NORTHAMPTON – The town of Worthington has filed a motion for dismissal of a lawsuit in which it is listed as a defendant along with the Commonwealth’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and a host of others in state government.
The suit, filed in Hampshire Superior Court by Gateway School Committee member Ruth Kennedy of Russell, was filed last month on behalf of the remaining towns in the Gateway Regional School District and the Gateway Regional School Committee.
According to Kennedy, the suit is seeking to halt the town of Worthington’s unilateral withdrawal from the district, approved by the DESE last month.
“My original argument is that the withdrawal is unconstitutional. You can’t file a home rule petition to get out of a school district because it affects other towns,” she explained yesterday. “Home rules are supposed to only affect one town and its bylaws and charter. That’s according to the state law and the constitution. DESE does not have the authority to break a contract through home rule. It is very convoluted.”
That home rule petition was filed during an informal session of the House in late 2013 by state Rep. Stephen Kulik of the 1st Franklin District, a Worthington Democrat who serves as vice chair of the House Ways and Means Committee.
When questioned about why Kulik wasn’t named as a defendant in the suit, Kennedy said that the House of Representatives passed the legislation along with the state Senate and finally Gov. Patrick last spring.
Kennedy claims that the Governor’s Springfield office advised Patrick not to sign the legislation because it was unconstitutional, yet he signed it anyway.
At a January meeting of the School Committee, Kennedy said she had confirmed that five of the six remaining Gateway towns – Blandford, Chester, Huntington, Middlefield, and Montgomery – had joined the suit, but that only her town of Russell was abstaining.
Asked if Russell was going to join in the suit, Kennedy said she couldn’t divulge any information but that “something is in the works.”
According to the lawsuit, the town of Worthington and the DESE are joined as defendants by the State House of Representatives, the State Senate, former Gov. Deval L. Patrick and Gateway Superintendent Dr. David Hopson.
Kennedy said that initially the School Committee was listed as a defendent, too, but voted at that January meeting to join Kennedy and the district’s towns as plaintiffs. She stated that Hopson is still listed as a defendant, separate from the school committee.
“(The School Committee) hasn’t gone on to officially be a plaintiff yet, so we have to file the paperwork for that,” she said. “There are separate issues with (Hopson) then there were with the School Committee.”
Kennedy said that she simply wants to see the process slowed down.
“It is really simple and Worthington is making it out to be a convoluted thing,” she said. “I don’t want money. The only thing I want is to figure out where we’re going and it is so confusing right now and DESE… I don’t know how they can make a ruling when they’re a defendant in a lawsuit in Superior Court on this.”
Calls for comment to Gateway Attorney Russell Dupere and Worthington’s Attorney Layla Taylor went unreturned as of press time this morning.
