A U.S. District Court judge hearing Fusion Academy’s $4 million lawsuit against Andover Public Schools and the Andover School Committee apologized for delays in getting decisions on motions back to the two sides.
Attorneys for the Town of Andover and Fusion Academy were in U.S. District Court in Boston for a status conference Tuesday with Judge Myong J. Joun. Joun has been assigned several emergency cases on national matters in recent months, including two lawsuits challenging the Trump Administration’s decision to fire hundreds of U.S. Department of Education employees.
Joun said he’s making his best effort to get a decision out, but did not provide a timeline of when the decision would be issued.
Fusion in seeking $4 million in lost revenue, interest and attorney fees in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston after having applications to open a private school in Andover twice denied by the school committee. The company, which runs schools for students in grades 6-12 who struggle in normal school settings, is seeking $2.6 million for the 10-year lease it signed at 3 Dundee Park Drive in September 2018 and $1.4 million for its build out of the site.
In one pending motion, Fusion is arguing the Massachusetts Attorney General’s decision that the school committee violated the open meeting law negates the school committee’s argument in the federal lawsuit that it did not violate the open meeting law when Fusion’s first application was denied in April 2019.
Joun is currently hearing two lawsuits related to the Education Department. One lawsuit, brought by Democratic attorneys general from 21 states, targets Education Secretary Linda McMahon over the March 11 termination of hundreds of federal employees. The second suit, filed by the nation’s second-largest teachers’ union and two Massachusetts school districts, claims President Trump exceeded his authority with a March 20 executive order instructing McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate” the department’s closure.