20-A §2103. Dissolution of union school - Maine Statutes

Title 20-A: EDUCATION

Part 2: SCHOOL ORGANIZATION

Chapter 109: UNION SCHOOLS

§2103. Dissolution of union school

1. Ten percent petition. On receipt of a petition to dissolve a union school and establish a maximum figure for the cost of preparing a dissolution agreement signed by 10% of the number of voters in a municipality who voted at the last gubernatorial election, the municipal officers shall call and hold a special election in the manner provided for the calling and holding of town meetings or city elections to vote on the dissolution of the union school.

A. At least 10 days before the election, the municipal officers shall hold a posted or otherwise advertised public hearing on the petition. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

B. The petition must be approved by secret ballot by a 2/3 vote of the voters present and voting before it may be presented to the municipal school committees and the commissioner. Voting in towns must be conducted in accordance with Title 30-A, sections 2528 and 2529, even if the towns have not accepted the provisions of Title 30-A, section 2528, and voting in cities must be conducted in accordance with Title 21-A. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

[ 1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW) .]

2. Form. The question to be voted on must be in substantially the following form.

"Article .............: Be it resolved by the residents of the Town of ........................ that a petition for dissolution be filed with the school committees of Union School No. ............. and with the commissioner, that the dissolution committee be authorized to expend $......................... and that the (municipal officers; i.e. selectmen, town council, etc.) be authorized to issue notes in the name of the Town of ........................ or otherwise pledge the credit of the Town of .................. in an amount not to exceed $ ............................. for this purpose?

Yes....................... No........................"

[ 1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW) .]

3. Notice of vote; finding by commissioner. If residents of a participating municipality vote favorably on a petition for dissolution, the clerk shall immediately give written notices, by registered mail, to the secretary of the municipal school committees and the commissioner that must include:

A. The petition adopted by the voters, including the positive and negative votes cast; and [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

B. An explanation by the municipal officers stating, to the best of their knowledge, the reason or reasons the municipality seeks to dissolve the union school. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

[ 1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW) .]

4. Agreement for dissolution; notice; changes in agreement; final agreement. The agreement for dissolution must comply with the following.

A. After consultation with the school committees, municipal officers of the participating municipalities and representatives of the group that filed the petition with the municipality, the commissioner shall direct the municipal officers of each municipality to select representatives to a dissolution committee as follows: one member from the municipal officers; one member from the general public; and one member from the group filing the petition if the group is represented in the municipality, otherwise an additional member of the general public. The commissioner shall also direct the school committee representing each municipality to select one school committee member to serve on the committee. The municipal officer and the members of the school committees serve on the committee only as long as they hold their respective offices. Vacancies must be filled by the municipal officers and school committees. The school committee chair from the municipality where the petition has passed shall call a meeting of the committee within 30 days of the filing of the notice of the vote in subsection 3. The chair of that school committee shall open the meeting by presiding over the election of a chair of the committee. The responsibility for the preparation of the agreement rests with the committee, subject to the approval of the commissioner. The committee may draw on the resources of the department for information not readily available at the local level and employ competent advisors within the fiscal limit authorized by the voters. The agreement must be submitted to the commissioner within 90 days after the committee is formed. Extensions of time may be granted by the commissioner on the request of the committee. The agreement must:

(1) Contain provisions to provide educational services for all students in the union school. The agreement must provide that during the first year following the dissolution, students may attend the school they would have attended if the union school had not dissolved. The allowable tuition rate for students sent from one municipality to another in the former union school must be determined under section 5805, subsection 1, except that it is not subject to the state per pupil average limitation in section 5805, subsection 2;

(2) Provide that the dissolution take effect at the end of the union school's fiscal year;

(3) Establish that the dissolution may not cause a need within 5 years from the effective date of dissolution for school construction projects that would be eligible for state funds. This limitation does not apply when a need for school construction existed prior to the effective date of the dissolution or when a need for school construction would have arisen even if the union school had not dissolved;

