Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion

Hon. John Stapleton Opinion NO. 0-4181
County Attorney Re: Whether independent school
Floyd county district may pledge the antici-
Floydada, Texas pated state and county available
funds for the current year as
security for money borrowed to
pay salaries of teachers and su-
perintendentsfor the current
Dear Sir: year.
We.have received your letter of October 31, 1941,
in which~you ask the opinion of this department on the above
captioned question.
.
Article 2749, Revised Civil Statutes, reads in part
as follows:
”
provided, that the trustees in making
contra&G ;ith teachers, shall not creaie a defi-
~:ciencydebtagainst the district."
Article 2827, Revised Civil Statutes, provides,in
part as follows:
"The public free school funds shall not be
expended except for the following purposes:
"1. The State and county available funds .~
shall be used exclusivelyfor the paymentof
teachers' and superintendents*salaries, fees
for taking the scholasticcensus and interest
on money borrowed on short time iopay salaries
of teachers and superintendents, ~whenthese sala-
ries become due before the school funds for the
current year become available;provided that no
loans for the purpose of payment of teachers shall
be paid outof funds other than those of the then
current year.l
The Supreme Court of Texas in the case of-collier
v. Peacock, 5% S.W. 102.5,.hadthe following to says
Hon. John Stapleton,page 2
"But the trustees were not authorizedto
contract any &e'Dt dkiidn-wotiti
t-du3z3-ai
irt+EWwnq
in the school fund of the district. In other
words, they could not contract debts in the em-
ployment of teachers to an amount greater than
the school fund apportionedto that district for
that scholasticyear. This limitationupon the
power of the trustees in making the contractwith
the teachers necessarily limits the payment of
the debts that might be contractedto the amount.
of the fund which belonged to the district for
that year, and any debt contracted greater than
that would be a violation of the law and con-
stitute no claim against the districi .w See also
First Nat. Bank of Athens v. Mxchison Independ-
ent School District, 114 S.W. (2d) 382; Trustees
of Crosby Independent School District v. West
DisinfectingCo., 121 S.W. (2d) 661.
Although you do not so state, we assume that the
loan contemplatedis a short time loan and is@t~ for an
amount greater than that which the district reasnnably an-
ticipates for the current year.
In view of the foregoing authorities,you are re-
spectfullyadvised that the trustees of an independent school
district may borrow money for the payment of teachers' and
superintendents'salaries for the current year and pledge the
anticipatedstate and county available school funds as secur-
ity. However, any debt created in excess of the amount which
the district reasonably anticipatesthat it will obtain for
the current year would be invalid.
APPROVED DRC 3~ 1941 Very truly yours
/s/ Grover Sellers ATTORNEY GENERAL OFTEXAS
FIRST ASSISTANT ATTORNRY By /s/ George W. Sparks
GENERgL George W. Sparks, Assistant
APPROVRD:OPINION COMMITTEE
BY: BWR, CHAIRMAR
GWS:ap:wb