Document: Junior College Organization Act, Colorado 1937 Session Laws, Chapter 237.
Commentary:
Colorado, like many states, was slow to adopt what is known as “enabling legislation,” a comprehensive act which legally defined a state’s public junior colleges, not only determining their governance, funding, and curriculum, but the minimum population and assessed valuation of those communities which could legally establish a junior college. Colorado’s enabling legislation, adopted in 1937, came fully twelve years after the state had authorized the establishment of two junior colleges -- one at Grand Junction, the other at Trinidad. However, like the early junior college acts of Kansas and Michigan, Colorado’s Grand Junction and Trinidad bills were very limited in scope. These two bills are only distinguished from other early junior college laws by their unique, even odd, provision granting each college $2500 of state funds to “beautify” their respective campuses.
In most respects, Colorado’s 1937 enabling act differed little from the enabling legislation that a growing number of states would adopt after 1930. Like these other acts, much of Colorado’s law was devoted to detailing the minimum criteria that would permit a county or counties to organize a junior college. Much of the legislation was devoted to spelling out in detail this process, even specifying the exact language of the ballot.
By comparison to legislation adopted by several mid-western state during the 1930s, Colorado’s enabling act was extraordinarily progressive in several respects. It encouraged the organization of multi-county community college districts -- an obvious necessity in a state with many lightly populated, asset-poor counties — in contrast, for example, to Texas, which required special legislation for the formation of such districts. Further, to effectively limit the exercise of the broad powers granted the lay board of directors in section 14, the legislature restricted their meetings to four a year (rather than, as was more commonly the case, either monthly or even bi-weekly). This effectively granted extensive day-to-day control of the state’s two junior colleges to their administrators. But most importantly, the Colorado legislature required (unlike those of Minnesota and Iowa, which mandated super-majorities) only a simple majority vote for the creation of a junior college district.
Other features of the bill reinforced what appears to have been the legislature’s desire to limit the role of a junior college’s board of directors in exercising institutional oversight. When, for example, Colorado voters approved the establishment of a junior college district, they did not simultaneously elect board members (as was the case in California). Rather, the initial five directors of a Colorado junior college district were appointed at a meeting of the new district’s public school system directors. The popular election of junior college directors was not required for two years, and then for only two of the five seats. It would be six years before the full board would be elected.
It is also apparent that Colorado had learned from the experience of other states and specifically sought to guarantee the academic standing of junior college students upon transfer. In section 18, the bill effectively overrode issues of accreditation and transferability by requiring that the University of Colorado and other state institutions accept student credits “in full” for those courses detailed in section 2. Moreover, in what may have been the first such requirement, the legislature further mandated that any junior college assist state agencies in providing“vocational rehabilitation of physically disabled persons.”
At the same time, Colorado’s junior college legislation was extraordinarily traditional, even regressive, in its funding mechanism. Whereas California had adopted a complex formula, based on a district levy, attendance, and variable state aid designed to equalize per-student funding across district lines, Colorado permitted a 5 mill local levy to be combined with nominal state aid of $75 per teacher per month for nine and a half months, with one teacher allowed for every 7 full-time student. At a time when junior college faculty typically earned $1400 a year, and often more, it is likely that many districts found it necessary to impose the full 5 mill tax and it would be interesting to explore if any district, unable to raise sufficient funds through the combination of state aid – which provided only slightly more than $700 a year per teacher – and the local property tax, appealed to the state superintendent under the provisions of sub-section 247 for special aid to fully fund their junior college.
Document
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CHAPTER 237
SCHOOLS
JUNIOR COLLEGE ORGANIZATION ACT
Senate Bill No. 977. By Representatives Dameron, Aspinall, Strain, Horsman, Kramer, La Crue, Atencio, Hornbaker, Graham, McDonald (Pueblo] and Renkel and Senators Chapman, Hotchkiss, Johnson [6th], Latimer, Lloyd, Miller, Nolon, Norlega, Ritchie, and Wheeler)
AN ACT
RELATING TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF JUNIOR COLLEGES AS A PART OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF COLORADO; PROVIDING FOR THE FINANCING THEREOF AND AMENDING OR REPEALING ACTS OR PARTS OF ACTS IN CONFLICT HEREWITH.
Be It Enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Colorado:
Section 1. Junior Colleges established in Colorado pursuant to the provisions of this act are hereby declared to be an integral part of the public school system of the State of Colorado.
Section 2. A junior college established pursuant to the provisions of this act within the State of Colorado hereby defined to be an educational institution which shall provide not to exceed two (2) years of training in the arts, sciences and humanities beyond twelfth (12th) grade of the public high school curriculum-and/or vocational education.
