Page:Lake View School District No. 25 v. Huckabee, 351 Ark. 31 (2002).pdf/20

50 school-funding formula and are not subject to the discretion of the school districts.

III. Standard of Review
Our standard of review in chancery cases has been often stated: We review chancery cases de novo on the record, but we do not reverse a finding of fact by the chancery court unless it is clearly erroneous. Moon v. Marquez, 338 Ark. 636, 999 S.W.2d 678 (1999); Office of Child Support Enforcement v. Eagle, 336 Ark. 51, 983 S.W.2d 429 (1999). A finding of fact by the chancery court is clearly erroneous when, although there is evidence to support it, the reviewing court on the entire evidence is left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. Huffman v. Fisher, 337 Ark. 58, 987 S.W.2d 269 (1999); RAD-Razorback Ltd. Partnership v. B.G. Coney Co., 289 Ark. 550, 713 S.W.2d 462 (1986). It is this court's duty to reverse if its own review of the record is in marked disagreement with the chancery court's findings. Dopp v. Sugarloaf Mining Co., 288 Ark. 18, 702 S.W.2d 393 (1986) (citing Rose v. Dunn, 284 Ark. 42, 679 S.W.2d 180 (1984); Walt Bennett Ford v. Pulaski County Special Sch. Dist., 274 Ark. 208, 624 S.W.2d 426 (1981)). State Office of Child Support Enforcem't v. Willis, 347 Ark. 6, 11-12, 59 S.W.3d 438, 442 (2001). See also Wisener v. Burns, 345 Ark. 84, 44 S.W.3d 289 (2001).

We initially must address which order we are reviewing. Are we reviewing Judge Imber's 1994 order, Judge Kilgore's 2001 order, both orders, or some combination of the two? We are convinced that what is on appeal is Judge Kilgore's 2001 order in which he found the post-1994 legislative acts to be unconstitutional. In Lake View II, we referred to Judge Imber's November 1996 orders, where she found that the 1995 legislation constituted new facts and that law of the case would not apply to her 1994 order. We then remanded this case for a compliance trial on whether the post-1994 legislation and Amendment 74 had corrected the constitutional deficiencies. That is the task which Judge Kilgore undertook—an examination of the new legislative acts in light of constitutional mandates. We further note on this point