Opinion ID: 1826878
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: facts

Text: On December 12, 1989, voters in the old Oldham and Ramona school districts approved a school district reorganization plan merging the two districts into one effective July 1, 1990. In January and February of 1990, the legislature met and passed a series of amendments to the statutes concerning minor school district boundary changes. Some of the amendments contained an emergency clause making them effective from and after the date of their passage and approval which was on February 28, 1990. See, 1990 S.D.Sess.L. ch. 111, § 3. The balance of the amendments were not passed with the benefit of an emergency clause, and, therefore, were not effective until July 1, 1990. See, 1990 S.D.Sess.L. ch. 113; SDCL 2-14-16. In March 1990, petitioners filed petitions for minor boundary changes with the new Oldham-Ramona School District. Each of the petitioners sought to transfer property from the new Oldham-Ramona District to other nearby school districts. At the time petitioners filed their petitions, they contended that the Oldham-Ramona School Board (the board) had sixty days to act on them. This view was based on some of the amendments made to the pertinent statutes during the 1990 legislative session. However, the board took the position it was not required to take action on the petitions prior to July 1, 1990 when the school district reorganization plan took effect. When sixty days passed with no board action on their petitions, three of the petitioners interpreted this lack of action as a disapproval of their requests for boundary changes and appealed the purported disapproval to the State Superintendent of Education. See SDCL 13-6-85 (Supp.1989) (appeal allowed to State Superintendent of Education from school board decision on minor boundary change). Usts and Bruners filed their appeals on June 1, 1990. Jensens filed their appeal on June 13, 1990. Hoyers did not appeal the board's initial lack of action on their petition. On July 5, 1990, during the pendency of the three appeals to the State Superintendent, the board conducted an evidentiary hearing on all of petitioners' petitions. Petitioners were given an ample opportunity to testify and produce any evidence whatsoever in support of their petitions. However, the board took no final action on the petitions during, or immediately after, the July 5 hearing. On August 9, 1990, the State Superintendent issued an order directing the board to take action on all of the petitioners' boundary change petitions. The board attempted to appeal this order to the circuit court but, the appeal was dismissed and the matter remanded to the State Superintendent for further proceedings. On August 14, 1990, the board adopted a series of resolutions disapproving all of the petitioners' petitions. Petitioners then filed their second set of appeals with the State Superintendent. Usts, Bruners and Jensens filed their appeals on August 20, 1990. Hoyers filed their appeal on September 6, 1990. The State Superintendent conducted detailed evidentiary hearings on the appeals of Usts, Bruners and Jensens on November 20, and December 17, 1990. A similar hearing on Hoyers' appeal was conducted on October 1, 1990. At the end of December 1990, the State Superintendent entered findings of fact, conclusions of law and decisions in all four appeals overruling the board and granting petitioners their requested minor boundary changes. The board appealed the decisions of the State Superintendent to the circuit court, filing its notices of appeal on January 28, 1991. Based upon motions filed by the parties, the circuit court issued orders on April 9, 1992, clarifying the standard of review to be applied in the four cases and denying petitioners' motions to restrict the admission of additional evidence. The circuit court determined that it would review the matters de novo but suggested that the parties might wish to rely on the evidence submitted during the hearings before the State Superintendent as a time saving device. That was, in fact, the course followed by the circuit court and the parties during the trial on May 7, 1992. On June 1, 1992, the circuit court entered its findings of fact and conclusions of law in each of the four cases. The circuit court determined that the board's action in disapproving each petitioner's petition was legal and that it was not arbitrary, capricious or an abuse of discretion. Accordingly, the circuit court entered judgments in all four cases reversing the decision of the State Superintendent and affirming and reinstating the board's disapproval of petitioners' petitions. Petitioners now appeal to this Court.