Bill Text: MS HB1439 | 2010 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: School districts; abolish certain small, underperforming districts and redistribute students equally to adjacent districts.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2010-02-02 - Died In Committee [HB1439 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2010-HB1439-Introduced.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2010 Regular Session
To: Education
By: Representative Gunn
House Bill 1439
AN ACT TO REQUIRE THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION TO ABOLISH EACH CHRONICALLY UNDERPERFORMING SMALL SCHOOL DISTRICT, WHICH IS DEFINED AS A SCHOOL DISTRICT HAVING, FOR TWO CONSECUTIVE SCHOOL YEARS, 1,500 OR FEWER ENROLLED STUDENTS AND AN ACCOUNTABILITY LABEL OTHER THAN SUCCESSFUL, HIGH PERFORMING OR STAR; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. (1) This section shall apply only to those public school districts in the State of Mississippi which, during each of two (2) consecutive school years, meet the following conditions:
(a) Has an annual enrollment equal to or less than one thousand five hundred (1,500) students; and
(b) Has an accountability label, as determined by the State Department of Education, other than Successful, High Performing or Star.
For purposes of this section, a school district that meets the conditions prescribed in this subsection shall be referred to as a "chronically underperforming small school district."
(2) The State Board of Education shall adopt and implement a policy requiring the abolition of each chronically underperforming small school district. Under the policy, the board shall divide the territory formerly comprising a chronically underperforming small school district among all adjacent school districts in a manner that provides for the allocation, in as equal a number as possible, of the students enrolled in the chronically underperforming small school district among all districts adjacent to that chronically underperforming small school district. When the order of the board establishing the new boundaries of the adjacent school districts has been adopted, the new district lines shall be submitted 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. If the change in the school district lines are either precleared by the United States Department of Justice, or approved by the United States District Court, the State Board of Education shall adopt an order declaring the new lines as the new boundaries of the adjacent school districts and the chronically underperforming small school district is abolished, effective on the first day of July following the date that the new lines were precleared or approved, as the case may be.
(3) Upon preclearance of the new district boundaries, the order of the State Board of Education declaring the chronically underperforming small school district as abolished shall invalidate the contract of the superintendent of the abolished district and shall terminate the term of the superintendent if that person was elected. The order to consolidate shall invalidate the term of any school board member beyond July 1 of that year, whether elected or appointed.
(4) The abolition of a chronically underperforming small school district shall not release the property in the territory that comprised that school district from assessment and liability for the payment of any outstanding bonds or other indebtedness of the abolished district. The taxing authority for each school district to which students from the abolished districts have been reassigned shall continue to levy taxes on the territory that has been incorporated into that school district in an amount sufficient to pay such territory's pro rata part of all outstanding bonds or other indebtedness existing at the time the chronically underperforming small school district was abolished. An adjacent school district's pro rata part of the outstanding indebtedness shall be a percentage equal to the percentage of students transferred to that district from the chronically underperforming small school district at the time the district was abolished. In addition, the territory added to an adjacent district from the chronically underperforming small school district shall become liable for its pro rata part of the outstanding bonds or other indebtedness of the district to which it is annexed, and taxes shall be levied on such territory for the payment of bonds or other indebtedness to the same extent as taxes are levied upon all other territory of that school district.
SECTION 2. The Attorney General of the State of Mississippi shall submit this act, immediately upon approval by the Governor, or upon approval by the Legislature subsequent to a veto, to the Attorney General of the United States or to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in accordance with the provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended and extended.
SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after the date it is effectuated under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended and extended.
