Board of Directors of Pleasant Hill Independent School Dist. v. Board of Ed. of Polk, Jasper and Marion Counties

• Decision Date: 02 May 1961
• Docket Number: No. 50224,50224
• Citation: 252 Iowa 1000,109 N.W.2d 218
• Parties: BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF PLEASANT HILL INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT and Pleasant Hill Independent School District, Appellants, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF POLK, JASPER AND MARION COUNTIES et al., Appellees.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 218

109 N.W.2d 218

252 Iowa 1000

BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF PLEASANT HILL INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT and Pleasant Hill Independent School District, Appellants, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF POLK, JASPER AND MARION COUNTIES et al., Appellees.

No. 50224.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

May 2, 1961.

Rehearing Denied June 13, 1961.

Earl Gritton and Donald L. Beving, Des Moines, for appellants.

Leo S. Ballard, Des Moines, for all appellees except Des Moines Independent School Dist.

Herrick & Langdon, Des Moines, for appellee Des Moines Independent School Dist.

OLIVER, Justice.

This case involves the validity of proceedings under Chapter 275, Code of Iowa, 1958, to reorganize as Southeast Polk Community School District, parts or all of nine existing school districts in southeastern Polk County, one in Jasper county and one in Polk, Marion and Jasper counties. It is the third such case to come to this court involving territory much the same but not identical, and with Pleasant Hill Independent School District, Polk County, as the main objector to the formation of the district. In Grant et al. v. Norris et al., 249 Iowa 236, 85 N.W.2d 261, proceedings to form Consolidated Independent School District of Southeastern, Polk and Jasper counties were adjudged invalid in part. The vote in Pleasant Hill District had been 145 to 1 against the project.

The second case was Pleasant Hill Independent School District et al., etc. v. Norris et al., etc., 250 Iowa 546, 94 N.W.2d 765. That decision, filed February 10, 1959, adjudged the second reorganization plan, which had received a large majority of the total vote, had been defeated by the vote in Pleasant Hill District, 5 votes for and 135 against the proposal.

February 25, 1959, proponents filed in the supreme and district courts and with the Polk County Superintendent of Schools, an abandonment and dismissal of the second reorganization proceeding. Immediately thereafter the proposed reorganization here in question was instituted by filing with the Polk County Superintendent of Schools a petition asking for the establishment of Southeast Polk Communty School District. The petition was signed by 1,686 of the 4,036 electors in the proposed community district. It requested that the boundaries of all county plans and the joint county plan of school district reorganization which affected the territory in question be modified to coincide with the boundaries therein stated. The proposed community district would include some territory in addition to that in the two previous plans but unlike them, would take in only approximately the south one third of Pleasant Hill Independent School District of Polk County. This would be separated from the north part of Pleasant Hill District by an east-west line along a highway and a government lot line.

The area of Pleasant Hill District has been approximately 3 1/2 sections. The excluded north part, in which are located the school, to the sixth grade, and the town of Pleasant Hill, would be rectangular in shape and approximately 2 1/3 sections in area. The south part of Pleasant Hill district which it is proposed to include in the consolidated district would extend south from the eastwest line to the south border of Polk County which is fixed by the Des Moines River and is irregular in form. Pleasant Hill District children above the sixth grade now attend school in Des Moines Independent School District.

Five of the nine voters residing in the south part of Pleasant Hill District signed the petition for the proposed new district. The great majority of the electors of Pleasant Hill School District live in the northern part thereof which is not included in the proposed new district. However, an Iowa Light & Power Company plant with a taxable value of $12,000,000 and a Great Lakes Pipeline plant with substantial taxable value are located in the south part. This has resulted in reduction of the rate of school taxes in Pleasant Hill District to a fraction of the rate of those levied in other districts in that area.

At the public hearing required by Code sections 275.15 and 275.16, I.C.A., the joint boards of education of the three counties, acting as a single board, heard objections to the formation of the Southeast Polk District. The objections by Pleasant Hill School District and its Board of Directors were that the procedure did not comply with various requirements of Chapter 275 of the Code, I.C.A. and that the taking of the south part of the Pleasant Hill district, which contained most of its valuation, would leave an uneconomical district. The joint boards overruled these objections, approved the petition and plan for the reorganization of the proposed district, and, with certain changes not here material, fixed its boundaries as petitioned for, and changed the county plans accordingly. These actions were taken by the unanimous vote of the fourteen members of the three county boards who participated in the hearing.

