680 N.E.2d 1061 | Ohio Ct. App. | 1996
[EDITORS' NOTE: THIS PAGE CONTAINS HEADNOTES. HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.] *307 The Cincinnati City School District, appellant, appeals from the judgment of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, which affirmed the State Board of *308 Education's order transferring territory from the Cincinnati City School District to the Madeira City School District. We affirm for the reasons that follow.
The Ken Arbre subdivision, consisting of forty-eight homes, is located entirely within the city of Madeira but is part of the Cincinnati City School District. On March 29, 1992, residents of the subdivision submitted a petition pursuant to R.C.
In considering a transfer petition, the referee must consider the answers of the transferee and transferor school districts to the seventeen questions listed in Ohio Adm. Code
"[I]t appears that all factors with the exception [of] racial isolation implications and potential financial implications would point to approving the transfer. * * *
"[I]t is recommended that the financial consequences and racial impact of the proposed transfer necessitate that Petitioner's request be denied."
The referee found that the transfer would cost appellant $70,000 to $75,000, or about 0.026 percent of its $291 million budget. The referee also found that none of the subdivision's fourteen school-age children attended any of appellant's schools, except one child who attended an alternative Cincinnati school and was scheduled to graduate in 1994. Three school-age children from the subdivision were home-schooled. The referee found that minorities constituted 64.7942 percent of the students in the Cincinnati City School District and 3.6882 percent of the students in the Madeira City School District. The minority enrollment in the three Cincinnati schools assigned to the Ken Arbre subdivision was 84.1, 80.48, and 75.64 percent, respectively. Relying on Ohio Adm. Code
The State Board of Education rejected the recommendation and approved the transfer on July 12, 1994, finding that the negative effect on the racial balance of appellant's schools would be de minimis and that the transfer was "in the best interests of the school-age pupils most directly affected by the transfer." Appellant appealed pursuant to R.C.
Appellant now asserts one assignment of error: "The trial court erred to the prejudice of appellant-appellant by ruling that the transfer of territory is in accordance with law." Appellant alleges three errors of law: (1) because the transfer preserves or increases racial isolation, the transfer violates Ohio Adm. Code
A resolution of the State Board of Education pursuant to an R.C.
Appellant first argues that the transfer of the Ken Arbre subdivision would preserve or increase racial isolation and that the transfer is prohibited by Ohio Adm. Code
Ohio Adm. Code Chapter 3301-89 applies to transfers requested pursuant to R.C.
"General policies of the state board of education in a request for transfer of territory under section
"* * *
"(F) A request for transfer of territory will be considered upon its merit with primary consideration given to the present and ultimate good of the pupils concerned." Ohio Adm. Code
Because the good of the pupils must be the primary consideration of the board, by definition no other single factor may be determinative of the transfer request.
"[T]he several factors for consideration set forth in Ohio Adm. Code
"* * *
"[I]t is appropriate for the board to consider both the social and educational needs of all affected students, as well as the potential financial implications of a transfer. When a transfer of school districts is proposed, a balancing must take place between many competing factors in order to achieve the desired result of achieving what is in the best interests of the students concerned." Garfield Hts. City School Dist. v. StateBd. of Edn. (1990),
Ohio Adm. Code
"Factors to be considered by a referee appointed to hear a request for transfer of territory under section
"(A) A referee appointed to hear a transfer request under section
"(B) Other factors that a referee shall consider in hearing any request for a transfer of territory for school purposes include, but are not necessarily limited to:
"(1) Documented agreements made by public agencies involved in municipal annexation proceedings should be honored;
"(2) A previous agreement entered into by the school districts concerned should be honored unless all concerned districts agree to amend it;
"(3) The statement signed by the school district boards of education after negotiations as required by paragraph (D)(4) of rule
"(4) There should not be undue delay in requesting a transfer for school purposes after a territory has been annexed for municipal purposes;
"(5) The transfer shall not cause, preserve, or increase racial isolation;
"(6) All school district territories should be contiguous unless otherwise authorized by law;
"(7) School district boundary lines that have existed for a long period of time should not be changed if substantial upheaval results because of long-held loyalties by the parties involved;
"(8) The pupil loss of the relinquishing district should not be such that the educational program of that district is severely impaired;
"(9) The fiscal resources acquired should be commensurate with the educational responsibilities assumed; and
"(10) The educational facilities of districts should be effectively utilized.
"(C) When a hearing officer has received and considered the information provided by representatives of the school districts, petitioners for a transfer of territory, and any other party at the hearing, particularly information under paragraph (B) of this rule and paragraph (B) of rule
If an administrative regulation is ambiguous, courts must give due deference to the authoring agency's interpretation.State ex rel. Palmer v. State Teachers Retirement Bd. (1993),
Appellant asserts that the transfer of the Ken Arbre subdivision violates the Equal Protection Clause. The court of common pleas held that because appellant *313 is a political subdivision of the state of Ohio, it does not have standing to invoke the protection provided by the United States Constitution against its own state. The court stated that even assuming that appellant has standing to challenge the state board's order on equal protection grounds, the order does not violate the Equal Protection Clause.4
The doctrine of standing in federal court is based on both the limitation on federal court jurisdiction embodied in the case-or-controversy requirement of Clause 1, Section 2, Article
"The essence of the doctrine of standing is whether the party seeking relief has `alleged such a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy as to assure that concrete adverseness which sharpens the presentation of issues upon which the court so largely depends for illumination.'" Racing Guild of Ohio, Local304 v. State Racing Comm. (1986),
School districts have standing both to assert the equal protection rights of their students directly on behalf of the students and to raise the Equal Protection Clause as a shield on its own behalf when a state-ordered transfer would cause the school district to violate the equal protection rights of others. See Akron Bd. of Edn. v. State Bd. of Edn. (C.A. 6, 1974),
In holding that appellant lacks standing to raise its equal protection argument, the court of common pleas relied on AvonLake City School Dist. v. Limbach (1988),
In Avon Lake, two school districts challenged the public utility tax assessments made by the tax commissioner against two utility companies. The school districts argued that the statutory scheme for appealing final determinations of the tax commissioner violated the procedural due process protections of the
In Harrell, two citizens sought transfer pursuant to R.C.