(4) Establish how transportation services will be provided;

(5) Provide for administration of the new administrative units, which should not include the creation of new supervisory units if possible;

(6) Provide for the distribution of financial commitments arising from outstanding bonds, notes and any other contractual obligations that extend beyond the proposed date of dissolution;

(7) Provide appropriately for the distribution of any outstanding financial commitments to the superintendent of the union school;

(8) Provide for the continuation and assignment of collective bargaining agreements as they apply to the new or reorganized school administrative unit for the duration of those agreements and provide for the continuation of representational rights;

(9) Provide for the continuation of continuing contract rights under section 13201;

(10) Provide for the disposition of all real and personal property and other monetary assets; and

(11) Provide for the transition of administration and governance of the schools to properly elected governing bodies of the newly created administrative units and provide that the governing bodies may not be elected simultaneously with the vote on the article to dissolve unless the commissioner finds that extenuating circumstances necessitate simultaneous elections. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

B. Within 60 days of the receipt of the agreement, the commissioner shall either give it conditional approval or recommend changes. The changes must be based on the standards set forth in paragraph A and the commissioner's findings of whether the contents of the agreement will provide for appropriate educational and related services to the students of the union school and for the orderly transition of assets, governance and other matters related to the union school. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

C. If the commissioner conditionally approves the agreement, the commissioner shall notify the school committees and the municipal officers by registered mail of the time and place of a public hearing at least 20 days prior to the date set for the hearing to discuss the merits of the proposed agreement of dissolution. The chair of the committee shall conduct the hearing.

(1) The school committees shall post a public notice in each municipality of the time and location of the hearing at least 10 days before the hearing.

(2) Within 30 days following the hearing, the committee shall forward the final agreement to the commissioner. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

D. If the commissioner recommends changes the commissioner shall:

(1) Send the agreement back to the committee for necessary corrections;

(2) Establish a maximum time within which to make the corrections; and

(3) Indicate that the corrected agreement must be returned to the commissioner for conditional approval before a public hearing is held as set forth in paragraph C. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

[ 1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW) .]

5. Date of vote; notice; warrant; polling hours. The date and time for voting must be established as follows.

A. The commissioner shall determine the date upon which all municipalities must vote upon the dissolution agreement submitted to them. The election must be held as soon as practicable and the commissioner shall attempt to set the date of the vote to coincide with a statewide election. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

B. At least 35 days before the date set in paragraph A, the school committee shall give written notice by registered or certified mail to the town or city clerk of each municipality that has a right to vote on the dissolution agreement. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

C. The town or city clerk shall immediately notify the municipal officers upon receipt of the notice and the municipal officers shall meet and immediately issue a warrant for a special town meeting or city election, as the case may be, to be held on the date designated by the commissioner. No other date may be used. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

D. In the respective warrants, the municipal officers shall direct that the polls open at 10 a.m. and remain open until 8 p.m. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

[ 1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW) .]

6. Public hearing; voting procedures. The following requirements apply to the voting procedures.

A. At least 10 days before the election, a posted or otherwise advertised public hearing on the dissolution question must be held by the municipal officers. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

B. Except as otherwise provided in this section, the voting at the meetings held in towns must be conducted in accordance with Title 30-A, sections 2528 and 2529, even if the towns have not accepted the provisions of Title 30-A, section 2528. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

C. The voting at the meetings held in cities must be conducted in accordance with Title 21-A. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

[ 1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW) .]

7. Dissolution article. The dissolution article must be in the following form.

"Article ...................: Shall School Union No. .................. be dissolved subject to the terms and conditions of the dissolution agreement dated ....................................... 19.....?

Yes ........................ No ..................."

[ 1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW) .]

8. Ballots; posting of agreement. The dissolution agreement need not be printed on the ballot. Copies of the agreement must be posted in each participating municipality in the same manner as specimen ballots are posted under Title 30-A, section 2528.

[ 1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW) .]

