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15-448. Formation of unified school district; board membership; budget

A. One or more common school districts and a high school district with coterminous or overlapping boundaries may establish a unified school district pursuant to this section. Unification of a common school district and a high school district is not authorized by this section if any of the high school facilities owned by the new unified school district would not be located within its boundaries.

B. Formation of a unified school district shall be by resolutions approved by the governing boards of the unifying school districts and certification of approval by such governing boards to the county school superintendent of the county or counties in which such individual school districts are located. A common school district and high school district that unify pursuant to this section shall not exclude from the same unification a common school district that has overlapping boundaries with the high school district and that wishes to unify. The formation of a unified school district shall become effective on July 1 of the next fiscal year following the certification of the county school superintendent. An election shall not be required to form a unified school district pursuant to this section. At least ninety days before the governing boards vote on the resolutions prescribed in this subsection, the governing boards shall mail a pamphlet to each household with one or more qualified electors that shall list the full cash value, the assessed valuation and the estimated amount of the primary property taxes and the estimated amount of the secondary property taxes under the proposed unification for each of the following:

1. An owner occupied residence whose assessed valuation is the average assessed valuation of property classified as class three, as prescribed by section 42-12003 for the current year in the school district.

2. An owner occupied residence whose assessed valuation is one-half of the assessed valuation of the residence in paragraph 1 of this subsection.

3. An owner occupied residence whose assessed valuation is twice the assessed valuation of the residence in paragraph 1 of this subsection.

4. A business whose assessed valuation is the average of the assessed valuation of property classified as class one, as prescribed by section 42-12001, paragraphs 12 and 13 for the current year in the school district.

C. The boundaries of the unified school district shall be the boundaries of the former common school district or districts that unify. The boundaries of the common school district or districts that are not unifying remain unchanged. The county school superintendent, immediately upon receipt of the approved resolutions prescribed by subsection B of this section, shall file with the board of supervisors, the county assessor and the superintendent of public instruction a transcript of the boundaries of the unified school district. The boundaries shown in the transcript shall become the legal boundaries of the school districts on July 1 of the next fiscal year.

D. On formation of the unified school district, the governing board consists of the members of the former school district governing boards and the members shall hold office until January 1 following the first general election after formation of the district.

E. Beginning on January 1 following the first general election after formation of the unified school district, the governing board shall have five members. At the first general election after the formation of the district, members shall be elected in the following manner:

1. The three candidates receiving the highest, the second highest and the third highest number of votes shall be elected to four year terms.

2. The two candidates receiving the fourth and fifth highest number of votes shall be elected to two year terms. Thereafter all offices shall have four year terms.

F. The new unified school district may appoint a resident of the remaining common school district to serve as a nonvoting member of the governing board to represent the interests of the high school pupils who reside in the remaining common school district and who attend school in the unified school district.

G. For the first year of operation, the unified school district governing board shall prepare a consolidated budget based on the student counts from the school districts comprising the unified school district, except that for purposes of determining budget amounts and equalization assistance, the student count for the former high school district shall not include the prior year average daily membership attributable to high school pupils from a common school district that was part of the former high school district but is not part of the unified school district. The unified school district shall charge the remaining common school district tuition for these pupils as provided in subsection J of this section. The unified school district may budget for unification assistance pursuant to section 15-912.01.

H. The governing board of the unified school district shall prepare policies, curricula and budgets for the district. These policies shall require that:

1. The base compensation of each certificated teacher for the first year of operation of the new unified school district shall not be lower than the certificated teacher's base compensation for the prior year in the previously existing school districts.

2. The certificated teacher's years of employment in the previously existing school districts shall be included in determining the teacher's certificated years of employment in the new unified school district.

I. Upon formation of a unified school district any existing override authorization of the former high school district and the former common school district or districts shall continue until expiration based on the revenue control limit of the school district or districts that had override authorization prior to unification. The unified school district may request new override authorization for the budget year as provided in section 15-481 based on the combined revenue control limit of the new district after unification. If the unified school district's request for override authorization is approved, it will replace any existing override for the budget year.

