Mississippi Advisory Opinions July 13, 1982: 19820713 (July 13, 1982)

Advisory Opinion Text

Mr. Thad E. Easterwood

Superintendent

Oktibbeha County Department of Education

Starkville, Mississippi 39759

Re: Schools—Effect of Creation of Line Consolidated School District on Elections

Dear Mr. Easterwood:

Attorney General Allain has received your letter of request dated June 22, 1982, and has assigned it to me for research and reply. Your inquiry states as follows:

Before I ask the question for you to give me an opinion on, I first must give the situation.

Situation: If there is a school district established with the school area coming from three counties and is called a consolidated school district.

Now please give me an opinion on the following questions (some are overlapping):

1. How would this affect the present elected superintendent of each county and would the voters in the consolidated school district still vote for the present superintendent?

2. How would this affect present county board members of the counties?

3. How and where would the board members of the new consolidated school district first come from and how would they become new board members? How would they be elected after taking their initial offices?

4. How would this new consolidated school district affect individual voters in the original county unit systems and the new consolidated school system as they vote on county board members and bond issues?

As a preface to our response, Miss. Code Ann. § 37-7-1 (1972) defines consolidated school districts as “school districts other than municipal separate school districts and county-wide school districts, which are constituted and established under the provisions of this article, including those school districts embracing territory in two or more counties.” Section 37-7-801 provides that school districts having territory lying in two or more adjoining counties may be embraced and included within one school district known as line school districts. Therefore, consolidated school districts embracing territory in two or more counties are generally referred to as “line consolidated” school districts. From your description of the situation we make the presumption that the district to be formed will be a line consolidated school district.

Your first inquiry is two-fold and is what effect would the creation of a consolidated school district have on (1) the presently elected county superintendent of education in each county, and (2) voting for the county superintendent of education in each county by the voters in the new line consolidated school district. After reviewing the statutes, we are unaware of any effect the creation of the proposed line consolidated school district would have upon the presently elected county superintendents of education. As to the future elections for county superintendents of education in those counties, we are also unaware of any statutory prohibitions which would disqualify electors residing in a line consolidated district from participating in an election for county superintendent of education in their resident county.

Your second inquiry is what effect would the creation of a line consolidated school district have on the present county board of education members of the different counties. We are unaware of any effect upon the present county board of education members.

Your third inquiry concerns the initial and subsequent selection of board of trustee members for the proposed line consolidated district. Section 37-7-207 (2) (Supp. 1981) provides in part as follows:

All school districts reconstituted and created under the provisions of article 1 of this chapter, which embrace territory in two (2) or more counties, but not including municipal separate school districts, shall be governed by a board of five (5) trustees. The territory of each county included in such a school district shall be entitled to representation on the board of trustees in the proportion in which the number of educable children residing in that part of each county included with the school district bears to the total number of educable children within such school district, with a major fraction to be counted as a whole; however, the territory in each county included in such school district shall always be entitled to at least one (1) trustee on the board. In making the original appointments, the several county boards of education shall appoint the trustee or trustees to which the territory in such county is entitled, and, by agreement between the county boards concerned, one (1) person shall be appointed to serve until the first Saturday of March following, one (1) for one (1) year longer, one (1) for (2) years longer, one (1) for three (3) years longer and one (1) for four (4) years longer. Thereafter, such trustees shall be elected as is provided for in sections 37-7-223 to 37-7-229 for a term of five (5) years. In all elections, the trustee elected shall be a resident and qualified elector of the territory in that county entitled to the representation upon the board, and he shall be elected only by the qualified electors of such territory.

Under this section the several county boards of education make the original appointment by appointing the number of trustees to which the territory in the county is entitled under this code section. Subsequent trustees are to be elected as provided in §§ 37-7-223 through -229. Copies of these code sections, as well as H. B. 69 of the 1982 Legislature which amended § 37-7-225, are being enclosed for your benefit.

Your fourth inquiry is what effect does the creation of a new line consolidated school district have upon voting for county board members and bond issues by electors in the original county unit systems. Section 37-5-3 (1972) provides as follows:

No person who is a resident of the territory embraced within a municipal separate school district or a special municipal separate school district shall be eligible to be a member of the county board of education. Qualified electors residing within a municipal separate school district or special municipal separate school district shall not be eligible to vote or participate in the election of members of the county board of education.

The provisions of this section shall be applicable in the case of a special municipal separate school district and a line consolidated school district of which another county is the home county which together occupy all of the territory of a supervisors district of the county. (Emphasis supplied.)

Section 37-7-803 defines a “home county” as follows:

In the case of line school districts, the county in which the school building is located shall be known as the “home county” and the other counties having territory embraced within said district shall be known as “cooperating counties.” Where any such school districts shall have school buildings located in different counties then the county in which the high school building is located shall be known as the “home county.” In any line school district having high school attendance centers in different counties, then the county in which is located the high school attendance center with the largest average daily attendance shall be known as the “home county.”

Under § 37-5-3 if in any county affected by the creation of the line consolidated school district, there should exist a special municipal separate school district as well as the newly created line consolidated school district of which another county is the “home county” as defined in § 37-7-803 and which together occupy all the territory of a supervisor's district of the county, then the electors which reside in such supervisor's district would be ineligible to vote in or participate in the election of the members of the county board of education. This is the only statutory prohibition regarding voting by residents of which we are aware.

As to bond issues, § 37-59-3 authorizes the board of supervisors of any county acting for and on behalf of any school district except municipal separate school districts to issue bonds. Under § 37-59-11 the board of supervisors calls an election to be held “within such school district.” Therefore, the residents in a line consolidated district vote on bond issues affecting the line consolidated district and not on bond issues affecting the county-wide district.

We call to your attention and enclose copies of §§ 37-59-21 and -22 which concern issuing bonds for school purposes whenever a school district lies in two or more counties. The former section addresses issuing bonds upon petition of the electors without the necessity of an election and the latter concerns issuing bonds pursuant to an election.

If this office can be of benefit in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us

Sincerely,

Bill Allain Attorney General.