9. Restriction on dissolution petitions. No participating municipality within a union school may petition for dissolution within 2 years after the date of:

A. A municipal vote on a petition for dissolution if the petition received less than 60% of the votes cast; or [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

B. A district vote on a dissolution agreement if the agreement received less than 45% of the votes cast. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

[ 1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW) .]

10. Cost of dissolution agreements. If the union school votes to permit dissolution, the union must reimburse the petitioning municipality for the authorized expenses incurred by the dissolution committee. If the union votes not to permit dissolution, the union is not required to reimburse the petitioning municipality for those expenses.

[ 1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW) .]

11. Determination of vote. The town and city clerks shall, within 24 hours of determination of the result of the vote in their respective municipalities, certify the total number of votes cast in the affirmative and the total number of votes cast in the negative on the dissolution article as described in subsection 7 to the school committee.

[ 1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW) .]

12. Determination of results; notification of commissioner; execution of agreement. Determination of result must comply with the following.

A. On receipt of the results of the voting from all municipalities, the school committees from the participating municipalities shall meet together and compute and record the total number of votes cast in the municipalities in the affirmative and in the negative on the dissolution article as described in subsection 7. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

B. The school committees shall notify the commissioner by registered mail or by hand delivery of the results of the vote. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

C. If the commissioner finds that a majority of the voters voting on the dissolution article have voted in the affirmative, the commissioner shall notify the school committees of the union to take steps to dissolve the union in accordance with the terms of the agreement for dissolution. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

[ 1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW) .]

13. Recount; checklists and ballots; disputed ballots. The following provisions apply to recounts, checklists, ballots and disputed ballots.

A. If, within 7 days of the computation and recording of the results of the voting from all municipalities, the municipal officers of any participating municipality request to the commissioner in writing a recount of the votes in the union, the commissioner shall immediately cause the checklists and all the ballots cast in all of the participating municipalities to be collected and kept at the commissioner's office for recount by interested municipalities. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

B. The town clerks of the participating municipalities are authorized to deliver the checklists and ballots to the commissioner, notwithstanding any other provision of law. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

C. The commissioner shall resolve any question with regard to disputed ballots. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

[ 1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW) .]

14. Execution of agreement; certified record; certificate of withdrawal. When the agreement for dissolution has been put in effect by the school committees of the union school, the director of each school committee shall notify the commissioner by certified mail that the agreement of dissolution has been executed.

A. A complete certified record of the transaction involved in the dissolution must be filed with the commissioner. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

B. The commissioner shall immediately issue a certificate of dissolution to be sent by certified mail for filing with each school committee and shall file a copy in the office of the Secretary of State. [1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).]

[ 1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW) .]

15. Indebtedness; indebtedness defined; indebtedness after dissolution. Whenever a union school having outstanding indebtedness dissolves, the union remains intact for the purpose of securing and retiring the indebtedness. The dissolution agreement may provide for alternate means for retiring outstanding indebtedness. For the purposes of this section, "outstanding indebtedness" means bonds or notes for school construction projects issued by the school committees pursuant to the authorization established under chapter 609 or Title 20, sections 3457 to 3460 or obligations to the Maine School Building Authority pursuant to any contract, lease or agreement made by the school committees pursuant to approval thereof in a union meeting of the union school, but does not include any indebtedness of any municipality assumed by the union school at the time of formation nor any contract, lease or agreement of the Maine School Building Authority to which by operation of law the union school has become the assignee.

[ 1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW) .]

16. General purpose aid. When a union school dissolves the general purpose aid for the individual municipalities must be computed in accordance with chapter 605.

[ 1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW) .]

17. Committee recall. If the commissioner determines that the dissolution committee has failed to comply with the requirements of this section, the commissioner may authorize the municipal officers and the union's school committees to recall their representatives and to appoint new representatives to the committee.

[ 1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW) .]

SECTION HISTORY

1991, c. 864, §1 (NEW).