Judge overstepped authority in school closure ruling, government argues

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 arecontained in documents filed with the Court of Appeal on Thursday.

The government is asking the province's topcourt 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. 8at 1 p.m. the same day students are scheduled to return to schoolone justice will hear amotionto "stay," or put on hold, Stephenson's ruling, pending the full appeal hearing.

Meanwhile, on Friday morning,KellyLamrock, a lawyer for school parents, will ask theCourt of Queen's Bench in Saint John to order the government to implementStephenson'sdecision.

That decision quashed Education Minister Serge Rousselle's approval of the Anglophone School District - South District Education Council's recommendation to close the two schools.

Stephensonsaidthe 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 governmentalso 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 409the province's policy for studying the closure of schools.

The Anglophone School District - Southhassaid it plans to proceed with plans to relocate the students on Tuesday, despite Stephenson's ruling,arguing itwould be "impossible" toreverse the closures on such short notice.