# Withrow Elementary School *Elementary school in Washington County, Minnesota, closed by a 5–2 school-board vote in March 2016.* Withrow Elementary School was one of three elementary schools, with Marine and Oak Park, that the Washington County school district closed on a 5–2 board vote in March 2016.[^1] A community group sued. It argued that the board's hearing violated [[Minnesota]] law by limiting public comment to three minutes per person. The Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld the board on April 3, 2017.[^1] The project's record of the school rests on a single news report of that ruling. The opinion itself is not in the record, and the record does not carry the case caption or docket number.[^1] ## Where The school was in the Washington County school district. The district closed it together with the Marine and Oak Park elementary schools.[^1] ## When - March 2016: the school board voted 5–2 to close Marine, Withrow and Oak Park elementary schools.[^1] - April 3, 2017: the Court of Appeals upheld the board's decision.[^1] ## What - The community group that sued argued that the closure hearing violated Minnesota law by limiting public comment to three minutes per person.[^1] - In upholding the board, the court stated: "A school board's decisions are entitled to judicial deference, and we will not substitute our own judgment for that of a board."[^1] ## In the at-issue record The at-issue entry places the board's process beside the court's standard of review. The board closed three schools on a 5–2 vote. The plaintiffs said the hearing that preceded the vote limited each speaker to three minutes. The court's stated rule was that a "school board's decisions are entitled to judicial deference," and it declined to substitute its own judgment for the board's.[^1] Both halves of the entry rest on one news report. The record shows that the board prevailed. It does not show how the court addressed the three-minute argument beyond upholding the board.[^1] ## Notes [^1]: MPR News, *NewsCut*, report on the Court of Appeals' rejection of the challenge to the Stillwater school closings (April 2017). Establishes the March 2016 5–2 vote closing Marine, Withrow and Oak Park; the plaintiffs' three-minute public-comment argument; the April 3, 2017 ruling; and the court's quoted deference statement. https://newscut.mprnews.org/2017/04/court-of-appeals-rejects-challenge-to-stillwater-school-closings/