Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : CLAS Case Could Return to Court : Education: State officials may seek another order requiring district to give test even if judge’s decision is appealed.

Concerned that the Antelope Valley Union High School District could try to sidestep a court order mandating that it administer the disputed CLAS test, the state Department of Education might take the matter back to court.

A day after Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne issued a tentative ruling ordering the district to give the test, Department of Education officials said Tuesday that they may seek another order requiring the district to give the test even if it appeals the decision.

“I was hoping we could have less hassle than this but apparently that’s not the case,” said Joseph R. Symkowick, general counsel for the Department of Education.

The department filed a lawsuit last month against the high school district in the wake of an April 20 decision by the conservative majority of its board to not administer the statewide assessment exam, which has been praised as a revolutionary method of testing students’ critical thinking skills, and blasted as intrusive and secretive.

The test was given this year to about 1 million fourth-, fifth-, eighth- and 10th-grade students.

Wayne ruled Monday in favor of the department, saying the Education Code clearly requires the district to give the California Learning Assessment System test.

If the board decides to appeal Wayne’s ruling, the appeal would stay her decision and could allow the district to avoid giving the test this school year, which ends next week.

The Antelope Valley school board is scheduled to meet with its attorneys in closed session tonight to discuss the matter.

Board President Billy Pricer and member Sue Stokka said Tuesday that they support appealing the ruling. Pricer, calling the department’s latest move “childish” and a “power play,” said: “Get it in the appellate court and let’s get a clear-cut decision on what the Education Code says.”

If a majority of the board agree to abide by the ruling and give the test without an appeal, Symkowick said the department may not return to court Thursday. But the department is also concerned that the district would try to stall by seeking parental consent before administering the test, something Superior Court Judge Robert O’Brien ruled unnecessary in an unrelated case last month.

“If the board wishes to let us know these aren’t going to be issues to put off the test (we won’t go back to court),” Symkowick said. “If they won’t, we’re going to appear Thursday morning and see if we can get an order ordering them to give the test immediately.”

Meanwhile, as the legal wrangling continues, time is running out for the school district to administer CLAS to its 10th-grade students. The school year ends June 15, with final exams scheduled for the last three days of class.

The 10th-grade CLAS exam is recommended to be given over several days, although Department of Education officials said it could be administered in as little as six hours if necessary.

The prospect of subjecting students to a full day of testing so late in the school year has caused even the two members of the school board who support giving CLAS to question the validity of any results.

Board member Wilda Andrejcik, who with trustee Bill Olenick has consistently voted in support of administering CLAS, said all the publicity about the test may have an impact as well.

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“They (the students) won’t take it seriously and that concerns me because we would like to have it as a valid test,” she said.

Six of the 1,006 school districts in the state, including a second Los Angeles County district, have decided against administering the 1994 CLAS test. Antelope Valley is the only school district that the state has taken to court over the matter.

Symkowick said that in light of Monday’s court ruling, a letter was sent to the five other districts asking them to follow the “spirit of the ruling” and give the test.

State education officials declined to say what action they would take if the other districts continue to refuse to administer the test.