§ 79-499. Class I, II, or III school district; membership requirements; cooperative programs; when required; plan; ballot issue; when; failure; effect.
Small Class I, II, or III school districts may have to submit a cooperative-program plan, and some may be dissolved if low enrollment continues.
(1) If the fall school district membership or the average daily membership of an existing Class I, II, or III school district shows fewer than forty-five students in grades kindergarten through twelve, the district shall submit a plan for developing cooperative programs with other school districts, including the sharing of curriculum and certificated and noncertificated staff, to the State Committee for the Reorganization of School Districts. The cooperative program plan shall be submitted by the school district by September 1 of the year following such fall school district membership or average daily membership report. A cooperative program plan shall not be required if there is no school within fifteen miles from such district on a reasonably improved highway. The state committee shall review the plan and provide advice and communication to such school district and other school districts. (2) If for two consecutive years the fall school district membership, or for two consecutive years the average daily membership, of an existing Class I, II, or III school district is fewer than forty-five students in grades kindergarten through twelve as determined by the Commissioner of Education, such school district shall, except as provided in subsection (3) of this section, be dissolved pursuant to the procedures described in subdivision (3)(b) of this section through the order of the state committee if the school district is within fifteen miles on a reasonably improved highway of another school. This subsection does not apply to any school district located on an Indian reservation and substantially or totally financed by the federal government. (3)(a) Any Class I, II, or III school district which is the only public school district in the county and which has a fall school district membership or an average daily membership of fewer than forty-five students in grades kindergarten through twelve shall be subject to this subsection until such school district reaches a fall school district membership or an average daily membership in grades kindergarten through twelve of at least forty-five students or such school district dissolves. Such school district may continue to operate if: (i) The plan submitted pursuant to subsection (1) of this section provides a broad-based curriculum as determined by the state committee; and (ii) At a districtwide election held the second Tuesday of November by whatever means the county conducts balloting, in the second consecutive school year that the fall school district membership for grades kindergarten through twelve is fewer than forty-five students, a majority of voters approve a ballot issue to continue to operate the school district for the immediately following four school years. If such ballot issue succeeds and the school district remains subject to this subsection, such school board or board of education shall conduct a public hearing and, after receiving testimony at the public hearing, vote whether to continue to operate the school district every four years thereafter. If such ballot issue or such vote of the school board or board of education fails, the school district shall be dissolved pursuant to the procedures described in subdivision (3)(b) of this section. (b) The state committee shall dissolve the school district and attach the territory to other school districts based on the preferences of each landowner if such preference is provided in the time and manner required by the state committee and would transfer such parcels to a school district with a boundary contiguous to the school district being dissolved. Landowners submitting such preferences shall sign a statement that the district of preference is the district which children who might reside on the property, at the time of the dissolution or in the future, would be expected to attend. For property for which a preference is not provided in the time and manner required by the state committee, the state committee shall transfer such property to one or more of the school districts with boundaries contiguous to the district being dissolved in a manner that will best serve children who might reside on such property, at the time of the dissolution or in the future, and that will, to the extent possible, create compact and contiguous districts. (4) For purposes of this section, when calculating fall school district membership or average daily membership, a resident school district as defined in section 79-233 shall not count students attending an option district as defined in such section and a Class I, II, or III school district shall not count foreign exchange students and nonresident students who are wards of the court or state. History: Laws 1991, LB 511, § 55; Laws 1992, LB 245, § 53; R.S.1943, (1994), § 79-516.08; Laws 1996, LB 900, § 248; Laws 1996, LB 1050, § 6; Laws 1999, LB 272, § 70; Laws 2005, LB 126, § 36; Referendum 2006, No. 422; Laws 2015, LB477, § 1; Laws 2018, LB377, § 27; Laws 2018, LB1070, § 1; Laws 2020, LB1166, § 1; Laws 2022, LB1057, § 1; Laws 2024, LB1329, § 33.