Board of Ed. of Louisville v. Society of Alumni of Louisville Male High School

• Decision Date: 16 March 1951
• Citation: 239 S.W.2d 931
• Parties: BOARD OF EDUCATION OF LOUISVILLE v. SOCIETY OF ALUMNI OF LOUISVILLE MALE HIGH SCHOOL, Inc.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

Page 931

239 S.W.2d 931

BOARD OF EDUCATION OF LOUISVILLE v. SOCIETY OF ALUMNI OF LOUISVILLE MALE HIGH SCHOOL, Inc.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

March 16, 1951.

Rehearing Denied June 15, 1951.

Wm. T. Baskett, Lawrence S. Grauman, Louisville, for appellant.

Henry L. Brooks, James B. Young, and Martin J. Duffy, Jr., all of Louisville, for appellee.

CAMMACK, Chief Justice.

The question involved on this appeal is whether the Louisville Board of Education can institute coeducation in the Louisiville Male High School. The Society of the Alumni of the Louisville Male High School chancelleged the Board's right to do so because of a provision in a deed to the land on which the school plant is located. This provision stipulates that the property can be used only for the benefit of the Louisville Male High School and the white male pupils thereof. The agreement was entered into by the Louisville School Board and the Alumni Association of the Louisville Male High School The Society of the Alumni of the Louisville Male High School, plaintiff below, is the successor of the Alumni Association of the Louisville Male High School. When the Board of Education sought to inaugurate a city-wide program of coeducation the Male Alumni brought this action to enforce the provision of the deed referred to above. The appeal is from a judgment upholding the position of the Alumni to the effect that the covenant was binding upon the Board of Education.

The controversy can be better understood by a brief review of the facts surrounding the execution of the deed in 1909. Apparently, at that time the School Board was having difficulty in raising funds to purchase the land in question, namely, a city block in Louisville at the corner of Brook and Breckinridge Streets. The Alumni raised $25,000 and contributed it toward the purchase of the lot. That amount represented 5/12 of the total purchase price of $60,000 for the unimproved lot. In consideration of this contribution the School Board allowed the Alumni Association to be made a third party to the deed conveying the land though the Association was neither a grantor nor a grantee. The following provision was included in the deed:

'And This Deed Further Witnesseth: That Whereas the Alumni Association of the Louisville Male High School has raised and caused to be paid Twenty-five Thousand ($25,000) Dollars of the purchase price of said property, which payment was made upon the condition that said property is to be used exclusively for the benefit of the Lousiville Male High School and the white male pupils thereof, the said Louisville School Board hereby covenants and agrees with said Alumni Association of the Louisville Male High School that it will hold said property for the exclusive use and benefit of said Male High School of Louisville and the white male pupils thereof, and that the said Alumni Association of the Louisville Male High School, or its successors, being a general organization of the Alumni of the said Louisville Male High School, shall have the right to enforce this covenant and agreement.'

Within a few years the School Board built the Louisville Male High School plant on the land. The building was paid for from school taxes and funds produced from the sale of school bonds. The original building, together with subsequent improvements, is said to have a present day replacement value of between $3 million and $3 1/2 million dollars. Since the erection of the first building the plant has been used exclusively as a school for boys, except during the summer months, when it has been used for both boys and girls. The Male High School is a part of the Louisville public school system, and, insofar as this litigation is concerned, has never had any corporate existence, legal entity or self-governing authority.

In October, 1949, the Louisville Board of Education passed a resolution by majority vote providing for the redistricting of its high schools, and for the establishment of coeducation in Male High School as a part of its general program of instruction. The Board found that it was no longer advisable to conduct any part of its school system on the basis of maintaining separate schools for its male and female students, and it made plans to use certain school plants for both boys and girls that formerly had been used exclusively either for boys or for girls. One reason given for the change was that the school district might have schools located more conveniently in the various sections of the City and thus cause many students to travel shorter distances to and from school; and, further the School Board decided that coeducational instruction was desirable as a general educational policy.

In finding in favor of the Male Alumni, the chancellor held that the covenant was still binding on the Board of Education and that it was prohibited from converting Male High School to a system of coeducation. He found that the agreement was not void as violative of public policy, inasmuch as there was no public policy against noncoeducational instruction. Apparently, he conceived that to be the public policy question involved. We take a different view of the case. We think the public policy question before us is not whether coeducation is desirable or undesirable in any or all of the Louisville Public Schools, but rather whether it is inimical to the public's best interests to have the discretion of the Board of Education bound or restricted in the manner that an enforcement of the covenant would necessitate.

The Board of Education contends vigorously that the covenant is void because it concerns a 'police power function,' but we take a different view of the case and deem it unnecessary to discuss this question. A more forceful argument is that that covenant was an attempted ceding away of governmental powers by the School Board and hence void.

In this State public education has long been recognized as a function of State government, and members of boards of education have been held to be state officers. City of Louisville v. Commonwealth, 134 Ky. 488, 121 S.W. 411. Sections 183 to 189 inclusive of our Constitution deal with public education. Under Section 183 the General Assembly is required by appropriate legislation to provide for an efficient system of common schools throughout the State. Section 189 expressly provides that no tax or fund raised or levied for education purposes shall be appropriated to, or used by, or in aid of, any church, sectarian or denominational school.

Under KRS 156.010, the State Board of Education is vested with the management and control of the public school system. Though the State Board was an ex officio body in 1909, it had then the same general powers it now has. Section 4382, Carroll's Kentucky Statutes 1909.

A local school board is a body politic, with corporate powers. KRS 160.160. Under KRS 160.290, a school board is vested with general control and management of the public schools in its district, and may provide such courses of instruction and other services as it deems necessary for the promotion of education and the general health and welfare of its...