H 4148 Session 110 (1993-1994)
H 4148 General Bill, By McKay and J. Hines
A Bill to establish all of the area of Florence County as the School District
of Florence County effective January 1, 1995; to create a Board of Trustees
for the School District of Florence County and provide for its membership,
duties, functions, procedures, and organization; to vest title to all property
used for school purposes in Florence County in the School District of Florence
County; to provide for the funding of the School District of Florence County,
for its annual budget, and for an annual ad valorem tax for the schools of the
county; to provide for the issuance of bonds of the School District and for
the assumption of existing school bonds by the District; and to repeal the
present five school districts of the county and their boards of trustees on
January 1, 1995, and devolve their duties, functions, powers, assets, and
liabilities upon the School District of Florence County.
04/28/93 House Introduced, read first time, placed on calendar
without reference HJ-15
04/29/93 House Read second time HJ-13
04/29/93 House Unanimous consent for third reading on next
legislative day HJ-14
04/29/93 House Motion noted- Reconsider vote whereby u. consent
for 3rd read given HJ-29
05/04/93 House Reconsider vote whereby given UC for third
reading HJ-19
05/04/93 House Referred to delegation from Florence HJ-19
INTRODUCED
April 28, 1993
H. 4148
Introduced by REPS. McKay and Hines
L. Printed 4/28/93--H.
Read the first time April 28, 1993.
A BILL
TO ESTABLISH ALL OF THE AREA OF FLORENCE COUNTY AS
THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF FLORENCE COUNTY EFFECTIVE
JANUARY 1, 1995; TO CREATE A BOARD OF TRUSTEES FOR
THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF FLORENCE COUNTY AND PROVIDE
FOR ITS MEMBERSHIP, DUTIES, FUNCTIONS, PROCEDURES,
AND ORGANIZATION; TO VEST TITLE TO ALL PROPERTY
USED FOR SCHOOL PURPOSES IN FLORENCE COUNTY IN THE
SCHOOL DISTRICT OF FLORENCE COUNTY; TO PROVIDE FOR
THE FUNDING OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF FLORENCE
COUNTY, FOR ITS ANNUAL BUDGET, AND FOR AN ANNUAL
AD VALOREM TAX FOR THE SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY; TO
PROVIDE FOR THE ISSUANCE OF BONDS OF THE SCHOOL
DISTRICT AND FOR THE ASSUMPTION OF EXISTING SCHOOL
BONDS BY THE DISTRICT; AND TO REPEAL THE PRESENT
FIVE SCHOOL DISTRICTS OF THE COUNTY AND THEIR
BOARDS OF TRUSTEES ON JANUARY 1, 1995, AND DEVOLVE
THEIR DUTIES, FUNCTIONS, POWERS, ASSETS, AND
LIABILITIES UPON THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF FLORENCE
COUNTY.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. It is the intent of the General Assembly in enacting this
legislation to include in one act to the extent possible all the specific
provisions of law, other than the general law, that relate to the School
District of Florence County.
SECTION 2. The General Assembly prescribes that the entire area of
Florence County is constituted into a single school district. Hence, there
is hereby created the School District of Florence County, which is
coextensive in area with Florence County.
SECTION 3. The governing body of the school district of Florence
County must be a board to be known as the Board of Trustees of the
Florence County School District. The board shall consist of nine
members who must be elected in nonpartisan elections beginning in
1994 in the manner specified in this act from the same single-member
election districts as are members of the Florence County Council.
SECTION 4. The nine members of the Board of Trustees of the
Florence County School District must be elected in a nonpartisan
election to be held at the same time as the 1994 general election for
terms of office of four years each; provided, however, that of those first
elected in 1994, the members elected from the even-numbered districts
shall serve initial terms of two years each. Successors to these members
must then be elected in a nonpartisan election to be held at the same time
as the general election every two or four years thereafter for terms of
office of four years each. All members of the board shall serve until
their successors are elected and qualify. Those members so elected shall
take office on the first day of January following their election. The
results of the election must be determined in accordance with the
nonpartisan plurality method prescribed by Section 5-15-61 of the 1976
Code.
Any vacancy occurring for any reason other than expiration of a term
shall be filled by election of the board by majority vote until the next
scheduled election at which time a successor must be elected for the
remainder of the unexpired term or for a full term as the case may be.
