July 15, 2015 School board, Uncategorized.
The Palm Beach County public school system will receive $1.6 million from BP after suing the oil and gas company over its role in the April 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The settlement agreement is for $2 million, but the law firm representing the county school board, West Palm Beach firm Morgan and Morgan, will keep $400,000 as its fee, Superintendent Robert Avossa announced Wednesday.
School board members voted Wednesday to approve the settlement.
The school board was one of several around the state that joined a federal lawsuit against BP in April 2011, claiming that they had lost education money through a decline in sales tax revenue stemming from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The state of Florida received $3.25 billion as part of the same settlement.
Lee County’s school board this week approved a $2.5 million settlement with BP, while Polk County’s school board agreed to $1.5 million.
Miami-Dade’s school board also approved a $2.5 million settlement Wednesday.
Deputy school board attorney Blair Littlejohn said that independent arbitrators decided how settlement money would be divided among different government agencies. There is no conditions on how the money is spent.
“It can be used for whatever the school board ultimately decides to do with it,” Littlejohn said.