Even though Thursday is the first day that the Blairsville-Saltsburg School District will be known as the River Valley School District, there are still some legal battles going on between the district and Save Our Saltsburg Schools.
According to SOSS legal representative Joel Sansone, July 1st is the deadline for the district to submit its objections to Indiana County President Judge Thomas Bianco to the lawsuit filed by the grassroots organization. The district’s aim is to get the case thrown out. Sansone said that the group will get its turn after that.
SOSS wants to have the district reorganization and conversion of the Saltsburg Middle-High School campus into a STEAM academy halted. The group says that the students’ education and safety will be in jeopardy with the long bus run from Saltsburg to Blairsville.
During last night’s school board meeting, members of the public talked about how the board has been quick to re-brand everything to River Valley, including changing the look of the website to the new district’s colors and name. Sansone talked about why he felt the board was moving quickly on the re-branding.
The case is at the county level as the original lawsuit filed at the federal level was dismissed due to issues concerning jurisdiction.