The school law of Michigan/Organization of School Districts
CHAPTER III.
ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS.
Primary Schools.
The original and fundamental school organization in Michigan is the district, which is established by authority of the township board of school inspectors. After a township has been organized, its territory shall be divided into school districts which shall not exceed nine sections of land in size and which may be altered from time to time in the discretion of the inspectors.
FORM AND SIZE The statute directs that the territory of each district must be in as compact form as may be (5033). It is not essential that the territory of the maximum school district shall contain exactly nine full sections of land, but it must not contain more than 5,760 acres (75 Mich. 143).
NOTICE OF FIRST MEETING. After an organization has been effected by the inspectors, it is the duty of the clerk to deliver to a taxable inhabitant of the district a notice in writing of the formation of such district, describing its boundaries and specifying the time and place of the first meeting, which notice, with the fact of such delivery, is entered upon record by the clerk. The notice also directs such inhabitant to notify every qualified voter of such district, either personally or by leaving a written notice at his place of residence, of the time and place of said meeting, at least five days before the time appointed therefor; and it is the duty of such inhabitant to notify the qualified voters of said district accordingly: and said inhabitant, when he has notified the qualified voters, indorses thereon a return, showing such notification with the date or dates thereof, and delivers such notice and return to the chairman of the meeting, to be by him delivered to the director chosen at such meeting, and by said director recorded at length as a part of the records of the district (5034).
SPECIAL LEGISLATIVE ENACTMENT.
A school district created by special legislative enactment, cannot be dissolved or changed by the school inspectors (17 Mich. 223).
FAILURE TO ORGANIZE. In case the inhabitants of the district fail to organize as above indicated, the clerk shall give a new notice and the residents of the district shall proceed in the same manner as in case of first notice (5035).
FRACTIONAL DISTRICTS. Fractional districts are districts formed from territory taken from two or more adjoining townships. Such districts are formed by joint action of the township boards of inspectors of the townships interested. They are organized in the same manner as other primary school districts, and the officers report to the clerk of the township in which the school house is situated. The inspectors assign a number to each school district thus established (5036).
UNORGANIZED TERRITORY. Any unorganized territory cannot be included in a school district and taxed for school purposes (45 Mich. TERRITORY, 559), unless at the request of the owner (5042).
LEGALLY ORGANIZED DISTRICTS. The proceedings in the organization of school districts are many times informal and irregular. The statute and the courts have wisely declared that, however awkward and improper may have been such proceedings, a school district is deemed duly organized when any two of the officers elected at the first meeting have filed their acceptances in writing with the director, and the same have been recorded in the minutes of such first meeting. Every school district is presumed to be legally organized when it has exercised the franchises and privileges of a district for the term of two years; and such school district and its officers shall be entitled to all the rights, privileges, and immunities, and be subject to all the duties and liabilities conferred upon school districts by law (5037; 81 Mich. 889).
A district organized under the laws of Michigan, has a corporate existence and possesses the usual powers of a corporation for public purposes (5039).
CHANGES IN THE BOUNDARIES OF PRIMARY SCHOOL DISTRICTS.
These are effected by the inspectors, under certain regulations and restrictions. After a district has exercised its corporate functions for several years, its boundaries should not be altered for trivial reasons. The official acts of inspectors in the change of district boundaries are therefore quite carefully guarded by the statutes.
NOTICE OF MEETING. Whenever the board of school inspectors contemplates an alteration of the boundaries of a district, the township clerk (and for meetings of boards to act in relation to fractional districts, clerks of the several townships interested) gives at least ten days' notice of the time and place of the meeting of the inspectors, and of the alterations proposed, by posting such notice in three public places in the township or townships, one of which notices is posted in each of the districts that may be affected by such alteration. Whenever the board of school inspectors of more than one township meet, they elect one of their number chairman and another clerk (5040).
TRANSFER OF TERRITORY OF TAXPAYERS. The inspectors may, in their discretion, detach the property of any person or persons from one district and attach It to another, except that no land which has been taxed for building a school house can be set off into another school district for the period of three years thereafter, without the consent of the owner thereof; and no district can be divided into two or more districts without the consent of a majority of the resident taxpayers of said district; and no two or more districts can be consolidated without the consent of a majority of the resident taxpayers of each district (5041).
