E ATTOKNEY GENERAL
OF TEXAS
AUWTlN 11. TWAS
PRICE DANIEL
ATTORNEYGENERAL
September 14, 1948
Hon. Norton Fox Opinion No. V-681,
County Attorney
Limestone County Re: Right of inspection
Groesbeck, Texas of public records of
school districts.
Dear Sir:
Your request for opinion rse.ds in part as fol-
lows:
“Does a person, who is s citizen, pa-
rent s.nd tax payer in the Groesbeck Indepen-
dent School District, ‘i’exa.s, ha.ve the right
to Inspect the financial records Including
ledgers, accounts, vouchers, records of dis-
bursements, etci, kept by the school trustees
of said school.
School districts are quasi public corporations
which derive their powers by delegation from the State.
37 Tex. Jur. p. 864. Independent school districts, like
the Groesbeck dlstrlct, are so denominated because they
are managed and controlled by s board of trustees inde-
pendent of the county government. They are local public
corporations created for school purposes alone. 3’7 Tex.
Jur. 873. A school dlstrlat’s board of trustees Is a
creature of statute and has only such powers as are con-
ferred upon it and such implied powers as are necessary
to execute such express powers. Royce Independent School
District v. Relnhardt, 159 S.W. 1010. Thus, A school
trustee is a public officer and every essential element
of an office Is embraced In the powers conferred on him.
Klmbrough v. Barnett, 93 Tex. 301, 55 S.W. 120; 37 TOX.
Jur. 935.
Article 2779, V. C. S., provides that a major-
ity of the independent school district board shall con-
stitute a quorum to do business, and they shall choose
* secreterg, n treasurer, assessor end collector of taxeg
end other necessary officers and committees. It follows
that minutes of the orders, resolutions, rules, and oth-
er official actions of the board need be recorded and
Hon. Norton FOX, page 2 (V-681 1
kept by the board, by its designated secretary or other
officers to reflect that the public school district’s
business was executed by the board, a quorum being pre-
sent. These records of the official actions of the
board constitute public records concerning the lndepen-
dent school district, its officers and its official busi-
ness.
Sections 17 a.nd 18 of Artic1.e 68gs, require the
preparntion of ? school. budget by boards of trustees of
independent and common school districts covering all pro-
posed expenditures of the current fiscal year, end when
adopted by the boa.rd, further require that R copy there-
of shall be filed in the office of the County Clerk of
the county or counties in which such district is situat-
ed.
Article 2833, V. C. S,, provides that each
treasurer receiving or hs,ving control of a.ny school fund
of an independent School d$st ‘ict shall keep a full and
separote ,itemlzed account wit i ench of the different,
classes of school fundscoming into his hsnds, a.nd shs,ll
on OP before the first da,y of October of esch yea.r file
with the board of trustees of each independent school
district and with the State Superintendent an itemized
report of the receipts and disbursements of the school
funds for the preceding school year ending August 31,
which report shsll. be on a form prescribed and furnish-
edy by the Depsrtment of EdUCatiQn. The board of trustees
must notify the State Superintendent of their approval
of said report within thirty da.ys efter receipt of same,
should same be approved. It further requires that all
vouchers showing items of the report shall be filed with
the board of trustees, and the State Superintendent may
demand same vhen passing on said report or for the pur-
pose of investigating same.
Clea,rly the budget prepared by the board under
Article 6899, and the reports and vouchers required to be
filed under Article 2833, also constitute public flnan-
clal records of bos.rds of trustees of a school district.
Section 1 of Article 2833a, V, C. S., provides
that all financial reports made by or for school dls-
trlcts, either independent or common, or by their offl-
cers, agents or employees to the State Superintendent or
to the Department of Education shall be made on forms
prescribed or approved by the State Auditor.
Hon. Norton FOX, page 3 (v-681)
In Articles 1653 and 1652, V. C. S., the COU-
ty auditor is authorized to have continual acaess to, and
it Is made his duty to inquire Into the correctness of all
the financial ledgers of all the common school districts
of the county and all the vouchers given by the trustees
thereof. Attorney General’s Opinions Nos. O-2734, O-3660
Article 2684, V. C. S., requires the secretary
of the board of county school trustees to keep a true
and correct record of all the proceedings of seid coun-
ty school trustees In a well-bfund book, “which shall be
kept open to public inspection .
Under Article 2912 teachers in Texas free pub-
lic schools shnll ,keep daily records, in which the a.t-
tendance, name, ages and studies of all pupils shall be
rocordod, and such other matters as may be prescribed by
the State Superintendent. “Said registers shall be open
to public inspection of all parents, schogl officers, and
all other persons who may be interested.
Although inspection of certain records, fina,n-
cial ledgers, registers, vouchers, and other reports of
school districts have been provided for in the statutes
above enumerated, there is no statute giving citizens,
parents, or tsxpayers the genera,1 right of inspection of
all books, records and papers of a school district, in-
dependent or common.
