Smith v. Board of Ed. of Oswego Community High School Dist.
| Decision Date | 18 January 1950 |
| Docket Number | No. 31355,31355 |
| Citation | 405 Ill. 143,89 N.E.2d 893 |
| Parties | SMITH v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF OSWEGO COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL DIST. et al. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
Hamper, Atwell & Tinker, of Aurora (C. H. Atwell and G. H. Tinker, of Aurora, of counsel), for appellant.
William C. O'Brien, of Aurora (Wilson D. Burnell and Donald L. Puckett, of Aurora, of counsel), for appellees.
July 19, 1949, appellant, Carl L. Smith, in a representative capacity as a taxpayer, filed a complaint in the circuit court of Kendall County for an injunction to restrain the Board of Education of Oswego Community High School, District No. 300, in Kendall and Will Counties, from proceeding with a contract for the construction of a new high school building. A motion to strike the complaint, on the ground that it did not state a cause of action, was sustained by the trial court. An appeal has been perfected to this court, a constitutional question being involved.
The complaint alleges, inter alia, that on May 23, 1949, the Board of Education of the district entered into a contract with Arnold Lies Company, Inc., for the construction of a new high school building for the sum of $540,000; that said sum was substantially more than prior offers of other bidders; that the school board and the other parties to the contract entered into a conspiracy resulting in the cheating and defrauding of the taxpayers of the district out of upwards of $75,000; that examples of fraud were that the school board had been advised to investigate all other bids received, had personal knowledge that additional sums could be saved in the construction of the high school building; and that false and fraudulent information that the board was delaying the project in order to secure lower construction costs was disseminated to induce taxpayers to support the $350,000 building bond issue; that the taxpayers, in reliance on fraudulent and misleading information voted the bond issue; that, if section 10 of article 7 of the School Code, Ill.Rev.Stat.1947, chap. 122, par. 7-10, be interpreted as permitting boards of education to arbitrarily let such contracts by private negotiations, article III, Smith-Hurd Stats., which provided for distribution of the powers of government, and section 2 of article II, the due-process clause, of the State Constitution, would be violated; that the letting of the contract to Arnold Lies Co., Inc., violated public policy of the State by stifling competition and inviting favoritism.
Our State constitution (art. VIII, sec. 1) provides that the General Assembly shall provide a thorough and efficient system of free schools. A high school is as must a part of our free school system as are elementary or grade schools. People ex rel. Board of Education v. Read, 344 Ill. 397, 176 N.E. 284. There is no constitutional limitation placed on the legislature with reference to the agencies the State shall adopt for providing for free schools. People ex rel. Brockamp v. Chicago and Illinois Midland Railway Co., 256 Ill. 488, 100 N.E. 174. Under the mandate of the constitution the duty rests upon the legislature to provide for an adequate school system. How this is to be done is a matter which rests in the discretion and wisdom of the legislature, subject to the constitutional requirements regarding uniformity and against discrimination. People ex rel. Goodell v. Chicago and Northwestern Railway Co., 286 Ill. 384, 121 N.E. 731.
The legislature has provided for the creation of boards of education and has delegated to such boards the power to build schoolhouses, upon receiving authority to do so from a majority of the electorate of the school district, subject to the approval of the county superintendent of schools respecting certain health and safety measures. Ill.Rev.Stat.1947, chap. 122, par. 7-10. The method to be employed in letting contracts for the construction of school buildings has been left to the discretion of the school boards of the respective school districts. Appellant attacks the wisdom of permitting the board of education of a high school district to negotiate contracts for building schoolhouses without limitation as to size, cost, or methods to be employed in the letting of such contracts. It is insisted that the unrestrained acts of the board of education, in such cases, is contrary to public policy. Where no limitation has been placed upon a school board by the vote of the people of the district, it has the right to use its discretion as to the character and cost of a school building which shall be adequate and proper for the use of the district. Hartmann v. Pesotum Community Consolidated School Dist., 325 Ill. 268, 156...
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