Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion

.~i%.pe 25,'$951. Hon. John B. Stapleton ~~ 'OpinionNo, V-1194 District Attorney 110th Judicial ,Dist,rict5 :,URes,Authority of the county Floydada, Texas boarclof school trustees to consolidate certain ,' elementary school dis- '. tricts withina rural, '..highschool district .<~with contiguouselemen- Dear:Sir:>. ~. .:,:tary districts. We refer to your opinion request conc'erningthe autborlty ~ofa county school board acting untler;Article .2922-18 or ?922f, V,C,S., to'.consolidate certain elemen- tary school districts within a rural highhschool,district -with..~contiguous~ elementary districts under these-submitted facts: :. :?Under'the provisions of Arts. 2922a and 2922c;V.C.S., on Aug~ust21, 1946,. the ~'* .~CountyBoard of School Trustees of'Floyd County established the Lbckney Rural High ;.SchoolDistriqt.No.A,,bygrouping the fol- -1owing'comiuon'school districts, viz~.: Lock- Y'ney,.No.A, Ramsey No'.2Ts Pleasant Valley ~'No.2, Irick No. 1, Prairie.Chapel,No.25, and~SterlegNo. 30, .Mo school of any sort, .:elementary or..otherwise,,has been operated in any of these elementary districts, ex- :~;cepttheLocUeyCommon School District Ro. .~ A, since~~thescholastic year 1946-19470.Dur- ing ally.of,$&isperiod all of.the students of all grades, both elementary and~high school, of all of the component elementary districts have.attended the.school operated in the said Lockney ConsnonSchool District No. A, which school has beenunder,the control a~ndmanage-. mentof the Board of Trustees of ;he Lockney Rural lIighSchool District Ro. A. More specifically;your questions are in sub- stance as follows: Hon. John B. Stapleton, page'2 (V-1194) Does the Gllmer-Alkin "dormant school" statute, Article 2922-18,V.C.S. (S.B. 115 Acts 51st Leg., R.S. 1949, ch. 334, p. 6251, authorize or empower the Floyd County School Board to consolidateelementary school dls- trlcts within a rural high school district wlth a contiguous elementarydistrict in the rural high school district under the submit- ted facts? Rnder Article 2922f, V.C.S., as amended, may the Floyd County School Board consolidate' the five elementary school districts (Ramsey No. 27, Pleasant Valley No. 2, Irick No: 1, Prairie Chapel No. 25, Sterley No. 30) with the remaining contiguouselementary school district (LockneyNo. A) in the Lockney Rural High School.District No. A, under the submlt- ted facts? You state that the Lockney Rural High School Dlstrict~was created by the grouping of six common school districts under the provislons of Articles 2922a and 2922c, V.C.S. Article 2922b provides that a rural high school district so formed shal.1be classifiedas a com- mon school district and, further, that the districts composing the rural high school Bistrlct ohaJ.1thereafter be referred to as elementary school districts* Thus the six named districts became component elementary districts comprising one rural high school district. Rural HZ&h School Dist. No. 5 of Handera County v. Indenendent S%hool bist., 207 S w 2 661 (Tex.Civ.App.1947 error ref n.r.e.); me ex rel':Loie v. Cadenhead, 129 S.WlZd 743 (Te;.Clv. -39, erxor ref.). Rural high school districts thus formed are con- trolled and managed by a single board of trustees. Art. *-2922eand Art. 2774a, Sec. 4, V.C.S. The several boards &f~trustees of the common school districts were replaced by the rural high school district board which governs the elementary and the high schools of the entire district. v. Mauldln, 32 S.W.2d 235 (Tex.Clv.App.1930); ard of S~ZioolTrustees v.~Wilson, 5 S.W.2d 805 pp. 1928). Rural high school distrlcta are au- thorlzed, upon elections for those purposes, to assume outstandingindebtednesses of the various component dls- trlcts and to levy uniform taxes throughout the rural high school district. Arts. 292211and 29221, V.C.S. .,,.,,..., <,._&,. “, . . Hon. John B. Stapleton, page 3 (V-3194,) ~~'~: One need only to~consfder:the provisions of Article 2g22-L81,V.G,S,,to dete~rmine.whether "dormant school district' as defined therein includes elementary school districts,Vh%ch~are,component.parts -of an active rural high school dfstrict. Th&t .arttfcledefines a dormant district as '. \?I D 0 * any school dfstrIct that falls, for any two (2) successive years subsequent to 1946-1947 school'year, to operate a school in the disLM.ct for the race havfng the greater number of eircaerated~ scholcstfcs in the .district,' The article provides that ihe~c~ountyboard of trustees shall consolidatepeach aormant~districtwfth an aajoin- ing district and ~thatthe board of~trusteesfor ,theais- trict with -crhich thedomnt district is consolidated shall be the board of trustees for the new district, It further malcesprovision for an electfon for the assump- tion:of outstandingbonds bythe ~consolidateddistrict Lanafor.the.Levylng.oftaxesti~.~ ~.~~ . ~2.C.onsider& Artfcie '2922%i8in its entirety we are of the opinion &at the term~!'school district" as'used therein~refers~to common or fnd~ependent school districts. Att'y Gen, .Op..,V-856(1949).