Reference is to Printer's Date 5/3/17-H.
Amend the bill, as and if amended, by striking all after the enacting words and inserting:
/ SECTION 1.
(A) Effective July 1, 2019,
Orangeburg County shall consist of one school district to be
known as the Orangeburg County School District. To provide for
continuity of representation throughout the consolidation
process, the school district elections scheduled for 2017 are
suspended, and any member's term that would have expired
following the 2017 school district elections is extended until
the election provided for in SECTION 2 of this act is
conducted.
(B) The three present
school districts of the county must be abolished on July 1,
2019, and the powers and duties of the respective boards of
trustees of each district devolved upon the board of trustees
for the school district.
SECTION 2. (A)(1)
The school district must be governed by a board of
trustees of nine members, one of whom must be elected from each
of the seven districts as outlined in this section and two
members elected from Orangeburg County at large. A member of the
board must be a resident of the election district from which he
is elected. Beginning in 2018, members of the board must be
elected at nonpartisan elections to be conducted at the same
time as the general election. Members of the board must be
elected for four-year terms and until their successors are
elected and qualify, except that of the nine members of the
board elected in 2018, the members elected from election
districts one, three, five, and the at-large member who received
the second highest number of votes in the 2018 election shall
serve for initial terms to expire in November 2020 when their
successors elected at the 2020 election qualify and take office.
The members elected from election districts two, four, six,
seven, and the at-large member who received the highest number
of votes in the 2018 election shall serve for initial terms to
expire in November 2022 when their successors elected at the
2022 election qualify and take office. In the event of a vacancy
on the board occurring for any reason other than the expiration
of a term, the vacancy must be filled for the unexpired term
through appointment by the county legislative delegation. All
persons desiring to qualify as a candidate shall file written
notice of candidacy with the county election commission on forms
furnished by the commission. This notice of candidacy must be a
sworn statement and must include the candidate's name, age,
election district in which he resides and from which he seeks
election, voting precinct, period of residence in the county and
election district, and other information that the county
election commission requires. The county commissioners of
election shall conduct and supervise the elections for members
of the board in the manner governed by the election laws of this
State, mutatis mutandis. The commissioners shall prepare the
necessary ballots, appoint managers for the voting precincts,
and do all things necessary to carry out the elections,
including the counting of ballots and declaring the results. The
commission shall publish notices of the elections pursuant to
Section 7-13-35. The results of the elections must be determined
by the nonpartisan plurality method contained in Section
5-15-61. The members of the board elected in these nonpartisan
elections shall take office one week following certification of
their election pursuant to Section 59-19-315.
(B)(1) Beginning with
the Orangeburg County School District elections in 2018, the
seven single-member election districts from which members of the
Orangeburg County School District Board of Trustees must be
elected are as shown on the Orangeburg County School District
Board of Trustees map S-75-00-17A as maintained in the Revenue
and Fiscal Affairs Office.
(2)
The demographic information shown on this map is as
follows:
District
Pop Dev.
%Dev.
NH_WHT %NH_WHT
NH_BLK %NH_BLK
1
13,149 -65
-0.49% 4,041
30.73% 8,624
65.59%
2
13,248 34
0.26% 4,004
30.22% 8,832
66.67%
3
13,078 -136
-1.03% 7,097
54.27% 5,509
42.12%
4
13,205 -9
-0.07% 6,611
50.06% 6,134
46.45%
5
13,328 114
0.86% 2,566
19.25% 10,021
75.19%
6
13,135 -79
0.60% 5,079
38.67% 7,408
56.40%
7
13,358 144
1.09% 1,808
13.53% 11,093
83.04%
Total
92,501 31,206
33.74% 57,621
62.29%
District VAP
NHWVAP %NHWVAP
NHBVAP %NHBVAP
AllOth AllOthVAP
1
10,004 3,371
33.70% 6,307
63.04% 484
326
2
10,218 3,437
33.64% 6,509
63.70% 412
272
3
9,755 5,501
56.39% 3,922
40.21% 472
332
4
9,954 5,224
52.48% 4,405
44.25% 460
325
5
10,144 2,093
20.63% 7,509
74.02% 741
542
6
10,146 4,300
42.38% 5,383
53.06% 648
463
7
10,841 1,488
13.73% 9,031
83.30% 457
322
Totals 71,062
25,414 35.76%
43,066 60.60%
3,674
2,582
SECTION 3. (A)
The members of the board shall elect a chairman and
other officers necessary to serve for terms of two years in
these capacities.
