For the first time in the state’s history, a lawsuit by disgruntled parents may have caused at least a temporary school closure. Windham Elementary School was voted to be temporarily closed on Thursday by their school board. The students will now attend Townsend Elementary School.
A lawsuit brought by parents led by Attorney Deborah Bucknam alleges the school is failing to provide basic educational services as required by the State Constitution. In an emailed message to VDC, Bucknam shared some more details about what transpired at the school board meeting.
“At the Board meeting, there were several references to our lawsuit as at least part of the reason for closing (I think it was the entire reason). So, for the first time in Vermont history, parents have held an entire school district to account,” she wrote.
She continued to suggest that it was largely the lawsuit that prompted this action.
“If my clients had not been there pushing the District, in my opinion, this school would still be open—and the teaching principal, Jenna Cramer, would likely still be employed. We shone the light on what was going on at Windham, and they were forced to make major changes,” she wrote.
The message includes that this development may help school choice advocates. School choice is when a community is allowed to send its students to other schools of each family’s choice, and their tuition money follows the students accordingly.
“The State will likely fight very hard to keep control, but I think this victory helps our school choice campaign,” she wrote. “If we get past the motion to dismiss–and I am hopeful that we will—we can engage in discovery, which will force them to provide information to parents about the operation of the school—and that can be a template for other parents in other districts—which will shine the light on the sorry state of Vermont’s schools.”
State trying to get the case dismissed
The state had argued to dismiss the lawsuit, prompting Bucknam to write an argument to the Windham Superior Court last week stating why it should not be dismissed. In it, she describes some of the shortcomings regarding Cramer’s job performance.
It states, “Ms. Cramer and Mr. [Marco] Lazin did not prepare curriculum or lesson plans for the children. By the middle of October, they told the parents that they had not started teaching the children from a curriculum because they had not received all their ‘supplies.’”
It continues, “Ms. Cramer was frequently late for school, and the children, instead of learning lessons, spent their days watching animal and PG-13 music videos, including one where a llama used the f—word, and, as indicated above, included showing a violent video [including a decapitation and a person being lit on fire] shown to first and second graders.”
Cramer was fired in November, leaving Lazin as the only teacher.
Also, in Bucknam’s written argument, she notes earlier this month, the school chose not to hire either of the two candidates that they had for teachers.
“At the December 5, 2023 meeting, the Windham School Board decided not to hire any of the candidates, leaving the school to continue with one inexperienced teacher and unlicensed substitutes,” it states.
In conclusion, her argument states, “Plaintiffs have sufficiently plead both a violation of the Education Clause and the Common Benefits Clause of the Vermont Constitution, and have requested relief which this Court has the power and authority to grant. Thus the State’s motion to dismiss must be denied.”
In a phone call on Friday, she further emphasized that this case could provide a legal template for other communities in Vermont to force changes at their schools if they feel that their kids are also being denied basic education rights.