~ It.was -notintendea~to em- brace ~individualelementary school ,afstr&ts which are partof an acteve rural high school~districtand which, therefore, are not under management separate from that of the rural~high school dfst.rict. Tineprovisions of Arti- cle ~292248relatfng to the transfer of management and to the~assumptfonof bonded~indebtednessesand the levying of taxes are inconsfstent with the"schemeof control provided In Articles 2922a--29221. for elementary districts'which are.partof an activerural high,school district. .~ : ( : ‘- The lastparagraph of Art,icle2922-M reads: ~, .~ ., ‘~ ~:., ,,. ;i: ."Theprovisions~herelnfor the consolida- tion of school aistricts~by order of the County ': ;I Board of Trusteesshall be applfcsble only Ln the instances aaa circvanatances'herein c~numerated, and shall not Abe construea~-to repeal,.supersede : ~orlimit any existin~gstatute providing other : methods for school distrFc$ corisoliaation and ~.;.. annexationa1' , The cons&&tion'& have placed cm'ArtIclo 2922-18 accords with the intendment expressed in t.hisparagraph, Ron. John B. Stapleton, page 4 (V-1194) Therefore, in answer to your first question, it is our opinion that Article,2gZ+18 has no application to elementary districts within an active rural high school district, even though no school has been operated in the elementarv district for tvo. succeesivs ysars. If no school had been operated in the entire rural high school. district for the period of time set out in Article 2922- 18, that statute tight have application. Kowever, it is not necessary to decide that point under the facts you have submlttsd, and we express no opinion on it. In connectionrrlththe second question stated herein, Article 2922f, V.C.S., as amended (H.B. 53, Acts 51st ~Lq., R.S. 1949, ch. 52, p. 86),,provides in part as follovs: “The county board of school trustees ~~shall-not have the authority to abolish or consolidateany elementary school tiistrict. already established except ~uponthe vote of ‘~8majority of the qualified electors resid- zingin such elementary district;~pro~idod, however, that when any elementary s$hooZ district fails to have an average daily at- tenclancethe preceding scholasticyear in the school or schools within said district of at least twenty pupils, it may be discon- tinued by the board of trustees of the rural ligh school.district and said district may be abolished by the county board of school trustees and.consolidatedby said county board with another contiguouselementary school district, a.ndsaid consolidation shall be for all purposes, and said con- s,olidateddistrict shall be consideredas one elementary school district, . . .e * .- The submittea facts state that no school of any sort has been operated in any of the elementary.&ktricts of the Lookney Rural High School Mstrict No. A, except the Lockney elementary district, since the scholastic year 1946-1947. ,Presumably,in accordance with Article 2922P, the schools which might have been operate& in the other five el.ementarydistricts In the 1946-1947 year were dls-~ continued by the board of trustees of the rural high SchoOl district. CLearly, there has been no school operated in these five districts during the last three scholastic years. Under the twenty-pupilproviso of Article 2922f, ai amenaea, the county board of trustees is authorized to . . . Hon. John B. Stapleton, page 5 (V-1194) abolish and consolidate an elementary district or districts where the board of trustees of the rural high school dis- trict has discontinued the operation of a school within the elementary district or districts which failed to have .~a-daily average attendance of atleast twenty pupils the preceding scholastic year. The county school board may consolidate such an elementary district or districts with another elementary distrrct within the rural high school district. Article 2922f, as amended, expressly so pro- vide.s. Under the facts s'cated,there were no schools operated during the scholastic years of 1947-194-8,194.8- 1949, and l$%g-1950 in five of the elementary districts. .~ Accordingly, we are in agreement with your opin- ion that under Article 2922f, as amended, the Floyd County Board of School.Trusteeshas the authority to abolish the following elementary school districts within the Lockney Rural High School District and to consolidate them with the'contiguousremaining elementary district for all pur- poses: Ramsey No. 27, PleasantValley No. 2, Irick No. 1, Prairie Chapel No. 25, Sterlny No. 30. Article 2922-18, V.C.S, has no applica- tion to elementary school~districts'within an active rural high school district, even though no school has been ooerated in the elementarv district for two successiveyears. Att'y~Gen. OP. V-856 (1949).~ W-i&e the board of trustees of a rural Ngh.sChool district has discontinued the operation of schools within a component ele- mentary school district upon failure to have an average daily attendance of at least twenty pupils the preceding scholastic,year, the coun- .I ty board of school trustees has the authority, without an election, to abolish the elementary *' school district and to consolidateit with another contiguous elementary dfstric'twithin the rural high school district. Art. 2922f, V.C.S. APPROVED:* Yours very truly, J. C~.Davis, Jr. PRICE DANIEL County Affairs Division Attorney General Jesse P. Luton, Jr. Reviewing Assistant Charles D; Mathews First Assistant CEO:mw