15-448

15-448. Formation of unified school district;
board membership; budget

A. One or more common school districts and a high school district with coterminous
or overlapping boundaries may establish a unified school district pursuant to this
section. Unification of a common school district and a high school district is not
authorized by this section if any of the high school facilities owned by the new unified
school district would not be located within its boundaries.

B. Formation of a unified school district shall be by resolutions approved by the
governing boards of the unifying school districts and certification of approval by such
governing boards to the county school superintendent of the county or counties in which
such individual school districts are located. A common school district and high school
district that unify pursuant to this section shall not exclude from the same unification
a common school district that has overlapping boundaries with the high school district
and that wishes to unify. The formation of a unified school district shall become
effective on July 1 of the next fiscal year following the certification of the county
school superintendent. An election shall not be required to form a unified school
district pursuant to this section. At least ninety days before the governing boards vote
on the resolutions prescribed in this subsection, the governing boards shall mail a
pamphlet to each household with one or more qualified electors that shall list the full
cash value, the assessed valuation and the estimated amount of the primary property taxes
and the estimated amount of the secondary property taxes under the proposed unification
for each of the following:

1. An owner occupied residence whose assessed valuation is the average assessed
valuation of property classified as class three, as prescribed by section 42-12003 for
the current year in the school district.

2. An owner occupied residence whose assessed valuation is one-half of the assessed
valuation of the residence in paragraph 1 of this subsection.

3. An owner occupied residence whose assessed valuation is twice the assessed
valuation of the residence in paragraph 1 of this subsection.

4. A business whose assessed valuation is the average of the assessed valuation of
property classified as class one, as prescribed by section 42-12001, paragraphs 12 and 13
for the current year in the school district.

C. The boundaries of the unified school district shall be the boundaries of the
former common school district or districts that unify. The boundaries of the common
school district or districts that are not unifying remain unchanged. The county school
superintendent, immediately upon receipt of the approved resolutions prescribed by
subsection B of this section, shall file with the board of supervisors, the county
assessor and the superintendent of public instruction a transcript of the boundaries of
the unified school district. The boundaries shown in the transcript shall become the
legal boundaries of the school districts on July 1 of the next fiscal year.

D. On formation of the unified school district, the governing board consists of the
members of the former school district governing boards and the members shall hold office
until January 1 following the first general election after formation of the district.

E. Beginning on January 1 following the first general election after formation of
the unified school district, the governing board shall have five members. At the first
general election after the formation of the district, members shall be elected in the
following manner:

1. The three candidates receiving the highest, the second highest and the third
highest number of votes shall be elected to four year terms.

2. The two candidates receiving the fourth and fifth highest number of votes shall
be elected to two year terms. Thereafter all offices shall have four year terms.

F. The new unified school district may appoint a resident of the remaining common
school district to serve as a nonvoting member of the governing board to represent the
interests of the high school pupils who reside in the remaining common school district
and who attend school in the unified school district.

G. For the first year of operation, the unified school district governing board
shall prepare a consolidated budget based on the student counts from the school districts
comprising the unified school district, except that for purposes of determining budget
amounts and equalization assistance, the student count for the former high school
district shall not include the prior year average daily membership attributable to high
school pupils from a common school district that was part of the former high school
district but is not part of the unified school district. The unified school district
shall charge the remaining common school district tuition for these pupils as provided in
subsection J of this section. The unified school district may budget for unification
assistance pursuant to section 15-912.01.

H. The governing board of the unified school district shall prepare policies,
curricula and budgets for the district. These policies shall require that:

1. The base compensation of each certificated teacher for the first year of
operation of the new unified school district shall not be lower than the certificated
teacher's base compensation for the prior year in the previously existing school
districts.

2. The certificated teacher's years of employment in the previously existing school
districts shall be included in determining the teacher's certificated years of employment
in the new unified school district.

I. Upon formation of a unified school district any existing override authorization
of the former high school district and the former common school district or districts
shall continue until expiration based on the revenue control limit of the school district
or districts that had override authorization prior to unification. The unified school
district may request new override authorization for the budget year as provided in
section 15-481 based on the combined revenue control limit of the new district after
unification. If the unified school district's request for override authorization is
approved, it will replace any existing override for the budget year.

