Auberry Union School District v. Rafferty

SHOEMAKER, P. J.

Forty-one California school districts joined to bring this declaratory relief action against the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the members of the State Board of Education, and the county committees on school district organization. The complaint prayed for an adjudication of the constitutionality of Education Code sections 3581-3587, 3113, 3169, and 2842,

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and for a judicial declaration of plaintiffs’ rights and duties in relation to these statutes.

Defendants moved to dismiss the action as sham on the grounds that there was no genuine dispute between plaintiffs and defendants and that the constitutional objections raised by the complaint were so thoroughly without merit as to be characterized as frivolous.

Defendants also demurred to the complaint on the grounds that plaintiffs were without legal capacity to sue, that there was a misjoinder of parties plaintiff, and that the complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.

The trial court, after hearing, found each of the challenged sections of the Education Code to be constitutional, sustained the general demurrer to the complaint, and granted the motion to dismiss the action as sham. Plaintiffs appeal from the judgment of dismissal.

We find it unnecessary to discuss in detail the various Education Code sections referred to in this proceeding. These sections comprise a comprehensive legislative scheme pursuant to which the school districts, high school districts and unified districts located throughout the state may be reorganized in such a manner as to create eountywide districts which shall provide educational programs including all

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grades from kindergarten through grade 12. Education Code, sections 3581-3587 and 3169, set forth procedures whereby plans for countywide reorganization or for other types of reorganization consituting intermediate steps toward such countywide reorganization may be prepared by county committees (or, in the event of their failure to do so, by the State Department of Education), approved by the State Board of Education, and submitted to the voters of the counties concerned. Education Code, section 3113, provides for representation on the county committees of all the members of the governing board of a school district included in whole or in part within the territory which the county committee has selected for possible reorganization. Education Code, section 2842, provides for the merger inte a unified district of any elementary district and high school district whose boundaries have become coterminous.