Adams 14 School District is rising up and fighting back. It’s taken the Colorado State Board of Education to court. In its first hearing before a district judge, the school district requested a reversal of the State Board’s resolution to remove Adams 14’s district accreditation. Accreditation is the state’s stamp of approval to operate as a unified district.

The immediate legal issue before the court is “irreparable harm.” Has Adams 14 incurred irreparable harm from the State Board’s action to remove its accreditation based on Colorado’s state accountability system? The answer is self-evident. Yes, the district has incurred irreparable harm. That’s the whole point of withdrawing accreditation.

The state accountability system is based on English-only CMAS standardized tests. The majority of Adams 14 students are Spanish-speaking, but an additional thirteen languages are represented in the schools. It’s no surprise that students who aren’t fluent in English will not do well on these CMAS tests.

The four members of the State Board who voted to remove accreditation, three Republicans and one Democrat, concluded that dissolving the school district will improve Adams 14’s accountability performance ratings. Their recommended solution is to merge Adams 14 with neighboring districts.

The Board majority passed its resolution without consulting the neighboring districts, according to court testimony from Mapleton School District’s superintendent. Mapleton has spent non-reimbursable time and money analyzing the Board’s plan and decided that it cannot afford to merge with Adams 14. That’s irreparable harm to Mapleton.

Dr. Karla Loria is the superintendent of Adams 14 school district. She faces the wrath of State Board chair Angelika Schroeder and vice chair Steve Durham because she fired MGT, an education management company hired at the insistence of the Board, for financial shenanigans among other reasons.

Since then, Dr. Loria has hired an executive team well experienced in working with children who match Adams 14’s demographics. These district leaders know what they’re doing. Their goal is to bring highly qualified instructors experienced in language learning to classrooms. The administrator’s testimony, however, described the irreparable harm the district has experienced due to a Moody’s credit rating downgrade and hiring challenges based on the loss of accreditation.

On May 11, the day after State Board Vice Chair Steve Durham indicated that Adams 14 didn’t deserve to exist and set forth his motion to remove accreditation, Moody’s downgraded Adams 14’s credit rating. It lowered the rating again ostensibly due to the district’s declining enrollment.

Two issues arise related to enrollment. The whole state is experiencing a drop in school enrollments, as the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) stated in its court testimony. Particular to Adams 14, the state is pitching more than $100,000 to jointly-managed state charters Community Leadership Academy (CLA) and Victory Preparatory Academy (VCA) to transport Adams 14 students to these schools. According to CLA and VCA, their charters succeed where traditionally organized Adams 14 fails.

The demographics of CLS and VCA to Adams 14 are not comparable. Over 13% of Adams 14 children are served by special education programs. The charters have so few of these students that their test results are withheld to protect their privacy. The charters’ method, apparently, is to attract children who are less problematic to educate than the total Adams 14 population. Even so, CLA, according to its most recent Uniform Improvement Plan, needs enrollment help as its population has declined 17% over three years.

About $3 million in state dollars will go to two non-profits to transport more Adams 14 students out of its schools. Given funding problems for many of Colorado’s K-12 schools, imagine other ways these dollars can be spent.

In its defense, the State Board’s attorney asserted that Moody’s two-time downgrade of Adams 14’s bond rating was no big deal. After all, if Adams 14 needs to go to the bond market for capital, it can use the State of Colorado’s high credit rating as back-up. It wouldn’t matter that such an action would place Adams 14 once again in servitude to state beneficence.

Dr. Loria wants to hire sixteen international teachers to bring language learning expertise to Adams 14. These efforts hit a wall when an enterprise that connects international teachers to American schools learned of the accreditation removal. Even with help from CDE, this hiring opportunity is stymied.

The impact of accreditation removal on Adams 14 and the Board’s imposed reorganization plan highlight the core issue of this litigation. Colorado’s school districts are founded in the state constitution based on local control.

The State Board’s action is an assault on local control. Education Commissioner Dr. Katy Anthes did not recommend removal of Adams 14’s accreditation. This resolution was directed by the four Board members who voted to strip Adams 14 of its basis to perform its duties. Four State Board members should not have that authority. That’s why Adams 14 has brought this case.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.