First Meeting With Special Masters

Lawyers who are party to the Lakeview school equity lawsuit had their first face to face meeting with the special masters investigating state school reform efforts. While many were hopeful the masters would scrutinize the dollar amounts the new state funding formula would send to individual districts, today the investigators made it clear theyre looking at wider trends. They said theyd examine examples, but didnt feel financial runs for every district were relevant. The masters did establish that consolidation would be part of their probe, but only as it relates to efficiency. With the funding news and after hearing the scope of the consolidation issue, Lakeview attorney Bill Lewellen suggested that the two masters ask the supreme courts permission to be joined by a third. Lewellen says that the voices of large, mostly white districts are crowding out minority and rural voices in this process. The masters have set February 23rd as the first day theyll take testimony in their investigation. The supreme court elected to pick masters to look into the legislatures compliance with the Lakeview verdict after lawmakers missed a significant deadline. The general assembly was supposed to have enacted reforms dealing with school financing, accountability, teacher pay and facilities by new years eve. The special legislative session which eventually touched on all of those goals didnt wrap up until February 6th.