A citizens group fighting a school system proposal has until July 2 to decide if it will appeal a court ruling against it, but the group’s leader said he feels defeated.
“We knew we were the underdogs,” Dalton, Ga., orthopedic surgeon Conrad Easley said.
A leader of Concerned Citizens of the Prater’s Mill Community, Mr. Easley said he has been fighting for 16 months to stop construction of a Whitfield County high school. The effort has cost his group thousands of dollars from personal funds, and Mr. Easley said an appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court could take months.
The citizens group does not want the $58 million high school to be built near the historic 1855 landmark, which is on the National Register of Historic Places and is the location of tourism events such as arts and crafts festivals.
His group sued the Whitfield County Board of Education and Superintendent Katie Brochu to stop construction, alleging that taxpayer funds, set aside for educational purposes, inappropriately would be used to build a sewer needed for the new school.
Superior Court Judge William T. Boyett ruled Thursday in favor of the school board.
In his ruling, the judge cited a 1973 case, Norton Realty Loan Co. Inc. v. Board of Education of Hall County, which said that “expanding sewer systems does further school purposes.”
At last month’s Superior Court hearing, Peter Olson, the lawyer for the Concerned Citizens group, argued that the school board is violating the Georgia Constitution by appropriating money for the sewer because it does not meet the state’s “educational purposes” standard for using taxpayer dollars, in part because the school would use only 3 percent of the new sewer’s capacity.
Stan Hawkins, the school system’s lawyer, argued that sewer construction falls in the educational purposes category since both sides agree that the sewer system is required to build and operate the facility.
The concerned citizens group also has filed a lawsuit against state Superintendent Kathy Cox and Georgia’s Department of Education.
That case, which has not gone to court yet, alleges that the state approved the site even though it is near a flood plain, which is against the law. The group also said the state didn’t require the school board to follow proper open-meeting procedures.
Mr. Easley is frustrated because that issue has taken so long to go to court.
“They have (dragged) their feet in Fulton County Superior Court,” he said. “They said they would put it on the fast track, but that didn’t happen.”
Mr. Easley said he isn’t sure what will happen with that lawsuit, but he still thinks his group’s desire to stop the construction of the school next to Prater’s Mill is sound.
“We believe our reasons for filing this lawsuit were and are valid,” he said.
He is becoming less hopeful about the possibility of a victory for his side but said the bottom line is that he supports the school system and its students, despite the disagreement with the board.
“The main thing I want to convey is that we do support the public education system, the schools, the faculty and the staff,” Mr. Easley said.
