Here is The Leader Times article on the subject from today's edition:
KITTANNING — About 40 people who attended court proceedings Friday morning to hear arguments related to the closing of Elderton High School will have to wait another month.
Westmoreland County Senior Judge Daniel J. Ackerman ordered that the lawsuit go straight to trial, skipping a preliminary injunction hearing that had been scheduled for yesterday. After about an hour of conferring among attorneys, plaintiff and defendants, Ackerman took the bench to explain the decision made by both parties.
"I know this is anticlimactic for many of you who have come here today," Ackerman said, adding that going straight to trial "makes much more sense economically and we will have the matter done in a more efficient fashion."
Trial was scheduled for June 15 and 16 in the lawsuit that seeks to force the Armstrong School District and six of its directors to keep Elderton High School closed. Five area residents filed the lawsuit in February to hold the six school directors who voted to reopen the school financially responsible for associated costs.
Attorney Chase McClister represents plaintiffs David Reefer of Kittanning Township and James and Mary Seaman, Scott Starr and Dan Goldinger, all of East Franklin.
The lawsuit names the Armstrong School District and directors Rose Stitt, Jim Solak, Mike Markilinski, John Monroe, Royce Smeltzer and Sara Yassem as defendants. The district is being represented in court by its solicitor Gary Matta, of the Pittsburgh firm, Dodaro, Matta and Cambest.
The six directors sat in the front row of the courtroom Friday across the aisle from school district administrators, including Superintendent William Kerr.
The trial will determine whether the directors acted within their rights as elected officials in voting to close Elderton or if their actions were illegal, as the plaintiffs allege.
Attorneys for both parties agreed that skipping the preliminary injunction hearing and instead heading straight to trial is the best for everyone involved.
Cambest said the judge's decision "is the best for the children of the district."
"By accelerating the process, we can short circuit an eight-month ordeal down to three weeks," he said.
Much of the evidence the plaintiffs would have presented yesterday would be reused in trial, McClister said.
"We would essentially be duplicating the hearing," he said.
If the preliminary injunction hearing had been held, Ackerman would have decided, based upon testimony and attorneys' arguments, whether to stop district spending related to the reopening of Elderton until a trial could be held. Instead, Ackerman said the "most expeditious and economical way" to deal with the matter was going directly to trial.
Ackerman retired from the bench in December after serving 30 years in the Westmoreland County Court of Common Pleas.
Armstrong County Senior Judge Joseph Nickleach requested he be recused from the case after an April hearing and overruling the defendants' preliminary objections later in the month. The partially-retired judge cited a tight schedule that would not allow him to make a quick ruling.
The Armstrong School District superintendent proposed closing Elderton High School in January 2008, citing declining enrollment, increased building operational costs and other reasons.
The school was closed in June and students went to Ford City or West Shamokin high schools for the 2009-10 school year, based on attendance lines redrawn by the district. After the November election, directors Markilinski and Yassem joined the board, which voted to reopen the school in December.
