75 So. 833 | Miss. | 1917
delivered the opinion of the court.
The county school board of Covington county on petition of the qualified electors of the Sanford consolidated school district established a consolidated school known as the Sanford Consolidated School in said county; and there was a petition filed with the board of supervisors signed by a majority of the. qualified electors of said district praying for the issuance of fifteen thousand ■dollars ■ of bonds of the said school district to build and equip a school building for said district, and at the June meeting, 1916, the board of supervisors gave notice of its intention to issue the bonds as prayed for, and the same was published in four issues of the county paper notifying the inhabitants of the district, that the board proposed to issue the bonds as prayed for. On the first
“To the Honorable Board of Supervisors of Covington County: We, the undersigned, citizens, voters,'taxpayers, having learned of your intention to float bonds for the purpose of building and making a certain school located at Sanford in said county, and we being each of us in said Sanford district, do hereby petition your- honorable board to submit same to the voters of said district for their approval or rejection.”
This petition was signed by more than twenty per cent, of the qualified voters in the said district, many of the names appearing on the original petition appearing also on this petition. On the first Monday of July, before the convening of the board of supervisors, these last-named petitioners held a conference with an attorney and employed him to present the petition on their behalf. The attorney advised the petitioners that the petition was probably insufficient in its verbiage to comply with the law, but suggested that he would try to get it amended before the board and ask all present who were opposed to' having it amended to speak out. There was general approval by those present, some thirty-five to fifty, citizens, and none of them objected. The petition was filed without amendment on the said Monday and it did not come up before the board of supervisors until Wednesday, July 5th, when the attorney representing* the petitioners appeared before the board and asked leave to amend the petition to conform to the statute. There was some discussion of the question by the attorney in favor and by the attorney opposed to this petition, one contending that the amendment could be made, and the other that it could not be made, and the board •of supervisors sent for the district attorney of the district, who was then at the courthouse engaged in circuit court, and asked his advice as to whether the amendment could be made, an dwas advised by the district at
The act is not in conflict with the state or federal Constitution, because under the law the board has the same power to create consolidated schools for the colored race that it has for the white race, and is not analogous to the ease of McFarland v. Goins, 96 Miss. 67, 50 So. 493. In said case the act creating the agricultural high school in 1908 provided in its terms that such school could only be created for members of the white race, and for this reason was a discrimination against the citizens of the colored race who would have to be taxed for the support of a school which they could not attend. Under the present act the board of supervisors and county school board may create consolidated school districts for either the white race, the colored race, or for both according to the necessities of local conditions; and the fact that a district is created for one race alone is not in conflict with any constitutional provision. Our general statutes authorize the school board of establish separate schools for the white and colored races in each county. A consolidated school might be desirable and necessary for one race, while there might be so few
A consolidated school district is simply a common school district where two or more existing schools have been consolidated into one single school district.
The bill in this case does not, however, properly present the question, because it is not alleged that there is sufficient colored children to maintain a public school, and, second, it does not allege that there is no colored school located in the territory comprising the district whereat the colored children may be educated in the same subjects taught in the consolidated school. There is therefore no merit in the attack on the constitutionality of the law.
We think the petition presented to the board of supervisors, claimed to be against the issuance of the bonds, is not in fact a petition against the issuance of the bonds. It is merely a petition requesting the board to submit the question of the issuance of bonds to the people for approval or rejection. Any party could sign this petition without committing himself in any way as being for or against the proposed issue. Those in favor of the bond issue might sign this petition is quickly and readily as those against it. Doubtless many names which were appended to this petition would have voted for the bond issue because it appears that they had signed the petition for the bond issue and for the school. Most people are willing to submit questions of this kind to an election and to be governed by the result of the election regardless of their individual views. The boárd of supervisors’ right to order an election at the expense of the taxpayers of the county depends upon the compliance with the law on that subject, and it has no right to hold an election at the expense of the public merely to gratify the wish of the people. It must be .made manifest to the board that there are twenty per cent, of the electors who really oppose the issuance of the bonds,
We think the board was right in refusing to allow an amendment to the -petition after the first Monday in July and in the absence of the petitioners. The petition could not be amended without the consent of the parties who signed it, and it does not appear that twenty per cent, of the qualified electors and taxpayers of the district consented to such amendment.
The judgment of the chancellor is therefore affirmed.
Affirmed.