Honorable C. Bu&t Potter

CountyAttorney San Patricia County Sinton, Texas

Dear Sir: OpinionNumber o-4858 Re: Payment of salary of school superintendentwhere schooldistrict receives rural aid,

We have received your letters of August 28, 1942 and September 17, 1942. We quote the following from the first mentioned letter:

"An IndependentSchoolDistrict entered,into
a two gee= contract on a 12 month a gear salary basis, The District paid such salary to the Superintendent for the first yeaT of such contract, but at the end of the flpstyear, due to the scale fixed in the State Aid contyactwith theDepartment of Education, refused to pay same the second gear.

"Thequestion is,may theDistrict pay the Superintendent of suchDistplct on a 24 month basis under such contract or is such contract invalid due to such provision in view of the fact that the school isreceiving State Aid?"

Your letter of September 17, 1942, reads, in part, as follows:

"'The independent schooldistrict entered into a two yearwritten contractwith the Supt. of the independent schooldistrict. He served one year under the provisions of the contract relative to pay, The secondgear, he fulfilled his contractwith his services,however, the board refused to pay him the salapgpl-ovidedin the contract, on the grounds that the contract conflicted with Articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the Equalliation Aid Law of Texas, cited in Public School Laws of Texas, pages 234-2X7- The salary is immaterial and the board iswilling to pay the difference between the provision of such law and the contract amount, if they may do so legally...

Honorable C. Burtt Potter,page #2 o-4858

"'The contract havingbeen executed and entered between the schooldistrict and the superintendent and sameproperly approved, same isnot controversal. * * *I".

Article I of the current rural aid bill (Acts 1941, 47th Leg., R.S., ch. 549,R.S. 284, p. 880) sets out the factorswhich determinewhether a school is eligible to receive rural arid

under the bill. Section 1 ofArticle 1 sets out the scholasticpopulationrequirements. Sectiori 2 provides that no schooldistrict shallbe eligible to receive aid unless it votes, levies and collects a local~maintenance tax of not less than 50$?on the one hundreddollars of property valuation,which valuation shall not be less than that for State and countypurposes. We quote the following from Section 2:

'* l * The income from such a maintenance tax in excess of the required fifty cents (50#)maintenance tax must first be used to retire indebtedness, if any, in the local and equalization ~",u;a,.as~i",?n;","o;; iu,cls.After the indebtedness has been retired the income from this'maintenkce tax in excess of the required fifty cents (50d)maintenance tax may be used at the discretion of the local school authorities of the district for any lawful schoolpurposes. Provided that no local fundsmay be used to increaseteach= salariesdirectly OP inErectly above the salary scheduleprovided for in this Act, An fifty cents (5Od

r OP all maintenance tax above may not be included in the calculation of need fop aid but shallbe reported in the budget. * * * (Emphasis supplied).

Article III of the current real aid bill deals with salary aid. Section 1 ofArticle III defines teacher-pupil quota. Section 2 reads as follows:

"SalaryScheduleAnd Length of Term. No part of the aid herein provided shallbe used for increasing the monthly salary of any teacher, except as herein authorized, and fundsprovided for in this Act shallbe used for the exclusive purpose of extending the length of the school term of the schools situated in the district receiving such aid on the basis of a schedule of teachers' salariesas determined by the State Board of Education foF the school sear 1938-19. The annual salary of teachers in accreditedHonorable C, Burtt Potter, page #3 o-4858

