The Pearl River County groups opposing the voluntary consolidation of the Lumberton and Lamar County schools have appealed the 10th Chancery Court ruling that denied the group’s complaint with prejudice to the Mississippi Supreme Court.
Attorneys representing the Pearl River County Board of Supervisors and the Poplarville Special Municipal Separate School District filed the appeal on June 15, but the papers were not received by Lamar County School District Attorney Rick Norton until June 20.
At last week’s Lamar County School Board meeting, Superintendent Tess Smith said she hoped the voluntary consolidation would be smooth July 1.
“I am saddened by (the State Supreme Court appeal),” she said. “We are ready to educate those children. We have opened our arms to welcome them into the district. We’re ready; I just wish we could get all that behind us because it adds a great deal of stress to the families and our employees down there. The uncertainty can be very disconcerting to them.”
On May 29, Chancellor Deborah J. Gambrell stuck down the complaint over the consolidation of the Lumberton and Lamar County school districts. In a 12-page ruling, Gambrell granted the motion for summary judgment filed by the Mississippi Department of Education and joined by the Lamar County School District.
All claims against The Commission on the Administration of Consolidation of the Lumberton School District by the Pearl River Board of Supervisors and the Poplarville Separate Municipal School District were dismissed with prejudice.
Norton said Gambrell heard initial arguments on those motions two weeks ago before issuing the order. Gambrell also said in the order that it is a final judgment “and is subject to appeal.”
The Pearl River County Board of Supervisors filed the first motion for summary judgment on April 23, followed the next day by the state Department of Education. The Lamar County and Lumberton school board then each filed motions on April 30 calling for summary judgments in the case, joining with the state Department of Education to have the case dismissed.
In the motions that Gambrell ruled on, the Pearl River County Supervisors said through attorneys R. Andrew Taggart Jr. and David G. Porter that “there exists no genuine issues of material fact in this case,” and the plaintiffs “are entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”
The state Department of Education’s response by Assistant Attorney General Harold E. Pizzetta III and Attorney General Jim Hood said summary judgment in favor of the defendants is warranted because “this court lacks subject matter jurisdiction on this untimely appeal filed in the wrong court.” The summary judgment should be in the defendants’ favor because “the plaintiffs’ proposed statutory interpretation is wrong as a matter of law,” the motion stated.
Gambrell had scheduled a two-day trial on June 28 in Lamar County to hear the Pearl River Board of Supervisors’ complaint.
The Pearl River County Board of Supervisors filed a legal complaint Nov. 20, 2017, seeking a temporary restraining order, preliminary and permanent injunction and declaratory judgment to stop the consolidation plan. Gambrell denied the preliminary injunction on Jan. 22 after a hearing Jan. 16 in Columbia.
