BOARD OF EDUC. v. BOARD OF EDUC.
| Decision Date | 27 February 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 30683.,30683. |
| Citation | 213 W.Va. 182,578 S.E.2d 376 |
| Court | West Virginia Supreme Court |
| Parties | BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the COUNTY OF TAYLOR, Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the COUNTY OF MARION, and Thomas E. Long, Superintendent of Marion County Schools, Defendants. |
Basil R. Legg, Jr., Clarksburg, for the Appellant.
Stephen R. Brooks, Flaherty, Sensabaugh & Bonasso, Morgantown, for the Appellees.
The Circuit Court of Taylor County presents this Court with a certified question asking whether a county board of education may, without agreement from another county, establish bus stops within that other county to provide transportation to students who have received proper authorization to attend school in the county providing the transportation. We answer this question affirmatively.
On July 1, 2000, Jane M. Reynolds was elected Superintendent of Taylor County Schools. Following her election, Superintendent Reynolds learned that the Marion County Board of Education had established bus stops within Taylor County without the knowledge or approval of the Taylor County Board of Education.1 Superintendent Reynolds also discovered that there were Taylor County resident children who could not be accounted for by the attendance records of the Taylor County school system. It was learned that many of these students were being permitted to attend Marion County schools even though they had not obtained the consent of both the Marion and the Taylor County Boards of Education, as required by statute.2 It is undisputed that these students are among those being transported on the Marion County buses that service stops in Taylor County. The remaining students receiving such transportation have complied with the statutory requirement of obtaining the consent of both the Taylor County and Marion County Boards to attend school in Marion County.
On September 4, 2001, Superintendent Reynolds contacted Thomas E. Long, Superintendent of Marion County Schools, and asked that Marion County suspend its practice of stopping its buses in Taylor County to transport Taylor County resident students to Marion County schools. Initially, Superintendent Long agreed to discontinue the busing practice on October 19, 2001. However, after obtaining an interpretation of certain school transportation issues from Dr. David Stewart, State Superintendent of Schools, Superintendent Long determined to continue the bus service in Taylor County. In his letter stating his interpretation, Superintendent Stewart opined:
West Virginia Board of Education Policy 7212. The Policy further states that "[c]ounty school buses may provide transportation to students across county boundaries and may pick up students in one county for attendance in the schools of another county." (Emphasis added).
Therefore, based on the applicable law and policy, Marion County should not be prohibited from choosing to allow Taylor County students, who have been granted board permission to attend Marion County Schools pursuant to W. Va.Code § 18-5-16, to ride a bus on an existing Marion County bus route from Taylor County into Marion County to attend school.
Thereafter, on October 23, 2001, the Board of Education for the County of Taylor (hereinafter referred to as "the Taylor County Board") filed a complaint in the Circuit Court of Taylor County against the Board of Education for the County of Marion and its Superintendent, Thomas E. Long (hereinafter collectively referred to as "the Marion County Board"). The complaint sought preliminary and permanent injunctive relief and a declaratory judgment against the Marion County Board to prevent that Board from continuing to provide bus transportation services to students residing in Taylor County but attending school in Marion County. The Taylor County Board complained that, beginning with the 2001-2002 school year, the Marion County Board established one or more new school bus stops within the boundaries of Taylor County for the purpose of transporting students residing in Taylor County to schools located in Marion County. It is undisputed that the students being transferred included students who had received authorization from both County Boards of Education to attend school in Marion County, as well as students who had not obtained such authorization and were, thus, improperly enrolled in Marion County Schools.
The Taylor County Board's request for temporary injunctive relief was denied. Thereafter, the parties jointly moved that the legal question presented by this case be certified to this Court. After determining that a certified question was proper, the circuit court formulated the following question:
May the Marion County Board of Education, absent an agreement with the Taylor County Board of Education, establish bus stops within Taylor County to provide bus transportation to Taylor County resident students who have received authorization from both the Taylor County and Marion County Boards of Education to attend school in Marion County?
The circuit court answered this question in the affirmative. Noticeably absent from this certified question is any reference to Marion County's admitted practice of busing Taylor County resident students who had not received proper authorization to attend school in Marion County. The circuit court omitted this class of students from the certified question as there is no question of law regarding Marion County's authority to transport them. Indeed, the circuit court explained that Marion County was clearly without authority to bus students who had not obtained the proper authorization:
Both parties agree there are a number of Taylor County resident students attending school in Marion County who have not received transfer authorization from the Taylor County Board of Education, but who are being transported by bus from within Taylor county by the Marion County Board of Education. The plaintiff asserts, the defendant admits, and the court finds the Marion County Board of Education is without legal authority to provide bus transportation within Taylor County to Taylor County resident students who are attending Marion County schools without authorization from the Taylor County and Marion County Boards of Education. Accordingly, the Plaintiff's request to include this issue as part of the question to be certified is hereby DENIED.
In addition, notwithstanding the circuit court's determination that Marion County did not have the authority to transport students who were not authorized by both county boards of education to attend Marion County schools, it refused to amend its earlier denial of Taylor County's request for temporary injunction to prohibit Marion County from continuing to transport those students without proper authorization. In this regard, the circuit court expressly found that "the potential for physical harm or emotional trauma to those children who would be immediately affected by such a modification of the Court's prior order outweighs any prejudice to [Taylor County]."
This Court accepted the certified question for review by order entered June 25, 2002.
It is well established that
Syllabus point 2, Keplinger v. Virginia Electric & Power Co., 208 W.Va. 11, 537 S.E.2d 632 (2000). Syl. pt. 2, Charter Communications v. Community Antenna Serv., Inc., 211 W.Va. 71, 561 S.E.2d 793 (2002).
Before addressing the specific question certified in this case, we pause to first discuss the proper statutes to be applied to our resolution of the issue presented. There are two statutes that were relied upon by the circuit court in reaching its answer to the question certified: W. Va.Code § 18-5-16 (1949) (Repl.Vol.1999), and W. Va.Code § 18-5-13 (1997) (Repl.Vol.1999). Following the circuit court's certification of this matter, and this Court's acceptance of the certified question for review, amended versions of these two statutes became effective on July 1, 2002.
To determine which versions of the relevant statutes should be applied to this case, we must consider the nature of the action below. The law suit underlying this certified question seeks an injunction. It has been explained, in general, that:
Injunctive relief is designed to meet a real threat of a future wrong or a contemporary wrong of a nature likely to continue or recur. Whether interlocutory or final, injunctive relief is ordinarily preventive or protective in character and restrains actions that...
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