The Iowa Court of Appeals has dismissed an appeal to keep the former Malcolm Price Laboratory School at the University of Northern Iowa open. A group of parents and educators in Cedar Falls sued seeking to overturn the Board of Regents vote to close the school on June 30, 2012.
The group said the Regents overstepped their authority in closing the school as part of budget cutbacks. They argued the Iowa Legislature had made Price Lab into a research and development school in 2009 and that prevented it from being closed without legislative approval.
A district court judge in Black Hawk County ruled the Board of Regents did have the legal authority to close the school. The group appealed, asking for a rehearing on the facts of the law, but the district court denied the motion in July of 2013 and the group then filed an appeal of the original ruling.
The Iowa Court of Appeals threw out the appeal of the original ruling based on a timing issue. The court said the appeal was filed within 30 days of the motion to rehear facts in the case, but not within 30 days of the original motion. The Appeals Court said the motion to rehear facts in the case did not extend the 30-day deadline on the appeal of the original ruling, so that appeal did not meet the time deadline.
See the full ruling here: Price Lab ruling PDF