FOR AN ACT ENTITLED, An Act to restrict the use of minor adjustments to school district boundaries and to revise the application process for minor boundary changes.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA:
    Section 1. 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 minor change to a school district boundary may only be initiated within two years after the boundaries of the affected school districts were changed as the result of school district reorganization or as the result of a boundary change made pursuant to § 13-6-84.2 or other boundary change made pursuant to this title. The aggregate value of the lands taken from a school district through minor boundary changes during the two-year period may not exceed two percent of the assessed valuation of the school district, and the aggregate acreage of all tax exempt property taken from the school district during the two-year period may not exceed two percent of the tax exempt acreage in the school district.

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    A minor boundary change may be made upon an application for a minor 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 all of the owners of land, excluding land owned by the state or any other political subdivision in the area to be transferred by the minor boundary change. If the school board of the school district from which the area is to be taken approves the petition, the petitioners shall forward it to the school board of the school district to which the area is to be annexed. If that school board approves, the minor boundary change is made. 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 or 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 of the notice to the secretary of the Department of Education. An appeal to the secretary of the Department of Education may be heard by the secretary or the secretary's representative. The secretary of the Department of Education 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 affects the right of an aggrieved party to appeal from the decision of the school board to the circuit court.