Mississippi Advisory Opinions February 16, 2018: AGO 2018-00005 (February 16, 2018)

Advisory Opinion Text

AUTH: Beebe Garrard

RQNM: James A. Keith

SUBJ: Schools - County Boards

SBCD: 179

TEXT: James A. Keith

Lincoln County School District, Board Attorney

1018 Highland Colony Parkway, Suite 800

Ridgeland, MS 39157

Re: Lincoln County School District Board Elections

Dear Mr. Keith:

Attorney General Jim Hood has received your opinion request and has assigned it to me for research and reply.

Background and Issues Presented

According to your request, at some point in the past the election terms of certain members of the Lincoln County School Board became out of sequence. In prior phone conversations, you stated that you first believed that to get the election terms in sequence, the board member terms should be staggered to correspond with an initial May 1954 election under Section 37-5-7(1). However, after further research, you determined that in 1990, the Lincoln County School Board adopted single member board of education districts as required by Sections 37-5-7(2) and 37-5-1.

You ask our office to approve a specific proposal for getting the terms back in sequence, which you state was developed with the Lincoln County Circuit Clerk’s office and reviewing the history of board elections since the school district was reorganized into single member districts in 1990. The opinions of this office are limited to prospective legal questions. Our office cannot make the factual determination of whether a specific proposed plan is the best way to get the terms back in sequence as quickly as possible. Therefore, we must decline to approve any specific proposed plan. However, we offer the following regarding the law applicable to county school board elections. This opinion should not be construed as a determination of a potential violation of law with regard to the past action of any former or current school board members or election officials.

Applicable Law and Response

From 1988 until the passage of Senate Bill 2864 in 2002, county boards of education had the option to apportion their school district into five single member board of education districts. Senate Bill 2864 amended Section 37-5-1(2) to require the apportioning of county school districts into single member districts. According to Section 37-5-7(2), once the county elected to go to single member district lines, the terms for the school board members were reset for staggered terms as follows:

On the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, in any year in which any county shall elect to utilize the authority contained in Section 37-5-1(2), an election shall be held in each such county in this state for the purpose of electing the county boards of education in such counties. At said election the members of the said county board of education from Districts One and Two shall be elected for a term of four (4) years, the members from Districts Three and Four shall be elected for a term of six (6) years, and the member from District Five shall be elected for a term of two (2) years. Thereafter, members shall be elected at general elections as vacancies occur for terms of six (6) years each. All members of the county board of education shall take office on the first Monday of January following the date of their election.

Thus, there is no statewide uniform calendar for when elections for county school board members should occur. The dates of the terms for county school board members would depend upon when the county school district adopted single member district lines in accordance with Section 37-5-7(2).

Based on the documented facts you provided, single member board of education districts were created in 1990 by order of the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors, and an election was held on November 6, 1990, for the purpose of electing members of the County Board of Education for Lincoln County on staggered terms. This established the sequence of future elections for each of the five (5) districts.

Therefore, the election of members from Districts 1 and 2 should have been held in November 1990, November 1994, November 2000, November 2006, and November 2012 with the next election in November 2018. The election of members from Districts 3 and 4 should have been held in November 1990, November 1996, November 2002, November 2008 and November 2014, with the next election in November 2020. The election for District 5 should have been held in November 1990, November 1992, November 1998, November 2004, November 2010, and November 2016, with the next election in November 2022.

You may wish to seek a court order or court approval of any plan designed to reestablish compliance with the above election schedule.

If we may be of further service, please let us know.

Very truly yours,

JIM HOOD, ATTORNEY GENERAL

Beebe Garrard, Special Assistant Attorney General