CMS board meeting about Veritas lease yields no action

After meeting behind closed doors for nearly an hour, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board on Monday took no action in a dispute between CMS and Veritas Community School over the lease termination for a vacant school building.

Chair Mary McCray said CMS attorney George Battle updated the board about the issue and gave them information about an appeal hearing Dec. 1 in front of the board of county commissioners.

“Our stance as a board was laid out in that letter that I sent to the (commissioners) chair,” she said. “Right now, we don’t know what we’re going to do. We are waiting for litigation and I don’t have any more update on that. It’s a lot of uncertainty.”

CMS and Veritas have been embroiled in a dispute over the empty Villa Heights elementary school building since the school district said it would terminate its lease with the charter school despite signing it three months earlier.

The year-to-year lease provides the building rent-free for 10 years but also gives CMS the right to reclaim it for the district’s use at the end of each school year.

Veritas, which has been operating inside a church since its August opening, wants to use the building for its 100 kindergartners through third-graders. CMS wants the building for Garinger High School students who have fallen behind.

Once the board voted Nov. 10 to cancel the lease, Veritas founder Katy Ridnouer used a recently revised, yet untested state law to appeal to county commissioners, who decided to conduct a hearing like a civil trial. Both sides will make opening statements, present evidence and have a chance to cross-examine witnesses.

In a letter to commissioners Chairman Trevor Fuller, McCray asked the county to delay the hearing. She wrote that it’s not clear that the county has jurisdiction in the case, and the school district doesn’t have enough time to prepare.

Fuller wrote back to McCray on Monday, telling her the board is unable to consider her request because it does not have another meeting scheduled before Dec. 1. He wrote that CMS can request the delay at the actual hearing.

He also addressed McCray’s concerns about preparation, writing that County Attorney Marvin Bethune’s request for both parties to submit legal documents by Tuesday was not a requirement. Any materials not ready by then, he said, can be presented Dec. 1.

Angela Ambroise, a Villa Heights neighborhood resident who ran unsuccessfully for school board this election, said neither CMS nor the charter school have spoken with neighbors about the situation. She said the area does not fully support Veritas using the old school building, feeling a neighborhood school that reflects the area’s diversity makes more sense.

“We’re disheartened on both sides,” she said. “I feel like nobody reached out to the community in this process.”

This story was originally published November 23, 2015 at 6:52 PM with the headline "CMS board meeting about Veritas lease yields no action."