Webster Ind. School Dist. v. Co. Bd. of Ed.
Webster Ind. School Dist. v. Co. Bd. of Ed.
Opinion of the Court
On November 12, 1969 the State Commission on Elementary and Secondary Education of the State of South Dakota conducted a public hearing at Webster, South Dakota, to determine the future status of Kosciusko Common School District No. 201. Such meeting was held in conjunction with a special meeting of the Day County Board of Education. Certain portions of Kosciusko Common are contiguous to Webster Independent School District No.
Shortly after the meeting of the State Commission on November 12, a petition was filed by an elector of Kosciusko Common with the clerk of Kosciusko Common, calling for a special election to determine whether it should be attached to Roslyn Independent. The election date was set for December 9, 1969 and notice of election was published once each week for three weeks. The Kosciusko Common Board acted as the judges and clerk of the election, and each elector voting signed his or her name in the pollbook. At the conclusion of the election the judges and clerk of the election canvassed the votes and verified the count. No person who offered to vote at the polls was turned away or objected to, and no ballots were thrown out or objected to. After the election the ballots were delivered to the Auditor of Day County, who is also the secretary of the Day County Board of Education. Eleven votes were cast in favor and six votes against. The Day County board considered the election results at its December 1969 meeting, and at its regular meeting held on January 19, 1970 approved the annexation of Kosciusko Common to Roslyn Independent. At no time has the State Superintendent of Public Instruction issued a "Notice of Compliance" and the state commission has taken no action concerning Kosciusko Common other than to conduct the public hearing November 12, 1969.
The action of the County Board of Education of Day County, appealed to and heard by the Circuit Court of Day County, was upheld by the court and the annexation of Kosciusko Common to Roslyn Independent was approved. The appeal here is from the court's judgment.
Appellants next contend that the Day County Board of Education failed to consider the best interests of the children involved in the annexation of Kosciusko Common to Roslyn Inde
The last contention made by appellants is that the election held in Kosciusko Common on December 9, 1969, is invalid and ineffectual. They contend that because no prior notice of such reorganization plan had been given to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction nor had any notice of compliance been received as required by SDCL 13-6-8.1 and 13-6-8.2, and because such attempted election was conducted subsequent to the time the State Commission on Elementary and Secondary Education had held their hearing in Webster thereby assuming jurisdiction over the reorganization, such election was invalid. Both of these contentions are disposed of by our holding in Pollock, supra, and quoted above, and our holding herein. Appellants also state that because the ballots were not stamped as "official ballots" as required by SDCL 12-16-30, the election was invalid. This same contention is raised in Carr v. Wakonda Independent Consolidated School District, 44 S.D. 103, 182 N.W. 626, and decided adversely to appellants' contention. Appellant raises numerous other objections to the election which we deem to be without sufficient merit to void the election.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- WEBSTER IND. SCHOOL DIST. v. CO. BD. OF ED. OF DAY COUNTY, and KOSCIUSKO COMMON SCH. DIST.
- Status
- Published