Exeter-West Greenwich Regional School Dist. v. Pontarelli

• Decision Date: 02 June 1983
• Docket Number: No. 82-363-A,EXETER-WEST,82-363-A
• Parties: 11 Ed. Law Rep. 559 GREENWICH REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT et al. v. Arthur R. PONTARELLI et al. ppeal.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 934

460 A.2d 934

11 Ed. Law Rep. 559

EXETER-WEST GREENWICH REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT et al. v. Arthur R. PONTARELLI et al.

No. 82-363-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

June 2, 1983.

Bradford Gorham, Providence, for plaintiffs.

Dennis J. Roberts II, Atty. Gen., Forrest L. Avila, Counsel for the State Dept. of Educ., Amy R. Tabor, Maureen A. Hobson, Providence, for defendants.

OPINION

KELLEHER, Justice.

This advisory opinion to the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island had its genesis in the June 29, 1981 rejection by the Exeter-West Greenwich Regional School District committee of a request by one Thomas L. Ross that the committee pay his son's $925 tuition at St. Raphael Academy, a religiously affiliated school situated in Pawtucket. Mr. Ross appealed the rejection to the State Commissioner of Education. A hearing was held before the associate commissioner of education, who vacated the rejection in a decision that ordered the committee to pay the tuition to St. Raphael Academy or reimburse Mr. Ross for the tuition he had paid for the 1981-82 school year. After the Commission of Education had approved his associate's action, the committee then appealed to the State Board of Regents.

While the appeal was pending before the Board of Regents, the committee filed a complaint in the United States District Court asking for injunctive and declaratory relief. Subsequently, one William Haas, a taxpayer in the school district, was permitted to intervene, and the District Court granted his motion for a temporary restraining order.

All proceedings were stayed by the District Court pending an answer to its inquiry concerning the reach of G.L.1956 (1981 Reenactment) § 16-7-30, which, in essence, provides that a "community not maintaining a high school shall make provision for the free attendance of its children at some high school or academy approved by the state board of regents for education." ¹

The District Court has asked our advice about whether this statute requires a community that does not operate a high school to pay for the education of those resident students who choose to attend a "religiously-affiliated" high school even though the community already provides for free education at certain public high schools outside the community. Before responding to the District Court's inquiry, we would detail the pertinent stipulated facts.

The Exeter-West Greenwich Regional School District, as the name suggests, is composed of the towns of Exeter and West Greenwich. Although the district provides education for students from kindergarten through grade eight, it does not operate a high school. The district does provide for free attendance of its resident students at North Kingstown High School and Coventry Vocational Technical School. The school committee also pays tuition, not in excess of the amount paid for its students who attend North Kingstown High School, for students to attend other approved public high schools or vocational schools within the State of Rhode Island. Such students, however, must pay the transportation costs to and from such facilities. In a policy statement first issued by the committee in January 1976 and revised in September 1980, the committee expressly stated that the tuition payments would be made "only" to those "public" high schools that are situated in the State of Rhode Island and approved by the Commissioner of Education.

The commissioner, in his decision, made inquiry about the committee's "motive" in pursuing the course that it did. He raised three possible motives: (1) a belief that public schools were academically superior to nonpublic schools, (2) a fear of a constitutional...