HB2546 - 561R

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. Section 15-458, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:

START_STATUTE15-458. Formation of new district or districts by subdivision of existing district; division of assets

A. In a school district containing a student count of more than six hundred, a new school district or districts may be formed by a subdivision of the existing school district.

B. On the request of the governing board or on receipt of petitions bearing the signatures of at least ten per cent percent of the qualified electors in the area proposed to be a new school district or the signatures of at least fifty of the qualified electors in the area proposed to be a new school district, whichever is more, and at least ten per cent percent of the qualified electors in the area proposed to continue as the existing school district or at least fifty signatures of the qualified electors in the area proposed to continue as the existing school district, whichever is more, the county school superintendent, shall within ten days, shall call an election to determine if the existing school district should be divided and a new school district or districts formed, except that if the existing school district is a union high school district, the county school superintendent shall call the election only on the request of the governing boards of the union high school district and each of the common school districts comprising the union high school district or on receipt of petitions bearing the signatures of at least ten per cent percent of the qualified electors in each of the common school districts or at least fifty signatures of the qualified electors in each of the common school districts, whichever is more. This subsection does not require the submission of the signatures of more than fifty per cent percent of the qualified electors of the existing school district to the county school superintendent in order to call an election for the purposes of this section. The petition shall state the proposed boundaries of the school district or districts to be formed together with the student count, specific reasons why it is in the best interest of the current district residents to have a new district or districts formed and the amount of real property valuation within the school district or districts to be formed. No A new school district may not be formed unless the state board of education determines that the real property valuation per student count is sufficient to support the school district in a manner comparable to other school districts of similar size and that a sufficient number of pupils will exist in each of the new districts to ensure that educational programs and services will be of similar or better quality after the subdivision.

C. Notwithstanding subsection B of this section, if a school district has an unweighted average daily membership of at least 35,000 during fiscal year 2021-2022 or any fiscal year thereafter, the county school superintendent shall call an election within one year after the end of that fiscal year to determine whether the existing school district should be divided and a new school district or districts formed. If a county school superintendent calls an election pursuant to this subsection and the division is not approved by the voters, the county school superintendent may not call an election pursuant to this subsection in any subsequent fiscal year but may call an election as prescribed in subsection B of this SECTION.

C. D. The An election held pursuant to subsection B or C of this section shall be held concurrently and as provided in section 15-459, except that a majority of the votes cast by the qualified electors in each of the areas proposed as a school district must approve the division of the existing school district and the formation of the new school district.

D. E. The governing board of the existing school district shall prepare a projected list of assets for the existing district prior to before the end of the fiscal year in which the election is held. The governing boards of the original and new school district or districts shall prepare a final statement of assets for the formerly existing school district as of the end of the fiscal year in which the election was held and shall have the statement of cash and bonded indebtedness certified by the county treasurer by August 30 of the year in which the new school district or districts become operative. The governing boards of the original school district and the new school district or districts shall set aside sufficient assets or provide other means to satisfy the liabilities of the former existing district except for bonded indebtedness and approve the final division of all assets by September 15 of the year in which the new school district or districts become operative. If one or more of the governing boards fail to provide for satisfying the liabilities and fail to approve the division of assets by September 15, the county attorney shall determine the means to satisfy the liabilities and final division of assets by October 1 of the fiscal year in which the new school district or districts become operative.

E. F. The division of the bonded indebtedness of the original school district shall be in accordance with the provisions of section 15-457, subsection B.

F. G. An original or new school district formed by a subdivision of an existing school district or districts after June 30, 1992 is not eligible to determine its budget using the provisions of section 15-949 or the support level weights prescribed in section 15-943, paragraph 1. These districts are also not eligible to participate in a small district service program as prescribed in section 15-365 or to apply to the state board of education for a capital levy adjustment as prescribed in section 15-963.

G. H. If two or more common school districts are within the boundaries of a union high school district, two or more unified school districts may be formed by a subdivision of the existing union high school district and by unification with the common school districts as provided in this section, subject to the following provisions:

1. Formation of a unified school district pursuant to this subsection shall be initiated if a majority of the governing board members of each of the districts affected unites in a petition to the county school superintendent for the establishment of to establish a unified school district or if ten per cent percent of the number of qualified electors who voted in whichever of the last two general elections resulted in the higher number of ballots cast and who reside in each of the areas proposed to be the new unified school districts unite in a petition to the county school superintendent for the establishment of to establish a unified school district. The petition shall include a statement of the proposed boundaries of the new unified school districts and shall request that the subdivision of the union high school district and formation of the unified districts be submitted to the qualified electors who reside within the proposed districts. The petition shall also include a detailed description of desegregation funding and expenses for the resulting school district as set forth in paragraph 7 of this subsection and may include the new school district name and other information as desirable. On receipt of the petitions, the county school superintendent shall examine the petitions within fifteen days of after receipt to determine their sufficiency, including the adequacy of the signatures of electors. If the petitions are found sufficient, the county school superintendent shall call an election to be held to determine the question. The county school superintendent shall prepare and the governing board shall distribute a subdivision and unification plan that includes:

(a) The proposed boundary changes.

(b) The impact of the proposed boundary changes, including where pupils will attend school, changes in pupil transportation services, changes in availability of special education services, changes in pupil-teacher ratio and operational costs.

