The opinion signed by Judge Edward R. Ardini stated that the judgment of the trial court is affirmed. The only modification made to last year’s ruling by Circuit 14 Presiding Judge Scott Hayes, is that the case be dismissed without prejudice, rather than with prejudice.

When a case is dismissed with prejudice it cannot be brought back to court.

Lehmann represented himself in both the original case and its appeal. “I lost but I won. So that means I can bring this up again in Howard County,” he said.

Lehmann said on Friday that he intends to write a motion to reconsider to the appeals court because he contends there are errors in the content of that opinion.

On March 11 of last year, Judge Hayes dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit brought by Lehmann, who resides in rural Fayette and inside the boundaries of the school district, against the Fayette R-III Board of Education that claimed the district’s four-day school week is unconstitutional. Judge Hayes stated in his ruling that Lehmann’s allegations, conclusions, speculation, conjecture, and opinions are not facts. He also wrote that Lehmann has no standing to sue.

“In order for (Lehmann) to have standing to sue in the capacity he has chosen, he needs to allege that he is an employee of the District, that he has children attending schools of the District, that he will or could suffer damages as a result of the alleged wrongs, or some legal interest of the subject matter of the petition,” Judge Hayes wrote.

In his suit, Lehmann argued that the four-day school week will result in a devaluation of his property.

“This involves the value of my property,” he said on Friday.

The Fayette school board voted 4-2 on November 20, 2019, to transition the district to a four-day school week. The controversial decision came before a capacity crowd. A group opposing the four-day week spoke at the meeting and presented the board with a petition of nearly 300 signatures. The petition was largely ignored by the board.

In January of 2020, Lehmann led the meeting of a group calling itself “People for the 5 Day School Week,” during which time he threatened to take the school to court over the matter. A number of people in attendance spoke out against the four-day school week, but few solutions were proposed. At one point, Lehmann said his intent was not to change the mind of the board but to force the board to reverse its decision.

Missouri law allows for school districts to operate a on four-day schedule. In 2018, the state changed a law that governs the length of academic terms for public schools. Instead of requiring districts to operate 174 days and 1,044 hours each year, the new law eliminated the required number of days. Schools now must only operate for a minimum of 1,044 hours each year. Currently, around 125 school districts in Missouri have adopted the four-day school week. Recently, Hallsville’s Board of Education voted to take its district to a four-day schedule beginning next fall, and the Marshall school board is entertaining the option. Nearby districts of Higbee and Harrisburg have operated on a four-day schedule for several years.