schools shallbe the monthly salary as determined by such schedulemultiplied by nine (9). The annual salary of teachers in unaccredited schools shall be the monthly salary as determined by said schedulemultipliedby eight (8). The annual salary of Superintendents of accreaited schoolswith eight (8) or more reco nized affiliated credits and entitled to six ( ) i! teachersnormore under Section lof this-Article, VocationalAgriculture teachers, and Trades and Industries teachers shall be the monthly salary
as determined by said schedulemultiplied~by twelve (12), The annual salary of Home Economics teachers shallbe the monthly salary as de; terminedby said schedulemultipliedby ten (10). All such authorized salariesmay be paid in twelve (12) equal payments,which shall not exceed the contract or the salary schedule,beginningwith September 1st of each year, Salaries of Superintendentsand Vocational teachersmay begin on July 1st rather than September lat. All schools of the accredited class receiving aid shall provide a ,term of approximatelynine (9)months, and schools of the unaccredited class receiving aid shall provide a term of approximately eight (8)months. An accredited school is herein defined as a school teaching either the elementar=y

grades, the elementarygrades plus two (2)years of high school, or the elementarygrades and foup (4)years of high school and recognized by the StateDepartment of Education as doing standard work. Should anv schooldistrict eligible to receive ala under the urovlsions of this Act maintain a salary schedule in excess of the salary schedule,asdetermined bv the State Board of Bducation for the schoolyear 1918-19 the amount of aid received bv such schooldistriit shallbe reduced by the amount of such excess." (Emphasis supplied)e Although we do not know the salary of the superintendent under his contractwith the district, we presume that it is 'in
excess of that fixed in the scheduleas determined by the State Board of Education for the schoolyear 1938-39,mentioned in * Section 2 of Article III.

We assume that the independent schooldistrict under considerationwas incorporatedunder the general law and that the laws applicable to independentschooldistricts are applicable to this district. Article 2781,Vernon's Annotated CivilHonorable C, Burtt Potter, page #4 o-4858

Statutes, authorizes the board of trustees of an independent district to employ a school superintendent. Said article provides as follows:

"TheBoard of Trustees of any city or town
or any independent schooldistrict may employ
a superintendent,principal, teacher, OP other executive officers in the schools therein for
a term not to exceed three gears, provided that the Board of Trustees of an independent school districtwhich had a scholasticpopulation of 5,000 OP more in the last preceding scholastic year may employ a superintendent,principal, teacher, OP other executive officers in the schools therein for a term not to exceed five years. All twelve-month contractsmade by trustees of independent schooldist??icts with employees hereinmentioned shall begin on July first and end on June 30th of the yeap terminat; ing the contract, Acts 1905; p0 263; Acts 1923, p0 260; Acts 1930, 41st Leg., 5th C-S., p- 123, ch. a, set, 1.”

Thuswe see that the board of trusteesmay employ a superintendentfop a term not to exceed three years. You state in your letter that the contractwas properly executed and approved, We assume that all the requirements of law
were met and that the services of the superintendentunder the contractwere satisfactory,

We ape informedby the StateDepartment of Education that those schooldistricts applying for rural aid are requilredto submit budgets showing theiF revenues and proposed expenditmea. Then rural aid is granted to supplyadditional
revenue to balance the approved budget and operate the school
aa set out under the bill, Theoretically at least, the districtwill have no additional funds after ,theitems enumerated in the budget are expended. Under Section 2 of Article III, where a schooldistrictmaintains a salary schedule in excess of the schedule determined by the State Board of Education the amount-of such excess shallbe subtracted from the amount of aid to be received by saiddistrict,

There is nothing compelling schooldistricts to accept pural aid. A&icle XIV of the Act provides a penalty for ViOlation of the terms of the Act, but such penalty applies only to the pight to receive rural aid,

The fact that a superintendent'ssalary as setby his contpact of employment exceeds the amount in the salary ached-- .

Honorable C. Burtt Potter,page #5 o-4858

ule as determined by the State Board of Educationwould in itself in no way affect either the legality of the contract or the liability of the district under the contract, At most such factwould affect only the eligibility of the district for participation in the rural aid benefits.

Very truly yours

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS

By s/GeorgeW. Sparks George~

W. Sparks Assistant

GWS-S-WC

APPROVED SEP 29, 1942 s/Gerald C. Mann ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS
Approved Opinion CommitteeBy s/BWEi Chairman