Holy Trinity Community School, Inc. v. Kahl, 75-731
| Decision Date | 07 February 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. 75-731,75-731 |
| Citation | 262 N.W.2d 210,82 Wis.2d 139 |
| Parties | HOLY TRINITY COMMUNITY SCHOOL, INC., Appellant, v. William C. KAHL, State Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Wisconsin, Respondent. |
| Court | Wisconsin Supreme Court |
Garth R. Seehawer, Racine (argued), for appellant; Foley & Capwell, S. C., Racine, on the brief.
John William Calhoun, Asst. Atty. Gen. (argued), for respondent; Bronson C. La Follette, Atty. Gen., Thompson & Coates, Racine, on the brief.
This case originated on the petition of the Holy Trinity Community School (Community School) to the Board of the Racine County Unified School District requesting that an attendance area be designated for the school co-extensive with the geographic area of the entire district.
The District School Board denied the Community School's application because the school was affiliated with the Roman Catholic denomination and the requested attendance area would, therefore, have overlapped attendance areas assigned to other Roman Catholic schools.
The statute under which the petition was authorized, and pursuant to which the school board acted, is sec. 121.51(4), Stats.:
Upon the denial of the petition, the district school board's determination was submitted to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 1 After a hearing, an order was issued by the State Superintendent denying the requested attendance area.
On September 20, 1972, the Community School commenced an action for review in the circuit court for Dane county. For reasons not fully explained, the filing of the record was delayed and briefs were not submitted to the circuit court until September of 1975. Following a hearing in the circuit court for Dane county, a judgment was entered on February 23, 1976, affirming the order of the Superintendent of Public Instruction which dismissed the Community School's petition for a districtwide attendance area.
The case is before us on appeal from the judgment of the circuit court.
On this appeal the parties agree that, if the Community School is not affiliated with a religious denomination, as a private school it is entitled to an attendance area co-extensive with the school district; and, conversely, that, if it is affiliated, its attendance area must be one which does not overlap the attendance areas of other schools in the district affiliated with the same denomination.
It is basically the position of the Community School that the question of religious affiliation or the determination of the denominational fealty of the school is not justiciable in a court of the civil government.
The State Superintendent of Public Instruction looks upon this appeal as raising only the routine type of question normally to be expected in a certiorari review, i. e., was the determination a reasonable one under the facts adduced at the hearing.
Although holdings involving the relations between church and state are numerous, the question posed here appears to be unique, for here a concededly private school disclaims any religious affiliation, while the state asserts the school is Catholic.
Arguably at least, the issue posed implicates questions in the sensitive area of relations between church and state.
In Wisconsin, following the Supreme Court case of Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 67 S.Ct. 504, 91 L.Ed. 711 (1947), and the adoption of Art. I, sec. 23, of the Wisconsin Constitution, the authority of the legislature to provide for the transportation of children to and from any parochial or private school is unchallenged. 2 The nature of the school, whether it be public or private, sectarian or not, therefore is irrelevant to its statutory right to receive transportation aids. Accordingly, the numerous cases which can be found in both the state and federal reports which address themselves to the propriety of using public funds for the support of a sectarian institution are irrelevant. Although the Community School were found to be sectarian, transportation aids would be permissible under the Constitutions of Wisconsin and the United States and the statutes of Wisconsin.
Despite some protestations to the contrary by the Community School, it is clear, from the school's articles of incorporation, that it is a religious school. The bylaws of the corporation provide that, "The school maintained by corporation shall be operated in a Christian-Judeo tradition." Although the bylaws specifically disavow any "affiliation" with any religious denomination, nevertheless, Article 4 of the bylaws states that students are to be encouraged "to practice the religion of their choice."
The record also shows that religious instruction is carried on in the school itself by a released-time program, although the instructors are not members of the school staff.
It is apparent that the school has formally dedicated itself to the promotion of religion in a manner that would not be permitted in a public school, but this fact is irrelevant to the right of a private school to receive transportation aids.
The problem is basically whether this court, for the purpose of determining a school-attendance area, may inquire, and determine, whether the school is affiliated with the Roman Catholic denomination or whether, under the strictures imposed upon government by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, we are required to refrain from making that inquiry and determination.
The following chronology is appropriate to the understanding of the problem. The facts indicate that originally the Catholic churches in the Racine area were located in ethnic neighborhoods and that the parochial schools were established to furnish religious education to the children of parishioners who lived near the church.
