The parent of an Estancia Valley Classical Academy student has filed a lawsuit against the Edgewood charter school and four members of its governing council after a national affiliation aligned with its founding principles was dropped last year.
The lawsuit by Craig Springer that was filed Jan. 28 in U.S. District Court also names Kim Adams, Theresa Nunneley, Bill Richard and Stephen Dauphin, claiming — among other issues — they prevented Springer from speaking during public comments periods of open meetings and did not seek public input before severing its ties with Hillsdale College and its curriculum.
EVCA was originally founded in 2012 based upon principles as a Hillsdale College member school. Hillsdale College is a private, politically conservative, Christian liberal arts college in Michigan.
“As a direct and proximate result of defendants’ wanton, willful, reckless and oppressive misconduct, the plaintiff, Craig Springer, and his minor daughter, (name withheld), have been damaged,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit seeks the school’s governing principles be returned to its foundations.
Going back to its roots
The lawsuit states that the school governing council ‘formulated public policy without first seeking and receiving public input in an open meeting publicized in advance to parents, faculty and staff.’
Remaining a Hillsdale member school “affords member schools numerous resources including a full curriculum; online learning materials for students; training and consulting for teachers, administrators, and GC members; public relations and marketing resources; limited legal representation; and access to a hiring pool of Hillsdale-trained teachers,” the lawsuit goes on to say.
The actions came during a May governing council meeting, with the agenda item, “Hillsdale Contacts,” listed as the last substantive action among about 40 items. The agenda, however, was not published on the EVCA website prior to the meeting, the lawsuit claims.
Its spot on the agenda “ensured that it would be discussed hours after the meeting had begun, long after the close of public comment,” the lawsuit said, “added “No further information about what would be discussed and voted on regarding ‘Hillsdale Contracts’ was made available to parents, faculty, or staff before the meeting.”
Additionally, “No input from parents, faculty, and staff about altering EVCA’s affiliation with Hillsdale was publicly sought or received by the GC before the decision to do so was reached,” the lawsuit claimed.
The minutes of that May meeting — which were not published on the school’s website until late July – show the contract was not retained because “Mr. Kroner stated that term limits on the GC present a challenge because not enough community members are available to serve on the GC,” the lawsuit read.
In July, Daron Kroner, the previous president of Governing Council sent an email to faculty and staff claiming the changes were because Hillsdale had “promulgated new requirements for member school governance that compromised EVCA’s autonomy.” And that “Hillsdale’s new requirements conflicted with the school’s obligations under state law and put its charter at risk.”
The lawsuit also claims the original Hillsdale founding requirements for member school governance and operations did not conflict with state law at all. This result was a profound change in the school, the lawsuit said.
By “terminating its member school affiliation with Hillsdale, EVCA became a fundamentally different school than the one where Mr. Springer enrolled his daughter, … in 2017, due to the declining quality of instruction and learning environment,” lawsuit said.
More than 100 students withdrew from the school between July and November 2023, dropping enrollment below 600 for the first time in several years, the lawsuit said, adding that the change caused teachers to leave the school, and they have been replaced by new teachers who are not familiar with the Hillsdale methodology.
“As EVCA’s capacity to provide classical education diminishes, the administration is transitioning from evaluating teachers based on the classical model, to evaluations based on the public non-charter school model,” the lawsuit claims.
EVCA’s governing council told The Independent that it doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