"Streetsboro [City School District] is not one of the qualified electors that it claims are the victims of these purportedly irrational classifications. Since Streetsboro is not a member of the class it identifies, it lacks standing to attack the statute's constitutionality on the ground that it violates others' rights to equal protection." Id. at 63,
Harrell is distinguishable from this case in that the Streetsboro school district was challenging the authority of the General Assembly to establish rules by which citizens can initiate a transfer. The Streetsboro school district was raising the rights of electors to initiate a transfer. Here, appellant is challenging a resolution of the state board that would allegedly force appellant to violate the equal protection rights of its students. Appellant is raising the rights of its students in an effort to block a transfer. Third-party standing is the exception rather than the rule, and the exception applies in this case because of the relationship between the school district and its students. That relationship was not implicated by the Streetsboro school district's allegation that there was no rational basis for the General Assembly establishing different rules for initiating different types of transfers.
In re Transfer of Territory from Streetsboro City SchoolDist. was a subsequent appeal in the Harrell action. After the Streetsboro City School District forwarded the petitions to the State Board of Education, the State Board of Education approved the transfer, and the court of common pleas affirmed. On appeal, the Streetsboro City School District argued that R.C.
We conclude that appellant has standing to raise the argument that the state board's resolution approving the transfer of the Ken Arbre subdivision violates the equal protection rights of its students.
Although appellant has standing to assert its equal protection argument, we agree with the court of common pleas that appellant did not prove that the transfer would violate the Equal Protection Clause. The only pertinent evidence in the record is the percentage racial composition of the two districts and the territory. The only other material available to the court of common pleas or to this court is the reported 1984 opinion of the federal district court announcing the consent decree and the text of an October 26, 1993 settlement agreement, which purports to replace the 1984 consent decree. The lack of evidence in the record is reflected in the brevity with which appellant discusses the issue in its brief. Appellant states in conclusory fashion that the transfer will violate the Equal Protection Clause. The only authority appellant cites is a two-page memorandum and one-page judgment entry from 1973 out of the United States District Court in Cincinnati, in which the court rendered its judgment that an order of the State Board of Education ordering a transfer of territory from the Cincinnati City School District violated the Equal Protection Clause. Based solely on this memorandum and judgment entry, appellant asserts that any transfer of a largely white neighborhood out of the largely minority Cincinnati City School District would violate the Equal Protection Clause. We disagree. The fact that such a transfer could violate the Equal Protection Clause does not mean that every such transfer violates the Equal Protection Clause. The finding of a federal court twenty-three years ago that a proposed transfer from the Cincinnati City School District would violate the Equal Protection Clause does not create a rule of law that such a transfer is prohibited in perpetuity.
In reviewing the proposed splitting of a school district that was sixty-six percent black into two districts, one fifty-two percent black, one seventy-two percent black, the United States Supreme Court said that mere disparity in numbers did not constitute an equal protection violation:
"We need not and do not hold that this disparity in the racial composition of the two systems would be a sufficient reason, standing alone, to enjoin the creation of the separate school district. The fact that a school board's desegregation plan leaves some disparity in racial balance among various schools in the system does not alone make that plan unacceptable." Wright v. Council of Emporia (1972),
Similarly, the mere transfer of a few students from the Ken Arbre subdivision cannot constitute an equal protection violation. *317
Appellant argues that the court of common pleas erred in failing to admit evidence of two subsequent requests of residents for transfer of territory from the Cincinnati City School District. The additional evidence proffered by appellant included an R.C.
R.C.
"Unless otherwise provided by law, the court may grant a request for the admission of additional evidence when satisfied that such additional evidence is newly discovered and could not with reasonable diligence have been ascertained prior to the hearing before the agency." R.C.
The decision to admit additional evidence lies within the discretion of the court of common pleas, but only after the court has determined that the evidence is newly discovered and that it could not with reasonable diligence have been ascertained prior to the agency hearing. Ganley, Inc. v. OhioMotor Vehicle Dealers Bd. (Sept. 29, 1994), Franklin App. No. 93APE12-1646, unreported, 1994 WL 530307; see Rollins v. OhioReal Estate Comm. (May 2, 1985), Cuyahoga App. No. 48546, unreported, 1985 WL 8968. Newly discovered evidence is evidence that was in existence at the time of the administrative hearing.Swope v. Bd. of Bldg. Stds. (Dec. 23, 1993), Franklin App. No. 93AP-595, unreported, 1993 WL 538310; Steckler v. Ohio State Bd.of Psychology (1992),
For these reasons, appellant's assignment of error is overruled, and the judgment of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
PEGGY BRYANT and DESHLER, JJ., concur.
"The department of education shall be subject to all provisions of law pertaining to departments, offices, or institutions established for the exercise of any function of the state government; excepting that it shall not be one of the departments provided for under division (A) of section
The Department of Education is the administrative unit through which powers of the state board and duties of the superintendent of public instruction are administered. R.C.
In Bronson v. Cincinnati City School Dist. Bd. of Edn.
(S.D.Ohio 1984),