BP BHEAD INT S [atlas:bill]

AN ACT Relating to school district boundaries; amending RCW 28A.315.140, 28A.315.180, and 28A.315.250; adding a new section to chapter 28A.315 RCW; and providing an effective date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. A new section is added to chapter 28A.315 RCW to read as follows:

(1) Whenever school district boundary changes are made under this chapter, the state board may authorize a transition period of up to three years to implement the boundary changes to avoid undue hardship and make the transition as efficient as possible. The appropriate educational service district superintendent shall develop a boundary change implementation plan, detailing:

(a) The reason or reasons for the necessity of a transition period; and

(b) The steps and timetable for transferring operational responsibility for the education and transportation of students living within the territory transferred.

(2) The state board may adopt rules implementing this section.

Sec. 2. RCW 28A.315.140 and 1990 c 33 s 300 are each amended to read as follows:

The powers and duties of the state board with respect to this chapter shall be:

(1) To aid regional committees in the performance of their duties by furnishing them with plans of procedure, standards, data, maps, forms, and other necessary materials and services essential to a study and understanding of the problems of school district organization in their respective educational service districts.

(2) To receive, file, and examine the proposals and the maps, reports, records, and other materials relating thereto submitted by regional committees and to approve such proposals and so notify the regional committees when said proposals are found to provide for satisfactory improvement in the school district system of the counties and the state and for an equitable adjustment of the assets and liabilities, including bonded indebtedness and excess tax levies as authorized under RCW 28A.315.110(2), of the school districts involved or affected: PROVIDED, That whenever the state board approves a recommendation from a regional committee for the transfer of territory from one school district to another school district, such state board approval must be made not later than March 1 of any given year for implementation the school year immediately following: PROVIDED FURTHER, That whenever such proposals are found by the state board to be unsatisfactory or inequitable, the board shall so notify the regional committee and, upon request, assist the committee in making revisions which revisions shall be resubmitted within sixty days after such notification for reconsideration and approval or disapproval. Except for a transition period provided under section 1 of this act, implementation of state board-approved transfers of territory from one school district to another school district shall become effective at the commencement of the next school year unless an earlier implementation is agreed upon in writing by the boards of directors of the affected school districts.

Sec. 3. RCW 28A.315.180 and 1990 c 33 s 303 are each amended to read as follows:

Whenever a special election is held to vote on a proposal or alternate proposals to form a new school district, the votes cast by the registered voters in each component district shall be tabulated separately and any such proposition shall be considered approved only if it receives a majority of the votes cast in each separate district voting thereon. Whenever a special election is held to vote on a proposal for adjustment of bonded indebtedness the entire vote cast by the registered voters of the proposed new district or of the established district as the case may be shall be tabulated and any such proposition shall be considered approved if sixty percent or more of all votes cast thereon are in the affirmative.

In the event of approval of a proposition or propositions voted on at a special election, the educational service district superintendent shall: (1) Make an order establishing such new school district or such terms of adjustment of bonded indebtedness or both, as were approved by the registered voters and shall also order effected such other terms of adjustment, if there be any, of property and other assets and of liabilities other than bonded indebtedness as have been approved by the state board; and (2) certify his or her action to the county and school district officials specified in RCW 28A.315.150. He or she may designate, with the approval of the superintendent of public instruction, a name and number different from that of any component thereof but must designate the new district by name and number different from any other district in existence in the county.

Except for a transition period provided under section 1 of this act, the educational service district superintendent shall fix, as the effective date of any order or orders he or she is required by this chapter to make, a date no later than the first day of September next succeeding the date of final approval of any change in the organization and extent of school districts or of any terms of adjustment of the assets and liabilities of school districts subject, for taxing purposes, to the redrawing of taxing district boundaries pursuant to RCW 84.09.030.

Except for a transition period provided under section 1 of this act, upon receipt of the aforesaid certification, the superintendent of each school district which is included in the new district shall deliver to the superintendent of the new school district all books, papers, documents, records and other materials pertaining to his or her office.

Sec. 4. RCW 28A.315.250 and 1997 c 47 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

Each incorporated city or town in the state shall be comprised in one school district: PROVIDED, That nothing in this section shall be construed: (1) To prevent the extension of the boundaries of a school district beyond the limits of the city or town contained therein, or (2) to prevent the inclusion of two or more incorporated cities or towns in a single school district, or (3) to change or disturb the boundaries of any school district organized prior to the incorporation of any city or town, except as hereafter in this section provided.

In case all or any part of a school district that operates a school or schools on one site only or operates elementary schools only on two or more sites is included in an incorporated city or town through the extension of the limits of such city or town in the manner provided by law, the regional committee may, in its discretion, prepare a proposal for transfer of any part or all of the territory so included to the school district containing the city or town and, whenever a part of a district so included contains a school building of the district, for the disposition of any part or all of the remaining territory of the district.

In case of the extension of the limits of a town to include territory lying in a school district that operates on more than one site one or more elementary schools and one or more junior high schools or high schools, the regional committee may, in its discretion, prepare a proposal or proposals for annexation to the school district in which the town is located any part or all of the territory aforesaid which has been included in the town and for annexation to the school district in which the town is located or to some other school district or districts any part or all of the remaining territory of the school district affected by extension of the limits of the town: PROVIDED, That where no school or school site is located within the territory annexed to the town and not less than seventy-five percent of the registered voters residing within the annexed territory present a petition in writing for annexation and transfer of said territory to the school district in which the town is located, the educational service district superintendent shall declare the territory so included to be a part of the school district containing said town: PROVIDED FURTHER, That territory approved for annexation to a city or town by vote of the electors residing therein prior to January 12, 1953, shall not be subject to the provisions herein respecting annexation to a school district or school districts: AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That the provisions and procedural requirements of this chapter as now or hereafter amended not in conflict with or inconsistent with the provisions hereinabove in this section stated shall apply in the case of any proposal or proposals (1) for the alteration of the boundaries of school districts through and by means of annexation of territory as aforesaid, and (2) for the adjustment of the assets and liabilities of the school districts involved or affected thereby.

In case of the incorporation of a city or town containing territory lying in two or more school districts or of the uniting of two or more cities or towns not located in the same school district, the educational service district superintendent, except where the incorporation or consolidation would affect a district or districts of the first class, shall: (1) Order and declare to be established in each such case a single school district comprising all of the school districts involved, and (2) designate each such district by name and by a number different from that of any other district in existence in the county.

Except for a transition period provided under section 1 of this act, the educational service district superintendent shall fix as the effective date of any declaration or order required under this section a date no later than the first day of September next succeeding the date of the issuance of such declaration or order.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. This act takes effect July 1, 1998.