BROOKSVILLE — The special Hernando County School Board meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 9, was canceled suddenly.

At district headquarters, the explanation given was “health reasons.”

According to a recent report in the Tampa Bay Times, Circuit Judge Lawrence Semento stopped the board’s lawsuit to force the County Commission to place the sales tax referendum renewal back on the Nov. 8 ballot.

County commissioners have said the renewal properly belongs on the 2024 ballot, which will place it closer to the 2025 expiration date. School Board members have said that because of the need to plan for new schools and the financing of those schools, the district needs to know it will have the sales tax revenue so it can bond the money to build new schools.

Semento also ruled that the Hernando County School Board violated the Sunshine Law when members in a “shade meeting” discussed issues that weren’t part of “settlement negotiations or litigation expenses.”

The lawsuit was stopped, though, by statute.