State ex rel. Nimberger v. Bushnell
State ex rel. Nimberger v. Bushnell
Opinion of the Court
The question presented by the record in this case is whether a board of education of a village district wherein no high school is maintained is required by law to pay the tuition of pupils who have completed the elementary school work of such district and are attending a high school in another district.
Although each board of education is required by law to establish a sufficient number of elementary schools to provide for the free education of the youth of school age within the school district, the provisions of the statute with reference to the establishment of high schools are not mandatory.
It is provided by Section 7663, General Code, that a board of education may establish one or more high schools, whenever it deems the same necessary for the convenience or progress of the pupils attending them, or for the conduct and welfare of the educational interests of the district. We think it must be conceded that there is no liability upon a village board of education for the payment of tuition for pupils resident of that district, but attending high schools elsewhere, unless the statutes of the state specifically place upon such board of education that obligation. It is contended that such duty and obligation is fixed and declared, by the
Section 7750, General Code, provides that a board of education not having a high school may enter into an agreement with another board of education which does maintain a high school for the schooling of the high-school pupils of the former, and then, when such an agreement is made, the board making it shall be exempt from the payment of tuition at other high schools of pupils who live within three miles of the school designated in the agreement, if the school or schools selected by the board are located in the same civil township, as that of the board making it, or some adjoining township. That section provides further that in case no such agreement is entered into, the pupil holding a diploma may select the school to be attended, and shall give notice thereof in writing to the clerk of the board of education.
Section 7751 provides that “Such tuition shall be paid from either the tuition or contingent funds.”
Before we can be justified, however, in applying the provisions of these sections to all schools’, and to all boards of education, we must examine the history of these sections and thereby ascertain their correct meaning and proper application.
Section 7750 was formerly a portion of Section 4029-3, Revised Statutes, which was a part of what was formerly known as the Boxwell law, under authority of which pupils of subdistricts and special
No change whatever was made in the substance, meaning or application of these provisions at that time except to eliminate joint subdistricts, and that undoubtedly was done because of the fact that in 1904 joint subdistricts had been abolished.
A dissection of the original sections, making several sections of each for the purpose of convenience merely, does not effect any change in the substance or operative effect thereof, and, under the well-known and frequently-applied rule, does not alter the meaning of the language used.
The presumption is that although the language has been changed in the revision or codification of the statute it has the same meaning and application as before the revision or codification, and the court is warranted in changing the construction thereof only when that is plainly required in order to conform to the manifest intent of the legislature. Ash v. Ash et al., 9 Ohio St., 383, 387; State, ex rel. Clough & Co., v. Commissioners, 36 Ohio St., 326; Heck v. State, 44 Ohio St., 536; State, ex rel. Baumgardner, v. Stockley, 45 Ohio St., 304, 308; Conger et al. v. Barker’s Admr., 11 Ohio St., 1; German American Ins. Co. v. McBee et al., 85 Ohio St., 173, and Myers, Treas., v. Rose Institute, 92 Ohio St., 238, 247.
“A board of education” meant just the same after as it did before the action of the codifying
Section 7740 was amended April 13, 1910, extending the privilege of taking the examination to pupils of village districts as well as to those of township and special districts. However, there was no change in the provisions relative to the payment of tuition. The question thereupon arises whether this amendment, which affords to the pupils of village districts the privilege to take such examination, serves to impose upon the board of education of such district the obligation to pay tuition for any such pupils passing the examination who thereafter attend high school in some other district. It is to be borne in mind that the right and privilege of pupils to attend high school in districts other than those wherein they reside was conferred long prior to the passage of any law requiring boards of education to pay tuition for such attendance. It is therefore manifest that the right to take the examination, and, if successful, the privilege of attending a high school in another district, did not imply any obligation whatever upon the local board of education to pay tuition. The right of the pupil to attend a high school elsewhere and the obligation of the board to pay tuition have,at all times been treated in legislation as two entirely separate and distinct matters, the privilege of the pupil being broader than the obligation of the board. .
In 1914 the sections of the code which incorporate the provisions for examination were repealed. At that time, also, Section 7747 was amended so as to read as follows:
“The tuition of pupils who are eligible for admission to high school and who reside in rural: districts, in which no high school is maintained, shall be paid by the board of education of the school district in which they have legal school residence, such tuition to be computed by the month. An attendance any part of the month shall create a liability for the entire month. No more shall be charged per capita than the amount ascertained by dividing the total expenses of conducting the high school of the district attended, exclusive of permanent improvements and repair, by the average monthly enrollment in the high school of the district. The district superintendent shall certify to the county su*212 perintendent each year the names of all pupils in his supervision district who have completed the elementary school work, and are eligible for admission to high school. The county superintendent shall thereupon issue to each pupil so certified a certificate of promotion which shall éntitle the holder to admission to any high school. Such certificates shall be furnished by the superintendent of public instruction.”
Under the provisions of the above section, while all pupils of any school in the county under the supervision of the county superintendent, who had completed the elementary school work, were entitled to receive certificates of promotion and permitted to attend any high school in the state, yet local boards of education, by the terms of this statute, were required to pay the tuition only of pupils “who reside in rural districts, in which no high school is maintained.”
It is too plain to require discussion that the provisions of Section 7747, General Code, must be limited in their application to rural districts. That limitation is made by the express terms of that section, and we have seen that under proper construction of Sections 7750 and 7751 the provisions thereof do not include village boards of education.
It is to be observed that the manner of ascertaining the rate of tuition to be charged for rural pupils is definitely prescribed by Section 7747. If we assume that Sections 7750 and 7751 place upon village boards of education the obligation to pay tuition we cannot look to the provisions of Section 7747 to ascertain the rate of tuition to be charged,
It follows that if village boards of education are required to pay tuition they must meet the terms prescribed by the board of education of the district maintaining the high school attended, while the board of education of the rural district is required to pay only the tuition determined and computed in the manner prescribed by Section 7747, General Code, although pupils from the village district and the rural district may be in attendance upon the same high school.
From these considerations it seems quite clear that the legislators, in drafting and enacting the various statutes to which we have referred, either designedly or inadvertently failed to impose upon boards of education of village districts maintaining no high school the obligation to pay tuition for the pupils of that district attending a high school elsewhere. It is well argued that there is no good reason why that should have been done. We are un
Demurrer sustained and writ refused.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.