A lawsuit filed by the Montgomery Area School District against the Clinton Township Board of Supervisors will move forward after Lycoming County Judge Eric Linhardt dismissed a motion to dismiss filed by the supervisors late Friday.

The suit filed by the district seeks the reversal of a decision by the supervisors denying a land use plan for the construction of a new junior-senior high school at the site of the Montgomery Area Athletic & Community Center (MAACC), 537 Old Road, as well as damages in the amount of $137,000 for each month the plan has been delayed, and attorney’s fees, due to the township’s “delay tactics and its improper denial of the plans,” court filings said.

The crux of the dismissal motion was that the Montgomery Area School Board committed a violation of the state’s Sunshine Act by not holding a public meeting prior to filing the lawsuit, attorney Zachary DuGan argued on behalf of the township on Jan. 6.

The law requires agencies to deliberate and take official action in an open and public meeting, which the community must have advance notice of, as well as an opportunity to attend, participate and comment prior to official action being taken.

However, attorney Noah F. Roux, representing the district, successfully argued that the act allows for such violations to be remedied by the holding of a public meeting at which the action is approved retroactively.

The board subsequently held a widely attended special meeting on Jan. 6, at which it ratified the filing of the lawsuit by a vote of 5-2.

“Because ‘official action taken at a later, open meeting cures a prior violation of the Sunshine Act’ and because Appellant’s Board later ratified commencement of this case, any violation of the Sunshine Act that did occur has been cured,” Linhardt said in his opinion.

“Because the alleged violation has been cured, the court finds it unnecessary to consider whether a violation occurred in the first instance,” the ruling continued, calling the motion to dismiss, “Moot.”

Bidding for the project opened Jan. 8, and the lawsuit is scheduled to be heard on Wednesday, Jan. 22.