Case Information
*1 R-475 -:. ‘RICE DANIEL July 16, 1947 ,lro- GBNERAL
Hon. John C. Marburger Oplnlon Ro. y-304
County Attorney
Fayette County Re: Finality! of a decision La Grange, Texas of the State .Board or
Raucat ion sustaining action of a Cot&y Sohool Board ~oloslng an ~element- ary school.
Dear Sir: .-
We -refer to your’ letter of June’ 26,. 1947, in which you ask us to review -your .lnqulry-‘o$ May 8, 1947, in which-.you submitted the following:.. ~, -’ .
:,.- ‘*Sine time during the year l94k, by or- der of the County Board of Sohoo.1 Trustees of Fayette County, Texas,’ the Springs Common School District and the Fayettgvllle : Common Sahool ‘District and other contiguous.
. . :. doramon school alstrlats were grouped and
formed the Fayettevllle Rural High Sohool District; Arter this .grouplng bye the County Board of School Trustees, an elementary ~School was maintained ,at the Willow Springs School for ‘the year 1944-1945. During this school year some eight grades were taught wlth’about 53 pupils in attendance, maln- talnlng an average dally attendance for said school year far above twenty.
“During the later part of the X944- ,1945 school year, the- Board of .Trustees for the Fayettevllle Rural High School Dlstriot by’ Its order closed the Willow Springs Ele- mentary Sbhool .for the coming 1945-46 school year and ordered the elementary pu- ~~11s of the Wll4oy .Sp,rlngs District to at- tend eohool at.the .Fayettevllle Rural High School’. The majority of the tax payers Andy patrons of the Willow Sprl,ngs Distrlot i protested to the Trustees of the Fayette- ville Rural High School District, because .,9f the oloslng of the Willow Springs School, *2 Hon. John C. Marburger, Page 2, V-304
and finally the matter was taken to the State Superintendent at Austin, Texas. On April 1, .1946, the Willow Springs Elementary School was again opened and six grades were taught In said school for some forty days, being the remainder of said school year. During these forty days that the Willow Springs School was reopened,.said school aid not maintain an average daily attend-.' :~ ante of at least twenty pupils for ~various reasons, such as , parents did not.want to.
'~'transfer their children from one school to another With only eight weeks of schoolre- ,. _~.. .malning,,ana others.had transferred their
children out of the district.
"At the ena of the school year 1945- J946, the Board of Trustees of the Favefte- vllle~,Rural High School District again en- tered Its order closing the Willow Springs School for the 1946-1947 school vear for the reason that the average dally attendanae receding year of 1945-1946 was be- -You&k .whether or not action of the .varlous Boards was legal,.ln &osl~ng .the school.~ After recelv- lng your,lnqulry.we .lea.rned.,that the action of the Trus- tees .of ,tpe Fayettevllle Rural High School.Dlstrlct, the subject of your Inquiry, was, reviewed and affirmed by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education., .snd that no appeal was taken from the decision of the State Board. We are en- closing copy of each of said decisions ,for your lnfor- nation. ,.
The Wlllow'Sprlngs School was changed to a six grade.elementary school.. No aRpeal..was taken from the order of. the, School Board which so dlasslfled the school'. .In the. appeal from the or.der,closing the school the Stat.? Superintendent found, as a fact, that when all of the .&hlldren In the district withinthe first six grades,. counting those'who attended the Springs School,,and also those who attended the Fayettevllle School, the av.erage dally attendance was less'than'twen- tY. The evidence showed'that, some children who live In an adjoining county attended the,WllLow Springs School before the co'nsolldation.
Hon. John C. Marburger,. Pa~ge 3,.v-304. ;'
,Rlght of appeal andthetrlbunals of-such ap- peals is provided for In Articles 2656and 2686 of Ver- nonls.Clvll Stat~utes. The Interested partles.haQ the choice ~of appellate tribunals and, chose to app.eal:t.othe State Superintendent of Public In§truction Lana the State Board.of Educatlon;.any right whioh they ever had on the faots are foreolosed by the 'final de~olslons of those a- gencies.
