South Carolina General Assembly
117th Session, 2007-2008

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A387, R180, S639

STATUS INFORMATION

General Bill
Sponsors: Senator Leventis
Document Path: l:\council\bills\gjk\20280sd07.doc

Introduced in the Senate on April 3, 2007
Introduced in the House on April 24, 2007
Last Amended on January 9, 2008
Passed by the General Assembly on January 16, 2008
Governor's Action: February 4, 2008, Signed

Summary: Sumter County School District

HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

     Date      Body   Action Description with journal page number
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    4/3/2007  Senate  Introduced, read first time, placed on local & 
                        uncontested calendar SJ-13
   4/19/2007  Senate  Amended SJ-28
   4/19/2007  Senate  Read second time SJ-28
   4/19/2007  Senate  Unanimous consent for third reading on next legislative 
                        day SJ-28
   4/20/2007  Senate  Read third time and sent to House SJ-5
   4/24/2007  House   Introduced and read first time HJ-11
   4/24/2007  House   Referred to Sumter Delegation HJ-11
   5/31/2007  House   Recalled from Sumter Delegation HJ-34
    6/5/2007  House   Debate adjourned until Wednesday, June 6, 2007 HJ-30
    6/6/2007  House   Debate adjourned until Tuesday, January 8, 2008 HJ-10
    1/8/2008  House   Debate adjourned until Wednesday, January 9, 2008 HJ-82
    1/9/2008  House   Amended HJ-31
    1/9/2008  House   Read second time HJ-38
   1/10/2008  House   Read third time and returned to Senate with amendments 
                        HJ-361
   1/16/2008  Senate  Concurred in House amendment and enrolled
   1/31/2008          Ratified R 180
    2/4/2008          Signed By Governor
   2/11/2008          Copies available
   2/11/2008          Effective date 02/04/08
    8/6/2008          Act No. 387

View the latest legislative information at the LPITS web site

VERSIONS OF THIS BILL

4/3/2007
4/3/2007
4/19/2007
5/31/2007
1/9/2008


(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

(A387, R180, S639)

AN ACT TO PROVIDE THAT SUMTER COUNTY ON JULY 1, 2011, SHALL CONSIST OF ONE SCHOOL DISTRICT TO BE KNOWN AS THE SUMTER SCHOOL DISTRICT AND TO ABOLISH THE EXISTING SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN SUMTER COUNTY; TO PROVIDE THAT THE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL DISTRICT BE GOVERNED BY A BOARD OF TRUSTEES ELECTED IN NONPARTISAN ELECTIONS ON SPECIFIED DATES; TO PROVIDE FOR THE COMPOSITION AND MANNER OF ELECTION OF THE BOARD; TO PROVIDE A SUPERINTENDENT FOR THE DISTRICT TO BE APPOINTED BY THE BOARD; TO PROVIDE FOR THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE BOARD AND SUPERINTENDENT; TO PROVIDE FOR THE MANNER IN WHICH SCHOOL BUDGETS MUST BE PRESENTED AND THE SCHOOL TAX MILLAGE BE IMPOSED AND CALCULATED; TO PROVIDE FOR THE TRANSFER OF THE ASSETS AND LIABILITIES OF THE TWO PRESENT SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO THE CONSOLIDATED DISTRICT WITH CERTAIN EXCEPTIONS; TO PROVIDE THE MANNER IN WHICH THE CONSTITUTIONAL DEBT LIMITATION OF THE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR THE ISSUANCE OF GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS MUST BE DETERMINED; AND TO PROVIDE FOR A TRANSITION TEAM, THE MANNER OF ITS APPOINTMENT, AND ITS DUTIES AND FUNCTIONS, AND TO PROVIDE FOR OTHER RELATED MATTERS IN REGARD TO THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE TWO DISTRICTS.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

One school district for county

SECTION    1.    (A)    Effective July 1, 2011, Sumter County shall consist of one school district to be known as the Sumter School District.

(B)    The present School Districts 2 and 17 of the county must be abolished on July 1, 2011, and the powers and duties of the respective boards of trustees of each district devolved upon the board of trustees for the school district except as established in this act.

