While 2011 board minutes reflect consolidation would be considered within the study, it would not be the intent of the study, wrote Fayetteville attorney Garris Neil Yarborough, who is representing the county in the lawsuit filed by the University of North Carolina Center for Civil Rights. “The truth is that the Evergreen Report recommended that the Halifax County Board of Education — not the board of county commissioners — should close two of their elementary schools and redraw the HCPS attendance zones so that students will attend the nearest excess capacity.”

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The response to the UNC lawsuit also addresses the Roanoke Rapids and Weldon school districts power to collect taxes. “It is further noted that the voters residing in the HCPS district rejected referenda proposing a supplemental school tax for HCPS in 1986 and 2012.”

Allegations of funding disparities, Yarborough writes, “Are a result of the fact that the residents of the two city school districts voted to impose a supplemental school tax on themselves, and not from the selection of the ad valorem tax method of distribution of sales and use taxes.

“It should be noted that voters in the HCPS district rejected referenda proposing a supplemental school tax for HCPS in 1986 and 2012, which if passed, would have afforded HCPS the same opportunity to share in the distribution of sales and use taxes.”

The motion notes the plaintiffs in the lawsuit have misled the court “by alleging that experts hired by the defendant say that consolidation is a 'no-brainer.' The truth is that this statement comes from the author of a report done for the UNC School of Law Center for Civil Rights.”