Save Our Schools brings lawsuit against Cabarrus school board over closing Beverly

The plaintiffs, which are Beverly Hills parents representing themselves and more than 600 others, contend in the lawsuit, a copy of which was provided to the Independent Tribune, that the board “acted outside its scope of authority” under North Carolina law “and abused its discretion in approving the closure of Beverly Hills.”

“Permanently closing a school is a decision of great magnitude which affects children, families, and entire communities,” said John Scarbrough, attorney for the plaintiffs. “As such, the decision should be made carefully and based on the thorough study required by statute. For some reason Beverly Hills did not get that consideration, which is why my clients filed this lawsuit.”

In a statement to the paper, CCS said it “has been made aware of this action, and CCS Board attorneys are currently reviewing this information. Cabarrus County Schools cannot comment further on any pending litigation at this time.”

SOS President Lee Shuman, whose three children attended Beverly Hills and whose son is currently a fifth-grader, told the paper that the lawsuit was not something the group “took lightly” but there are “processes in place and there are North Carolina general statutes and laws in place for a reason.”

He added that the reasons there are specific protocols governing the closing of schools is because “those are huge decisions to make” which can “change people’s lives.”

The closure of Beverly Hills, a Title 1 school which first opened in 1954, will adversely impact the plaintiffs’ children, according to the lawsuit, depriving them of attending an established STEM program and increasing their school commute time. 

The school board voted 4-3 during its Feb. 5 meeting to close the school. The plan is to turn Beverly Hills into a Pre-K center to replace the current Mary Frances Wall Center. A $50.6 million, 750-seat replacement school for Beverly Hills and Coltrane-Webb students will be built on the current Coltrane-Webb site. The hope is that construction can begin on the new school this year, assuming the county can provide the funding.

Students from Beverly Hills will be realigned next school year to W.M. Irvin, Winecoff and Royal Oaks. They will have the option to attend the new Coltrane-Webb school once it is built.

The lawsuit alleges that the board violated G.S. 115C-72 by not first conducting a “thorough study” of Beverly Hills, which must focus primarily on “the welfare of the students to be affected by a proposed closing” along with other key factors, including “the inconvenience or hardship that might result to the pupils to be affected by such closing.” 

The plaintiffs are asking the court to enter into an order setting aside the board’s vote to close Beverly Hills.

“In the Board’s haste to realign school boundaries in Cabarrus County, the Board neglected its statutory obligation to consider the effect of a school closure on Beverly Hills students,” the lawsuit said, noting it never “caused a thorough study of [Beverly Hills] to be made.”

The plaintiffs contend that in approving the school’s closure, the board was more concerned with implementing the county-wide boundary realignment plan, which called for closing Beverly Hills.

“The four Board members who voted to close Beverly Hills,” per the lawsuit, “repeated the same theme: While Beverly Hills is a successful elementary school, its closure is in the best interest of the rest of the school district because it is required by the county-wide boundary realignment.”

Shuman, who is not one of the named plaintiffs, said to the best of his knowledge no mention of a study was ever brought up by any board members.

“The Board of Education, in voting for closing the school, would have referenced a study that they caused to be made and not once did I hear that nor have I seen that study,” Shuman said. 

The plaintiffs also allege that the school board violated its own policy by not giving proper notice of the Jan. 29 public hearing regarding the closure. A notice about the hearing was posted on the CCS website on Jan. 25, the lawsuit said, four days prior to the hearing, which violates board policy.

Per Policy 2330, which the lawsuit references: “Notice of a public hearing shall be given a minimum of seven (7) calendar days prior to the hearing or as otherwise provided by law.”

The lawsuit called the four-day notice of the public hearing “unreasonable in time and scope” and noted that neither CCS nor the board attempted to notify parents of Beverly Hills students about the hearing. 

“Such a notification would have been a simple task, as CCS regularly sends mass communications by text message to parents, including for events as mundane as a ‘Future Jewelry Designer Contest,'” the lawsuit said. 

The plaintiffs are asking the court to order the school board to comply with G.S. 115C-72 and make the decision on whether…