Download This Version in Microsoft Word format
TO PROVIDE THAT SUMTER COUNTY ON JULY 1, 2011, SHALL CONSIST OF ONE SCHOOL DISTRICT TO BE KNOWN AS THE SUMTER COUNTY CONSOLIDATED 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 A GENERAL OBLIGATION BOND MUST BE DETERMINED; AND TO PROVIDE FOR A SIX-MEMBER TRANSITION TEAM TO BE APPOINTED BY THE BOARDS OF DISTRICT TWO AND DISTRICT SEVENTEEN TO MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS CONCERNING ATTENDANCE ZONES AND OTHER MATTERS.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. (A) Effective July 1, 2011, Sumter County shall consist of one school district to be known as the Sumter Consolidated 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 consolidated school district except as established in this act.
SECTION 2. (A) The consolidated 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 consolidated 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 board. All members of the board shall serve until their successors are elected and qualify. The county commissioners of election 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 consolidated school board shall select and appoint a superintendent to serve as superintendent of the consolidated 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.
SECTION 3. (A) The board of trustees of the consolidated school district shall prepare a school district budget for the ensuing school year. Before September second of each year beginning in 2011, 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.
(B) The consolidated 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 consolidated district upon its creation, the millage levy for the consolidated 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.
SECTION 4. The board of trustees of the consolidated district has the powers, duties, and responsibilities as are 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.
SECTION 5. (A) On July 1, 2011, the assets and liabilities of the present school districts 2 and 17 must be transferred to the consolidated district. The records and employees of those present school districts must be transferred to and, if applicable, assumed by the consolidated school district.
(B) The constitutional debt limitation on the issuance of general obligation bonds applicable to the consolidated district is to be computed according to the law of this State and based on the assessed value of all taxable property in the consolidated district minus that bonded indebtedness of each of the present school districts made a part of the consolidated district that was includable against the constitutional debt limit of those present school districts.
SECTION 6. In creating the consolidated 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 consolidated district may be no more than ninety percent of 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.
SECTION 7. (A) The present school districts 2 and 17 of Sumter County are abolished on July 1, 2011, at which time the consolidated 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 consolidated 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 consolidated board may organize, begin planning for the changeover to a consolidated 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 consolidated board may not interfere with this authority.
(B) Funding for the activities of the consolidated 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 a consolidated 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 remaining members of the board.
SECTION 8. (A) Within one year of the effective date of this act, the board members of districts 2 and 17 shall create a transition team of six members to coordinate the consolidation of districts 2 and 17 into the Sumter County Consolidated School District. Each district board shall appoint three of its members to serve on the transition team. The members of the transition team shall elect a chairman and other officers they consider necessary. A vacancy on the transition team must be filled for the unexpired term through appointment by the board that appointed the transition team member whose departure from the transition team created the vacancy. The board members of districts 2 and 17 may remove their respective appointees to the transition board.
(B) The transition board must be abolished when the members of the consolidated board are elected at the 2010 election, qualify for office, and take office.
(C) Beginning with the 2008-2009 school year, the transition team 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 transition team in determining attendance at schools in the county without being constrained by existing district lines. 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.
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 consolidated school district of the county.
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 declared unconstitutional, invalid, or otherwise ineffective.
SECTION 11. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.
This web page was last updated on Monday, June 22, 2009 at 3:06 P.M.