1083cc

___________________ moved that HB 1083 be amended as follows:

     On the House Education Committee engrossed bill, delete everything after the enacting clause and insert:

"      Section  1.  That § 13-6-84.1 be amended to read as follows:

     13-6-84.1.   In all proposed changes in school district boundaries, the following conditions shall prevail:

             (1)      The boundary of the area proposed to be transferred shall be coterminous at some point with the common boundary of the two school districts. Land owned by the federal, state, or local governments and unoccupied land owned by a nonresident individual or corporation , if the nonresident individual or corporation receives written notice in advance, may be included in the request;

             (2)      Children must reside within the boundary of the area to be transferred, unless it is an area change initiated by a school board as provided in §   13-6-84.2. "

     Section  2.  That § 13-6-85 be amended to read as follows:

     13-6-85.   A boundary change, affecting not more than two percent of the assessed valuation and not more than two percent of the tax-exempt acreage or other tax-exempt property to be determined at the discretion of the school district from which the area is to be taken, A school district boundary change may be initiated at any time. If a school district boundary change is initiated within two years of any of the following events, the aggregate value of the lands taken from a school district through boundary changes may not exceed five percent of the assessed valuation of the school district, and the aggregate acreage of all tax exempt property taken from a school district may not exceed five percent of the tax exempt acreage in the school district.

             (3)    An attendance center in an affected school district closed.

     A boundary change may be made upon an application for a boundary change to the school board of the school district from which the area is to be taken and to the school board of the school district to which the area is to be annexed, in the form of a petition signed by over fifty percent of the voters residing in the area to be transferred by the boundary change. School boards shall act upon the applications for boundary changes in the order that they are received. Copies of the petitions shall also be delivered by the petitioners to the board of county commissioners having jurisdiction over the school districts affected. Any petitioner who is aggrieved by a decision of the school board under this section may appeal that decision.

     An appeal from the decision of the school board under this section may be made to the circuit court in the time and manner specified by §   13-46-1 or to the secretary of the Department of Education and Cultural Affairs or his the secretary's representative within thirty days from the date of the decision of the school board by filing a notice with the secretary of the school board and mailing a copy thereof to the secretary of the Department of Education and Cultural Affairs. An appeal to the secretary of the Department of Education and Cultural Affairs may be heard by the secretary or his the secretary's representative. The secretary of the Department of Education and Cultural Affairs shall thereafter set a time and place for the hearing and give at least ten days written notice of the hearing to the parties involved in the appeal, including all affected school districts. An appeal to the secretary is not a "contested case" subject to chapter 1-26. An appeal from the decision of the secretary may be made pursuant to §   13-6-89. On appeal from a decision of the secretary, the appeal shall be heard and determined in the same manner as a direct appeal from the school board decision pursuant to §   13-6-89 and chapter 13-46 without any presumption of the correctness of the decision of the secretary nor may the provisions of §   1-26-36 be applied to the decision of the secretary. Nothing in this section shall affect affects the right of an aggrieved party to appeal from the decision of the school board to the circuit court."