(c) If paragraph 7 of this subsection applies to one or more of the existing school districts, a detailed description of desegregation funding and expenses for the resulting school districts as set forth in paragraph 7 of this subsection.

(d) Any other information the county school superintendent deems appropriate to include.

2. If the governing boards or the petitioners wish the new districts to receive unification assistance as provided in section 15-912.01, they shall notify the department of education and the joint legislative budget committee by August 1 of the fiscal year before the new districts would begin operation and provide the department and the joint legislative budget committee with information required to project the costs of unification assistance to the new districts for the first year of operation. The department shall include sufficient monies to cover these unification costs in its budget request for state aid for the following fiscal year.

3. The election shall be held as provided in section 15-459, except that the ballot shall contain the words "subdivision and unification, yes" and "subdivision and unification, no", and there shall be one of the following two ballot questions, whichever is applicable, stated as follows:

(a) Should (insert the name of the district) union high school district be subdivided with boundaries identical to the boundaries of (insert the name of the districts) common school districts and simultaneously creating (insert the number of the districts) unified school districts with the respective common school districts as specified in the subdivision and unification plan?

(b) Should (insert the name of the district) union high school district be subdivided simultaneously with the subdivision of (insert the name of the districts) common school districts and simultaneously creating (insert the number of the districts) unified school districts with the subdivided common school districts as specified in the subdivision and unification plan?

4. If the formation of the new unified school districts is authorized, the terms of the governing board members of the common and union high school districts do not expire on the effective date of unification but continue until January 1 following the next general election, during which time the members of the governing boards of the previously existing school districts shall serve as the governing board of the new school district in which they reside. At the next general election held after the formation and thereafter, members shall be elected as prescribed in section 15-448, subsection E. The governing boards of the new unified school districts shall prepare policies, curricula and budgets for the new unified school districts. The policies prepared by the governing boards shall include the provisions of section 15-459, subsection M.

5. If the common school district is not subdivided, the new unified school district that includes the boundaries of the previously existing common school district shall assume the bonded indebtedness of that previously existing common school district. If the common school district is subdivided, the provisions of subsection E F of this section shall apply applies.

6. If the common school district is not subdivided, existing bond authorization of the common school districts automatically continues for the original purpose authorized. If the common school district is subdivided, the existing bond authorization of the common school district will expire unless it is divided between the new unified school districts as specified in the subdivision and unification plan.

7. If any of the school districts were authorized to budget for expenses of complying with or continuing to implement activities that were required or permitted allowed by a court order of desegregation or administrative agreement with the United States department of education office for civil rights directed towards remediating alleged or proven racial discrimination pursuant to section 15-910, this authorization does not expire on the effective date of the subdivision and unification but only applies to schools included in the court order or administrative agreement.

8. If the union high school district and the common school district or districts with which it is unified all have authorization for an override as provided in section 15-481 that would have continued after the subdivision and unification, the override authorization continues for the new district and expires at the time that the earliest override would have expired.

9. If one or more of the previously existing school districts were participating in a career ladder program pursuant to chapter 9, article 1.1 of this title before subdivision and unification, notwithstanding any other law the state board shall expedite the processing of and may approve an updated application for program reapproval for the new school district that includes the existing school district that was participating in the program.

10. 9. The employee's years of employment in the previously existing school district shall be included in determining the employee's years of employment in the new school district after a subdivision and unification. An employee who was entitled to continuing contract status in the previously existing school district is entitled to continuing employment contract status in the new school district.

11. 10. The base salary and benefits of each employee for the first year of operation of the new school district after a subdivision and unification shall not be lower than the employee's base salary and benefits for the prior year in the previously existing school district.

12. 11. Notwithstanding paragraphs 10 9 and 11 10 of this subsection and pursuant to section 15-544, nothing in this section shall be construed to does not restrict the ability of the governing board to implement a reduction in force or to scale back salaries of certified teachers, administrators or noncertificated employees for reasons of economy or to improve the efficient conduct of schools within the district following a subdivision and unification. END_STATUTE

Sec. 2. Section 15-912.01, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:

START_STATUTE15-912.01. Unification assistance

A. New unified school districts formed after a subdivision and unification as provided in section 15-458, subsection G H or section 15-459, subsection B, paragraph 5 or and new unified school districts formed from a common school district and a high school district pursuant to section 15-448 may budget for unification assistance as provided in subsection B of this section.

B. The eligible school district may increase the revenue control limit and the district support level for the first year of operation by an amount determined as follows:

1. Through December 31, 2006, five per cent of the revenue control limit.

2. Beginning January 1, 2007, the amount of any transitional costs that are directly associated with routine formalities that are necessary as a result of unification, such as changing of signs, letterhead, and stationery and similar issues.

C. A school district which that budgets for unification assistance pursuant to this section may not budget for consolidation assistance pursuant to section 15-912 during the one year one-year period for which the unification assistance is in effect. END_STATUTE

Sec. 3. Election to divide school districts with large enrollments in fiscal year 2021-2022; date

Notwithstanding section 15-458, subsection C, Arizona Revised Statutes, as added by this act, if a school district had an unweighted average daily membership of at least 35,000 during fiscal year 2021-2022, the county school superintendent shall call an election within one year after the end of fiscal year 2022-2023 to determine whether the existing school district should be divided and a new school district or districts formed.