City of Beloit ex rel. Beloit City School Board v. State Appeal Board

309 N.W.2d 392, 103 Wis. 2d 661, 1981 Wisc. App. LEXIS 3337
CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedJuly 28, 1981
DocketNo. 80-720
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 309 N.W.2d 392 (City of Beloit ex rel. Beloit City School Board v. State Appeal Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Beloit ex rel. Beloit City School Board v. State Appeal Board, 309 N.W.2d 392, 103 Wis. 2d 661, 1981 Wisc. App. LEXIS 3337 (Wis. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

GARTZKE, P.J.

The City of Beloit appeals from the circuit court’s judgment affirming the State Appeal Board’s order. That order affirmed an agency school committee order which detached a single parcel from the City of Beloit School District (Beloit district) and attached it to the adjoining Clinton Community School District (Clinton district). We reject the city’s contentions that the board lacked jurisdiction to enter the order and that its decision was arbitrary and capricious. We therefore affirm.

October 16, 1978, pursuant to sec. 117.08, Stats. 1977,1 Gary and Judy Jensen petitioned the Beloit district and the Clinton district, to detach the parcel on which they resided from the Beloit district and to attach it to the Clinton district. The parcel is located [663]*663within the city. A corner of the parcel is on the boundary between the Beloit and Clinton districts.

December 19, more than sixty days after the petition was filed, the Beloit district board of education denied the petition. January 8, 1979, the Jensens filed a similar petition with the Cooperative Educational Services Agency Number 17 (CESA), pursuant to sec. 117.02(1), Stats.2 After a hearing and conference with the two districts, CESA’s agency school committee ordered Jen-sens’ parcel detached from the Beloit district and attached to the Clinton district.

Beloit appealed to the board, pursuant to sec. 117.03 (l)(a), Stats. After a hearing, the board entered an order affirming the CESA order. The city appealed from the board’s order to the circuit court, pursuant to sec. 117.03(4). The circuit court held that the board had jurisdiction to make the order appealed from and did not act in an arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable manner, and entered judgment affirming the board’s order.

1. Scope Of Appellate Review

The issues on appeal to the courts from school reorganization orders are limited to whether the board acted within its jurisdiction and whether its order was arbitrary and capricious. Joint Sch. Dist. No. 2 v. State Ap [664]*664peal Board, 83 Wis. 2d 711, 720, 266 N.W.2d 374, 378 (1978); Larson v. State Appeal Board, 56 Wis. 2d 823, 825, 202 N.W.2d 920, 921 (1973), and cases cited.

The scope of this court’s review is the same as that of the circuit court. Compare State ex rel. Harris v. Annuity & Pension Board, 87 Wis. 2d 646, 651, 275 N.W.2d 668, 671 (1979) (appellate review of judgment on cer-tiorari requires reviewing the record of the administrative agency rather than the judgment or findings of the trial court).

2. Board Had Jurisdiction

The parties agree that the board has no jurisdiction to hear an appeal from a CESA order which is void for want of jurisdiction. The city argues that CESA lacked jurisdiction to entertain Jensens’ petition, because their petition under sec. 117.08, Stats. 1977, was pending when they petitioned CESA under sec. 117.02(1), Stats. Section 117.01 (1) (d) provides in material part:

While a reorganization proceeding is pending and until an order granting or denying school district reorganization made therein takes effect, any other reorganization proceeding commenced or order made, pertaining to any territory included in the reorganization proceeding or order, is void. A reorganization proceeding is pending:
2. Until the expiration of 30 days following the date of mailing by the secretary of the agency school committee of an order denying the reorganization proposed by a petition or by a resolution.3

The circuit court concluded, and we agree, that the sec. 117.08, Stats. 1977, proceeding was not pending [665]*665December 19, 1978, when the Beloit district denied the Jensens’ petition, because the Beloit district lost jurisdiction to act by failing to act within the sixty days provided by the last sentence of sec. 117.08, Stats. 1977. See n. 1.

Section 117.01(1) (e), Stats., provides in material part:

Jurisdiction of a reorganization authority to act in a school district reorganization proceeding continues until the reorganization authority disposes of the matter before it, unless lost by:
2. Failure of the reorganization authority to take final action upon a proposed reorganization within the time prescribed therefor in this chapter.

By failing to take final action on Jensens’ petition within sixty days from October 16, 1978, the Beloit district lost jurisdiction to act. The Beloit district’s denial of the petition December 19 was of no effect, because that district had no jurisdiction to act on that date. The Beloit district’s failure to act within sixty days does not constitute an “order” denying the proposed reorganization under sec. 117.01(1) (d)2, and does not invoke the thirty-day waiting period required by that section for commencement of another reorganization proceeding. We consequently conclude that CESA did not lack jurisdiction to entertain Jensens’ petition by reason of sec. 117.01(1) (d)2.

The city argues that CESA lacked jurisdiction to act under sec. 117.02(1), Stats., because sec. 117.08, Stats. 1977, is the only method by which a parcel adjoining the boundaries of two districts may be detached from one and attached to the other. Section 117.08, Stats. 1977, applies to petitions by owners of individual parcels. Section 117.02(1) applies to petitions by electors re[666]*666siding in the territory proposed to be detached. The Jensens are owners of and electors residing in the territory under consideration. They meet the statutory requirements of both sections.

The city argues that sec. 117.02, Stats., is not intended to apply to individual residential parcels. Section 117.02 petitions must be signed by ten percent of the electors residing in the territory to be detached, and a referendum by the electors may be held under sec. 117.02(4), Stats. 1977. Neither provision persuades us, however, that the legislature intended to prohibit resident electors who are owners from proceeding under sec. 117.02, where that section’s requirements are met. Indeed, the provisions of sec. 117.01(1) giving pending proceedings the right-of-way, evince legislative intent that more than one reorganization authority may consider the same parcel of real estate.

We reject the city’s contention that CESA and the board lack authority to detach solely for school purposes property which is located within a joint city school district. “School district” is a generic term which includes joint city school districts. Sec. 115.01(3), Stats. Under sec. 115.01(17) the definition of “‘School district affected’ means the entire territory of any school district: (a) From which any territory is detached.” (Emphasis added.) That section does not prohibit detachment of any territory from a joint city school district. Section 117.02(1) (a), Stats., requires the agency school committee to hold a conference with both of the school districts affected, before any order detaching territory is made.

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Bluebook (online)
309 N.W.2d 392, 103 Wis. 2d 661, 1981 Wisc. App. LEXIS 3337, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-beloit-ex-rel-beloit-city-school-board-v-state-appeal-board-wisctapp-1981.