Masson, an attorney and former West Lafayette school board member, helped draft the proposed taxpayer petition.

The petition claims that “it is unjust for the state to mandate that Happy Hollow be made available to a charter school for a nominal amount of money, particularly without compensating the school district,” saying that “the state deprives the West Lafayette Community School District of a facility paid for by taxpayers of the district.”

Masson said the proposed taxpayer petition was short of being a petition to intervene in the case, the way School City of Hammond and Lake Ridge Schools Corp., two districts in Lake County with recently closed schools, have asked the judge to consider.

“At this point,” Masson said, “that petition doesn’t have any particular legal effect.”

Reiling said it more of a show of support, particularly at a time when the judge in the case is asking.

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Killion said the district was lining up pro bono legal help for the taxpayer petition. He said it wouldn’t cost a taxpayer to sign onto the district’s suit against the state. The district is paying for its lawsuit with money from a voter-approved referendum from 2017.

Amy Austin, a West Lafayette parent, was among the first to sign the petition Wednesday.

“The state trying to force the schools to sell (Happy Hollow) would be bad enough – but the price of $1 a year is just insulting,” Austin said. “Charter schools would be great if they worked, but it has been proven over and over that they don’t. So, they hurt public schools and students. It is a horrible combination, and we do not need that in West Lafayette.”

Killion said petitions will be available at West Lafayette Elementary, West Lafayette Intermediate and West Lafayette Jr./Sr. High School, as well as the district’s main offices next to Happy Hollow.

As of Thursday, no further hearings on the case had been set in Tippecanoe Circuit Court. Reiling said he believes that no matter what happens in Tippecanoe Circuit Court, West Lafayette's case eventually will wind up before the Indiana Supreme Court.

Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.

READ THE TAXPAYER PETITION:

READ WEST LAFAYETTE COMMUNITY SCHOOL CORP. v. ERIC HOLCOMB

READ THE MOTION TO DISMISS