Section 3. Junior college districts in Colorado may be organized in the area which shall consist of the territory of a county or of two or more counties, such area shall have had a school population, as determined by the immediately preceding school census,
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of thirty-five hundred (3,500) or more and an assessed evaluation at the time of the organization of such district of twenty million dollars ($20,000,000.00) or more.
Section 4. A junior college district may be formed upon the petition of five hundred (500) electors of the county, or counties, having the qualifications hereinafter prescribed. If the petition is for the formation of a junior college district consisting of the area of a single county, it shall be filed with the county superintendent of public schools of such county and if the petition is for the formation of a junior college district consisting of two or more counties, a copy of the petition shall be filed with each of the county superintendents of public schools of the counties compromising said district.
Section 5. Upon receipt of the petition heretofore provided, the county superintendent of public schools of such county or counties shall give notice to the qualified school electors of the county that at the next regular meeting for the electing of members of school boards in the respective districts of the state or at a special meeting which may be called for the purpose, the question of organizing a junior college district will be submitted to the qualified voters of the respective school districts in the county or counties at such meeting.
Section 6. The notice herein provided shall be given not less than twenty (20) days before the regular or special meeting at which the organization of the junior college district is to be submitted. The superintendent of the county or of each county with the proposed district shall cause notices to be posted in each school district in the county, stating that such petition has been filed and that a meeting will be held at which time the question of organizing the county or counties into a junior college district shall be submitted to the qualified voters of the district. The secretary of each school board shall, under direction of the county superintendent, cause written or printed notices to be posted in his district, specifying the purpose the day and the place or places of such election and the time during which the ballot box or boxes shall be kept open which shall be not less than three (3) hours. If the meeting shall be a regular meeting for electing members of school boards, the time and place specified in such notice shall be the same time and places at which the regular election of members of the school board shall be held. If the meeting is one specially called for the purpose of submitting the question of the organization of a junior college district, the time shall be stated in such notice and the place or places shall be the same at which the regular election of members of school boards are held. Said notices shall be posted at least twenty (20) days previous to the time of such meeting, in at least three (3) public places in the district, one of which shall be the general offices of the school district at the school house.
Section 7. Every legally qualified elector who is eligible to vote at a bond election of a school district, and none other, shall be entitled to vote at any meeting upon the question of the organization of a junior college district. At the time and place of said meeting the qualified electors shall proceed to vote by ballot on the question of whether or not the proposed junior college district shall be organized. Those in favor of the organization shall vote “for the organization” and those opposed “against the organization”. The ballots upon the question of organization shall be deposited by the voters in a separate ballot box to be provided by each school district for the said purpose. The president, secretary and treasurer of the district school board, or other qualified electors appointed by them shall act as judges of the election.
Section 8. Immediately after the closing of the polls the judges shall open the ballot boxes and proceed to count the votes polled, and the counting thereof shall be commenced and continued until finished before the judges shall adjourn. As soon as all the ballots have been counted, the judges shall make out a certificate under their hands certifying the whole number of votes cast upon the question of organizing and the number of votes cast for organization and the number of votes cast against organization. Said certificate, together with the ballots cast upon the question, shall then be enclosed and sealed under suitable cover and directed to the county superintendent of the county in which such election is held and the packet thus sealed shall be sent by registered mail, where practicable; otherwise it shall be conveyed by one of the judges of the election, to be determined by lot if they cannot agree otherwise, within three (3) days after the closing of the polls.