(B) The board of
trustees of the district has the power, duty, and responsibility
provided by law including to:
(1)
employ a superintendent as the chief executive
officer;
(2)
establish other administrative departments upon the
recommendation of the superintendent;
(3)
adopt the proposed budget of the school district;
(4)
inquire into the conduct of any office, department, or
agency of the school district;
(5)
adopt attendance zones of schools within the school
district except that, through school year 2021-2022, existing
attendance zones cannot be changed unless the federal court
order regarding attendance zones is rescinded or amended during
this period. However, no elementary, middle, or high school may
be closed until three public hearings are held at least two
weeks apart within the affected attendance area, with
information to include, among other things, a delineation of the
cost factors involved in keeping the school open and
transporting the students to another school. In addition to the
public hearings requirement, if a school in an attendance area
that existed before consolidation is to be closed and the
students of that school moved to a school in another attendance
area, the qualified electors within the attendance area where
the school is to be closed also first must approve the closing
by referendum. This referendum may not be held at the same time
as a school bond referendum. A school building that is the
responsibility of the board of trustees of the school district
must be maintained in conformity with all applicable building
code standards and requirements to protect and ensure the
health, safety, and welfare of students, faculty,
administrators, and the general public;
(6)
provide for an independent annual audit of the books and
business affairs of the school district and for a general survey
of school district business;
(7)
cooperate to establish and maintain a central purchasing
system for the purchase of contractual services, equipment, and
supplies;
(8)
cooperate to establish and maintain educational
consortia;
(9)
be responsible for policymaking action and the review of
regulations established to put these policies into operation;
and
(10)
set by majority vote of the board a salary that each
member shall receive for attending meetings of the board, which
on an annual basis shall not exceed six thousand five hundred
dollars. The salary set by the board may be paid on a per
meeting, monthly, annual, or other basis so long as the total
paid to a member for any year does not exceed the limits
provided above.
SECTION 4. The district
superintendent is the chief operating officer of the district
and is responsible to the board for the proper administration of
all affairs of the district and subject to all other provisions
of law relating to his or her duties. He or she shall:
(1) appoint and, when
necessary for the good of the district, remove an appointive
officer or employee of the district and fix the salaries of
these officers and employees, unless otherwise provided by law
and except as he or she may authorize the head of a department
or office to appoint and remove subordinates in the department
or office;
(2) prepare the budget
annually, submit it to the board, and be responsible for its
administration after adoption;
(3) prepare and submit
to the board at the end of each fiscal year a complete annual
report on the finances and administrative activities of the
board for the preceding year and make other financial reports
from time to time that may be required by the board or by
law;
(4) keep the board
advised of the financial condition and future needs of the
district and make recommendations that seem desirable;
(5) perform other
duties prescribed by law or required of him by the board not
inconsistent with the provisions of law; and
(6) centralize all
administrative functions, including, but not limited to, human
resources, accounting, procurement, transportation, school bus
services, and maintenance.
SECTION 5. (A)
The board of trustees of the school district,
before July first of each year, shall prepare a school district
budget for the ensuing school year. Before September second of
each year, the board shall notify the county auditor and
treasurer in writing of the millage required for the operation
of the schools in the district for the ensuing school year. The
notice by the board constitutes authority for the levying and
collection of the millage upon all of the real and personal
property within the school district. The levy must be placed to
the credit of the district and expended for the district.
Beginning in 2019, the school district may raise its millage by
not more than two mills over that levied for the previous year,
in addition to any millage needed to adjust for the EFA
inflation factor and sufficient to meet the requirements of
Section 59-21-1030. An increase above this two mills for
operations may be levied only after a majority of the registered
electors of the district vote in favor of the millage increase
in a referendum called by the district school board and
conducted by the county election commission.
(B) The board shall
hold a public hearing prior to its final approval of the budget
for the district. Notice of this public hearing must be placed
in a newspaper of general circulation in the district at least
fifteen days before the public hearing.
(C) For purposes of
determining the previous year's millage of the district upon its
creation, the millage levy for the district must be determined
and calculated by the board based on the 2018 levy in each of
the three districts and the value of a mill in each district as
well as the 2018 countywide school millage levy and the value of
a mill in the county.
(D) In allocating funds
distributed to the new Orangeburg County School District which
are derived from bond proceeds on general fund appropriations
administered by the Department of Education for the benefit of
those plaintiff school districts in the Abbeville
litigation, the Orangeburg School District board of trustees
must allocate these funds to the schools in the district which
have the greatest need, using in part those needs studies
previously developed by the department.
SECTION 6. (A)
On July 1, 2019, the assets and liabilities of the
three present school districts must be transferred to the
district. The records and employees of the three present school
districts of the county must be transferred to and, if
applicable, assumed by the school district.
(B) The constitutional
debt limitation on the issuance of general obligation bonds
applicable to the district is to be computed based on the
assessed value of all taxable property in the county minus that
bonded indebtedness of each of the present school districts made
a part of the district that was includable against the
constitutional debt limitation of those present school
districts.
(C) During the
transition period, from July 1, 2017, to July 1, 2019, no new
general obligation bonds may be issued against the
constitutional debt limitation of the present three districts,
except in the case of an emergency. If new general obligation
bonds are issued, then the board of trustees of the issuing
school district must adopt an ordinance declaring the emergency
and specifying the necessity of the issue.
