By a unanimous decision, the Mississippi State Supreme Court upheld Chancellor Deborah J. Gambrell’s ruling that approved the voluntary consolidation of the Lamar County and Lumberton school districts.
The 8-0 state court ruling affirmed the consolidation plan, which has been in operation since July 1, 2018. Attorneys representing the Pearl River County Board of Supervisors and the Poplarville Special Municipal Separate School District filed the appeal of Gambrell’s ruling on June 15, 2018.
Lamar County School Superintendent Tess Smith said in a news release the school family is now complete.
“We welcomed Lumberton to the family a long time ago,” she said. “But the final adoption papers came through today.”
With the State Supreme Court’s decision, a four-year journey ended Thursday, Smith said.
“The Lamar County School District started down a road that would end with us asking Lumberton School District to become a part of the Lamar County School District family,” she said. “They accepted, but we were taken to court by the Pearl River County Board of Supervisors and then later Poplarville Schools joined. It reached the level of the Supreme Court of the great state of Mississippi. Today, they ruled in our favor. Lumberton is ours!”
Smith said she heard about the decision from School Board Attorney Rick Norton.
“I want to thank him and his fellow attorneys, our board then and now, as well as all of LCSD,” she said. “I never doubted that it was a good thing. I also believed in our judicial system.”
Norton said he also appreciated the justices’ work in upholding the original decision by Chancellor Gambrell.
“One chancery court judge and all eight Supreme Court justices said we were right,” he said. “That’s an A-plus on our report card.”
Norton said the Pearl River County and Poplarville attorneys presented their case well, but they didn’t have the law to support the argument.
“We were correct in the law,” he noted, “and correct in the facts.”
Smith added that she was pleased with Thursday’s court ruling. “I know there are some people who are unhappy. I do hate that for them, but I’m excited for us.”
On May 29, 2018, 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.
The Lamar County and Lumberton school boards received approval from the state Department of Education to begin the voluntary consolidation, the first one attempted in the state. Aidran Lumpkin, Pearl River County administrator, said the supervisors are involved in the consolidation process.
“They have been involved since day one,” he said. “One of the consolidation commission members was appointed by the supervisors.”
School district lines were redrawn in 2017 to provide for the Lumberton schools to be included in the Lamar County School District.
The Lumberton and Lamar County school superintendents both received the go-ahead on the state’s first voluntary consolidation plan from state education leaders. Members of the Commission on Administrative Consolidation of Lumberton School District received approval from state Senate Education Committee Chairman Gray Tollison, R-Oxford, after the commission approved a Lamar County proposal to voluntarily consolidate with Lumberton School District.
Tollison wrote Senate Bill 2500 of the 2016 Legislature, which became law on July 1, 2016, eliminating the Lumberton School District not later than July 1, 2019, and dividing the students between the Lamar County Board of Education and the Poplarville School District according to the county line.