§ 20-2-431 — Division of county into schoolhouse districts; issuance and retirement of district bonds

(a) Whenever the county board of education of any county of this state deems it necessary for the purpose of securing proper school sites and buildings and to the best interest of education in the county, the county board shall have the power and authority to divide all of the territory of the county outside of independent school districts into local subdivisions to be known as local schoolhouse districts. Whenever the county board divides the county into local subdivisions, the entire county shall be so divided into separate subdivisions. The local subdivisions so set up and established shall be clearly and positively defined by the resolution passed by the county board establishing such subdivisions. The local subdivisions shall be marked off in the manner which the county board deems to be most advantageous to the school interest of the county. The county board shall act as officers of such local subdivisions and as such is authorized to incur bonded indebtedness for the purpose of purchasing school sites and for building and equipping, enlarging, and repairing schoolhouses, to include building and equipping, enlarging, and repairing lunchrooms and vocational and physical education buildings and facilities in and for such local subdivisions. The bonded indebtedness which the county board is authorized by this Code section to incur shall be incurred pursuant to Article IX, Section V, Paragraphs I and IV of the Constitution of Georgia. An election for bonds for such local subdivisions shall be called and held in the manner prescribed by Article 1 of Chapter 82 of Title 36, and the bonds shall be validated in the manner prescribed by Part 1 of Article 2 of Chapter 82 of Title 36. The purpose of this Code section is to permit and to require the same procedure to be followed in the voting, issuance, levying of taxes for, and the retirement of bonds issued by the county boards for local subdivisions established under this Code section for building and equipping, enlarging, and repairing schoolhouses, to include building and equipping, enlarging, and repairing lunchrooms and vocational and physical education buildings and facilities, or purchasing sites therefor as is required in the case of municipalities and other county bonds; provided, however, that where the county board divides the county into subdivisions and seeks to issue bonds for any one of the local subdivisions, persons residing outside of the local subdivision may not participate as qualified voters in the election. Should the election held in a local subdivision result favorably to the issuance of bonds for such local subdivision, the property located within such local subdivision as marked off and established by the county board shall be subject to taxation for the retirement of bonds issued by the county board for such local subdivision. The property located outside of such subdivision shall not be subject to taxation for the retirement of any bonds issued for the local subdivision. (b) It is not intended that subsection (a) of this Code section shall in any way interfere with the county board issuing bonds on a county-wide basis as provided for in Code Section 20-2-430 . The purpose of subsection (a) of this Code section is to give to the county board additional powers so that the county board may provide adequate school sites, buildings, and equipment in counties and under circumstances where county-wide bond issues for securing school sites and buildings and equipping schoolhouses prove inadequate and inequitable because of prior existing bonded indebtedness of local districts, or otherwise.