Pueblo Education Association sues school boards over Risley Academy management
The Pueblo City and Colorado State school boards are being sued over a management deal involving the Risley International Academy of Innovation.
The Pueblo Education Association and the Colorado Education Association filed the lawsuit late last week. This all stems from an external management decision for Risley. On April 10, the Colorado School Board approved D60’s recommendation to allow MGT Consulting to become the external manager of the school. Risley has been underperforming for several years.
Friday, D60 received push back in the form of an injunction. One of the plaintiffs listed in the lawsuit is Suzanne Ethredge the President of Pueblo Education Association.
“We are opposed [to the external management decision] because we believe this is using public money, public tax dollars to fund a for-profit, private company to come manage the school,” said Ethredge. “We also believe this is an overreach of the state board.”
Ethredge says the people who can fix Risley’s problems are the teachers and parents right here in Pueblo, not an out of state organization.
“They are not from here, they aren’t attached to Pueblo in any way shape or form,” said Ethredge. “Again, we are using public dollars to fund a for-profit company.”
In a statement to KRDO, the Pueblo City School Board says they were involved in a number of public forums and stakeholder reviews on the external management search dating back to September. However, no concerns were raised until after the decision to recommend MGT was made and approved by the Colorado State School Board of Education.
When asked to comment on the lawsuit, a district official said they have not been served the paperwork yet and do not know the details of the lawsuit. Ethredge says her ultimate goal with this lawsuit is to solve Risley’s problem’s locally, and not bring outside groups to run Pueblo schools.
It is unclear how the lawsuit will impact Risley’s management for the next school year. As it stands, MGT is still set to take over as the schools external management next August.
