Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1881-12-10
A SUGGESTION.

There is one matter which is of vital
ton Of the county, which is in 20 un-
settled a condition that no one has the
slightest Knowledge on the subject. 1t
is tl.is, whether or not the school tax
! levied by school district No. includes
the property to-day in school district
! No. s. 1t will be recollected by all the
residents Of this town. that the first
formal notice to the county commission
ers of the boundaries of our various
| school districts was given last spring, /,
written description of such boundaries
| together with IA map Of the county
showing the districts, being at that time
| filed with the county clerk. In that
! description school district No. = en-
, braccd the whole of the county south
of French creek, including the newly
annexed territory formerly known as
Forsythe county, besides Custer City
and the Immediate surrounding region
There is no question about that part of
it. While school district No. 2 was i'm
that condition the regular spring school
meeting was held. This being the
regular annual meeting every one was
bound in law to know OF it, besides the le-
gal notice given in theterriorial statutes.
published notices were posted through
out the district The meeting was held
and large attendance was present,
probably over one hundred men Now,
had there been only five men present
their action would have been binding in
law on the entire district. any section
was not represented il is evident that no
one but themselves are TO blame, they
ought to have been there. At that
meeting tax was levied of seventeen
and one half mills on the dollar The
clerk of the district officially notified
the county clerk of the levy as by law
directed. After all this, upon petition
Of a majority of the citizens of the dis
trict Il new school district was set off bv
the county superintendent of schools
from district No. = and called district
No. ). This new district after Going
through the preliminary steps of organ
izLtion, proceeded to make levy of one
half OF one mill tax for school purposes.
This, there is no doubt they had right
to do, but the question is; does it release
hem from paving the seventeen and
one half mills levied by themselves
when part of No. =. We say levied by
themselves for they were a part of the
district, and if they did not desire to see
he levy made should have been ut the
school meeting and opposed it. Their
not doing SO was in law acquicsccnce TO
he fact The setting of of the new dis
1id WAS probably legal, although in
,:irect opposition - the intent Of the
,chool laws, which are interpreted by
the Territorial superintendent to mean
his: That when Il new district or
change Of boundaries is petiioncd for
there shall be but one consideration
noticed and that shall be, is it best for
the schools, that is, will it conduce to
better educational facilities; will it
make the means Of education more con-
vcnicnt. The desire of taxpayers has
no weight in the matter whatever, they
are obliged to support schools whether
they like to do SO or not This inter
pretation of .he law was not known TO
our superintendent at the time the dis
trict was set off 1t will also be remem-
bered that last spring there were several
conferences between the county com
missioners and the stock men, for the
purpose of satisiactorlally arranging
basis of assessment Of range stock
bissis NAs &nnliyfxed inn manner
which gave entire satisfaction - the
cattle men, that =, seven doli,sS ~
hsSdsssd osly sixty psr esnk ~ tl1sir
book account taken as the number tiiev
owned. This basis excludes yearlings
from assessment, for the stock men
:, ." That as they take account of stock
n,ctobep, an animal does not become
Il yearling until one year after it is listed
by them, although its actual age is
year and Il half, however, all this was
conceded. Another claim made by
them was that before they would agree
to even these favorable terms they must
be set off into separate district for
school purposes. This also was concced-
ed. Now, we are very far from blaming
The stock men for desiring these favor
able terms. we would do the same were
we IN their place, but the question is
can they now avoid paying their district
No. tax. They say they will not pay
it, but we understand that in extending
the taxes the clerk has put that in as he
is bound to do by law. 1t is Of course
outside Of his province to decide what