Aug 7, 2018 2 min read

Trinity Area School District officials are accusing counterparts in Jefferson-Morgan of underpaying for students the Greene County district sent to Trinity’s vocational-agricultural program last year.

A lawsuit filed Monday on Trinity’s behalf asks that a Washington County judge award the district roughly $18,500 in tuition Jefferson-Morgan allegedly failed to pay when it sent two students to the full-time program during the 2017-18 school year.

The state Department of Education initially approved Trinity’s vo-ag program in 2016-17, and reapproved it the following year. State law allows a student whose home district doesn’t offer a vo-ag program to apply for admission in one that does.

Jefferson-Morgan had no such program last year.

The student’s home district is to pay tuition to the district the student attends, based on an annual amount known as the “high school charge.”

After the school year ended, Trinity invoiced Jefferson-Morgan for $24,662, or $12,331 per student, but Jefferson Morgan paid a total of $6,166 – or about $3,083 a student, the lawsuit states.

Trinity’s lawsuit contains claims of breach of contract and breach of implied contract. Along with the alleged unpaid tuition, it seeks to recover costs related to the lawsuit and “such other relief as the court deems equitable and just.”

Jefferson-Morgan Superintendent Joseph Orr referred a request for comment Tuesday to the district’s solicitor, Ernie DeHaas.

“We have not received the complaint and have no comment at this time,” DeHaas wrote in an email.