Judge overstepped authority in school closure ruling, government argues
Appeal filed Thursday seeks to have decision on Brown's Flat, Lorne Middle schools overturned
The New Brunswick government contends a Court of Queen's Bench judge overstepped his authority and erred in law in quashing the education minister's controversial decision to close two Saint John-area schools.
The allegations are contained in documents filed with the Court of Appeal on Thursday.
The government is asking the province's top court to reverse Justice Darrell Stephenson's ruling on Brown's Flat Elementary School and Lorne Middle School.
No date has been set yet for the Court of Appeal to hear the province's application. But on Sept. 8 at 1 p.m. — the same day students are scheduled to return to school — one justice will hear a motion to "stay," or put on hold, Stephenson's ruling, pending the full appeal hearing.
Meanwhile, on Friday morning, Kelly Lamrock, a lawyer for school parents, will ask the Court of Queen's Bench in Saint John to order the government to implement Stephenson's decision.
Stephenson said the process that led to the decision was flawed.
The government, however, argues Stephenson made a legal mistake by substituting his own opinion of the district's compliance with the provincial policy on closures, instead of deferring to Rousselle's opinion.
In a two-page notice filed with the court, the government also says Stephenson went too far in ruling that the DEC should have given explicit reasons for its decision during the last of three public meetings on the closure.
And, it says, Stephenson "committed a palpable and overriding error" by ruling the DEC hadn't considered all the criteria in Policy 409 — the province's policy for studying the closure of schools.
The Anglophone School District - South has said it plans to proceed with plans to relocate the students on Tuesday, despite Stephenson's ruling, arguing it would be "impossible" to reverse the closures on such short notice.