CEP and Robert Kimball Settle Lawsuit

Settled but confidential

​We'll never know if Community Education Partners would have been able to prove its contention in court that its chief critic, civic activist Robert Kimball, really was responsible for damaging its business in the Houston ISD and elsewhere in the state.

That's because after years of wrangling, the two sides settled and even the normally loquacious Kimball wouldn't say anything about what the terms were.

Kimball had called CEP's two alternative schools in Houston "dropout factories" and repeatedly questioned everything from their instruction methods (kids placed in front of computers) to their cost efficiencies, saying that too many students preferred to leave school rather than continue at either of their schools.

CEP filed its suit against the former Sharpstown High School vice principal initially for $4.7 million claiming that his disparaging remarks caused the Austin ISD to step away from a contract with CEP and caused HISD to reduce its own agreement with the private Nashville-based company. Last November, CEP increased the amount in its lawsuit to $9 million.