ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- The Department of Education wants to know if the Orange County School District violated laws by deciding to keep Evans High School in Pine Hills instead of moving it to Ocoee.

The school board chairman says the district was in a tight spot.

Joie Cadle says the district was already faced with a lawsuit from the residents in Ocoee who fought hard to keep Evans High School out of their city.

Cadle says they made the decision to keep Evans in Pine Hills because the lawsuit could've delayed the process.

However, the federal investigation may delay it anyway.

"I don't think so because we had to make a decision. There was a 50/50 chance that we could win that lawsuit. But it would take two to three years," said Cadle.

Former school board member Anne Geiger filed the complaint with the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights.

It suggests keeping the school in Pine Hills promotes segregation. The school district says it will demolish Evans and start construction on the new building in Pine Hills in August as planned.

Eyewitness News asked if moving Evans to Ocoee or re-zoning it would've guaranteed a more diverse student population.

"If every child that was zoned for Evans went to Evans they would have a population of over 4,000 students," said Cadle.

However, since Evans used to be an "F" school, students zoned there can request transfers. If the federal government determines the district has violated federal civil rights laws, they will try to reach an agreement first. If that doesn't work, the federal government could take away federal funding.

However, the outcome of the federal investigation could halt construction. The school district has until July 1 to hand over pages of documents that were requested by the Department Of Education.