THE A AL 

AUSTIN. TEXAS 

October 19r 1949 

Hon. L. A. Woods 

State Superintendent 

Department of Musatlon 

Au&In, Texas 

Opinion Roe v-930. 

Bes The legality of an independent rahool dlstriet whtoti la not 

participating in the 

Foundation Sohiil Program purahaaing aohool 

buses direot rather 

Bear Sir2 

than through the Board 

of Control. 

We refer to your inquiry attaohed to which is 

a letter addressed to you irom the Superintendent o? the 

Odessa Pub110 Sohools, whioh reads In parts 

"The Boald of' Truateees OS the Eotor County Independent Sohool Dlatrlot of Oderra, Texaa, haa requested me to write you ~ugardlng the 

pumhase of buses, tlrsa and tuber which the 

Board of Trustees is presently oontemplatlng. 

D 0 D The Board does not derive to make these 

purohases through the Board of Control and 

feels that O ., O Artlole 634 (B) la applioable 

only to sehool distriots paptiefpatlng In the 

Foundation Sehool Program. As Lou Imow, the 

I!@xP Couuty Independent Bohool Diatrlot has 

bden dealered not eligible for such aid and la 

not paptlolpatlng in this program. 

'In view of these faots, the Board of True- 

::; desires an opinfon f'~om the Attorney Genaa to vhethep OF not it Ir mandatory 

for tie'B&@d of TPuatees of Eotor County Independent Sohool Distpiot to purchase all buaea, 

tlma and tubes used by ft through ths Board 

of Contrcil of the State of Texas." 

It is our undewtanding tha%the amount of loeel funds to be charged to the Eotor County Independent 

Sohool Dlsttiot (S.B.116, Art.VI, Sec,5) toward flIia8iOing its mlnlmw foundation program, vhen added to the 
Hon. L. A. Woods, page 2 (v-938) 

amount of the State end County Available School Funds to 

be realized by the distrlot, produoes a sum sufficient 

to finanoe the entire oost of its Foundation Sohool PPOgram folr%he 1949-1950 aohool year. This suffloienay of 

the distriotta looal fund assignment ooupled with its 

State and County Available Funds (Art.VI, Seo.lb) renders the distlriot Ineligible this year for any State 

money appropriated for purposes of benate Bill 116. It 

%s clear, therefore, that the Eotor distrlot will not 

partioipate in the Foundation Qchool Fund appropriated 

by the 51st Legislature in Senate Bill 117 to f%nanoe 

the minlmum foundation sohool program. 

Section 3 of Artiole V Senate Bill 11.6, 51st 

Leglslatura, (oodified as Art.634 (B) In Vernon's Civil 

Statutes) provides in part in paragraph 1: 

“All motor vehicles used for transporting school ohlldren, inoludFng buses, bus 

chassis. and bus bodies. tires and tubes. 

;z;;;d for or by any-school dlstrlot pal'- 

P 

Ehall be 

r~ in the Foundation School Program, 

B 

urahased 

of Contra . . .n 

by and through the Board 

Paragraph 2 provides in part: 

"Suoh motor vehicles, inoludlng buses, 

bus ohessis, bus bodies, tires and tubes, 

shall be puzwhaaed on oompetitlve bids under 

suoh rules and regulations as may be made by 

the Board of Control . a ." 

Paragraph 3 provides: 

"Auy suoh buses, owned by any county or 

school district, which ars to be sold, traded in, or otherwise disposed of, must be disposed of either by the Board of Control, or by 

the County School Board of the sohool distrlot 

under suoh rules and regulations as the Board 

of Control may provide, and the sale prioe or 

trade-in value of 6ny such buses shall be oonsidered in determining eligiblllts for transportation nrants." 

Paragraph 4 provides: 

"Complianae with this Seotlon shall be 
Eon. L. A. Woods, page 3 (v-938) 

a oonditlon preoedent to partloipatlon In the 

Foundation $ohool Fund, and any aohool dlatrfot 

lliog or refusing to comply with the terns 

atd oondltlona of this Se&Ion shall ba lnsllglble to ahara in the Foundation Sohool Fuitd 

for one year fram tie date of l uoh failure or 

refusal OF awh violation of the terns hereof." 

(Emphasis added throughout) 

That part of poregraph 1 requiring ocmplianae 

by all dlatrlcta "partiolpating in the Foundation Sohool 

Program," when oonsldered apart fraa other 9~ovialons ia 

Seotlon 3, would perhaps warrant the construction that 

Section 3 was meant to apply to every aohool diatriot in 

Texas. FOP in a real aenae every school dlatr1ot, by 

virtue of the provisions of Senate Bill 116, is required 

to expend its efforts toward providing at leust the ntinlmum foundation program established by that Aot. AiG. 

Opinion v-921. 

But considering that olauae, in its relation 

to the spirit and purpose of the other quoted provisions 

of Seotion 3, we think Seotion 3 (Art..634(B) V.C.8.) mm 

Intended to apply only to sohool districts whioh ore participating in the Foundation School Ppogrcm in both a 

cooperative and monetary aenae. It applies only to those 

distriota whloh are participetlng in the Foundation School 

Fund promised in Senete Bill 116 end provided in Senete 

Bill 117. Had the Legialeture meant Seotion 3 to apply to 

every school district in Texas, it could hove ao provided 

~o~letlng from paragraph 1 the modifying clenae in ques- 

. 

Tim spirit and purpose of 8eOtion 3 as 6 whole, 

ve think, la to require every school district partioipat7 at 

In Foundation School Funds (part of its ooata ofaperon involving transportation granta) to puruhaae Its 

school buses, tiwea end tubes, et cetera, through one 

agenoy, the State Board of Control, on a oom9etltive bid 

basis, to the end that auoh distriata shall mallae full 

value for the money they aoqulre through Foundation S&otil 

Fund participation. The Legialature@s prlmary oonoern 

in Its enectment of Section 3 is that ooata of tranaportatlon of public aohool aoholestios be minlmiaed by purchase of neoessery bus equipment and repairs at the lowest coat whenever the diattict la finonoed in part by 

Foundation School Fund moneys. 

The bus pumhaaiug provisions of Howe Bill 
Hon. L. A. Woods, page 4 (V-938) 

295, the Stete Bquallaation lsw for the 1947-1949 biennium, were made epplioeble only to State eld diatriota 

under that law. In similar but leas oartaln language, 

the bus purahaaing provisions in Senate Bill" 116 are 

made appllaeble and aze mandatory only as to sohool districts receiving State aid from Foundation Sahool Funds. 

But all aahool districts, whether they are to 

receive Foundation School Funds or not, may avail themselves of aevlnga afforded through purohase of their 

school buses, eto ., through the f eollitlea of the Boanl 

of Contml In the manner set out in Seation 3 of Artiale v of senate ~~11 116. 

Under Section 3 of Artlole V of Senete 

Bill 1.16, slat Leglalatnre, a aohool dlatrPiot whioh is not eligtble to paptioipate 

in Foundation Progrem Funds provided in Senote Bill 117, slat Legislature, ia not nqulred to purohaae its aohool buses, bus 

equipment, tires, and tubes thrm the 

State Board of Control. Ati. 634 (B), V.C. 

S., as amended. 

Pours very truly, 

ATTOlBiRY GEWERAL OF TEXAS 

CR0 tmtr BY 

Cheater B. olllaoa 

Aaafrtant 

-IRST ASSIS'J?A~ 

ATTORWEX GlBBRA&