Governance

SECTION    2.    (A)    The school district must be governed by a board of trustees of seven members, one of whom must be elected from each district from which members of the Sumter County Council are elected. The members of the board must be elected in nonpartisan elections to be held beginning in 2010. A member of the board must be a resident of the school district and the election district from which he is elected. The members of the board shall elect a chairman and other officers they consider necessary to serve for terms of one year in these capacities. The 2010 nonpartisan election must be held at the same time as the general election. After the 2010 election, members of the board must be elected at nonpartisan elections conducted on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November every two or four years thereafter as applicable beginning in 2012. Members of the board must be elected for four-year terms and until their successors are elected and qualify, except that of the seven members of the board elected in 2010, the members elected from Election Districts 1, 2, 3, and 4 shall serve for initial terms to expire in November 2014, when their successors elected at the 2014 election qualify and take office, and the members elected from Election Districts 5, 6, and 7 shall serve for initial terms to expire in November 2012, when their successors elected at the 2012 election qualify and take office. In the event of a vacancy on the board occurring for a reason other than expiration of a term, the board shall call a special election to fill the unexpired term, so long as the vacancy does not occur within one hundred eighty days of a regular trustee election. In this case, the vacancy must be filled for the unexpired term through appointment by the Governor. All members of the board shall serve until their successors are elected and qualify. The Sumter Registration and Election Commission shall conduct and supervise the elections for members of the board in the manner as for the election of the Sumter County Council, subject to 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 in the same manner provided in Section 7-13-35 of the 1976 Code. The results of the elections must be determined by the nonpartisan plurality method as contained in Section 5-15-61 of the 1976 Code. The members of the board elected in these nonpartisan elections shall take office one week following certification of their election as provided in Section 59-19-315 of the 1976 Code.

(B)    The school board shall select and appoint a superintendent to serve as superintendent of the school district. The 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 duties. He 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 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 as 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 as he considers desirable;

(5)    perform other duties as may be prescribed by law or required of him by the board not inconsistent with a provision of law; and

(6)    centralize all administrative functions including, but not limited to, human resources, accounting, procurement, transportation, school bus services, and maintenance.

(C)    The board and the newly appointed superintendent shall select and appoint an assistant superintendent for programs and policy whose duties include overseeing curriculum and making recommendations for program changes.

Budget

SECTION    3.    (A)    Budget authority is hereby vested in the school district except that, if the board of trustees of the school district deems it necessary to increase its tax millage, the county council shall, by a majority vote, approve the increase before it is levied. The district must submit the budget it has approved to the county council for consideration prior to May twentieth of each year for the succeeding budget year.

(B)    The board shall hold a public hearing before its final approval of the budget for the district. Notice of these public hearings 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 Department of Revenue based on the 2010 levy of Districts 2 and 17 and the value of a mill in each district. Beginning in 2011, the amount levied by the district by way of millage is subject to millage limitations provided by general law and local law, and beginning in 2011, any increase over the 2010 millage as computed above must be approved by the governing body of Sumter County.

Powers and duties

SECTION    4.    The board of trustees of the district has the power, duty, and responsibility as provided by law including the authority to:

(1)    establish other administrative departments upon the recommendation of the superintendent;

(2)    adopt the proposed budget of the school district;

(3)    have the power to inquire into the conduct of an office, department, or agency of the school district;

(4)    adopt and modify attendance zones of schools within the school district;

(5)    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;

(6)    cooperate to establish and maintain a central purchasing system for the purchase of contractual services, equipment, and supplies;

(7)    cooperate to establish and maintain educational consortia; and

(8)    be responsible for policymaking action and the review of regulations established to put these policies into operation.

Transfer; debt limitation

SECTION    5.    (A)    On July 1, 2011, the assets and liabilities of the present School Districts 2 and 17 must be transferred to the district. The records and employees of those present school districts must be transferred to and, if applicable, assumed by the school district. Entities that are jointly owned or operated between Districts 2 and 17 also become property of the school district.

(B)    The constitutional debt limitation on the issuance of general obligation bonds applicable to the district is to be computed according to the law of this State and based on the assessed value of all taxable property in the district minus that bonded indebtedness of each of the present school districts made a part of the district that was includable against the constitutional debt limit of those present school districts.

