Decision No. 14,503

(December 5, 2000)

MILLS, Commissioner.--Petitioner seeks to reopen the Appeal of Lilker, 39 Ed Dept Rep 614, Decision No. 14,328, which dismissed a challenge to the adoption of revised policies by the Board of Education of the Freeport Union Free School District ("respondent"). The application must be denied.

Section 276.8 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education governs applications to reopen. It provides that such applications are addressed solely to the discretion of the Commissioner and will not be granted in the absence of a showing that the original decision was rendered under a misapprehension of fact or that there is new and material evidence that was not available at the time the decision was made.

The original appeal was dismissed on procedural grounds and on the merits. In the instant application, petitioner argues that his procedural errors should have been excused and attempts to reargue the merits of the initial appeal. Petitioner does not submit any new evidence or testimony, but merely continues to accuse respondent of improper acts, including lying, without submitting any evidence to support those accusations. Nor does he establish that there was any misapprehension of the facts. Petitioner apparently fails to understand that the original appeal was denied, not because of any misapprehension of facts, but because his characterization of events was not supported by the evidence he submitted. An application for reopening is not intended to provide an opportunity for reargument of a proper decision on the law (Application of Lombardo, 39 Ed Dept Rep 385, Decision No. 14,267; Application of Goldin, 37 id. 603, Decision No. 13,938).

THE APPLICATION TO REOPEN IS DENIED.

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