Those who signed their name to a petition to oust three Rock Hill school board members are expected to either show up in court Thursday or send a representative.

A status conference is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday afternoon in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court before Judge Richard Walton.

In a status conference last week, Walton told those who appeared in court that all of the people who signed the petition to remove Lavetta Sites, Wanda Jenkins and Paul R. Johnson from the school board are actually plaintiffs in a lawsuit, not just people who signed a petition. He added that those who signed the petition must either appear in court themselves or be represented by an attorney.

"The attorneys have letters of engagement from some of the petitioners, but you can't represent people without their consent," Walton said in court last week. " … You can't be a plaintiff and not show up."

Neither Sites nor Jenkins nor Johnson attended last week's session. Sites said she and the others were notified there was to be a hearing but the information they were given did not include a date and time to be in court. They also received their information by U.S. mail which constituted another problem.

"If it's not personal service, it's not good service," Walton said last week to attorneys for the Citizens Against Poor Spending, the group seeking to remove the three school board members.

Members of CAPS filed the lawsuit last month seeking to remove the school board members, claiming they are guilty of various misdeeds in office.