Thereafter, Pleasant Hill Independent School District and its Board of Directors brought the controversy to the state department of public instruction. See Code sections 275.16 and 275.8, I.C.A. The hearing there resulted in the approval of the order of the joint county boards. The decision states in part:

'The appellant foundations its case on the purported fact that the proposed reorganization is not consistent with the intent and policy of the Iowa law on reorganization; that 'it fails to prepare a county plan of reorganization in compliance with the policy of the state;' that the proposed district 'violates a declared policy of the State of Iowa set forth in section 275.1 in that it deprives a substantial portion of the Pleasant Hill Independent School District and electors thereof of the opportunity to vote the proposition;' that it is not based upon proper studies and surveys as required by Iowa Code section 275.1; that the appellee county boards have failed to consult with the officials of affected districts in the manner prescribed by the Iowa Code and specifically Chapter 275; that the proposed Southeast Polk Community School District is not in conformance with any alleged county plan; that it is tentative in nature; that the filing of statements and affidavits pertaining to joint county planning is defective; that the joint board had no jurisdiction for hearing the case because of defective affidavits attached to the petition; that the proponents wholly failed to introduce any competent evidence showing the number of electors residing in each of the affected districts, and other collateral factors purporting to negate the efficacy of the proposed district.

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'* * * The record here indicates that extensive planning was done by the Polk County Board of Education with adjacent counties; that an extensive research was carried on pertaining to said district; and that the appellants were given ample notice and opportunity to participate in planning but eventually refused to do so, and appellant's purported reasons for dismissal of the instant petition were dilatory rather than factual.'

From that decision the Board of Pleasant Hill School District appealed to Polk District Court. Trial to the court resulted in judgment affirming the decision of the State Department of Public Instruction and the acts of the Joint Boards. This appeal followed.

I. In its appeal to district court plaintiff Board of Directors of Pleasant Hill District named Des Moines Independent Community School District as a defendant. The Des Moines District had not theretofore been a party to any of the reorganization proceedings. It entered its apperance and subsequently, in effect, joined with plaintiff Board of Pleasant Hill District, alleging the proposed reorganization was invalid and inequitable, was undertaken without consulting it and that eventually the remaining north part of Pleasant Hill District would be attached to it without the tax benefits from the industrial plants in the south part. Defendant Joint Boards moved to strike the pleadings of Des Moines District on the ground it was not a proper party to the appeal. The motion was ordered submitted with the case but apparently was overlooked by the trial court and was not ruled upon. When the Board of Pleasant Hill District appealed to this court it again named the Des Moines District as an opposing party.

The right of appeal is only that granted by statute. Code sections 275.8 and 275.16, I.C.A., provide that appeals to the courts from such decisions of the state department of public instruction may be taken by an aggrieved party, which is defined as a county board of education, or the board of a school district, or directors of director districts, included in the proposed reorganized area. In the case at bar no part of Des Moines School District was included in the proposed reorganized area. Therefore Des Moines District was not an 'aggrieved party' and had no right to participate in the appeals. Board of Directors of Linden Consolidated School District, etc. v. Board of Education in and for Dallas County, etc., 251 Iowa 929, 103 N.W.2d 696, 701. The cited case points out, 'There is no difference under Chapter 275 whether the aggrieved party appeals or responds to an appeal. The limitations in Sections 275.8 and 275.16 are the same.' See also State ex rel. Schilling v. Community School District of Jefferson, 252 Iowa--, 106 N.W.2d 80.

II. Reference has been made to the petition for the formation of the proposed district which bore the signatures of 1,686 of the 4,036 electors. Code section 275.12 I.C.A., requires that such petition be signed by twenty per cent of the voters of each school district or the portion thereof included in the plan of the proposed district. Section 275.13 states the petition shall be accompanied by an affidavit showing the number of qualified electors in each affected district. In the case at bar appellant asserts some of the affidavits were made...