Opinion ID: 1127185
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: history of power of school districts to purchase property.

Text: The first legislature established a general uniform system of common schools in the state. Hill's Code, §§ 769-1017; Laws of 1889, chapter XII, p. 348, et seq. Under the original statute, real property could be acquired by action of the district in two ways. First, whenever an incorporated city had a population of ten thousand or more inhabitants, it constituted a school district, which became ... a body corporate and possess[ed] all the usual powers of a corporation for public purposes, and in that name and style may sue and be sued, purchase, hold and sell such personal and real estate, and enter into such obligations as are authorized by law; ... (Italics ours.) Laws of 1889, chapter XII, § 1, p. 386; Hill's Code, § 857. In the event the purchase of school sites and the erection of buildings called for an expenditure exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars for any one calendar year, the question had to be submitted to a vote of the electors of the district. Hill's Code, § 886; Laws of 1889, chapter XII, § 30, p. 394. Second, if the school district was not in an incorporated city having a population of ten thousand or more inhabitants, the board of directors of the district had the power and duty to ... purchase or sell lots or other real estate, when directed by a vote of the district so to do; ... Hill's Code, § 791. Laws of 1889, chapter XII, § 26, p. 365. The statute did not restrict the acreage a school district might purchase for a school site nor grant the right of eminent domain. In 1895, school districts were given the right to purchase a school house site or sites of not less than one acre nor more than five acres each, of any school lands belonging to the state of Washington. Bal. Code, § 2278; Laws of 1895, chapter XII, § 1, p. 17. This, however, was only a limitation upon the purchase of a certain type of land. (The present statute (RCW 28.58.060; Laws of 1909, chapter 97, § 4, p. 265), limits a district's right to purchase school lands belonging to the state of Washington to not less than three acres nor more than ten acres each....) In 1897, the legislature repealed the statutes to which we have just alluded (Laws of 1897, chapter CXVIII, § 257, p. 448) and adopted a ninety-three page code of public instruction which, for the purposes of the instant case, re-enacted, in general, the cited portions of the 1889 and 1895 statutes we have discussed. Laws of 1897, chapter CXVIII, §§ 7, 8, 40, 75, 97; Bal. Code, §§ 2278, 2279, 2311, 2345, and 2367. In 1899, the legislature amended Laws of 1897, chapter CXVIII, § 97, p. 393 (substantially the same as Laws of 1889, chapter XII, § 30, p. 394; Hill's Code, § 886). The amendment required the approval of the electors of a district in incorporated cities having a population of more than ten thousand inhabitants, if the annual expenditure for the purchase of school sites exceeded $50,000. This raised the amount from $25,000 to $50,000. Laws of 1899, chapter CXLII, § 14, p. 319; Bal. Code, § 2367. The amendment also contained a proviso which we will discuss under the history of the power of a school district to acquire property by eminent domain. In 1909, the legislature adopted a one hundred and forty-six page School Code (Laws of 1909, chapter 97, p. 230 et seq. ) which was ... amendatory of, and a recodification as amended of, all laws relating to the public school system of the state of Washington. (p. 376) The 1909 act provided: A school district shall constitute a body corporate and shall possess all the usual powers of a corporation for public purposes, and in that name and style may sue and be sued, purchase, hold and sell such personal and real estate, and enter into such obligations as are authorized by law; ... (Italics ours.) Laws of 1909, chapter 97, § 2, p. 265. This section, which is substantially the same as Laws of 1889, chapter XII, p. 386, was re-enacted by Laws of 1947, chapter 266, § 6, p. 1107; Rem. Supp. 1947, § 4693-25, and now appears as RCW 28.58.010. Nowhere in the history of the present statute (RCW 28.58.010) do we find an acreage limitation upon the power of a school district to purchase land, except school land belonging to the state of Washington.