After more than a year, a ruling has been sent down from the United States District Court’s Northern District regarding a motion for an injunctive relief from the consolidation of the Winona Separate School District and the Montgomery County School District, first filed in November 2017. Judge Neal B. Biggers, Jr., dismissed the motion on December 21, 2018.
In his ruling, Biggers explained that Montgomery County School District and the other plaintiffs in the motion “are not entitled to a temporary restraining order” because they must show that “a substantial likelihood that he will prevail on the merits, a substantial threat that he will suffer irreparable injury if the motion is not granted, and his threatened injury outweighs the threatened harm to the party whom he seeks to enjoin, and granting the preliminary injunction will not disserve the public interest.” Biggers said the plaintiffs have not proven any of these factors.
Biggers continued, “The consolidation statute was passed by the Mississippi Legislature in 2016 and went into effect on July 1, 2016. Yet Plaintiffs did not file the instant lawsuit claiming the need for emergency injunctive relief until approximately one year and four months later on November 17, 2017. Such delay indicates the absence of an emergency nature to this matter and a lack of irreparable harm, considering the length of time it took Plaintiffs to discover and present their claims.”
Biggers also addressed the motion’s claims that the consolidation statute is unconstitutional due to the makeup of consolidated school district’s board of trustees with three members appointed by the Winona City Board and two members elected by voters outside the Winona City limits.
“It is well-settled that the ‘one person, one vote’ concept embraced by the Equal Protection Clause applies only to elected governing bodies,” Biggers wrote.
He went on to say, “…while all citizens enjoy the right to participate in elections before them on an equal basis with all other citizens in the jurisdiction, there is no fundamental right to elect members of a school board.”
Biggers said that the court finds that the Mississippi Legislature could rationally conclude that consolidation would be a more efficient use of public funds, “which in itself will help all the students of Montgomery County, including those within the corporate limits of Winona, but that it will also help better serve the students of the former Montgomery County School District….It is rational to conclude that these students will get a better education as a result of the consolidation.”
Dr. Teresa Jackson, superintendent of education for the Winona-Montgomery Consolidated School District, said, “The consolidation of the former districts has been a smooth and positive experience for the majority of our students, parents, and employees. The district leadership team meets regularly to discuss the needs of our students. The Superintendent’s Advisory Council meets monthly to gather information and input regarding student, parent, teacher, and community ideas and/or concerns. This council is made up of people selected by both of the former school boards to represent the students and parents of the former districts. The dismissal of the federal case will alleviate some of the burden of the costs associated with the litigation and will free up staff to work on tasks more directly related to serving the students, parents, and employees of the new district.”
Calls to Chynee Bailey, attorney for the Plaintiffs, were not returned by press time Wednesday.
