The two sides in the lawsuit to remove three Rock Hill school board members will have another day in court next week.

Visiting Judge Fred Crow of Meigs County has scheduled a 9 a.m. hearing Dec. 22 to hear arguments for and against a motion to return Lavetta Sites, Wanda Jenkins and Paul R. Johnson to their seats pending the outcome of an appeal that is being filed in the Ohio Fourth District Court of Appeals. The hearing will be at the Lawrence County Courthouse.

Earlier this year, the Citizens Against Poor Spending (CAPS) group filed a lawsuit against the three board members from office, citing various acts of “malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance of office.”

In October, a Lawrence County Common Pleas Court jury sided with CAPS. The board members have appealed that decision.

The lawsuit has been one of several disputed actions that has divided the Rock Hill community during the past two years.

In March 2004, the three board members who were removed from office voted to non-renew the contract of Rock Hill Superintendent Lloyd Evans, who sued the district and got his job back in a ruling from Lawrence County Common Pleas Court.

The three board members filed an appeal but the court of appeals sent the case back to the lower court. That matter was recently settled when the three board members appointed to the board, Kendall Kitchen, Ora Cox and Rock Donohue, voted with fellow members Jackie Harris and Troy Hardy to settle the lawsuit with Evans.

Jenkins was re-elected to the board in the November election and will take her seat in January, as will former board member Carl Large, who had opted not to seek reelection two years ago.