Robrock v. County Bd. of Ed. of Chickasaw County, 49500

• Decision Date: 13 January 1959
• Docket Number: No. 49500,49500
• Parties: Harold ROBROCK and Clayton Burgart, Appellants, v. COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION OF CHICKASAW COUNTY; Vern Remy, Cale Ransom, John Lynch, Pearl Steege, and Glen Young, members of said Board of Education, Appellees, and Fredericksburg Community School District, Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 101

94 N.W.2d 101

250 Iowa 422

Harold ROBROCK and Clayton Burgart, Appellants, v. COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION OF CHICKASAW COUNTY; Vern Remy, Cale Ransom, John Lynch, Pearl Steege, and Glen Young, members of said Board of Education, Appellees, and Fredericksburg Community School District, Appellee.

No. 49500.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Jan. 13, 1959.

James E. O'Donohue, New Hampton, for appellants.

Leslie P. Turner, County Atty., Nashua, and Donohue, Wilkins & Donohue, New Hampton, for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

Plaintiffs brought an action in the District Court of Chickasaw County seeking a writ of certiorari and therein petitioned that an order of the County Board of Education of Chickasaw County, Iowa, assigning a certain portion of Dresden Township Independent School District No. 3 in Chickasaw County, Iowa, to the Fredericksburg Community School District be voided. The trial court denied the writ. The plaintiffs have appealed.

Proceedings for the organization of a new Fredericksburg Community School District previously had been initiated. Prior to that time the Dresden Township School District was an independent school unit. The plaintiffs are residents of the former Dresden school area. The original plan for the reorganization of the Fredericksburg Community School District included the Dresden district and the lands owned by these plaintiffs. A hearing was held before the Chickasaw County Board of Education relative to the inclusion of plaintiffs' and other land. Section 275.4, 1958 Code of Iowa, I.C.A. By virtue of objections filed and presented by the plaintiffs their lands were removed from the proposed Fredericksburg Community School District plan. At an adjourned hearing as required by the statute the boundary lines of the proposed district were confirmed, said lines excluding the lands of plaintiffs. Section 275.5, 1958 Code of Iowa, I.C.A.

Later, on March 5, 1957, an election was held in the proposed Fredericksburg district area relative to the contemplated new organization. Section 275.18, 1958 Code of Iowa, I.C.A. The proposition to organize the new district passed. By reason of the election and the establishment of the new district there remained of the Dresden Township Independent School District No. 3 less than four sections of land. Included in this last referred to area were the lands of the plaintiffs.

On May 16, 1957, the Chickasaw County Board of Education set over to the Fredericksburg Community School District the entire remaining portion of the Dresden School District, which included plaintiffs' lands. They then commenced their action in certiorari questioning the right of the county board to enter the order it did.

The parties submitted the cause to the trial court on an agreed stipulation of facts and particularly stipulated the plaintiffs question only the order of the Chickasaw County Board of Education transferring the remaining balance of the Dresden Independent School District No. 3 into the reorganized Fredericksburg Community School District. The statement of facts previously set forth substantially follow the matters incorporated in the stipulation submitted to the court.

It is the claim of the plaintiffs the remaining portion of the Dresden Township District could not be set over to the Fredericksburg District without a vote. It is their further claim the portion of the statute which states that areas containing less than four sections shall be set over to 'another' district could not apply to the Fredericksburg district but only to a different district.

The basis for the action taken by the county board of education is an amended statute passed by the Fifty-seventh General Assembly (1957) which became effective on May 9, 1957. It required all portions of school districts left after reorganizations are completed to join some school district with a twelve year school system by July 1, 1962. Sec. 275.1, 1958 Code of Iowa, I.C.A. The amended statute with which we are particularly concerned is in part as follows: '* * * Such proposals may provide for reducing an existing school district to less than four government sections and where such proposal is put into effect by election by the method hereinafter provided the county board shall attach such remaining portions of less than four sections to another school district or districts as provided for in their county plan.' 57 G.A., Ch. 129, Sec. 17, now included in Sec. 275.5, 1958 Code of Iowa, I.C.A. (Emphasis supplied.)

Inasmuch as the action taken by the Chickasaw County Board of Education was taken under the claimed authority of the amended statute as passed by the Fifty-seventh General Assembly and is now incorporated in the 1958 Code of Iowa our references hereafter will be to sections in that code.

I. The determination of the question before us requires our analysis of the statute heretofore set out in an effort to ascertain the meaning and intent of the legislature. To do so we are justified in giving further consideration to other sections of Chapter 275 of the 1958 Code, I.C.A.

In Section 275.1 it is stated: 'It is further declared to be the policy of the state that all the area of the state shall be in a district maintaining twelve grades by July 1, 1962. If any area of the state is not in such a district by July 1, 1962, it shall be attached by the county board of education to some such district, provided, however, that such attachment has the approval of the state board of public instruction before becoming effective and the full payment of the agriculture land tax credit as provided for in chapter 426, has been made for at least one year prior to July 1, 1962. Any such district or part thereof attached by the county board of education, with the approval of the state board of public instruction, shall have the right to appeal this attachment to a court of record in the county in which said district or part...