J. The unified school district shall admit high school pupils who reside in a
common school district that was located within the boundaries of the former high school
district. Tuition shall be paid to the unified school district by the common school
district in which such pupils reside. Such tuition amount shall be calculated in
accordance with section 15-824, subject to the following modifications:

1. If the former high school district had outstanding bonded indebtedness at the
time of unification, the combined tuition for the group of high school pupils who reside
in each common school district shall include a debt service amount for the former high
school district's outstanding bonded indebtedness that is determined as follows:

(a) Divide the total secondary assessed valuation of the common school district in
which the group of pupils resides by the total secondary assessed valuation of the former
high school district. For the purposes of this subdivision, "secondary assessed
valuation" means secondary assessed valuation for the tax year prior to the year when the
unification occurs and includes the values used to determine voluntary contributions
collected pursuant to title 9, chapter 4, article 3 and title 48, chapter 1, article 8.

(b) Multiply the quotient obtained in subdivision (a) by the unified school
district's annual debt service expenditure.

2. The debt service portion of such tuition payments calculated pursuant to
paragraph 1 of this subsection shall be used exclusively for debt service of the
outstanding bonded indebtedness of the former high school district. When such
indebtedness is fully extinguished, the debt service portion of a pupil's tuition shall
be determined in accordance with paragraph 3 of this subsection.

3. If the former high school district had no outstanding bonded indebtedness at the
time of unification, the tuition calculation shall include the actual school district
expenditures for the portion of any debt service of the unified school district that
pertains to any construction or renovation of high school facilities divided by the
school district's student count for the high school portion of the school district.

4. The unified school district shall not include in the tuition calculation any
debt service that pertains to any construction or renovation of school facilities for
preschool through grade eight.

5. Notwithstanding section 15-951, subsection G, the revenue control limit of the
common school district shall include the full amount of the debt service portion of the
tuition calculated pursuant to this subsection.

K. All assets and liabilities of the unifying school districts shall be transferred
and assumed by the new unified school district. Any existing bonded indebtedness of a
common school district or a high school district unifying pursuant to this section shall
be assumed by the new unified school district and shall be regarded as an indebtedness of
the new unified school district for the purpose of determining the debt incurring
authority of the district. Taxes for the payment of such bonded indebtedness shall be
levied on all taxable property in the new unified school district, but nothing in this
subsection shall be construed to relieve from liability to taxation for the payment of
all taxable property of the former high school district if necessary to prevent a default
in the payment of any bonded indebtedness of the former high school district. The
residents of a common school district that does not unify shall not vote in bond or
override elections of the unified school district and shall not be assessed taxes as a
result of a bond or override election of the unified school district.

L. If the remaining common school district had authorization for an override as
provided in section 15-481 or 15-482, the override authorization continues for the
remaining common school district or districts in the same manner as before the formation
of the unified school district.

M. The bonding authorization and bonding limitations continue for the remaining
common school district or districts in the same manner as before the formation of the
unified school district.

N. Nothing in this section shall be construed to relieve a school district formed
pursuant to section 15-457 or 15-458 of its liability for any outstanding bonded
indebtedness.

0. For school districts that become unified after July 1, 2004 and where all of the
common schools were eligible for the small school district weight pursuant to section
15-943, paragraph 1, subdivision (a) when computing their base support level and base
revenue control limit before unification, the unified school district may continue to use
the small school district weight as follows:

1. Annually determine the common school student count and the weighted student
count pursuant to section 15-943, paragraph 1, subdivision (a) for each common school
district before unification.

2. Calculate the sum of the common school districts' student counts and weighted
student counts determined in paragraph 1 of this subsection.

3. Divide the sum of the weighted student counts by the sum of the student counts
determined in paragraph 2 of this subsection.

4. The amount determined in paragraph 3 of this subsection shall be the weight for
the common schools in the unified school district.

P. A unified school district may calculate its revenue control limit and district
support level by using subsection O of this section as follows:

1. Determine the number of individual school districts that existed before
unification into a single school district.

2. Multiply the amount determined in paragraph 1 of this subsection by six hundred.

3. Multiply the amount determined in paragraph 2 of this subsection by 0.80.

4. If the amount determined in paragraph 3 of this subsection exceeds the student
count of the unified school district, the unified school district is eligible to use
subsection O of this section.

Q. Subsections O and P of this section shall remain in effect until the aggregate
student count of the common school districts before unification exceeds the aggregate
number of students of the common school districts before unification authorized to
utilize section 15-943, paragraph 1, subdivision (a).