Parents, students and educators in the Forest Hills Local Schools have been focused this year on lawsuits filed over critical race theory and diversity.
Financial challenges prompted district officials to consider consolidating Anderson and Turpin high schools – an idea now on hold as officials weigh putting a levy on the May ballot.
But an unrelated, big-money suit filed against Forest Hills five years ago over a $23 million construction project at Anderson High School is heating up.
And it’s likely off many people’s radars, despite the impact it could have on the school district’s budget and how special meetings are conducted.
Here are five things to know about the lawsuit:
What's new in the case?
A Hamilton County Common Pleas Court judge has scheduled a jury trial in July 2023 for the suit brought by Performance Construction of North Bend, the general contractor of the work at Anderson High.
What's the beef?
Performance sued the Forest Hills Board of Education and others in 2019 after the school district fired it from a renovation and expansion job at Anderson High School.
Forest Hills said it let Performance go because the district was unhappy with the quality and pace of the company’s work.
Performance said Forest Hills fired it to conceal the fact that the district was responsible for delays and overspending.
Performance also said Forest Hills did not want to pay the company what it was owed and that the district fired Performance after a series of school board meetings that violated Ohio’s Open Meetings Act.
All parties to the suit deny wrongdoing.
What's at stake?
To put it plainly: millions of dollars. Performance originally asked for $8 million in its lawsuit. It sought an additional unspecified amount of money when it filed an amended suit in 2020 with the Open Meetings allegations.
A year later, presiding Judge Tom Heekin narrowed the number of allegations Forest Hills will face at trial to breach of contract and violations of the Open Meetings Act.
Heekin tossed out other accusations in the lawsuit such as and unjust enrichment, potentially lessening Forest Hills’ financial liability should it lose the suit.
Still in play is a breach-of-contract claim Forest Hills filed against Performance after the company sued the school board – even though the school district ultimately rehired Performance to finish the work at Anderson High.
The claim will be part of next year’s trial.
Related suit settled
Forest Hills and its insurance company agreed in November 2021 to pay about $2.2 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a subcontractor that cleared and prepared the construction site at Anderson High School.
J&D Rack Co. of Green Township had sued Forest Hills, Performance and others in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court in 2018.
Forest Hills agreed to pay Rack $1.28 million.
The school district also agreed to pay Performance $969,678 so Performance could pay what it owed its subcontractors, material suppliers and laborers for their work on the project.
That included $39,557 owed Rack.
Forest Hills’ payment to Performance in the Rack case did not absolve the district of the claims it faces in the 2019 lawsuit filed by Performance and set for trial next year.
Another related suit settled
In July 2020, Hamilton County Judge Robert Ruehlman put a lawsuit filed in common pleas court by another subcontractor on the Anderson High project on hold because the case was in arbitration.
B&J Electrical Co. of Golf Manor sued Forest Hills, Performance and an insurance company earlier that year for $117,500 in unpaid work.
In September, B&J Electrical filed a notice of dismissal in court, saying the matter has been settled.
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