Section 9. On the tenth (10th) day after the holding of the election, or sooner if all returns be received, the county superintendent of the county shall proceed to open the said returns and determine the results of the election therefrom. Said county superintendent shall make and permanently preserve in his office a record of the total number of votes cast upon the said question of organization and the number of votes cast for organization and against organization. If it shall appear from the record of the superintendent of the county or counties of the proposed junior college district that the majority of the votes cast on the question of organizing a junior college district shall be in favor of such organization, the county superintendent of public schools of such county or of such counties shall notify by mail or by publication, where practicable, the directors of the respective school districts of said county or counties and shall call a meeting of the directors of the respective school districts of the proposed junior college district, which meeting shall be at the office of the county superintendent of schools of the county within which the buildings of the junior college are located, or are proposed to be located no later than thirty (30) days after the election herein provided for. Such meetings shall be presided over by the county superintendent of the county wherein the meeting is held and he shall appoint a temporary secretary. The assembled directors shall then proceed to elect five (5) members, who may or may not be directors of school districts of the county, or counties, what shill be known as the “..................................... Junior College Committee”, except where a junior college board or committee already exists within such district, in which event said board or committee shall automatically constitute the first junior college committee and shall serve during the first two (2) year period. This committee shall be a representative committee at large, consisting of five (5) members, chosen by nomination and polled by the school directors assembled. At least two (2) members of said junior college committee shall be residents of first-class school districts of the county or counties; provided, however, that in counties where there are no school districts of the first-class at least two (2) members of said junior college committee shall be residents of school districts of second-class. Nomination of junior college committee members may be by petition, containing names of hundred (100) qualified electors of the county or counties of the district, presented to the school directors assembled, or from the floor of the meeting. The term of offices for two (2) members of said committee be for a term of six (6) years, for two members for a term of four (4) years and the remaining member for a term of two (2) years. The terms of members shall he determined ly drawing lots. At the expiration of these terms of office, the members shall be elected for a term of six (6) years. Vacancies occurring by reason of expiration of term shall be filled the school directors at a regular or special meeting for the purpose in the manner hereinbefore described. All vacancies caused in any other manner than by expiration of term of office shall be filled by appointment by the county superintendent of schools if the district comprises the area of a county, or by the joint action of the county superintendents of schools if the district comprises an area of two or more counties. Appointment other than by election shall hold office until the next meeting of the school directors of the junior college district which is held for the purpose of electing members of the junior college committee. Immediately after its selection as aforesaid, the junior college committee shall select from its members a president, secretary and treasurer.
Section 10. The secretary of a junior college committee shall thereafter have the power to call a meeting of the directors of the school districts of the county or counties and he shall give ten (10) days notice by mail of the holding of any meeting of said directors in the interests of the Junior college district.
Section 11. The regular meetings of the junior college committee shall be held on the first Saturday of March, June, September and December of each year, and special meetings may be held upon call of the president or a majority of the committee and the secretary of the committee shall notify the members thereof.
Section 12. Each regularly organized junior college district which may be formed, as provided in this act, is hereby declared to be a body corporate, by the name and style of “....................Junior College District”, and in that name may hold property and be a party to suits and contracts, the same as municipal corporations in this state.
Section 13. It shall be lawful for any junior college district in this state to take and hold, under the provisions of any law now or hereafter in force and effect, providing for the exercise of the rights of eminent domain, so much real estate as may be necessary for the location and construction of a junior college building or buildings and convenient use of said junior college. Any real estate now owned by a public junior or by the State of Colorado for a public junior college heretofore organized under the laws of the state of Colorado shall become the property of the junior college district wherein such property is situate.
Section 14. It shall be the duty of the junior college committee to determine financial and educational policies and provide for the proper execution of each by selecting competent administrators, instructors, and other personnel for the administration, operation and maintenance of the institution; to fix fee rates, to accept gifts, to purchase, hold, sell and/or rent property and equipment, and to promote, the general welfare of the institution for the best interests of education and the junior college district.
Section 15. The president shall preside at all meetings of the junior college committee of the junior college district and shall sign all orders on the county treasurer for the payment of money;provided, however, that no orders shall be drawn upon the county treasurer except in favor of parties to whom the junior college district has become lawfully indebted. He shall appear in behalf of the junior college district in all suits brought by or against the district, but in the event that the president is individually interested, this duty shall be performed by the secretary. In the absence of president, the secretary shall preside at any meeting of the junior college committee.
Section 16. The secretary shall keep an account of the expenses incurred by the junior college district and shall present the same to the committee whenever called upon. He shall give the required notice of all regular and special meetings as herein authorized. He shall keep the same records, and the same reports as are now or may hereafter be required by law to be kept and made by secretaries public school districts. Any or all of the special duties of the secretary may be delegated by the junior college committee to a paid secretary who may be appointed by the junior college committee.
Section 17. The treasurer shall countersign all warrants drawn by the President and secretary on the county treasury and shall keep an account of the same. He shall take charge of all moneys received by the Junior college committee on account of the junior college district. He shall render a statement of the finances of the district, as shown by the records of his office at the close of each school year and at any other time when required by the committee. The treasurer shall perform such additional duties and be subjected to such additional obligations as are now or may hereafter be imposed by law upon the treasurer of public scool districts.
Section 18. Credits received by students attending junior colleges shall be accepted in full by other state institutions of higher learning for provisional enrollment in such major courses for which the courses in the junior college qualify.
Section 19. In case the county adjacent to a college district which has been organized, de-
sires to be annexed to such existing junior college district, it may do so by the following procedure:
(a) By obtaining the approval of the already existing junior college district. Such approval shall be given only upon a majority vote of the electors of such existing junior college district as expressed by a majority polled at the time of the general school elections held in such junior college district.
