MIDDLETOWN — Capital Preparatory Schools has filed a lawsuit against the state Board of Education after waiting for more than two years to receive funding for a Middletown charter school, claiming the decision to fund the school falls within the discretion of the board rather than the state legislature.
Religious leaders, local NAACP members, advocates representing Capital Preparatory Schools and supporters from the community held a press conference on Thursday to discuss the recently filed lawsuit.
“We asked for a fair process. We didn’t receive a fair process,” Mark Sommaruga, an attorney representing Capital Prep Schools, said on Thursday. “This is the chance for the Superior Court to give us a fair process.”
Funding for Middletown Capital Prep High School has been in limbo for the past two years, and members of the charter school’s planning committee described to CT Examiner an uphill battle to get an approved charter school up and running.
This new lawsuit, filed on Dec. 3, now contends that the state Department of Education is responsible for approving money for new charter schools — a claim the state Department of Education and the Office of Gov. Ned Lamont has previously said is a misinterpretation of a 2015 law change, which states that new charter schools must also be approved by the state legislature.
The state Board of Education approved initial plans for Capital Prep Middletown in 2023, and during that year’s legislative session, money was set aside in the state budget for the school’s opening. But, in what NAACP members referred to as an “11th hour decision,” money for the school was removed from the budget.
Since then, Capital Prep has not received any funding for the school.
In October, after being petitioned by Capital Prep Schools, the state Board of Education voted in favor of a declaratory ruling that Connecticut statute gives the authority to approve money for new charter schools to the state legislature, not to the Department of Education.
In its lawsuit, Capital Prep is asking for a judge to appeal this decision. The complaint also calls into question why other charter schools have been able to receive funding, while Capital Prep Middletown has not.
During the press conference on Thursday, Sommaruga claimed that it’s only the state legislature’s job to approve money in the state budget for charter schools. Since the state budget has a singular line item for charter schools, he argued, it is then the state Board of Education’s job to set aside funds to open new charter schools.
Anita Ford Saunders, co-chair of the Capital Prep Middletown Planning Committee and president of the local chapter of the NAACP, told reporters at the press conference that she had faced resistance both from state legislators and Lamont over funding the school.
Saunders said that she had tried to meet with Lamont over this issue, but that he sent them a “stern” response.
CT Examiner obtained a copy of a letter written by Natalie Braswell, counsel for the governor, who wrote to the Capital Prep Middletown Planning Committee that allegations the state Board of Education acted unlawfully were “baseless and concerning.”
The four page letter provides a legal opinion that the state legislature had explicitly chosen not to fund Capital Prep Middletown in 2023 and asserted the role of the legislature in the charter school process.
“Given the serious and unfounded nature of your accusations, and the fact that you have retained legal counsel, moving forward, the Office of the Governor and the [state Department of Education] will limit any discussions on this topic except through counsel,” Braswell wrote. “We strongly recommend that you direct your advocacy efforts to the appropriate legislative channels to secure funding for your school.”
Superintendent of Capital Prep School Steve Perry told reporters after the press conference that Sen. Martin Looney, Sen. Matt Lesser — who had publicly voiced skepticism over the high school — and Sen. Jan Hochadel struck a deal in 2023 to prevent the school from receiving funding.
Perry said that the charter schools have faced resistance since the schools are typically non-union. He noted that Hochadel holds a leadership position in a prominent teacher’s union.
Attempts to reach Lesser and Hochadel on Thursday were unsuccessful.
During the press conference on Thursday, Capital Prep representatives emphasized the importance of giving students school choices, and for providing more opportunities to Black and Brown students who have not succeeded in the local public school system, especially families who cannot afford to attend private schools.
Scott Roberts, a spokesperson for Middletown Public Schools, did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
Michele Clay, co-chair of the Capital Prep Middletown Planning Committee, said that Black and Brown families in the community had shown “clear” support for the charter school and criticized the role politics has played in opening the school.
“We hope that this lawsuit will expose the flaws in the current selection and funding process, and ultimately remove these decisions from the hands of those who have shown they cannot be impartial,” Clay said. “ This is a systemic issue, and it requires a systemic solution.”
A spokesperson for the state Department of Education declined to comment on Thursday given the pending litigation.