SECTION 5. Members of the board elected from each of the
single-member election districts must be residents of that district and
must be elected by the qualified electors of the districts. All persons
desiring to qualify as a candidate and be elected to the board from a
specific district shall file written notice of their candidacy with the
county election commission at least thirty days before the date set for the
election but not earlier than sixty days prior to the election. This notice
of candidacy must be a sworn statement and shall include the candidate's
name, age, voting precinct, single-member election district in which the
candidate resides, period of residence in the election district, and that
other information as the county election commission shall require.
The county commissioners of election shall conduct and supervise all
elections for members of the board in the manner governed by the
election laws of this State, mutatis mutandi. 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 thereof. The commissioners
shall advertise the date of the election sixty days preceding the election
in a newspaper of general circulation published in Florence County and
shall publish a second notice two weeks thereafter. The cost of the
election must be borne by Florence County.
SECTION 6. The board shall hold regular monthly meetings upon the
call of the chairman and shall hold special meetings at those other times
as may be necessary, also upon call of the chairman or of three
members. The board shall elect a chairman, vice-chairman, a secretary,
and those other officers as it deems necessary, which officers shall hold
office for a term of one year and until their successors are elected by the
board. Members of the board shall receive a per diem allowance and a
mileage expense for each meeting of the board at the same rate that
members of state boards, commissions, and committees receive.
SECTION 7. Title to all property, real or personal, in Florence County,
which is now used for school purposes, which has been acquired to be
used for school purposes, or which may hereafter be acquired for school
purposes, shall vest in the School District of Florence County, and the
School District of Florence County is wholly responsible for the
payment of any indebtedness heretofore incurred prior to the effective
date of this act, by the several school districts of Florence County.
SECTION 8. The board shall have general management, control, and
supervision of all phases of the public school program throughout the
School District of Florence County. The board shall have complete
charge of the expenditure of all school money.
SECTION 9. In addition to the powers conferred by Section 8, the
board is empowered to:
(1) Adopt and alter a corporate seal.
(2) Exercise all powers now or hereafter vested by general law in the
boards of trustees of the several school districts of the State.
(3) Employ that personnel as is necessary for the efficient operation
of all of the schools in the district.
(4) Distribute all state and federal funds received by the school
district.
(5) Adopt administrative policies and procedures.
(6) Purchase land, plan, and construct new buildings and keep
existing buildings in good repair and usable condition.
(7) Borrow in anticipation of the collection of taxes, state aid, or
federal aid. The borrowing must be in the form of notes, maturing not
later than one year from the date of issue, bearing that rate or rates of
interest as the board shall determine. These notes must be payable, both
principal and interest, from the funds in anticipation of the receipt of
which they are issued, and to the payment of the principal of and interest
on these notes these funds must be pledged.
(8) Borrow in anticipation of allotments from the state entities for
construction of school buildings, and pledge as security for the loan the
proceeds of the allotment, or allotments of the state entities. The
borrowing must be in the form of notes maturing and bearing that rate
or rates of interest as the board shall determine. The board shall have
the right to pledge such other funds or expected income for the
repayment of principal of or interest on the notes, as to it may appear to
the best interest of the School District of Florence County.
(9) Exercise eminent domain. The procedure for exercising eminent
domain may be any of those prescribed by law for public bodies or
political subdivisions of the State.
(10) Determine and evaluate the educational program in the schools.
(11) Establish and maintain a central purchasing system for the
purchase of all contractual services, equipment, and supplies. All
equipment and supplies must be purchased by the board, or pursuant to
policies adopted by the board.
(12) Establish and operate a comprehensive pupil transportation
system throughout the school district. The board shall provide an
efficient, businesslike, safe and adequate transportation system for the
school children of the School District of Florence County, and operate
it under those policies as it deems necessary to effect this function.
(13) Cause regular annual audits and, when necessary, special audits
of all school funds in the School District of Florence County, including
the funds of the administrative areas. One copy of each audit must be
kept in the office of the board and another copy must be filed in the
office of the clerk of court for Florence County, to be open to the public.
(14) Carry out a continuous school census.
(15) Keep an accurate record of board proceedings.
(16) Control the expenditure of all state and federal aid to the public
schools within the School District.
(17) Adopt a system of budgetary controls, and annually, adopt, with
power to revise when necessary, a budget sufficient to meet the
educational needs of the school district.
(18) Prescribe policies to govern teachers' salaries in all the schools
of the district, and, through the means of these policies, fix the salaries
of all of the teachers of all of the schools of the district.