CONSENT OF TAXPAYERS. The inspectors have the right to detach such territory as they see fit (except as stated above), unless such action would practically destroy the district (67 Mich. 601); but they have no authority to divide up the district and destroy it without the consent of a majority of the resident taxpayers; nor can they destroy it by cutting it up into pieces, and attaching all the territory to other districts without such consent (71 Mich. 87).
INDIVIDUALS SET OFF. The inspectors may attach to a school district any person residing in a township and not in any organized district, at his request; and, for all district purposes, except raising a tax for building a school house, such person is considered as residing in such district; but when set off to a new district, no sum is raised for such person as his proportion of the district property (5042).
NOTICE OF ALTERATION. In all cases where an alteration of the boundaries of a school district is made, the township clerk is required within ten days to deliver to the director of each district affected by the alteration, a notice in writing, setting forth the action of the inspectors and defining the alterations that have been made (5043).
When a new district is formed in whole or in part, from one or more districts possessed of a school house or entitled to other property, the inspectors, at the time of forming such new district or as soon thereafter as may be, ascertain and determine the amount justly due to such new district from any district out of which it may have been in whole or in part formed, as the proportion of such new district, of the value of the school house and other property belonging to the former district at the time of such division; and whenever, by the division of any district, the school house or site thereof is no longer conveniently located for school purposes and is not desired for use by the new district in which it may be situated, the school inspectors DIVISION OF PROPERTY. of the township in which such school house and site is located, may advertise and sell the same and apportion the proceeds of such sale, as also any moneys belonging to the district thus divided, among the several districts erected in whole or in part from the divided district.
DEBTS FORMERLY DUE. Such proportion is ascertained and determined according to the value of the taxable property of the respective parts of such former district at the time of the division, by the best evidence in the power of the inspectors; and such amount of any debt due from the former district which would have been a charge upon the new had it remained in the former district, is deducted from such proportion: Provided, That no real estate thus set off, which has not been taxed for the purchase or building of such school house, shall be entitled to any portion thereof, nor be taken into account in such division of district property.
Graded Schools.
The term graded school as used in the laws of the state is sometimes confused with those schools which have, by authority of the school board and teacher, adopted a graded course of study according to the manual and course of study published by the Superintendent of Public Instruction. In using the term we refer exclusively to districts organized under the law for graded schools. All such schools are first organized HOW CLASSIFIED. as primary districts, and all graded schools, whether created under special acts or organized under general laws, are subject to the general primary school law, except in so far as the acts creating them or under which they are organized, are inconsistent with it (18 Mich. 400).
Any school district containing more than one hundred NUMBER OF CHILDREN. children of school age may organize as a graded district.
The vote may be taken at any school meeting properly HOW ORGANIZED. called, and a two-thirds vote of the qualified voters is required (5132). The district voting to organize as a graded district, elects at such meeting aboard of trustees, and the time from the date of the meeting to the date of the next annual school meeting is reckoned as one year.
ALTERATION IN BOUNDARIES OF GRADED DISTRICT.
The authority to make changes in the boundaries of graded districts, is given to the board of inspectors with the following limitations:
HOW CHANGED No alteration can be made in the boundaries of any graded school district, without the consent of a majority of the trustees of said district, which consent must be spread upon the records of the district and placed on file in the office of the clerk of the board of school inspectors of the township or city to which the reports of said district are made (97 Mich. 127). Graded school districts are not restricted to nine sections of land (5135).
Whenever two or more contiguous districts having together CONSOLIDA-
TION OF DIS-
TRICTS more than one hundred children of school age, have published in the notices of the annual meetings of each district the intention to take such action and have, by a vote of two-thirds of the qualified voters attending the annual meetings in said districts, determined to unite for the purpose of establishing a graded school district, the school inspectors of the township or townships in which such districts may be situated are required, on being properly notified of such vote, to unite such districts and to appoint a time and place for a meeting of the new district. Three notices of the same must be posted in each of the districts so united at least five days before the time of such meeting. At this meeting the district elects a board of trustees and transacts the usual business of an annual school meeting (5135a).
