SB2713_S_(Cmte_Sub)_Amend

Adopted

AMENDMENT NO 1 PROPOSED TO

Cmte Sub for Senate Bill No. 2713

BY: Senator(s) Brown, Pickering

AMEND by inserting the following new section after line 220 and renumbering subsequent sections accordingly:

SECTION *. (1) Referendum. In any Mississippi county having two (2) or more school districts, at least one (1) of which is a school district with fewer than nine hundred (900) students according to the district's average daily attendance in each of the two (2) school years immediately preceding the 2004-2005 school year, there shall be held a referendum on the question of the administrative consolidation of all of the school districts in the county into a single countywide school district with one (1) administrative unit and one (1) school board, that is not required to close school facilities. No election shall be required in any county having one (1) countywide school district and no additional municipal separate or consolidated district. By July 1, 2005, the State Board of Education shall publish a list of all school districts subject to this referendum requirement, and shall certify this consolidation referendum list to the applicable local school boards and county boards of supervisors. The date of the referendum shall be on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November 2005. Notice of such referendum shall be published by the board of supervisors of such county once each week for at least three (3) consecutive weeks in a newspaper published or having a general circulation in the county, with the first publication of such notice to be made not less than twenty-one (21) days before the date fixed for the referendum and the last publication to be made not more than seven (7) days before the referendum. At the referendum, all qualified electors of such county may vote, and the ballots used in such referendum shall have printed thereon the words "FOR THE ADMINISTRATIVE CONSOLIDATION OF ALL SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN ______________ COUNTY INTO ONE (1) COUNTYWIDE SCHOOL DISTRICT", and, on a separate line, "AGAINST THE ADMINISTRATIVE CONSOLIDATION OF ALL SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN ______________ COUNTY INTO ONE (1) COUNTYWIDE SCHOOL DISTRICT", and the voters shall vote by placing a cross (X) or check (√) opposite their choice on the proposition. When the results of any such referendum shall have been canvassed by the county election commission and certified, the school districts in the county shall be administratively consolidated under the procedures specified in subsection (3) of this section, only if a majority of the qualified electors who vote in the election vote in favor of the proposition. In the event that a majority of the qualified electors who vote at the referendum vote in opposition to the proposition, a subsequent referendum on the issue of administrative consolidation shall be held within two (2) years from the date of the first referendum on a date to be established by the board of supervisors of such county. If the proposition is denied at the second referendum, no further referendum may be held on the question for a period of five (5) years. No public funds shall be used for the purpose of promoting the adoption of the referendum.

(2) Definitions. As used in this section:

(a) "Administrative annexation" means the joining of an affected school district or a part of the school district with a receiving district;

(b) "Administrative consolidation" means the joining of two (2) or more school districts to create a new single countywide school district with one (1) administrative unit pursuant to referendum, and one (1) school board that is not required to close school facilities;

(c) "Affected district" means a school district that loses territory or students as a result of administrative annexation or consolidation;

(d) "Resulting district" means the new countywide school district created from an affected district or districts as a result of administrative consolidation required pursuant to referendum.

(3) Administrative consolidation.

(a) There shall be an administrative consolidation of all school districts located in the county affected by the referendum required under subsection (1) if a majority of the qualified electors who vote in the election vote in favor of the proposition, as provided in this subsection (3). There shall be a new county board of education elected in the November general or special elections following the date of the referendum, which shall be elected as provided in Section 37-5-7, Mississippi Code of 1972. The new county board of education shall provide for the administrative consolidation of all school districts in the county into one (1) countywide school district embracing the entire county on or before July 1 next following the November election. Any school district affected by the required administrative consolidation that does not voluntarily consolidate with the countywide school district shall be administratively consolidated by the State Board of Education with the countywide school district in which such district is located, to be effective on July 1 following the election of the new county board of education. The State Board of Education shall promptly move on its own motion to administratively consolidate a school district which does not voluntarily consolidate in order to enable the affected school districts to reasonably accomplish the resulting administrative consolidation into one (1) countywide school district by July 1 following the election of the new county board of education. All affected school districts shall comply with any consolidation order issued by the county board of education or the State Board of Education, as the case may be, on or before July 1 following the election of the new county board of education.

