Arlington Legal Bill Tops $225K

See this article by that title in the Poughkeepsie Journal. The article begins:

The Arlington school district has incurred at least $225,000 in legal fees in a special education case that landed in the U.S. Supreme Court last month.

The vast majority of those fees in the eight-year legal battle were incurred this year, when lawyers for Arlington and the parents of Joseph Murphy of LaGrangeville went before the Supreme Court on April 19. The Court weighed whether parents who prevail in special education cases can be reimbursed for fees paid to experts under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. A decision is expected later this year.

Although the final costs have not been tabulated, Arlington's law firm expects to bill the district about $138,000 this year. That figure is a tiny fraction -- about one tenth of one percent -- of the more than $133 million budget for 2005-06 approved by voters last year.

The costs come at time when voters all around the mid-Hudson Valley are sending budgets back to their districts. Last week, nine out of 12 school budgets in Dutchess County -- including Arlington's more than $145 million spending plan -- were rejected by voters.