Indiana State Board of Education v. Brownsburg Community School Corp.

865 N.E.2d 660, 2007 Ind. App. LEXIS 866, 2007 WL 1240299
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 30, 2007
Docket32A01-0611-CV-494
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 865 N.E.2d 660 (Indiana State Board of Education v. Brownsburg Community School Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Indiana State Board of Education v. Brownsburg Community School Corp., 865 N.E.2d 660, 2007 Ind. App. LEXIS 866, 2007 WL 1240299 (Ind. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

OPINION

BAKER, Chief Judge.

Appellant-respondent Indiana State Board of Education (the ISBE) appeals the trial court’s ruling in favor of appellee-petitioner Brownsburg Community School Corporation, Board of School Trustees (Brownsburg), which set aside the ISBE’s administrative order directing Brownsburg to enroll two students in the school system on a part-time basis. Specifically, the *662 ISBE maintains that the trial court' improperly determined that Brownsburg had the discretion to deny the students from enrolling in less than a fulltime schedule. The ISBE, further claims that the trial court erred in granting affirmative relief rather than remanding the cause to the administrative agency for further proceedings. Finding no error, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

FACTS

The facts, as reported in Indiana State Board of Education v. Brownsburg Community School Corporation, 842 N.E.2d 885 (Ind.Ct.App.2006), are as follows:

On August 4, 2004, Catherine Johnson (“Johnson”) met with Kathy Corbin (“Corbin”), superintendent of Browns-burg Community School Corporation (“Brownsburg”), and asked that her sons, Ta. and Tr. (“the students”), be allowed to enroll at Brownsburg on a part-time basis for the 2004-2005 school year^ — -Ta. in band and Tr. in AP calculus . and Madrigals. Johnson planned to enroll the students mainly in home study correspondence courses, including classes through Brigham Young University. At the time of Johnson’s request, Brownsburg had the following policy in place:
The Superintendent or the Board will not grant approval per I.C. 20-8.1-3-17.3(b) for students from non-public, non-accredited, or non-approved schools including home educated students to enroll in less than six (6) credit generating courses unless an [Individualized Education Program] is in effect.
Appellant’s Br. p. 22; Appellant’s App. p. 43. Because Johnson’s proposed course of home study is not approved by the ISBE and because there was no individualized education program (I.E.P.) in effect for the students, Corbin denied the requested. part-time enrollment.
The students appealed Corbin’s denial of their request for part-time enrollment to the ISBE. On February 3, 2005, the ISBE, relying on the recommendation of the administrative' law judge (“ALJ”) it had assigned to the case, voted to reverse Corbin’s decision and ordered Brownsburg to enroll the students on a part-time basis in the classes in which they sought enrollment.
On February 4, Brownsburg filed its Verified Petition for Judicial Review of an Agency Action and Stay of Order Pending Final Determination (“Petition”) with the trial court. Attached as exhibits to the Petition were copies of the ISBE ALJ’s. recommended orders, Brownsburg’s objections to those orders, and Brownsburg’s published policy on student enrollment. In the Petition, Brownsburg requested a stay of the agency action and an expedited hearing on judicial review of the matter. That same day, the trial court, having determined that a reasonable probability existed that the ISBE’s action was invalid or illegal, granted the stay and set the matter for a “preliminary hearing” on February 15. Appellant’s App. p. 90. The preliminary hearing was held as scheduled on February 15. At the beginning of the hearing, when the court asked deputy attorney general Chad Duran (Duran), the ISBE’s attorney, what the status of the case was, he responded, “The Indiana State Board of Education opposes the stay, uh Your Honor.” Tr. p. 7. Later, Duran stated, “Now with regards to the stay, ultimately the stay is [the] applicable remedy uh and just to prevent undue hardship on behalf of the parties. I don’t believe in this instance that, that Brownsburg School Corpora *663 tion can make any significant showing uh of undue hardship.” Id. at 11. The court then asked Burén Jones (Jones), Brownsburg’s attorney, what “supports you obtaining uh an injunction,” and Jones responded, “the court only need find by the petition and the arguments here today that there’s a reasonable uh probability that the [ISBE’s] order [is] invalid or illegalf.]” Id. at 13.
During his closing, Duran made the following comments:
Ultimately, we have a situation here where we are attempting to harmonize the Indiana State Constitution with the relevant law that Mr. Jones cited.... That’s the ultimate issue to be decided once this matter is fully briefed it goes through the process .... The school corporation is certainly ready willing and able to absorb two additional students into its system on a part time bases [sic] so let’s keep the order of the Indiana State Board of Education' in place while we determine these important Constitutional issues.

Id. at 20-21 (interjections omitted). In his closing, Jones stated, in pertinent part:

[T]he choice to home school is theirs but with as with [sic] every choice comes consequences and uh because they voluntarily withdrew by granting the stay you’re not going to be taking anything away from them that they already have.... Alright, if you don’t grant the stay, if the court doesn’t grant the stay we’ll not only have these two [students] but we’ll have others that will place a‘burden on the school.... We may have to hire additional staff to teach these children. If we hire additional staff and then we ultimately prevail which we expect that we will, we can’t just automatic [sic] fire that additional staff[.]

Id. at 22-23. At the end of the hearing, the trial court invited the parties to submit briefs of 250 words or less, but both declined.

Two days after the hearing, on February 17, the trial court entered its Order After Preliminary Hearing, which provided, in pertinent part:

[I]t is hereby ordered that the Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Recommended Order entered by Valerie Hall, Hearing Examiner of the Indiana State Board of Education, on 16 December, 2004, under cases number 0408012B and A are vacated because they are contrary to the clear law set out by our legislature, over-broad, arbitrary and capricious, and an abuse of discretion [.]

Id. at 15.

On February 28, Brownsburg filed with the trial court a Notice of Filing of the Agency Record. Attached to this filing was that portion of the agency record that had been provided to Brownsburg by the ISBE as of that date. The filing did not include portions of the record that had been preserved without transcript and delivered to Brownsburg via audio cassette tape and video cassette tape. That same day, the ISBE filed a Motion to Correct Errors and Vacate. The motion stated: “It was counsel’s impression that the hearing set for February 15, 2005 was set by the Court to address [Brownsburg’s] request to stay the agency order pending final determi-nationf.]” Appellant’s App. p. 86-87.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
865 N.E.2d 660, 2007 Ind. App. LEXIS 866, 2007 WL 1240299, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/indiana-state-board-of-education-v-brownsburg-community-school-corp-indctapp-2007.