We quote from 36 Tex. Jur. Sec. 103, at page
593:
“In General, - Since there is no stat-
ute or constitutional provision giving citi-
zens or tnxpayerr the ycnrrql. right to in-
spect all. book:, rscord:] Ilnd paper:: of county
officers, the cxiztence of the right must be
determined by the common law. Nor is this
comcnon l..?w ri.glit restricted by a statute glv-
lng to the public an absolute right tonInspect
certain of such books and records. . .
The rule of law and principles propounded in
Palacios v. Corbett, 172 S.W. 7;‘7 (writ refused), with
reference to the right of inspection of records of coun-
ty officers by citizens and taxpayers of the county, are
equally applicable to the right of parents, taxpayers,
and citizens of a school district to inspect the records
Hon. Norton Fox, pege 4 (v-681)
kept by his school district board. In that case the San
Ant0ni.o Court of CXvil. Anpes1.s concl.ucieil. that the opinion
of the :-u:,:~rc,c Curt of ‘J.‘cnne:::::cc 2.n Zt?tc, ex rel Wel-
ford v. Wil.l,i~>~.::z, ‘ifj 3.W. glii3, constituted the best state-
ment of the rule of 1.8,~ which should be eppl.ied to this
character of c” se. It quotes from said case as follows:
‘.In theory the right of examination
is absolute, but In practice it is nt lest
only a matter of discretion, because such
application is l.ikely at any time to be re-
fused on the part of the custodian of the
books and papers sought to be exa.mined, and
then the right !nust be forced by mande.mus,
and this wri.t is not of absolute right, but
l?ierely of discretion, to be awarded only in
R proper cnse; the facts cleimed as authoriz-
ing its issunnce to be judged of In every
c4se by the court, and the writ to be sward-
ed or withheld upon a consideration of all
the circumstances presented. So, while the
right is, in theory, absolute, yet it Is in
practice so limited by the remedy necessa,ry
for its enforcement 9s that it can be denom-
insted only A ‘qualified right I. The right
to an examination for Q special. purpose, a,s,
for example, to obtain specific informa.tion
to use In a litigation between the applicant
snd third parties, or between the applicant
snd the corporation, and the like cases,
while not, in principle, standing upon high-
er grounds, yet is the more easily grsnta-
ble, because it does not involve so much
time, and so much inconvenience to the cus-
todian of the books and papers, and so much
interruption of business, as in case of a
general examination. Yet it cannot be
doubted, under a sts.te of facts showing
it to be important to the public inter-
est that the general examination of the
books of a municipality should be had, that
the court should allow such examination
at the suit of one who is a citizen and tax-
payer of the corporation. The right rests,
not only on the ground that the books are
public books, but also on the same principle
that authorizes a taxpayer to enjoin the en-
forcement of illegal contracts entered into
by the municipality, county, or state, for
Hon. Norton i”ox, pq[;c 5 (v-m. 3
the protection of the applicant and all other
taxpayers from illegal burdens. And it is
obvious thet, in meking nnd enforcing such
application, the taxpayer acts, in a very
real sense, not only for himself, but for all
other taxpayers, and ects, therefore, in the
cspacity, 8.5 it were, of e trustee for all.
It must be qdmltted,. also, thrrt the exercise
of such power, if prud.ently snd cn,refully
gusrded, cnnnot be otherwise than ss.lutsry,
beceuse the knowledge tha.t it can be exer-
cised by e citizen and taxpayer, a.nd mey be
exercised when the public good shs1.1. seem,
on sound reasons, to demsnd it, cannot re-
sult otherwise than in producing e.n added
sense of responsibility In those who admin-
ister the affsirs of municipnl corporations,
and in inducing a greater carefulness in the
discharge of the trusts imposed upon them
by their fell.ow citizens under the sanc-
tions of 1a.w.”
In the absence of statutes giving the right to
perents, citizens, and taxpayers to inspect the records
kept by school district trustees and its officers, end
in the light of the rules of low epplied In the Corbett
case to en analagous character of cases, it is our opin-
ion that a parent, citizen and taxpayer of a school dls-
trlct has the right to inspect the records, financial or
otherwise, kept by the school trustees, public officials
of his school district. The Palaclos-Corbett case held
that a citizen and taxpayer of a county who had good
cause to believe there has been misapplication of county
funds, and Is Interested in the inspe~ction because it may
result In e decrease of his assessment, is entitled to a
writ of mandamus to compel county officers to allow in-
spection of their books to discover the misapplicetion.
SUMMARY
Certain school records a.re made avail-
able for public inspection by statute, and,
if there Is no such statute, the public gen-
eral~ly hos the common law right to inspect
such public records. The courts, however,
exercise discretion in the granting of a
Hon. Norton Fox, page 6 (V-681 )
mandamus to compel such inspection. The
right of inapeotlon is therefore a “qua.ll-
fled right. Palacios v. Corbett, 172 S.W.
777, writ refused.
Yours very truly,
ATTORNEYQERERALOF TEXAS
CEO : mv Chester E. Ollison
Assiatnnt
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