A 4-3 decision by the Beaufort County Zoning Board of Appeals in October denied the special permit needed to put the $28 million school in the Dale Community Preservation District north of the Whale Branch.
The district is out of options, school board Chairman Earl Campbell said Wednesday night.
"The court system is it," he said.
The appeal, filed late Wednesday afternoon, points out factual errors in the lengthy zoning board decision, said William Halligan, a school board attorney.
The most important error, he said, is that the zoning board placed the school site west of Morgan Road, directly beside Nufarm Specialty Products, a chemical production facility. The school's proximity to Nufarm had been cited in the zoning board decision as a primary reason for refusing the school's site request.
"I do not know how you mistake where the site was," Halligan said. "It's in all of the school plans."
Also in its written order, the zoning board cited the size of the school as reasoning for dismissal, claiming it was much larger than other buildings in the Dale community.
Halligan did not disagree with the assertion, but noted it was no reason to refuse the school permit.
"A high school is always very large in comparison to its surrounding structures," he said.
Thomas Gasparini, the zoning board's chairman, did not return calls for comment late Wednesday.
The school district did have the option of going back before of the zoning board after the written order was signed Dec. 15, but declined.
Halligan said misinterpretations of the law in the written order would have made it difficult to receive a different outcome from the zoning board.
"We thought it best to go straight to court," he said. "We need to get on to a decision."