Whenever the trustees of any organized graded school district CHANGE FROM GRADED TO PRIMARY DISTRICT. are presented, twenty days before the annual meeting, with a petition signed by ten electors of said district, stating that it is their desire that, at the annual meeting of the school district, there be submitted a proposition to change from a graded district to one or more primary districts, the trustees shall, in their notice of such annual meeting, state that the proposition set forth in said petition will be presented at the meeting; and, if two-thirds of the qualified voters present at said meeting vote to change to one or more primary districts, the change shall be made, and it becomes the duty of the board of school inspectors of the township or townships in which the district is situated, upon being duly notified of such vote, to change or divide the district as determined by such annual meeting, and to provide for the holding of the first meeting in each of the proposed primary districts in the same manner as is provided for by law for the organization of primary districts; and whenever a fractional graded school district is so changed, the township boards of school inspectors of the respective townships where such graded school district is situated, organize the district into one or more primary districts (Act 84, 1891).
Township Districts.
Michigan has seventy-five townships organized as school districts, and every legislature, by the passage of special acts, adds others to the number. As the student will readily observe, the township district can not be organized under either of the laws for the primary or graded districts.
The majority of the township districts of the state are in the Upper Peninsula and are authorized by the provision of Act 176, Public Acts of 1891. By this law the qualified voters of HOW ORGANIZED. a township petition the township board to give notice that, at the next annual township meeting, the township will be organized into a single school district. It is necessary that the petition be signed by a majority of the voters of the township, and be filed with the township clerk at least fifteen days prior to the annual township meeting. To ascertain whether a majority of the qualified voters have signed the petition, the township board is required to compare the names on the petition with the names on the list of registered voters qualified to vote at the preceding election. If the board finds that a majority of the qualified voters have signed the petition, it is its duty to give notice that, at the next township meeting, the township school officers shall be chosen. The township board makes and files, both with the county clerk and the commissioner of schools of the county in which such township is located, a certified copy of the petition, with their findings and doings thereon (93 Mich. 281). Thereupon such township becomes a single school district which is subject to all the general laws of the state, so far as the same may be applicable, and said district has all the powers and privileges conferred upon other school districts by the laws of this state, all the general provisions of which relating to common or primary schools shall apply and be enforced in said district, except such as shall be inconsistent with the pro" visions of this act.
DISTRICT MEETINGS.
IN PRIMARY AND GRADED DISTRICTS. The first Monday of September is the date fixed by law for the annual meeting of primary and graded school. The voters of a district may, however, by a vote of any properly called meeting, decide to fix the date of its annual meeting on the second Monday of July. They are also authorized to change back to the September date in a similar manner. The officers chosen at an annual meeting, date their terms of office from the date of election and continue in office until their successors are elected and qualified (5046).
IN TOWNSHIP DISTRICTS.
In township districts the annual meeting is held at the same place as the annual township meeting,— the first Monday in April.
BUSINESS TO BE TRANSACTED. At this meeting the township school officers are chosen, the amount of money to be raised by tax for school purposes is determined, and the annual detailed report of the board of education is publicly read by the president of the board or, in his absence, by the clerk (Act 176, 1891).
IN DISTRICTS UNDER SPECIAL ACT.
Districts in cities organized by special legislative enactment, hold annual meetings on the date specified in the act.
CENSUS. The time of taking the annual school census by the director and school officers is the same in all districts of the state, being the ten days previous to the first Monday in September.
SPECIAL MEETINGS. Special meetings may be called by the district board. It is the duty of the board or any one of them, to call such meetings on the written request of not less than five legal voters of the district, by giving the required notice. No special meeting can legally be called, unless the business to be transacted may lawfully come before such meeting (5047).
NOTICES.
FOR DISTRICT MEETINGS. Six days’ notice of all district meetings must be given by the posting of written notices in three of the meetings. most public places of the district. These notices are prepared by the director, and one copy is placed on the outer door of the school house.
FOR SPECIAL MEETINGS. When a special meeting is called for the purpose of establishing or changing a school site, a ten days’ notice is required.
WHEN GIVEN. It is the duty of any school officer, upon receiving a request signed by five legal voters, to call such meeting on a date between six and twelve days from the time such request is received.
CONTENTS. All notices of special meetings must contain a statement of all the business which is proposed to be transacted at such meeting (5048).
FAILURE TO GIVE NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING.
Failure on the part of a director to give notice of an annual meeting, does not invalidate the proceedings of the meeting, unless it appears that the director wilfully and fraudulently omitted to give notice.
IN TOWNSHIP DISTRICTS No notices of district meetings in township districts are required, as the only meeting provided in the act is the annual township meeting held on the first Monday of April (Act 176, 1891).