Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion ( 1951 )

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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
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