Attorneys to challenge decision to delay reopening Kennewick schools
A half dozen lawyers plan to challenge the Kennewick School Board’s decision to delay reopening its middle and high schools for another three months.
George Cicotte, a Kennewick attorney and father, told the Herald they will ask a Benton Franklin County Superior Court judge to overturn the decision.
They plan to use a state law that lets anyone “aggrieved by any decision or order” of a school official or board to take their complaint to court.
They plan to file the appeal on Friday. The district will have 20 days to respond.
The Kennewick schools superintendent announced late Tuesday that the board already plans to re-evaluate its decision at a Nov. 18 meeting, which will come a day before the deadline to respond to the appeal.
School district officials told the Herald on Wednesday they had not heard about the possible legal challenge.
Cicotte, a father of seven, said he promised his two children still left in school that he would fight the three-month delay for middle and high schoolers returning to classrooms.
He said both kids were devastated that they couldn’t return to in-person learning until February.
“I made a commitment to my kids that I would do anything to help them get back to school as soon as possible,” he said.
The lack of personal interaction through conferencing software is hurting the education of students throughout the Tri-Cities, he argued. He’s also heard from his children that their teachers want to go back to in-person learning.
“It’s my son’s senior year,” he said. “He wants to have as much of a regular year as he can.”
Cicotte is an employee benefits attorney who ran as a Republican to replace retiring Rep. Doc Hastings in 2014. When he failed to make it out of the crowded primary he endorsed Clint Didier in the race against Dan Newhouse.
He said he is being helped by a group of other attorneys who are working for free on the appeal.
The Kennewick board’s decision to delay the start of middle and high school until Feb. 2 because of COVID concerns has been met with some backlash from others parents, students and teachers.
A few hundred students and parents have held two protest rallies in the week since the board’s vote. Many of the parents and students at the events say that distance learning is leaving them feeling isolated and unmotivated.
However, others have supported the board’s decision on social media saying that it is too early to return to class because COVID rates are not dropping.
This story was originally published October 28, 2020 at 4:56 PM.