Cost savings

SECTION    6.    In creating the district, it is anticipated that there will be savings in the total district level administrative costs from the former individual districts; therefore, district level administrative costs in the district must be less than the combined district level administrative costs of both districts by July 1, 2012. Administrative costs shall be those defined in the State Department of Education financial analysis model.

Board transitions

SECTION    7.    (A)    The present School Districts 2 and 17 of Sumter County are abolished on July 1, 2011, at which time the school district must be established as provided in this act. The terms of all members of the boards of trustees of the two present school districts of the county expire on this date. However, the members of the board of trustees of the school district elected at the 2010 nonpartisan election shall take office one week following certification of their elections as provided in Section 59-19-315 of the 1976 Code. From this date and until July 1, 2011, the board may organize, begin planning for the changeover to the district, enter into contracts to effectuate these purposes, and perform other related matters pertaining to it, except that the responsibility and authority to manage the schools of the county rests solely with the individual boards for the two present districts until July 1, 2011, 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, 2011, shall be provided by the county council from the millage levy for school operations.

(C)    A member of one of the present school boards of Districts 2 and 17 may seek election to the school district board in 2010. However, if he is elected to that office, before assuming the duties of that board, he must first resign as a member of his present board. In this event and notwithstanding another provision of law, the vacancy on the present board he is vacating must be filled for the remainder of the unexpired term by appointment by the Governor.

Consolidation transition committee

SECTION    8.    (A)    There shall be created within thirty days of the effective date of this act the Sumter Consolidation Transition Committee whose purpose is to coordinate the consolidation of Districts 2 and 17 into the Sumter School District. The committee is composed of the following:

(1)    three members of the District 2 Board, or their designees, appointed by the District 2 Board;

(2)    three members of the District 17 Board, or their designees, appointed by the District 17 Board;

(3)    three members of the Sumter City Council, or their designees, appointed by the city council;

(4)    three members of the county council, or their designees, appointed by the county council; and

(5)    thirteen members appointed by the Sumter County Legislative Delegation, with consideration given to geographic, economic, and demographic segments of the community.

(B)    Appointments by the school boards, city council, and county council must be submitted to the Sumter County Legislative Delegation within thirty days of the act being signed by the Governor. The Sumter County Legislative Delegation shall designate two chairmen from among the thirteen members appointed by the Sumter County Legislative Delegation. A vacancy on the committee must be filled for the unexpired term through appointment by the group that appointed 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 pertaining to it.

(D)    By no later than May first of each year, the Sumter Consolidation Transition Committee shall prepare a budget to be submitted to the Sumter County Legislative Delegation. When approved by the delegation, the budget must be funded by the school districts, each paying half, from funds provided by the districts from their respective budgets. County council may increase the budgets to meet these requirements.

(E)    The committee shall be insured and indemnified in the same manner as School Districts 2 and 17 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 when the members of the board are elected at the 2010 election, qualify for office, and take office.

(H)    Beginning with the 2008-2009 school year, the committee may make recommendations to each present board concerning attendance zones for a school in the county without being constrained by existing district lines and each board shall consider the recommendations of the committee in determining attendance at schools in the county without being constrained by existing district lines, as defined by Act 155 of 2007. In the event a board creates a new attendance zone that encompasses portions of Districts 2 and 17, a person residing in the new attendance zone may attend a school within that attendance zone without regard to whether the school is located in the district in which the person resides. A school in District 2 or 17 may not bear a financial impact or impose a financial charge if a person attends a school within a new attendance zone but not in the district in which he resides.

Provisions repealed

SECTION    9.    Any local act pertaining to a school district of Sumter County inconsistent with the provisions of this act is repealed as of July 1, 2011, because the General Assembly's intent is to have this act and the general law constitute the only provisions of law governing the school district of the county.

Severability

SECTION    10.    If a provision of this act is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unconstitutional or invalid, the holding will not affect the constitutionality or validity of the remaining portions of this act. The General Assembly hereby declares that it would have passed this act and each and every provision herein irrespective of the fact that a provision of this act may be declare unconstitutional, invalid, or otherwise ineffective.

Time effective

SECTION    11.    This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.

Ratified the 31st day of January, 2008.

Approved the 4th day of February, 2008.

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This web page was last updated on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 3:32 P.M.