Ohio Revised Code
Chapter 3311 | School Districts; County Planning
Section 3311.38 | State Board May Propose Transfers of Districts.

Effective: September 17, 2014
Latest Legislation: House Bill 487 - 130th General Assembly
The state board of education may conduct, or may direct the superintendent of public instruction to conduct, studies where there is evidence of need for transfer of local, exempted village, or city school districts, or parts of any such districts, to contiguous or noncontiguous local, exempted village, or city school districts. Such studies shall include a study of the effect of any proposal upon any portion of a school district remaining after such proposed transfer. The state board, in conducting such studies and in making recommendations as a result thereof, shall consider the possibility of improving school district organization as well as the desires of the residents of the school districts which would be affected.
(A) After the adoption of recommendations growing out of any such study, or upon receipt of a resolution adopted by majority vote of the full membership of the board of any city, local, or exempted village school district requesting that the entire district be transferred to another city, local, or exempted village school district, the state board may propose by resolution the transfer of territory, which may consist of part or all of the territory of a local, exempted village, or city school district to a contiguous local, exempted village, or city school district.
The state board shall thereupon file a copy of such proposal with the board of education of each school district whose boundaries would be altered by the proposal and with the governing board of any educational service center in which such school district is located.
The state board may, not less than thirty days following the adoption of the resolution proposing the transfer of territory, certify the proposal to the board of elections of the county or counties in which any of the territory of the proposed district is located, for the purpose of having the proposal placed on the ballot at the next general election or at a primary election occurring not less than ninety days after the adoption of such resolution.
If any proposal has been previously initiated pursuant to section 3311.22, 3311.231, or 3311.26 of the Revised Code which affects any of the territory affected by the proposal of the state board, the proposal of the state board shall not be placed on the ballot while the previously initiated proposal is subject to an election.
Upon certification of a proposal to the board of elections of any county pursuant to this section, the board of elections of such county shall make the necessary arrangements for the submission of such question to the electors of the county qualified to vote thereon, and the election shall be counted and canvassed and the results shall be certified in the same manner as in regular elections for the election of members of a board of education.
The electors qualified to vote upon a proposal are the electors residing in the local, exempted village, or city school districts, containing territory proposed to be transferred.
If the proposed transfer be approved by a majority of the electors voting on the proposal, the state board, subject to the approval of the board of education of the district to which the territory would be transferred, shall make such transfer prior to the next succeeding July 1.
(B) If a study conducted in accordance with this section involves a school district with less than four thousand dollars of assessed value for each pupil in the total student count determined under section 3317.03 of the Revised Code, the state board of education, with the approval of the educational service center governing board, and upon recommendation by the state superintendent of public instruction, may by resolution transfer all or any part of such a school district to any city, exempted village, or local school district which has more than twenty-five thousand pupils in average daily membership. Such resolution of transfer shall be adopted only after the board of education of the receiving school district has adopted a resolution approving the proposed transfer. For the purposes of this division, the assessed value shall be as certified in accordance with section 3317.021 of the Revised Code.
(C) Subject to section 3311.241 of the Revised Code, if applicable, upon the making of a transfer of an entire school district pursuant to this section, the indebtedness of the district transferred shall be assumed in full by the acquiring district and the funds of the district transferred shall be paid over in full to the acquiring district.
(D) Upon the making of a transfer pursuant to this section, when only part of a district is transferred, the net indebtedness of each original district of which only a part is taken by the acquiring district shall be apportioned between the acquiring district and the original district in the ratio which the assessed valuation of the part taken by the acquiring district bears to the assessed valuation of the original district as of the effective date of the transfer. As used in this section "net indebtedness" means the difference between the par value of the outstanding and unpaid bonds and notes of the school district and the amount held in the sinking fund and other indebtedness retirement funds for their redemption.
(E) Upon the making of a transfer pursuant to this section, when only part of a district is transferred, the funds of the district from which territory was transferred shall be divided equitably by the state board between the acquiring district and that part of the former district remaining after the transfer.
(F) If an entire school district is transferred, the board of education of such district is thereby abolished. If part of a school district is transferred, any member of the board of education who is a legal resident of that part which is transferred shall thereby cease to be a member of that board.
If an entire school district is transferred, foundation program moneys accruing to a district accepting school territory under the provisions of this section shall not be less, in any year during the next succeeding three years following the transfer, than the sum of the amounts received by the districts separately in the year in which the transfer became effective.

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