CHARLESTON – The superintendent of Wetzel County Schools has filed a motion to withdraw an appeal to the state Supreme Court in the case to keep Paden City High School open.
But the groups of citizens and supporters who successfully fought to keep PCHS open this school year still want their attorney fees paid.
On October 21, Superintendent Cassandra Porter filed her motion to withdraw the appeal to the state Supreme Court. On November 1, the Paden City Schools Athletic Association, the Paden City High School Alumni Association and other plaintiffs in the original case filed their response seeking attorney fees and court costs.
Porter
| File photo
In the response, the parties say the court “should invoke its inherent authority and order the petitioner (Porter) to pay the respondents’ attorney’s fees in this matter.”
They say Porter unnecessarily created an emergency when she violated the state Rules of Appellate Procedure by not applying to the trial court for a stay of the injunction, incorrectly filing an emergency motion for stay on a Friday, filing a corrected emergency motion for stay the following Monday, filing a motion to expedite the petitioner’s emergency motion for stay the following Wednesday and filing a motion to expedite the appeal on August 15.
“The respondents, through counsel, were required to immediately respond to all of these filings or accept the risk that the injunction would be dissolved thereby closing Paden City High School once again,” the response states. “This required the immediate raising and payment of funds to respondent’s counsel to pay attorney’s fees to draft and file the necessary responses.
“This is the pattern of petitioner Porter. She creates unnecessary emergencies that strike fear in the respondents and force them to continue to fight where no fight should be necessary.”
They say Porter ignored appellate rules when seeking the initial stay.
“The petitioner (Porter) then filed multiple motions citing a non-existent emergency in an effort to encourage this court to move more quickly than a normal scheduling order would provide,” the response states. “All of that required the respondents to spend significant funds to answer those motions. After all that effort and financial expense, the petitioner now wants to withdraw the appeal. The appeal should be withdrawn as it is meritless.
“However, the petitioner or the body that employs the petitioner and likely authorized the appeal should be ordered to pay the legal fees that the respondents incurred fighting against the meritless appeal.”
Porter’s legal team replied to the request for attorney fees in a November 4 filing by again saying the appeal should be dismissed with the parties bearing their own legal fee and costs.
The case has been in the headlines since the groups filed a petition in early July to stop Porter’s planned closure of the school because of unsafe conditions. The school sits on a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site. But the U.S. EPA says vapors from the site are at acceptable levels, so members of the community filed their petition to keep the school open.
Circuit Judge C. Richard Wilson immediately issued a temporary restraining order that opened the school. Days later, Porter filed an emergency motion to rescind or reconsider the TRO. Wilson scheduled a hearing for July 25, and that hearing lasted nearly seven hours until almost 11 p.m. He said then he would issue his ruling before August 1.
In his 30-page order dated July 31, Wilson said Porter did not have the statutory authority to close the school, noting the inclusion of the phrase “until further notices” doesn’t indicate the announced closure was temporary.
“The petitioners have established the likelihood of irreparable harm to the petitioners without an injunction,” Wilson wrote. “The closure of PCHS may jeopardize and threaten its students with eligibility to play sports and be members of a marching band. …
“Having found that Superintendent Porter acted unjustifiably so, Paden City High School remains open, and its longevity, future and fate is appropriately an issue for the elected representatives on the Wetzel County Board of Education to determine.”
Porter then appealed to the state Supreme Court and asked for expedited relief August 2. Three days later, she filed a corrected emergency motion for stay with the state Supreme Court but not with the circuit court. The next day, she filed a motion to expedite the emergency motion to stay again with the Supreme Court but not with the circuit court.
On August 12, the Supreme Court denied her motion for stay. Three days later, she filed a motion to expedite the appeal. And on October 21, she filed the motion to withdraw the appeal.
On October 8, Wilson entered an order saying allegations raised in an August 19 petition for contempt filed by the group fighting the closure had been resolved. The contempt petition was filed after a Wetzel County school official emailed Wetzel County high school principals other football teams from playing games at the school because of alleged safety concerns.
In addition to the athletic association and alumni association, the other petitioners include football coach Nathan Anderson, art teacher and archery coach Matt Kinnard, teacher Samantha Smith, athletic trainer and parent Thomas Duncan, bus driver Chris McGinnis, football coach Josh Billiter, coach and PCAA President Jon Baker, school secretary and PCAA Vice President Penelope Baker, Alumni President Shauna Williams-Yoho, schools employee Mary McGinnis, school employee and mother Zoa Postlethwait, teacher and coach Trey Barcus, teacher and parent Stacey Yoho, teacher and Paden City Council member Bill Bell as well as other parents, grandparents and guardians of children who attend Wetzel County schools.
Paden City High School is home to students in seventh to 12th grade. It opened in 1951 and currently has an enrollment of about 160 students. It has been honored for academics, and its athletic teams have seen success as well.
In March 2021, Paden City was added to the U.S. EPA list of Superfund Sites National Priority List. After that designation, the school remained open through the 2024 school year.
The plaintiffs are being represented by Teresa Toriseva, Miller and Andrew Carpenter of Toriseva Law in Wheeling. Porter is represented by Kenneth E. Webb Jr., Richard S. Boothby and William M. Lorensen of Bowles Rice in Charleston, and the WVSSAC was represented by Stephen F. Gandee of Robinson & McElwee in Charleston.
Wetzel Circuit Court case number 24-P-48 (West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals case number 24-430)