Bevil Oaks residents' request to join Hardin-Jefferson ISD will continue after a judge denied Beaumont ISD's latest efforts to dismiss the matter in a hearing this week. The ruling by an administrative judge, which addressed the district's claim that it was legally prohibited from releasing the town's residents, clears the way for a hearing on the academic, economic and social effects of the proposed annexation. Residents of the small town signed a petition in the spring asking to leave BISD and join the smaller H-J school district, which they say is closer and has better academic results and school environments.