FILE:  AA

SCHOOL DISTRICT LEGAL STATUS

The Constitution of the State of Louisiana requires the Legislature to provide for the education of the people of the state through the establishment and maintenance of a public educational system.  The Constitution also requires the Legislature to create School Boards.  Thus the St. Martin Parish School Board is an instrument of the State, created by the Legislature.

School Boards, in turn, have been empowered by the Legislature to create a school district or school districts within the parish and, in keeping with procedures established by law, to delineate and amend district boundaries and to consolidate districts within the area of the parish.

No public election shall be required in the creation of any school district.  Every school district so created shall be a political subdivision of the state and may issue bonds and vote special taxes up to the full amounts permitted by the Constitution of Louisiana, regardless of whether such school district may lie within the boundaries of a consolidated school district or a school district comprising all of the territory of a parish, and regardless of whether such school district may contain within its boundaries one or more other school districts.

School districts shall be under the exclusive control and management of the respective School Boards, unless otherwise provided for by state law.

Ref:    U.S. Constitution, Amend. X

U.S. Constitution, Amend. XIV, Sec. 1

Constitution of Louisiana, Art. VIII, Sec. 1, Art. VIII, Sec. 9

La. Rev. Stat. Ann.  §§17:51, 17:1371, 17:1371.1, 17:1371.2, 17:1372, 17:1373, 17:1377, 17:1378

Hawthorne v. Jackson Parish School Board, 5 La. App. 508 (1927)

Wisconsin v. Yoder, 92 S.Ct. 1526 (1972)

Milliken v. Bradley, 94 S.Ct. 3112 (1974)

Dayton Board of Education v. Brinkman, 97 S.Ct. 2755 (1977)

St. Martin Parish School Board