J. The unified school district shall admit high school pupils who reside in a common school district that was located within the boundaries of the former high school district. Tuition shall be paid to the unified school district by the common school district in which such pupils reside. Such tuition amount shall be calculated in accordance with section 15-824, subject to the following modifications:

1. If the former high school district had outstanding bonded indebtedness at the time of unification, the combined tuition for the group of high school pupils who reside in each common school district shall include a debt service amount for the former high school district's outstanding bonded indebtedness that is determined as follows:

(a) Divide the total secondary assessed valuation of the common school district in which the group of pupils resides by the total secondary assessed valuation of the former high school district. For the purposes of this subdivision, "secondary assessed valuation" means secondary assessed valuation for the tax year prior to the year when the unification occurs and includes the values used to determine voluntary contributions collected pursuant to title 9, chapter 4, article 3 and title 48, chapter 1, article 8.

(b) Multiply the quotient obtained in subdivision (a) by the unified school district's annual debt service expenditure.

2. The debt service portion of such tuition payments calculated pursuant to paragraph 1 of this subsection shall be used exclusively for debt service of the outstanding bonded indebtedness of the former high school district. When such indebtedness is fully extinguished, the debt service portion of a pupil's tuition shall be determined in accordance with paragraph 3 of this subsection.

3. If the former high school district had no outstanding bonded indebtedness at the time of unification, the tuition calculation shall include the actual school district expenditures for the portion of any debt service of the unified school district that pertains to any construction or renovation of high school facilities divided by the school district's student count for the high school portion of the school district.

4. The unified school district shall not include in the tuition calculation any debt service that pertains to any construction or renovation of school facilities for preschool through grade eight.

5. Notwithstanding section 15-951, subsection G, the revenue control limit of the common school district shall include the full amount of the debt service portion of the tuition calculated pursuant to this subsection.

K. All assets and liabilities of the unifying school districts shall be transferred and assumed by the new unified school district. Any existing bonded indebtedness of a common school district or a high school district unifying pursuant to this section shall be assumed by the new unified school district and shall be regarded as an indebtedness of the new unified school district for the purpose of determining the debt incurring authority of the district. Taxes for the payment of such bonded indebtedness shall be levied on all taxable property in the new unified school district, but nothing in this subsection shall be construed to relieve from liability to taxation for the payment of all taxable property of the former high school district if necessary to prevent a default in the payment of any bonded indebtedness of the former high school district. The residents of a common school district that does not unify shall not vote in bond or override elections of the unified school district and shall not be assessed taxes as a result of a bond or override election of the unified school district.

L. If the remaining common school district had authorization for an override as provided in section 15-481 or 15-482, the override authorization continues for the remaining common school district or districts in the same manner as before the formation of the unified school district.

M. The bonding authorization and bonding limitations continue for the remaining common school district or districts in the same manner as before the formation of the unified school district.

N. Nothing in this section shall be construed to relieve a school district formed pursuant to section 15-457 or 15-458 of its liability for any outstanding bonded indebtedness.

0. For school districts that become unified after July 1, 2004 and where all of the common schools were eligible for the small school district weight pursuant to section 15-943, paragraph 1, subdivision (a) when computing their base support level and base revenue control limit before unification, the unified school district may continue to use the small school district weight as follows:

1. Annually determine the common school student count and the weighted student count pursuant to section 15-943, paragraph 1, subdivision (a) for each common school district before unification.

2. Calculate the sum of the common school districts' student counts and weighted student counts determined in paragraph 1 of this subsection.

3. Divide the sum of the weighted student counts by the sum of the student counts determined in paragraph 2 of this subsection.

4. The amount determined in paragraph 3 of this subsection shall be the weight for the common schools in the unified school district.

P. A unified school district may calculate its revenue control limit and district support level by using subsection O of this section as follows:

1. Determine the number of individual school districts that existed before unification into a single school district.

2. Multiply the amount determined in paragraph 1 of this subsection by six hundred.

3. Multiply the amount determined in paragraph 2 of this subsection by 0.80.

4. If the amount determined in paragraph 3 of this subsection exceeds the student count of the unified school district, the unified school district is eligible to use subsection O of this section.

Q. Subsections O and P of this section shall remain in effect until the aggregate student count of the common school districts before unification exceeds the aggregate number of students of the common school districts before unification authorized to utilize section 15-943, paragraph 1, subdivision (a).