Alan Simpson

The battle between the school boards now includes a civil court fight over money.

Bowling Green attorney Alan Simpson filed an amended civil complaint Wednesday asking Warren Circuit Court to order the Warren County Public Schools Board of Education, its elected members and interim Superintendent Kathy Goff to reimburse three sets of parents for the costs they will incur to send their children to city schools. 

“We will file the appropriate response,” said Bart Darrell, legal counsel for the WCPS, on Wednesday.

The original lawsuit filed June 4 claims Warren County Public Schools violated its contract with Bowling Green Independent Schools when it lowered the cap on students residing in the county who are permitted to enroll in the city school system.

Simpson filed the original civil complaint on behalf of six sets of parents and their 15 children. The lawsuit names the county school district, Goff and the five members of the county school board as defendants: Chairman Kerry Young, Vice Chairman Mike Wilson and members Garry Chaffin, Becky Evans and Don Basham.

Since that filing, one of the sets of parents has dropped out of the original June 4 complaint, Simpson said, dropping the number of children to 12.

In April, the county school board lowered the cap it places on county-zoned students allowed to enroll in the city school district to 644 students. Because of a new state law, about 100 county-zoned students whose parents work in the BGISD are not affected. The actual reduction is 86 students.

State funding follows children within the capped number to the school system they attend. For any child the city district chooses to educate above the cap, the state will not provide education funding in the form of Support Education Excellence in Kentucky, or SEEK, money, with one exception. The new state law allows the SEEK money to follow children of school employees if those children go out of district to attend the district where one or more of their parents work.

Shortly after the county lowered the cap, the city school board voted to allow county children above the cap to attend city schools if they paid the school system annually $3,827 per student, the equivalent of the state SEEK money, plus tuition of $300.

Simpson argues that the reduction in the cap enacted by the county school board is a breach of a 2001 contract establishing that the superintendents would meet in subsequent years and agree on a number of county-zoned students who would be approved by WCPS to attend city schools. The amended complaint names three sets of parents who have received letters from the city schools telling them that their children have been admitted into the city schools for the upcoming school year that begins in early August, but that those parents will be required to pay $3,827 for their child to attend.

If the BGISD costs for all 12 students named in the civil action were paid, that amount is $49,924 for one year. The amount jumps to $649,012 if 13 years – kindergarten through 12th grade – are calculated. 

Special Judge Janet Crocker, circuit court judge in Allen and Simpson counties, will hear the case in Warren Circuit Court after local judges recused themselves.

The complaint asks for a monetary judgment against the defendant “for all such sums, which they will be required to pay now, and/or in the future as a result of the defendants’ breach of the subject agreement.”

The original filing June 4 requested a court ruling to enforce the 2001 contract, a jury trial and for the parents to be reimbursed legal costs and attorney fees.

Simpson said the concept of school choice has allowed the Bowling Green area “to thrive financially.” Simpson said Wednesday that he would like to see Realtors, builders associations, the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce and Western Kentucky University to take a stand on the issue of school choice in the community “since they have all benefitted from this over the years.”

— Chuck Mason covers education for the Daily News. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/bgdnschools or at bgdailynews.com.