Both sides filed actions last month which may simplify the Barbara G. Halsey versus the Alleghany County Board of Education lawsuit.
According to papers filed Sept. 21 at the Alleghany County Courthouse, Halsey voluntarily dismissed two of her three claims against the board. The board also withdrew its motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
Jonathan A. Blumberg of Raleigh, the board's lead attorney in the case, said that both actions occurred simultaneously.
A hearing had been previously scheduled for Oct. 8 in Alleghany Civil Superior Court on the board's motion. No other court proceeding is yet scheduled in the case.
Halsey, a former fourth-grade teacher at Piney Creek Elementary School, is suing the board over its June 2000 decision not to grant her career status, effectively dismissing her as a teacher in Alleghany.
She filed an appeal of the board's decision in August 2000, voluntarily dismissed the appeal in March, then filed the lawsuit against the board in April.
The lawsuit included a statutory claim, a state constitutional claim and a federal claim. Last month's action dismissed the statutory and state constitutional claims "with prejudice," meaning they cannot be re-introduced.
"The case goes forward with one remaining claim," said Blumberg. "The board of education denies that claim and will emphatically defend against that claim."
Halsey's suit alleges that her dismissal was a political retaliation for her husband's candidacy for a seat on the board in last year's election.
James Halsey was one of two candidates who received more votes than then-board chairman Bobby Irwin in the May Democratic primary, thus ending Irwin's bid for re-election. Halsey then failed to win a seat on the board in the November general election.
Barbara Halsey's lawsuit names as defendants the board as a whole, as well as those who were then members individually: Irwin, Curtis Weaver, Charles Joines, David Caldwell and Gary Murphy.
The suit seeks monetary damages, as well as reinstatement, promotion and compensatory and back pay for Halsey. Her attorney, John W. Gresham of Charlotte, has said he does not have a specific damage amount.
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