The Riverside School District is still obligated to pay for its share of the $18.1 million renovation project at the Career Technology Center of Lackawanna County, according to a lawsuit filed Friday.
The lawsuit, filed by the CTC and its member districts in response to Riverside's attempt to leave the consortium, also alleges Riverside is obligated to pay its share of the 2012-13 budget and violated state law when it moved its students to a different technical school without state approval.
In August, Riverside filed suit against the CTC, seeking to leave the consortium. No ruling has been made in the suit, and the district is now sending its students to the Wilkes-Barre Area Career and Technical Center in Plains Twp.
Riverside cited concerns with the yet-to-be-started renovation project and that being part of the CTC is not the "best way of providing vocational and technical education to the students it serves." Riverside was a founding district of the CTC in 1968. Districts share costs, based on enrollment in the center and other factors, to keep the CTC in operation. Students spend half their day in their district schools and the other half at CTC. Each district appoints one school board member to the CTC board.
The remaining districts in the consortium, Carbondale Area, Dunmore, Forest City Regional, Lakeland, Mid Valley, North Pocono, Scranton and Valley View, joined in the lawsuit filed against Riverside in Lackawanna County Court. Those districts have all approved the renovation project, and also approved going forward with it if Riverside is successful at leaving.
Riverside was scheduled to pay $105,000 annually for 17 years after a three-year phase-in. Although Riverside did not approve the project, the district is still "bound and obligated by the majority's decision on the renovation project and bond issue" through the consortium's articles of agreement, according to the suit.
Riverside is also liable for its share of a $400,000 lease-purchase agreement for a printing press for educational use, and its $157,685.60 share of the 2012-13 CTC budget. Although the Riverside School Board approved the CTC budget in June, the district issued a stop-payment on a check for the first installment of its portion, the suit states.
As of last month, about half of Riverside's 41 vocational students had opted to stay at the Lackawanna CTC, but the district provides no transportation and pays a higher per-student cost than if the district remained in the consortium. But the district is prohibited to send them to the Wilkes-Barre CTC, the suit states.
Before a change in vocational schools is permitted, a school district must file a petition to change its attendance area to the State Board of Vocational Education for approval before the district sends its students to a school outside its geographical attendance area, according to the suit.
The district's actions "have caused public harm as the public has an interest in ensuring that its governmental agencies fulfill their obligations under contracts and the law," the suit states.
Along with asking the court for a permanent injunction and to require Riverside to pay its share of the budget, renovation project and other costs, the CTC is asking for legal fees.
Riverside Superintendent David Woods said he could not comment on the litigation.
Contact the writer: shofius@timesshamrock.com, @hofiushallTT on Twitter