Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : School District to Appeal Court Mandate on CLAS Test

The Antelope Valley Union High School District will appeal a court mandate ordering it to give students the controversial CLAS test, school board members said Wednesday night after meeting in closed session with their attorney.

“I think you should exhaust your legal process (and) part of the legal process is this appeal,” said board member Tony Welch prior to the meeting. Welch voted with Sue Stokka and board President Billy Pricer to appeal the court ruling.

The state Department of Education planned to return to court today in hopes of convincing Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne to issue an order requiring the district to give the test regardless of whether it appeals her initial order.

The Department of Education sued the Antelope Valley district last month following a decision April 20 by the board’s conservative majority not to administer the California Learning Assessment System test. At a hearing Monday, Wayne issued the tentative ruling ordering the district to give the test.

The district’s appeal would stay Wayne’s decision, potentially allowing the district to avoid giving the test before the school year ends Wednesday. Even if Wayne issues a new order today, the district will go ahead with the appeal, Pricer said. The district, however, would have to give the test Friday.

Board members Bill Olenick and Wilda Andrejcik, have remained steadfast in their support of the test, voting against the board majority’s decision Wednesday to appeal.

“My position hasn’t changed on the quality of the test and the clarity of the law,” Olenick said before the meeting. “It’s a good test and we should give it.”

Olenick conceded, however, that with only a few instructional days left before the school year ends and all the publicity about the CLAS test, it would be difficult to get valid results from district students.

“The integrity of the test has been junked for the year,” he said.