(19) Conduct surveys, and, upon the results being obtained,
reorganize administrative areas, attendance areas, the curricula, the
supervisory program, auxiliary services, and any other part of the
educational program of the schools of the district.
(20) Regulate admission of pupils to the public schools of Florence
County and designate the schools the various pupils, when and if
admitted, shall attend, under those policies as it shall prescribe.
(21) Draw warrants upon school funds in the hands of the treasurer
for the payment for services contracted for by the board, for the payment
of insurance premiums, for teachers' retirement, for workmen's
compensation premiums, for the payment of withholding taxes from
salaries, and for all other purposes authorized by law.
(22) Equalize educational opportunity among the children of Florence
County.
(23) Control and supervise the expenditures of all monies for capital
outlay.
(24) Establish high schools and other schools in the district as may
appear necessary or appropriate.
(25) Establish policies within the schools for the placement of pupils.
(26) Set up, in addition to the schools provided for in item (24) of this
section, centers of instruction for vocational training, adult education,
and other courses which cannot be offered in the individual schools of
the county.
SECTION 10. The School District of Florence County is the unit for
all financing and for receiving federal, state, and county school funds.
The board is charged with the responsibility of apportioning, and
distributing the funds to the several schools of the School District of
Florence County on an equitable and fair basis. In administering school
funds, the board shall have as its objective equalization of educational
opportunity to all children within the school district.
SECTION 11. On or before the fifteenth day of April of each year the
board shall file with the county auditor a budget for the operation of the
district for the next fiscal year, together with the estimated millage
requirement. The county auditor shall levy such millage upon all
taxable property within the school district, and the county treasurer shall
collect the taxes so levied and disburse the funds; provided, however,
that if the budget submitted by the board requires a millage increase
above four mills over the millage of the previous fiscal year, the increase
is not effective unless approved by a majority vote of the qualified
electors of the district in a special referendum to be held for this purpose
on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in May of that year. In the
event the budget requires such an increase in millage, the board must
publish a notice in a newspaper of general circulation in the county
advertising the special referendum at least two weeks before the
referendum with another notice required to be published at least one
week before the referendum. The notice shall also state the amount of
the increase proposed above the millage of the previous year and a vote
must be taken on the increase. The ballot in these cases shall contain the
following question and an explanatory statement thereof:
"Shall the millage for the School District of Florence County be
increased by mills above that of the previous year as
recommended by the board of school trustees?
Yes []
No []"
Only upon the affirmative vote of a majority of the electors voting in
the special referendum on the question as certified by the
Commissioners of Election for Florence County shall the county auditor
levy the increased millage. In the event the voters fail to approve the
millage increase by a majority vote of those voting in the referendum,
the board may only levy an increase in millage over that of the previous
year in an amount not exceeding four mills. The special referendum
must be conducted by the County Election Commission in the same
manner school board trustee elections are conducted, mutatis mutandi.
SECTION 12. Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 11, for
fiscal year 1995-96 only, the millage for school purposes in Florence
County must be set by act of the General Assembly upon
recommendation of the board.
SECTION 13. In the event of changes in the general state law with
reference to schools, the board is deemed the proper body for
administering within Florence County the programs as may be provided
by the State.
SECTION 14. To obtain monies for capital outlays, the board is
empowered, from time to time, to issue bonds of the School District of
Florence County within the constitutional debt limit as may be
applicable to the school district and in accordance with the general law
of this State relating to the issuance of school bonds. Any school bonds
previously issued by any of the several boards of trustees of the former
school districts prior to the effective date of this act pursuant to law are
hereby validated and confirmed as being lawful obligations of the
School District of Florence County.
SECTION 15. On January 1, 1995, the five school districts of
Florence County are repealed and the powers, duties, and functions of
the districts as well as their governing boards of trustees are devolved
upon the School District of Florence County and the board of trustees
for the School District of Florence County as appropriate. The assets
and liabilities of these five school districts are also transferred to the
School District of Florence County on this date. In addition, on January
1, 1995, the terms of the then current members of the board of trustees
of the five school districts of Florence County in existence as of that
date shall expire.
SECTION 16. This act takes effect January 1, 1995, except that the
members of the board of trustees of the Florence County School District
must be elected in a nonpartisan election to be held at the same time as
the 1994 general election in the manner provided by this act.
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