SECTION 7. (A)
The three present school districts of Orangeburg
County are abolished on July 1, 2019, at which time the school
district of the county must be established as provided in this
act. The terms of all members of the boards of trustees of the
three present school districts of the county will expire on this
date. However, members of the board of trustees of the school
district elected at the 2018 nonpartisan election shall take
office one week following certification of their election
pursuant to Section 59-19-315. From this date and until July 1,
2019, the boards may organize, begin planning for the changeover
to the district, enter into contracts to effectuate these
purposes, and perform other related matters, except that the
responsibility and authority to manage the schools of the county
rest solely with the individual boards for each of the three
present districts until July 1, 2019, and the board may not
interfere with this authority.
(B) Funding for the
activities of the board, from the date the members assume office
until July 1, 2019, must be provided from funds available to the
three present school districts for operating purposes, each
paying their portion based on their proportionate average daily
membership report for 2018.
(C) A member of one of
the three present school boards of the county may seek election
to the school district board of trustees in 2018. However, if he
is elected to the Orangeburg County School District Board of
Trustees, prior to assuming the duties of this board, then he
must first resign as a member of the present board. In this
event and notwithstanding another provision of law, the vacancy
on the present board that is vacated must be filled for the
remainder of the unexpired term by appointment of the county
legislative delegation.
SECTION 8. (A)
There must be created, within sixty days of the
effective date of this act, the Orangeburg Consolidation
Transition Committee with the purpose to coordinate the
consolidation of the three present districts into the Orangeburg
County School District. The committee shall be composed of the
following thirteen voting members:
(1)
chairmen of the present three districts or their
designees;
(2)
one board member from each of the present three districts,
appointed by each board; and
(3)
seven members appointed by the Orangeburg County
Legislative Delegation. Of the seven members appointed by the
Orangeburg County Legislative Delegation, one voting member must
be a parent or guardian of a student who attends an Orangeburg
County public school; one voting member must represent the
Orangeburg County business community; one nonvoting member must
be a public school teacher at an Orangeburg County school; and
one nonvoting member must be a school administrator at one of
the Orangeburg County school districts affected by
consolidation. The public school teacher member and the school
administrator member fully shall participate in all committee
meetings, discussions, and deliberations; however, the teacher
member and the administrator member shall serve as nonvoting
members.
In addition to the thirteen voting members
of the committee, the three superintendents from the present
three school districts shall serve as nonvoting, ex officio
members.
(B) Names of the
members of the transition committee must be submitted to the
county legislative delegation within sixty days of this act
being signed by the Governor. The committee shall elect a
chairman from one of the seven members appointed by the
legislative delegation. A vacancy on the committee must be
filled for the unexpired term in the same manner as the
committee member whose departure from the committee created the
vacancy.
(C) The committee may
organize, begin planning for the changeover to the district,
enter into contracts to effectuate these purposes, and perform
other related matters.
(D) No later than
November first, the Orangeburg Consolidation Transition
Committee shall prepare a budget to be submitted to the county
legislative delegation. The proposed budget shall ensure the
Orangeburg County Consolidated School District pays each
certified teacher or administrator an annual salary at least
equal to the salary stated in the statewide minimum salary
schedule for the person's experience and class, which at a
minimum must equal the southeast region's average salary for
certified teachers or administrators. No teacher or
administrator employed in the same position, over the same time
period, shall receive less total salary, including any normal
incremental increase, than that teacher or administrator is
required to receive under this subsection. When approved by the
delegation, the budget must be funded by the school districts,
each paying their portion based on their proportionate average
daily membership report for 2017, from funds provided by the
districts from their respective budgets. The consolidated school
district fiscal commission may increase the districts' budgets
to meet these requirements.
(E) The committee must
be insured and indemnified in the same manner as the present
school districts are insured and indemnified.
(F) Members of the
committee shall receive per diem allowed by law for members of
state boards, committees, or commissions but are not entitled to
mileage and subsistence.
(G) The committee must
be abolished after making its recommendations to the
consolidated district board of trustees.
(H) The administrations
and staffs of the present three school districts are expected
and encouraged to cooperate with the transition committee and
the board of the school district.
(I) In creating the
Orangeburg County School District, it is anticipated that there
will be savings in the total district level administrative costs
from the former individual districts. The committee shall review
the current administrations and recommend to the board the
number and type of positions needed for the consolidated
district level administration.
SECTION 9. All local acts concerning a school district of Orangeburg County inconsistent with the provisions of this act are repealed as of July 1, 2017, it being the intent of the General Assembly to have this act and the general law be the only provisions of law governing the school district of the county.
SECTION 10. If any provision of this act for any reason is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unconstitutional or invalid, that holding shall not affect the constitutionality or validity of the remaining portions of this act. The General Assembly declares that it would have passed this act and each and every provision in it, irrespective of the fact that any one or more provisions of it may be declared to be unconstitutional, invalid, or otherwise ineffective.
SECTION 11. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor. /
Renumber sections to conform.
Amend title to conform.