In the.cas.e;.of Blalr.~.~Board.of Trustees, Trinity Independent School District, 161 S.W.(2d). 1030, the Court quotes ftimthe opinion written by Judge Alex- ander while a member of the ,Waco Court of Civil Appeals, In Gragg v. Bill, 58 S..W. 28 150; (Writ refused) as follows:
"By the'provlslons of the above statute 2656, R. S.1925) the Leglslat,ure has Y . (Art. committed to the state superintendent, ,as .one specially tralnea'ana experlenoed ;i.n school matters, ~the responsibility of .decidlng.all questions relating to ,the internal affairs and management of the public sohools of Texas.
His decisions In such matters are..flnal unless ireversed by the state board of edt.icatlon,the decision of that board becomes final and cannot .~ -and will not be Interfered with by the courts .un.less such board acts arbitrarily or ls,actu- : . . .ated by fraud or abuses Its, dlsaretlon. The . . . findings of such board on matters comm1tte.d to
Its jurisdiction, when not arbitrary or &aprlc- lolls, are prima facie true and are 8s~ binding on the courts as Is the verdict of a .jury; and the .oourt wlll"not.put itself In the position of the board'ana try-the ~questlon anew for the purpose of testing the expediency or wisdom of the decision of,the board, nor forithe pur- pose of detelmlnlng whether or not under slml- lar testimony It-would have made a similar or : a different ruling.*
We are of the opinion that the~faot Issues in- volved In the closing of the Willow Springs Elementary S,chool and transferring its scholastics to the Fayette- ,vllle School have been finally adjudlaat.ea and are not subjeot to ~revlew. ._
Appealsmay be taken from tbe..flnal decisions of the State.Board of Eduaatl.on to the courts, to review law.questlons, If suoh appeals be prosecuted In a rea- sonable time.
24 Hon. John C. Marburger, Page 4, V-304
No time being fixed In which appeals'may be taken from the State Board to :the courts, the lnterest- ed parties had a reasonable time, after juagment, In which to make such appeal for review of any law question .lnvolved. The judgment of the State Board of ~Edueatlon was rendered onFebruary.6,, 1947, and no such appeals have been taken as of this date.
In Trustees of Chlllicothe Independent School Di'strlct v. Dudney,,142 S. ~W. 1007, the,Cou?ct had the question of the time all'owed for appeal where no time Is fixed land; In that regard, said:
"In the absence 'of. any such a rule, the sole Inquiry Is: What Is a reasonable time under al.1 conditions surrounding the Instant case? The district judge , after a full hear- ing, has decided that 30 days was a reason- able time within whlch:appellee herein should have prosecuted hls'a'ppeal to the State Super- intend.ent. By reason.of the. chaotic condition of the affalrs'exlstlng In the Chllllcothe School, appellee should have'proseauted his ~appeal wlth.all reasonable dispatch." : ',:' It had been shown in that case, that the appeal could have.been mad,e In 18'days. " : v.. Huff) 63 S.W. 922., the Court sala,
In Watkins concerning the time ror~suoh'appeals:
"The Statutes providing for such appeals : .are silent as to prooedure, and prescribe no time within whlch.to perfect the appeal. A reasonable tlme;without unnecessary delay, Is the rule In such cases. Harkness v. Hutcherson, ':90 Tex; 385, 38 S.W. 1120." '~ We are of the opinion thatmore than a reason- able time in which to appeal to the oourts has elapsed since February 6, 1947, by reason of which the decision of the'State Board'of Eduaatlon, rendered on that datej closing the Springs Elementary School, has bec~ome final'on all justlclable issues of~both, fa,ct and Law+ . .
SUMMABP Where the Trustees of the Fayettevllle Rural High School Dls,triat closed the. Willow : _~ -, *5 25 Hon. John C. Marburger, Page'.5,'V+X)4- ,;~ Springs Elementary School in Fayette CoUnty and those~opposea to such action appealed.to the State Superintendent of.Publlo Instruotlon, and to the State Board of Education, both of ~whom affirmed such action and final dealslon of the State Board was rendered on February.6, 1947, and no appeal therefrom was taken, all lssues.of.both law and fact .concdrnlng the closing of said school are now foreclosed.
Yours very truly ATTORNEXGENER& QFTEXAS BY
ATTORNEYGENEUL ViTW:djm:jrb
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