Knight v. Class A School Dist. No. 2
| Decision Date | 11 January 1955 |
| Docket Number | No. 8087,8087 |
| Citation | 278 P.2d 991,76 Idaho 140 |
| Parties | Wendell E. KNIGHT, Louis Odermott, Willard McGrath, Leonard R. Starkey, and Sam E. Roeber, Plaintiff-Appellants, v. CLASS A SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 2 Ada County, State of Idaho, and Ross Boyack, George Judd, John Bentiey, William Lenzi, and Lloyd McGrath, as Trustees thereof, Defendants-Respondents. J. W. CULLEN, W. E. Adams, W. W. Carpenter, Jerry Ryska, and Edgar Joplin, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CLASS A SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 2, Ada County, State of Idaho, and Ross Boyack, George Judd, John Bentley, William Lenzi, and Lloyd McGrath, as Trustees thereof, Defendants-Respondents. |
| Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
Laurence N. Smith, Caldwell, for appellants.
Anderson, Kaufman & Kiser, Boise, for respondents.
Class A School District No. 2, Ada County, was organized April 15, 1950, under the provisions of an 'Act For Reorganization Of School Districts' enacted by the Legislature as Chapter 111, 1947 Session Laws, as amended by Chapter 129, 1949 Session Laws. Such school district lies wholly within Ada County and embraces thirty-two previously existing school districts of various types of organization. It includes former Common School District No. 12, commonly knwon as the Eagle District, and former Common School District No. 16, commonly known as the Blue Valley District.
In the spring of 1953, it became known that the Board of Trustees of Class A School District No. 2 intended to discontinue the four-year high school in the Eagle District in so far as the 10th, 11th and 12th grades were concerned; and to discontinue the grade school in the Blue Valley District. Thereupon, pursuant to the provisions of the Reorganization Act, as amended, on July 20, 1953 more than five qualified school electors of the former Eagle School District petitioned the Board of Trustees of Class A School District No. 2, to hold an election to determine whether or not the Eagle High School should be discontinued. Likewise, more than five qualified school electors of the former Blue Valley District, at the same time, petitioned the said Board of Trustees to hold an election to determine whether or not the grade school in such district should be discontinued.
The Board of Trustees of Class A School District No. 2 refused to hold the requested elections. Whereupon qualified school electors in former Common School District No. 12 commenced an action in the District Court in Ada County seeking a Writ of Mandate to compel the Board of Trustees of Class A School District No. 2 to hold an election on the question of whether or not the four-year high school at Eagle in former Common School District No. 12 should be discontinued. A similar action was filed by qualified school electors in former Common School District No. 16, commonly known as the Blue Valley District.
The defendants having filed answers in each of such suits, the two actions were consolidated for trial. Upon the trial the court found against the plaintiffs in each action and denied the Writs of Mandate. An appeal was taken in each action to this court where the appeals were consolidated for hearing.
The questions raised on the appeals involve the application and construction of the Reorganization Act as amended and particularly that part thereof codified as Section 33-522, I.C. That part of the 1947 Act originally codified as Section 33-522, I.C., reads as follow:
'Until otherwise provided by law, the boards of trustees of all class A and class B school districts created and established under the provisions of this act shall have and exercise such powers and perform such duties as now are or may hereafter, by law, be vested in and required to be performed by boards of trustees of independent school districts, class A, and joint independent school districts, class A; and the boards of trustees of all Class C school districts created and established under the provisions of sections 33-501-33-529 shall have and exercise such powers and perform such duties as now are or may hereafter, by law, by vested in and required to be performed by boards of trustees of common school districts and joint common school districts; provided, however, that except as otherwise prescribed by the state board of education, which shall be vested with such powers and duties, no such class A, class B or class C school district shall have any power, authority or duty, (a) to adopt a course of study for the public school system of such district, (b) to prescribe the examinations, tests or qualifications necessary for pupils to enter the various grades of the elementary schools and of the high schools of such district, (c) to adopt text books for their public school system, or to make contracts with the publishers of text books.'
The 1949 Amendment, after changing the sub-sections from (a), (b), (c) to (1), (2), (3), added the following amendment to said Section 33-522, I.C.:
'(b) The board of trustees of any reorganized school district, except such as have already voted for or issued bonds in such district, or have sold or removed any school house or plant in such district, shall have the power to discontinue operation of any attendance unit situate within the boundaries of the district except as this power is limited in this sub-section:
'For Discontinuance of Attendance Unit
'Against Discontinuance of Attendance Unit
'If sixty percent of the qualified electors of such previously organized district voting in such election shall vote against discontinuance of such attendance unit, the board of trustees of the reorganized district shall be without power to discontinue such attendance unit during that school year.'
The present code Section 33-522, I.C., also includes an amendment made by Chapter 247, 1951 Session Laws, but which is not involved in these appeals.
At the time of the organization of the reorganized district and for the school year immediately preceding, a grade school and a four-year high school were maintained and operated in School District No. 12 at Eagle. By oral arrangement and agreement between the Board of Trustees of Common School District No. 12 and the Boards of Trustees of Common School Districts No. 3 and No. 25, the pupils of the latter two districts also attended the school at Eagle. The high school students from Districts No. 3 and No. 25 attended the Eagle High School upon a tuition basis. Both the grade school pupils and the high school pupils were transported to the school at Eagle in school buses operated by such school. The school supplies and equipment of Districts No. 3 and No. 25 were used in the Eagle School. The State and County apportionments for the minimum classroom unit requirements for pupils attending said school were paid to said District No. 12. School Districts No. 3 and No. 25 paid to School District No. 12 the actual average cost per capita for students attending the schools at Eagle. The schools at Eagle were governed and operated by the Board of Trustees of said District No. 12. The state school authorities, to describe this arrangement, invented the term, 'temporary combination.'
At the time of the reorganization and for the school year immediately preceding, a grade school was maintained and operated in the schoolhouse in Common School District No. 16, commonly known as Blue Valley. This grade school was operated in 'temporary combination' with Common School District No. 2 in substantially the same manner as the grade school at Eagle was operated by arrangement with other school districts as above described.
The trial court found that such maintenance of the four-year high school at Eagle and such maintenance of the grade school at Blue Valley did not constitute the maintenance of attendance units in full operation by Common School District No. 12 and Common School District No. 16 at the time of reorganization within the meaning of the 1949 Amendment of Section 33-522, I.C.
In Andrus v. Hill, 73 Idaho 196, at pages 203-204, 249 P.2d 205, at pages 209-210, this court discussed the meaning of the term 'attendance unit', as used in the Amended Reorganization Act as follows:
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