Can a county school become a town's private school?
May 30, 2009 12:34 PM   Subscribe

I need expert opinions on the following situation involving a municipality and a county school boundary...

In my county there is an incorporated town. Most of the children in the town attend a county public elementary school within the town boundary. Town residents are lobbying the county to adjust the school zone so that it matches exactly the town lines making it, in essence, the town school. The town boundaries do not follow any geographic features and often cut through neighborhoods such that there is no distinction between being inside or outside the lines. In fact, the town is situated within what I would definitely consider a larger contiguous community.

Their request does not seem legal to me.

FWIW there is wealth and majority white concentrated within the boundaries- not along the lines so much as towards the town center. The municipal taxes they pay have nothing to do with resource distribution to the school.
posted by hellboundforcheddar to Law & Government (10 answers total)
 
Response by poster: I should have been clearer: The school boundary currently includes children from outside the town limits- in other words it extends beyond the town lines in places.
posted by hellboundforcheddar at 12:39 PM on May 30, 2009


These lines get adjusted all the time. It's perfectly legal, though often not very ethical.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 12:42 PM on May 30, 2009


Response by poster: I know adjusting the lines is legal and common. But specifically adjusting to match town limits for its own sake seems shady to me.
posted by hellboundforcheddar at 12:50 PM on May 30, 2009


In my area, school district boundaries, county lines and town limits are all separate entities, and it's not a legal requirement that they align. More often than not, they DO align, but that is usually for the convenience of the residents, or the taxing bodies themselves.

I agree that what these people are trying to do is probably based in an us (the haves) vs. them (the have-nots) mentality, if you look deep into their motives. But I have no doubt that the public argument they will put forth is one of "convenience". (For themselves, of course.)

The school district board would be the ones to decide this, unless it is written into their regulations that a major change has to be approved by voters. A rather major remapping happened in my area after a referendum was passed by voters. Smaller rezonings due to construction of new subdivisions, for example, are handled by the board.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 1:08 PM on May 30, 2009


Oh, and obviously expert opinions can only come from a lawyer familiar with the municipalities involved, and possibly the board of education in your state.

If this is something you want to fight, you might start by checking out your state's regulations for changing school district boundaries. There may be specific steps that have to be followed, including public hearings, referendums, open meetings, good faith efforts to reach every homeowner affected, etc.. If you think your local school board might try to skirt around any rules, it would be a good idea to know those rules asap, and start spreading the word among like-minded citizens.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 1:16 PM on May 30, 2009


Response by poster: I don't really have a stake in this as I live in a different school zone. I am watching this situation with some interest, though...
posted by hellboundforcheddar at 1:51 PM on May 30, 2009


Their request does not seem legal to me.

Well, I would doubt that it is illegal. In most states, though, there would need to be some sort of complex process, probably involving negotiation with the other school district. Around here that's called something like a "joint boundary line committee" and they tend to deliberate for months or years before making changes.

If people living in Town A are in School District B and would like to be in School District A as well, I'm not sure what the problem is. If people in Town A are uncomfortable with other people in Town A also being in School District A, which is what I read between the lines of your post, I would seriously wonder what their motives were. I would wonder as well if they were keen on excluding people in Town Not-A from School District A even though they bought homes there knowing where their children would go to school, especially if these people objected. This is another possible reading of your post.

Basically, the legality is probably there, but how it is gone about will depend on state law. The morality is another matter entirely. Ultimately, I believe the people living in the area to be adjusted should have great deference to their preference.

(We have this locally right now. Small city/large town next to bigger city, which has now grown into the small city's school district. Some people like that -- they want to be in the small-town school, essentially -- but others are confused how they can be in our city and sent to another school. (Although actually our state has limited school choice, but that's another matter.) Others in the small town see their school taxes rising to support the growth of big city. This is really, really common.)
posted by dhartung at 4:34 PM on May 30, 2009


Response by poster: dhartung- I am, in fact, serving on a boundary study committee focusing on a different boundary change involving the subject school and said school's representatives are now moving outside the scope of the current study and lobbying for the boundary changes I described above. It's been complicated. This new development in some ways smells to me like exclusion. (if exclusion has a smell... a bad smell...)
posted by hellboundforcheddar at 4:59 PM on May 30, 2009


Ah. Well, frankly, I think what you seek is a legal opinion from someone who is intimately familiar with your state's laws on this matter. The committee that you're on almost certainly has the capability to request one from the school district's attorney(s) or at worst the state itself. I really don't see where you're going to get a real "expert" opinion of this specificity just asking AskMe. There are dependencies not just on state code, but case law. Sorry.

All that said, unless it's been a specific problem in the past or it's resulted in some sort of Brown v. Board of Education oversight, the decision is probably up to the board of the countywide school district in question whether it wants to set the boundaries of specific schools and the towns they are in to be coterminous. The political consequences they might face would be up to them. I can't imagine it makes fiduciary sense, though.
posted by dhartung at 11:14 PM on May 30, 2009


Response by poster: Thanks for the helpful responses.
posted by hellboundforcheddar at 6:57 AM on May 31, 2009


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