The Duluth school district says it’s confident it can beat back a new lawsuit that seeks to stop the schools’ long-range building plan dead in its tracks. 

But, not surprisingly, the group that filed the suit says it has no doubt it will prevail. 

Five Duluth residents sued this week, seeking to halt construction on the red plan . The suit argues that the district violated its own policy when it failed to seek competitive bids before hiring contractor Johnson Controls to oversee the project. 

But the lawyer representing the district said no such violation occurred. And even if it did, he said, that still wouldn’t warrant a lawsuit . 

“The notable thing is that [the plaintiffs] have not alleged the school district violated any law,” lawyer Kevin Rupp said. “They have only alleged the school district violated a policy. You can’t sue for violation of a policy.” 

But Rupp said the district didn’t even do that. 

Not so fast, the lawyer for the plaintiffs said. He said case law does give his clients grounds to sue if the district didn’t follow its policies. 

“That’s what happened here; they didn’t follow their own procedure,” lawyer Craig Hunter said. “That is kind of the beginning and end of it.” 

The policy in question deals with seeking proposals for work done for the district. The plaintiffs say that while the district sought competitive bids when it hired a company to help develop the long-range building plan , it didn’t follow the same process when it needed a firm to make the plan happen. 

Instead, they say, the district simply handed the job to Johnson Controls . 

“So Johnson Controls ended up with a no-bid contract … that may be worth tens of millions of dollars,” Hunter said. 

Rupp said he reads the policy differently. 

“The complaint repeatedly says ‘bids,’ but the policy talks about proposals, and those are two significantly different things in the eyes of the law,” Rupp said. “On bids, you have to accept the lowest responsible bidder. But on proposals, you sit down and negotiate … . It looks to me that the entire project was put out for proposals, and anyone interested could submit one if they wanted to perform the services.” 

The plaintiffs served the district with the lawsuit earlier this week. The next step probably will be a court hearing, unless the district asks a judge to dismiss the case. Rupp said that remains an option.