. . 

EA'ITORNEY GENERAL 

OF’ %-EXAS 

AUSTIN ~~.‘lkxas 

WILL WILSON 

A-ORNEY GBNE-I. July 22, 1960 

Honorable J. W. Edgar Opinion NO. W-892 

Commissioner of Education 

Austin, Texas Re: May a junior college 

district legally expend 

local maintenance funds 

when available for establishment and operation of 

a television station facility (to be located within 

or without the dlstrlct) as 

a cooperative educational 

project with other public 

Dear Dr. Edgar: educational entities. 

We are in receipt of your letter requesting our 

opinion on certain questions concerning the legality 

of an educational television station. 

Your questions read as follows: 

I'May a junior college district legally 

expend local maintenanc,e funds when available: 

"1 . For establishment and operation of 

a television station facility (to be located 

within or without the district) as a cooperative educational project with other public 

educational entities? 

"2 . For the costs of providing or servicing the district with educational television broadcasts from a television channel 

or station? 

“3. And/or for the costs of procurement 

from and televising by a certain television 

station of educational programs or services 

designated by the District for augmentation 

of Its educational program?" 
. . - 

Honorable J. W. Edgar, Page 2 (W-892) 

The authorized expenditures for which local maintenance funds may be used are set out in Article 2827, 

Vernon's Civil Statutes, which reads in part as follows: 

"The public free school funds shall 

not be expended except for the following 

purposes: 

"2. Local school funds from district 

taxes, tuition fees of pupils not entitled 

to free tuition and other local sources may 

be used for the purposes enumerated for 

State and county funds and for purchasing 

appliances and supplies, for the payment of 

insurance premiums, janitors and other employees, for buying school sites, buying, 

building and repairing and renting school 

houses, and for other purposes necessary in 

the conduct of the public schools to be 

determined by the board of trustees . . ." 

Article 2827 quoted above is applicable to Junior 

College Districts by virtue of Article 2815h, Section 5, 

Vernon's Civil Statutes, which reads as follows: 

"The Board of Trustees of Junior College Districts shall be governed in the 

establishment, management and control of 

the Junior College by the General Law 

governing the establishment, management 

and control of Independent School Districts 

insofar as the General Law is applicable." 

Section 20 of Article 2815h, Vernon!s Civil Statutes, 

reads in part as follows: 

Said Board of Trustees shall 

. . . &l is such they shall constitute 

a body corporate by the name of the Junior 

College District , State of Texas, 

and in that name may acquire and hold real 

and personal property, sue and be sued, and 

may receive bequests and donations, or other 

moneys or funds coming legally into their 

hands, and may perform other acts for the 

promotion of education in said district." 
- - 

Honorabie J. W. Edgar, Page 3 (w-892) 

It is our opinion 

tion quoted above does 

poses for which junior 

but rather it pertains 

that the language of this Secnot expand or enlarge the purcollege funds may be expended 

only to the authority of the 

trustees to perform acts as a corporate body in the 

name of the junior college, the authorization for the 

particular acts being elsewhere in the statutes. 

We believe that the answer to your first question 

is controlled by Attorney Gneral's Opinion O-4573 

(1942), a copy of which is attached hereto, and the 

authorities cited therein, which hold that a junior 

college district may legally expend local maintenance 

funds for erection of a school building provided that 

the funds used are surplus funds and that a deficiency 

debt is not thereby created against the district. This 

raises the question of whether or not a television 

station facility Is a school building. 

In Adams v. Miles, 300 S.W. 211 (1927), the Court 

of Civil Appeals in an opinion affirmed by the Commission of Appeals in 41 S.W. 2d 21 said the following: 

"We are of the opinion tha~t under 

the powers granted common school district 

trustees by the statutes above referred 

to Sec. 

.A 

1, Art. VII, Tex. Coast., Arts. 

274 9 2749, 2827, R.C.S.j, those trustees 

have the authority,to be reasonably exercised within their discretio:n, to 

appropriate the surplus funds in their 

hands to the constructi:X! of a 'schoolhouse', such as that proposed here, to be 

used by them In providing "living quarters 

for the teachers of sala school, and fo? 

such other purposes as to the trustees of 

said district may seem prop:r or necessary 

In conducting said school', 

In Mosely v. City of Dallas, 17 S.W. 2d 36 (Corn. 

App,), the Court recogn:zedthat the board of trustees 

may exercise considerable discretion as to the purposes 

for which the public free school funds may be expended 

due to the language of Article 2827. 

The case of Youn Linwood School District No. 17, 

97 saw. 2d 627, iiiYo* the _: que&ion of whether or not a 

gymnasium building with rooms for home economics and 
Honorable J. W. Edgar, Page 4 (W-892) 

vocational agriculture was a school building under a 

statute authorizing the issuance bonds for building 

and equipping school buildings. The Supreme Court of 

Arkansas held that It was a school building and the 

following language Is from their opinion: 

we think the words ‘school bulldlngs’, ‘ai ised therein, mean any such school 

dlatrict bulldlng as may be needful, necessary, 

or proper for the conduct of a school in said 

district. ” 

Article 2815r-1 specifically authorizes the several 

governing boards of the Junior Colleges to enter into 

contracts with munlclpalltles and school districts for 

the joint construction of buildings and other structures, 

In vlew of the foregoing authorltlea It ia our 

opinion that a junior aollege dietriot may legally expend 

local maintenanoe funds when avallable for eetabllshment 

and operation of a tslevlaion station faallity as a 

oooperative educational project with other public eduoational entltise where the trusteee determine suoh a projeot to bo neoeaaary in the oonduot of the sohool. 
- - 

Honorable J. W. Edgar, Page 5 (w-892) 

I! 

. . . and the Legislature may au.thorlse 

an additional ad valorem tax to be levied and 

collected within all school districts heretofore formed or hereafter formed, for the further maintenance of public free schools, and 

for the erection and e ulpment of school buildings therein; . . .' 4 Emphasis added) 

From the authorities cited above we conclude that 

the question of whether or not a junior college district 

may expend local maintenance funds when available for 

either the cost of providing or servicing the district 

with educational television or for the costs of educational programs or services for the augmentation of its 

educational program is a questlon that rests within the 

sound discretion of the trustees of said district. 

Questions 2 and 3 are, therefore, answered in the affirmative, provided that the trustees in the exercise of 

their discretion determine that such activities are 

necessary in the conduct of the school. 

SUMMARY 

A junior college district may legally 

expend local maintenance funds when 

available for establishment and operaticn of a television station facility 

(located within the district) as a 

cooperative educational project with 

other public educational entitles, provided the trustees of the district in the 

exercise of their discretion determine 

such a project to be necessary In the conduct of the school, and provided further 

that only surplus funds are used and a 

deficiency debt is not thereby created 

against the district. Such funds may 

also be legally expended for the costs of 

providing the district with educational 

television broadcasts or for the procurement and televising of programs to augment 
Honorable J. W. Edgar, Page 6 (w-892) 

the district's program where the 

trustees in the exercise of their 

discretion determine these activities to be necessary in the conduct of the school. 

Yours very truly, 

WILL WILSON 

Attorney General of Texas 

By k%J&ftLdJ 

Robert A. Rowland 

Assistant 

RAR:mm 

APPROVED: 

OPINION COMMITTEE 

W. V. Geppert, Chairman 

Martin DeStefano 

Riley Eugene Fletcher 

Howard Mays 

John C. Phillips 

REVIEWED FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL 

BY: Leonard Passmore