As the result of social and economic changes, these ethnic communities were dispersed over a large area, but students no longer living in the immediate neighborhood of the church and school continued to attend there. This resulted in substantial difficulties for the Holy Trinity (Catholic) School, the predecessor of the Community School, because its students were spread over wide areas of the school district. Other Catholic parochial schools faced the same problem, which was aggravated under the statute requiring non-overlapping attendance districts for schools affiliated with the same denomination.
The Holy Trinity School, together with other parochial schools, in 1971 brought an original action in this court to secure a declaration that the portion of sec. 121.51(4), Stats., which provides that attendance areas of private schools affiliated with the same religious denomination shall not overlap was unconstitutional. We held the statute to be constitutional after construing the statute to provide that the rule which prohibits overlapping was a general rule applicable to both secular and religious schools. We held that the effect of the statute was to prohibit overlapping attendance districts in respect to public schools, private nonreligious schools operated under the same system, and religious schools affiliated or operated by a single sponsoring group or denomination. In dicta, we stated that, although separate Catholic orders operated schools in a particular school district, they were to be considered along with the diocesan schools as part of the Catholic school system, because they were all affiliated with the same religious denomination. State ex rel. Vanko v. Kahl, 52 Wis.2d 206, 188 N.W.2d 460 (1971).
After the determination of the constitutionality of sec. 121.51(4), Stats., the Holy Trinity School was obliged, were it to remain a Catholic school, to be assigned a transportation attendance area which did not comport with the geographic area whence it drew its students.
In the recitation of facts incorporated in the circuit judge's direction for judgment appears this statement, unquestioned on this appeal:
"To overcome the limitation of sec. 121.51(4), which forbids the overlapping of attendance areas for schools affiliated with the same religious denomination, Holy Trinity incorporated under chapter 181, Wis.Stats., as a non-denominational private school."
Accordingly, in December of 1971, the Holy Trinity School, which was admittedly a Roman Catholic school operated by the Holy Trinity Congregation, ceased to operate, and in its stead the Holy Trinity Community School was incorporated. This new school has no legal ties to the Roman Catholic church and its bylaws provide that the school shall have no affiliation with any religious denomination.
When the new school was incorporated, it took over the day-to-day operations of its predecessor. By assuming the existing teachers' contracts of the Catholic school, it agreed to employ, at least for the first semester, the same teachers, five of whom were nuns, who had been employed by the predecessor school. It also agreed to accept the students previously enrolled in the parish school. The building occupied by the newly incorporated school was the one previously used, and it continued to be owned by the Holy Trinity Congregation. The Congregation, however, leased the school building and all the facilities therein to the new Community School for a rental of one dollar per year.
The usual and formal Catholic religious instruction carried on in the predecessor school was discontinued, and the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
St. Augustine Sch. v. Taylor
...at 215, 188 N.W.2d 460 .¶32 Building on its decision in Vanko , the court seven years later decided Holy Trinity Community School, Inc. v. Kahl, 82 Wis. 2d 139, 262 N.W.2d 210 (1978). In Holy Trinity , the plaintiff school was previously a Catholic school affiliated with the Archdiocese. ......
-
L.L.N. v. Clauder
...excessive governmental entanglement with religion, springs from the Establishment Clause. 11 See Holy Trinity Community School, Inc. v. Kahl, 82 Wis.2d 139, 150, 262 N.W.2d 210, cert. denied, 439 U.S. 823, 99 S.Ct. 90, 58 L.Ed.2d 115 (1978); 4 Rotunda & Nowak, supra § 21.3, at ¶20 It is wel......
-
Jackson v. Benson
...Amendment. See Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 303, 60 S.Ct. 900, 903, 84 L.Ed. 1213 (1940); Holy Trinity Community Sch. v. Kahl, 82 Wis.2d 139, 150, 262 N.W.2d 210 (1978). The Establishment Clause, therefore, prohibits state governments from passing laws which have either the purpos......
-
St. Augustine Sch. v. Evers
...the affiliation of a religious school by monitoring and evaluating its practices or personnel. Holy Trinity Cmty. Sch., Inc. v. Kahl , 82 Wis.2d 139, 154–58, 262 N.W.2d 210 (1978). Instead, public officials "are obliged to accept the professions of the school and to accord them validity wit......