(b) On July 1 following the election of the new county board of education, the former county board of education, the board of trustees of any municipal separate, special municipal separate, consolidated or line consolidated school district located in such county shall be abolished. All real and personal property which is owned or titled in the name of a school district located in such county shall be transferred to the countywide school district of the county in which such school district is located. Each affected school board shall be responsible for establishing the contracts for teachers and principals for the next school year following the required administrative consolidation with the consultation of the newly elected successor county board of education. The selection of the appointed county superintendent of education and the assistant superintendent of education in the central administration office of the successor countywide school district shall be the responsibility of the successor county board of education. No such administratively consolidated countywide school district shall have more than two (2) assistant county superintendents of education. It shall be the responsibility of the successor county board of education to prepare and approve the budget of the new countywide district, and the county board of education may use staff from the former school districts to prepare the budget. Any proposed order of the successor county board of education directing the transfer of the assets, real or personal property of an affected school district in the county, shall be submitted and approved by the State Board of Education. The finding of the State Board of Education shall be final and conclusive for the purposes of the transfer of property required by such administrative consolidation. Any person or school district aggrieved by an order of the successor county school board of education pursuant to the required administrative consolidation may appeal therefrom to the State Board of Education within ten (10) days from the date of the adjournment of the meeting at which such order is entered. Such appeal shall be de novo, and the finding of the State Board of Education upon such question shall be final and conclusive for the purpose of the approval or disapproval of the action by said county board of education.

(c) When any school district in such county is abolished under the provisions of this section, the abolition thereof shall not impair or release the property of such former school district from liability for the payment of the bonds or other indebtedness of such district and it shall be the duty of the board of supervisors of said county to levy taxes on the property of said district so abolished from year to year according to the terms of such indebtedness until same shall be fully paid.

(d) In the administratively consolidated countywide school district created under this section, the ad valorem tax rate shall be determined as set forth under Section 37-57-1 et seq.

(e) Nothing in this section shall be construed to require the closing of any school or school facility, unless such facility is an unneeded administrative office located within a school district which has been abolished under the provisions of this section. All administrative consolidations under this section shall be accomplished so as not to delay or in any manner negatively affect the desegregation of another school district in the county pursuant to court order. Individual schools and attendance centers in operation and located within a school district which has been abolished under the provisions of this section may continue to operate under the same name for a period of ten (10) years following such administrative consolidation, but may be merged or consolidated with other school facilities in the discretion of the successor county board of education pursuant to law following such ten-year period.

(f) The State Board of Education shall promulgate rules and regulations to facilitate the administrative consolidation of the school districts in a county pursuant to this section. When the orders of the successor county board of education adopting the boundaries of the successor countywide school district have been entered and are final, as approved by the State Board of Education, the new district lines shall be submitted by the State Board of Education with the assistance of the Attorney General to the Attorney General of the United States for preclearance or to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for a declaratory judgment in accordance with the provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended and extended. In the event the change in the school district lines are precleared or approved, the State Board of Education shall formally declare the new lines as the new boundaries of the consolidated countywide school district.

(4) Administrative consolidation incentive funds.

(a) The state shall pay administrative consolidation incentive funds to each school district that:

(i) Has an average daily attendance of at least nine hundred (900) for each of the two (2) school years preceding the school year in which the administrative consolidation or annexation referendum is held; and

(ii) Voluntarily petitions and receives approval from the State Board of Education to administratively consolidate or annex another school district with less than nine hundred (900) students in average daily attendance, prior to July 1, 2006. The payment of administrative consolidation incentive funds shall be based on the number of students in the resulting district.

(b) Administrative consolidation incentive funds shall be paid, subject to specific appropriation therefor by the Legislature, in an amount equal to the differences between the per student funding level paid by the state under the Mississippi Adequate Education Program paid in the affected school district and the receiving district, multiplied times the consolidated average daily attendance.

(c) Administrative consolidation incentive funds may be used by the school districts for any purpose. However, the State Board of Education by rule may require funds to be expended on the construction or improvement of school facilities.

(d) The funds shall be paid to the resulting administratively consolidated or annexed school districts during the first year and the second year of the consolidated or annexed district's existence.

FURTHER, AMEND the title by inserting the following after the semicolon on line 4:

TO REQUIRE A REFERENDUM ON THE QUESTION OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE CONSOLIDATION OF THE EXISTING SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN ANY COUNTY HAVING TWO OR MORE DISTRICTS AND AT LEAST ONE DISTRICT HAS FEWER THAN 900 STUDENTS;