Rock Hill school district works with Catawba Indian Nation to settle decades-long debt
School officials are taking legal action aimed at settling a decades-long $4.5 million debt.
In October, the Rock Hill school board approved a recommendation for legal action against the Catawba Indian Nation to settle a debt the tribe owes the district from an agreement dating to the 1990s.
After failed attempts to have the tribe pay off the debt, the board is now going through the legal process to have tribal property sold at public auction to help settle the debt, said Mychal Frost, director of communications for Rock Hill schools.
Property the tribe owns but is not part of the reservation, as well as funds earned from the tribe’s commercial activities, such as bingo games, can be seized.
“We are not going after the reservation property; we can’t do that,” Frost said. “This is outside their land trust.”
At its Monday meeting, the board approved a recommendation to use the Rock Hill firm Morton and Gettys for additional representation.
“It’s recovering a legal debt they have owed the school district,” Frost said. “They don’t denounce that there is a debt they owe, they just don’t agree with the process by which we’ve asked for it over the last 20 years.”
Tribal property is not a source of tax income for school operations. The Catawba Indian Nation agreed in 1993 to pay out-of-district tuition fees for its schoolchildren. In 1999, the district was awarded a judgment of $405,605 plus interest to cover those fees, according to school board documents.
“We don’t get tax dollars from the students that live on the reservation,” Frost said. “We’ve honored our part by allowing the students to continue enrollment.”
The state Supreme Court denied a tribal appeal in 2006, after which the tribe sold its property on Cherry Road to pay what it owed, according to school district documents. The original lawsuit included fees due through the 1998-99 school year, but the tribe also failed to pay fees from subsequent school years.
A second lawsuit was filed in 2003 seeking those payments, resulting in the Supreme Court awarding $2.5 million to the district in May 2008, documents state. That amount, with interest, has now reached $4.5 million.
Last June, state lawmakers denied adding a $500,000 Senate proviso that would have helped the tribe make a dent in the 20-year-old tuition bill, with state Rep. Gary Simrill, R-Rock Hill, stating that it was Catawba’s responsibility to pay.
The school district and the tribe asked for the funding. Rock Hill school board members contacted local legislators to support the initiative.
The district has until May 2017 to take action as a result of the 2003 lawsuit, Frost said.
This story was originally published December 12, 2016 at 9:43 PM with the headline "Rock Hill school district works with Catawba Indian Nation to settle decades-long debt."