Board of Education of Prentiss County v. Wilburn

223 So. 2d 665, 1969 Miss. LEXIS 1289
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMay 19, 1969
DocketNo. 45381
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 223 So. 2d 665 (Board of Education of Prentiss County v. Wilburn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Board of Education of Prentiss County v. Wilburn, 223 So. 2d 665, 1969 Miss. LEXIS 1289 (Mich. 1969).

Opinion

JONES, Justice:

This case is from the Circuit Court of Prentiss County. An appeal had been taken to that court from an order of the County Board of Education which had been adopted March 14, 1968. By the order the systems of operation at two attendance centers of the countywide district, (excluding part of a municipal separate district), known as New Site and Marietta, were to be changed so that beginning with the 1968-1969 school session, grades 1 through 6 would be taught at Marietta, and grades 7 through 12 would be taught at New Site. This was different from the provisions of the original long-range plan for said countywide school district adopted in accordance with the school laws, New Site being then a school with grades 1 through 8, and Marietta, a school with grades 1 through 12.

By this order the organization and operations of said centers were changed, the change involving a transfer of teachers, and classes of pupils, en masse. The efficiency of the new operation was to be considered because there was involved, in addition to teachers and pupils, a question as to rearranging bus routes, drivers, etc.

Both Marietta and New Site had received money from the State Educational Finance Commission based upon the long-range plan.

In the instant case the circuit court approved said order; but held that it would be effective only when submitted to and approved by the State Educational Finance Commission.

On this appeal, the only question presented is, whether such an order should be submitted to such Commission. We do not deem it therefore necessary to discuss any other facts in order to decide this question.

At the time of the adoption of our present school laws, in 1953, our State Constitution provided that it was the duty of the Legislature to encourage the promotion [667]*667of intellectual, scientific, moral, and agricultural improvement, by establishing “a uniform system of free public schools by taxation or otherwise” for all children between 6 and 21 years of age. While this provision was later amended so as to make the maintenance of free public schools discretionary with the Legislature (1960), the school laws here involved were adopted prior to such amendment. We deem it necessary to consider the laws here involved in the light of section 201 of the Constitution as it existed when these acts were adopted.

The section numbers hereinafter mentioned are the sections of our annotated code of 1942, shown by the 1966 cumulative supplement thereto. Practically all, if not all, of the laws mentioned herein were adopted in the year 1953 at an extraordinary session of the Legislature.

Section 6216-01 provided that there “shall” be maintained a uniform system of free public schools with grades 1 through 12.

With section 6246-01 begins the provisions of our statutes relative to the State Educational Finance Commission. That section declares the policy of the state, and, recognizes that in order to discharge the constitutional mandate heretofore mentioned, it was the duty of the Legislature to establish such a uniform system. The burden of providing such equality could no longer be borne by the local taxing units alone and for this reason, a program of state aid should be instituted. It was declared that the maintenance of such a system was the joint responsibility of the State and local taxing units.

The next section created the State Educational Finance Commission.

Section 6246-08 provides that the Commission shall distribute, subject to the provisions of law, all funds available for construction, improving, etc., school buildings or other facilities; that no funds would be distributed to any district until it had conclusively shown that it had complied with all the requirements of the laws for the operation of schools, and until the district shall have complied with all the applicable regulations of the Commission.

Section 6246-09 authorizes the Commission to promulgate such rules and regulations as shall be necessary and proper.

Section 6246-11 directs the Commission to formulate policies and approve or disapprove plans for the location and construction of all necessary school buildings, and the Commission, subject to any applicable statute, was given supervision over, and the power to approve, or disapprove, all surveys of educational needs made by any board, and to assist in making such surveys and to make its own supplemental surveys of such needs.

Article 3B of the school laws begins with section 6247-01 and provides for state aid for construction of school facilities and the administration of the act by the Commission.

Section 6247-03 provides that the State should make an annual contribution or grant of $12 for each child in average daily attendance in the public schools of this State during each school year, and that such funds be applied to establish and maintain adequate physical facilities for the public school system or for the payment of existing debts. The third paragraph of that section provides that the grant to which a school is entitled shall be credited to the school district of which such school is a part, and if any change is made in any operation or boundary of any such school district, equitable reallocations shall be made by the Commission of all balances to the credit of the school district, and all debits charged against the districts affected by the change in boundaries or system of operation. The grants are required to be computed annually as soon as practicable after the end of the school year, and are based on the average daily attendance for such school year in all of the public schools operated by each district.

[668]*668Section 6247-04, in the fourth paragraph, provides that when the annual grants have been computed, the Commission shall credit each school district with the amount of the annual grant, and shall issue to each district a certificate of credit for the amount thereof. Such certificates are non-transferable, non-negotiable, and without interest. They are to be held by the district until the expenditures of the funds of such district are approved by the Commission.

Section 6247-05 reads, in part, as follows:

No grants accruing to any school district shall be expended for any purpose unless such expenditure has been approved by the commission. In order to guide the commission in passing upon requests for the use of grants, the county boards of education of the respective counties and boards of trustees of municipal separate school districts are directed to prepare a survey of necessary capital improvements and/or a plan for tax relief on school indebtedness within each school district. Such surveys shall show existing facilities, desirable consolidations, the new construction and new facilities necessary and desirable for the efficient operation of the public schools of the school districts and the plan of tax reduction in the school districts by use of such funds in retiring any outstanding indebtedness for school facilities. The commission shall not approve any application for the use of funds of the said public school building fund from the board of trustees or other governing body of any school district until such time as an acceptable and reasonably satisfactory plan, looking particularly to efficiency through consolidations of school attendance centers, has been submitted

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Bluebook (online)
223 So. 2d 665, 1969 Miss. LEXIS 1289, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/board-of-education-of-prentiss-county-v-wilburn-miss-1969.