N.Y. Education Law § 1913: Laying out; referendum procedure

§ 1913. Laying out; referendum procedure. 1. The commissioner is

authorized to lay out a central high school district for the

establishment and maintenance of instruction for secondary pupils in

grades seven through twelve and to fix its boundaries.

2. Within ten days after the making and entry of the order pursuant to

this section, the commissioner shall transmit a certified copy thereof

to the clerk, or in the event there is no clerk, to the trustee or

trustees of each school district affected by such order. The clerk, the

trustee or trustees, as the case may be, shall, within five days after

receipt of such order, post a copy thereof in five conspicuous places in

such district.

3. No central high school district laid out by order of the

commissioner shall operate as such until it has been established by the

qualified voters of the district in accordance with the provisions of

this article.

4. Upon the request of the boards of education of two or more school

districts involved, or upon the receipt of petitions representing

qualified voters equal to ten percent of resident school age pupils from

each of a majority of the districts to be included, the commissioner

shall order a referendum to be conducted in each of the districts

included in the proposed reorganization. The conduct of such referenda

shall be consistent with the provisions of sections eighteen hundred

one, eighteen hundred two, eighteen hundred three and eighteen hundred

four of this chapter, except as specifically provided in this article.

If the resolution to establish the central high school district is

passed in all of the districts, the central high school district shall

be established as laid out. If the proposition to establish the central

high school district shall fail to receive a majority of the votes cast

in any district, the order laying out such central high school district

shall be deemed void. However, nothing herein contained shall prevent

the commissioner from issuing a new order and ordering a vote in

districts in which a resolution shall have received a majority of the

votes cast. An order defeated at the polls may not be reissued for two

years. Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of law, upon consent

of the commissioner and each of the boards of education of the school

districts involved, there may also be offered before the qualified

voters of all the districts, at the same time as the referendum to form

a central high school district, a bond referendum for the construction

of a new high school to serve as the central high school of the new

central high school district, provided, however, that if either

referendum shall fail to gain approval, both shall be deemed to have

failed and provided, further, that the boards of education of the school

districts involved shall submit the proposition and that such

proposition shall be deemed to have been submitted by the board of

education of the newly formed central high school district. The board of

education of the central high school district subsequently formed shall

be authorized to carry out all acts necessary to effectuate such

construction, and such board shall be deemed to have assumed full

authority to take all action necessary and to proceed with all other

business to establish the central high school district and to enter into

any and all contracts, including but not limited to construction

contracts, and be eligible for any and all state aid and state aid

reimbursement pursuant to subdivision six and paragraph c of subdivision

fourteen of section thirty-six hundred two of this chapter, provided

that the percent increase pursuant to such paragraph c shall be thirty,

and shall be in effect for expenditures incurred on or after the date

upon which a bond referendum for the construction of a new high school

to serve as the central high school of the new central high school

district is offered before the qualified voters of the district.