Board of Educ. of Rockford School Dist. No. 205, Winnebago-Boone Counties v. Hearing Bd. of Counties of Boone and Winnebago, WINNEBAGO-BOONE

• Decision Date: 26 February 1987
• Docket Number: No. 323,WINNEBAGO-BOONE,C,No. 2-86-0054,323,2-86-0054
• Citation: 105 Ill.Dec. 906,152 Ill.App.3d 936,505 N.E.2d 32
• Parties: , 105 Ill.Dec. 906, 38 Ed. Law Rep. 688 BOARD OF EDUCATION OF ROCKFORD SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 205,COUNTIES, Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. HEARING BOARD OF the COUNTIES OF BOONE AND WINNEBAGO, Illinois; Winnebago Community Unit School Districtounty of Winnebago, Illinois; Blanche J. Martin, Superintendent for the Regional Office of Education for the Counties of Boone and Winnebago, Illinois; and Nancy Kennedy and All Other Detachment Petitioners, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 32

505 N.E.2d 32

152 Ill.App.3d 936, 105 Ill.Dec. 906,

38 Ed. Law Rep. 688

BOARD OF EDUCATION OF ROCKFORD SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 205 WINNEBAGO-BOONE COUNTIES, Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellant, v.HEARING BOARD OF the COUNTIES OF BOONE AND WINNEBAGO Illinois; Winnebago Community Unit School District No. 323 County of Winnebago, Illinois; Blanche J. MartinSuperintendent for the Regional Office of Education for the Counties of Boone and Winnebago, Illinois; and Nancy Kennedy and All Other DetachmentPetitioners, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 2-86-0054.

Appellate Court of Illinois, Second District.

Feb. 26, 1987.

Pedderson Menzimer Conde Stoner & Killoren, James M. Hess, Rockford, for plaintiff-appellant.

Holmstrom & Green, Bradley T. Koch, Rockford, for defendants-appellees.

Justice INGLISdelivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiff, Board of Education of Rockford School DistrictNo. 205, challenged the action of certain petitioners who sought to detach territory from their special charter school district.The Hearing Board which was composed of representatives from the two districts granted the petition.The circuit court, on administrative review, affirmed, and the plaintiff timely appealed.

On July 18, 1983, petitioners filed a petition for detachment pursuant to section 7-2.4 of the School Code (Code)(Ill.Rev.Stat.1983, ch. 122, par. 7-2.4), requesting that certain real estate be detached from the Rockford District(Plaintiff)(a special charter school district) and annexed to the Winnebago District.The real estate is comprised of approximately 4.7 square miles (2,986 acres) and is situated in the far southwest corner of the Rockford District and immediately adjacent to the Winnebago District in Winnebago County.

Plaintiff filed an objection to the petition for detachment and appointed two members from its school board to serve as members of a seven-person Special Hearing Board(Hearing Board) which would consider the merits of the petition for detachment.(SeeIll.Rev.Stat.1983, ch. 122, par. 7-2.5.)The office of the Regional Board of School Trustees(Regional Board) appointed two people from the Winnebago District to serve on the Hearing Board.As the appointees made to the Hearing Board by the Rockford District and the Winnebago District were unable to agree upon an additional three members to be appointed to comprise the balance of the Hearing Board, the Illinois State Board of Education appointed three people who reside outside the jurisdiction of both the Rockford and the Winnebago districts and who have experience in the field of education.

On November 21, 22, and 26, 1984, the Hearing Board met, heard testimony and considered the exhibits and arguments of counsel.On December 10, 1984, a written order of detachment and annexation was entered by the Hearing Board in conformity with the requirements of section 7-2.6 of the School Code. Ill.Rev.Stat.1983, ch. 122, par. 7-2.6.

Plaintiff filed a petition for rehearing with the Hearing Board which was denied.Plaintiff thereafter perfected an appeal to the circuit court from that decision by filing a complaint for administrative review pursuant to section 7-2.7 of the School Code (Ill.Rev.Stat.1983, ch. 122, par. 7-2.7).On December 16, 1985, the circuit court entered a judgment affirming the decision of the Hearing Board granting the petition for detachment.This appeal followed.

Plaintiff sets forth several contentions on appeal.Since we find plaintiff's first contention dispositive, we will refrain from addressing the others.Plaintiff contends that the creation of noncontiguous islands of territory within the Winnebago District which must still be serviced by the Rockford District violates State law which requires that school districts be compact and contiguous.We agree.

It is well settled that case law and statutory law require compact and contiguous school district boundaries.(SeePeople ex rel. Tudor v. Vance(1940), 374 Ill. 415, 29 N.E.2d 673;People ex rel. Sackmann v. Keechler(1901), 194 Ill. 235, 62 N.E. 525;Ill.Rev.Stat.1983, ch. 122, par. 7-4.)The Hearing Board failed to adhere to this requirement, and the detachment petition should not have been granted.Plaintiff notes that in the case at bar the detachment would result in the creation of eight islands which are approximately one mile from the Rockford District western boundary.Plaintiff traced the boundary and proved conclusively that eight islands would exist approximately one mile from the Rockford District.An examination of the legal descriptions and the record reveals that the following parcels, now a part of Rockford District, would become noncontiguous, territorial islands within the Winnebago District and yet remain a part of Rockford District:

(1)  126 X 202                    parcel 8
                (2)  126 X 202                    parcel 11
                (3)  470.44 X 504 (-102.5 x 207)  parcel 17A
                (4)  100 X 218                    parcel 21B
                (5)  590 X 650 (-100 X 210)       parcel 21
                (6)  108 X 210                    parcel 21D
                (7)  100 X 210                    parcel 22
                (8)  107 X 207                    parcel 33
                (9)  107 X 207                    parcel 32
                

These islands would clearly destroy the compact and contiguous nature of both the Rockford District and Winnebago District.

Defendants put forth three arguments to support their proposition that the detachment order should be affirmed: (1) that section 7-4 of the Code (statutorily requiring contiguity and compactness) does not apply to this particular petition since it was filed pursuant to sections 7-2.3 through 7-2.7 of the Code; (2) that the accuracy of the legal description attached to the petition for detachment was stipulated to by the Rockford District; and (3) that even though the detached area arguably failed to be "compact and contiguous," this finding would be irrelevant.

First, the defendants argue that section 7-4 of the School Code clearly and unambiguously applies only to petitions for detachment which are filed pursuant to section 7-1and7-2 of the Code.Section 7-1and7-2 of the School Code apply only to petitions for detachments involving noncharter school districts.Since the Rockford District is a special charter school district, the petition for detachment was filed by the petitioners pursuant to section 7-2.4.We agree that there is no statutory authority for applying section 7-4 of the School Code to petitions which have issued from section 7-2.4 through 7-2.7.Section 7-4 is clearly applicable only to petitions granted under sections 7-1 or 7-2.Therefore, the statutory requirement of "compact and contiguous" found within section 7-4(c) is inapplicable to the instant case.

However, in People v. Decatur School District No. 61(1963), 45 Ill.App.2d 33, 194 N.E.2d 659, our court stated that "[o]ur courts have held that school districts must be compact and contiguous in order to...