(b) By the county, desiring to be annexed, voting on the question of annexation at the general school election, following the procedure hereinbefore set forth for the organization of junior college districts. If the of the voters are for annexation, then the two or more counties shall proceed as one junior college district and the choosing provided that in the management of the affairs of the junior college district and the choosing of a junior college committee the school directors at the two or more counties shall meet as hereinbefore provided in the original junior college district.
Section 20. Any junior college district may be dissolved in the manner hereinafter provided. A plan for the dissolution of such junior college district may be submitted to the qualified electors of the junior college district at a special election held for that purpose. Such plan must provide for the payment of all district debts and liabilities and the distribution of all district assets. If the qualified electors shall authorize such dissolution by a vote of the majority of electors voting at such special election, the junior college committee of the district shall proceed to the carrying out of the plan so authorized and upon accomplishment shall file their certificate of such fact with the county clerk of the county wherein the district is situate. Thereupon such district shall be considered at an end. If any property or funds shall remain in the hands of the junior college committee, credit after such dissolution of such funds shall be distributed as provided in such plan of dissolution for the distribution of junior college district assets.
Section 21. Sub-section 240, Chapter 146, 1933 Colorado Statutes Annotated, is hereby amended to read as follows:
Sub-section 240. On or before the first day of October in each year, the Board of Directors or Board of Education of every school district and the Junior College Committee of every Junior College district shall certify to the County Superintendent of Schools of the county wherein such school district or Junior College District is located the number of teachers employed or to be employed in such school district or who may be employed in a Junior College District during the then ensuing school year, the length of time during which the school will be kept open during said year, and the amount of money necessary to pay each of said teachers of the school districts a salary of $75.00 per month, and each of such teachers of the Junior College district or districts a salary of $75.00 per month, during the said portion of the year during which said schools or Junior Colleges are to be kept open. The County Superintendent of Schools shall transmit to the secretary of each school district and Junior College District in the county a summary of said estimates and a certification as to the required county levy at least ten days before the date designated by law for the district school boards to certify their special levies to the County Commissioners.
Section 22. Sub-section 241, Chapter 146, 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, is hereby amended to read as follows:
Sub-section 241. On or before the date designated by law for the County Commissioners of each county to levy taxes for county purposes for the ensuing year, a county superintendent of schools shall certify to said Board of County Commissioners, and to the County Treasurer, the amount of money necessary to levied upon all of the taxable property in the county to raise or provide the aggregate amount of all said sums so certified to them by the Board of Education
and Boards of Directors in the school districts and the Junior College Committee of the Junior College district in the county, for the purpose of paying the said salaries, together with the amount so required by each school district and Junior College District.
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Section Amended Section 23. Sub-section 242, Chapter 146, 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, is hereby amended to read as follows:
Sub-section 242. The county Commissioners shall, at the time of levying the taxes for county purposes, levy on all of the taxable property in the county a tax which shall be sufficient to raise and provide the amount of money so certified by the County Superintendent of Schools, not exceeding, however, five (5) mills on the dollar of the assessed valuation of said taxable property. The said tax shall be collected at the same time and in the same manner as State and County Taxes are collected, except that it shall be receivable in cash only.
Section 24. Sub-section 243, Chapter 146, Colorado Statutes Annotated, is hereby amended to read as follows:
Sub-section 243. The said tax so raised shall constitute a separate fund to be known as the general school fund, and shall be apportioned among the several school districts and Junior College districts in the amounts and proportions so certified by the county superintendent of schools; provided, that each school district shall be entitled to at least one teacher hereunder, and provided further, that in each school district wherein is employed more than one teacher and such school district having a school population of less than one hundred, no greater amount shall be so apportioned than is necessary to pay the said salary to one teacher for each twenty-five or major fraction thereof, of the school population of said school district; and provided, further, that in school districts having a school population of more than one hundred, no greater amount shall be apportioned than is necessary to pay the said salary to four teachers plus one teacher for each additional forty or major fraction thereof in excess of one hundred of the school population of said school district; and provided, further, that any school district having an area of over 75 square miles, or an assessed valuation not in excess of $500,000, or a school census of less than 38, the board of directors of the said district may make application to the county superintendent of schools for an additional apportionment sufficient to pay the minimum salary to the teacher or teachers in addition to the teachers hereinabove authorized, exclusive of special teachers, and upon the recommendation of the county superintendent of to the board of county commissioners, the said county commissioners may make the additional levy necessary to provide for the salary of said additional teacher or teachers. Provided, that the total amount the levy for the general school fund does not exceed 5 mills.
All apportionments shall be based upon the school census and valuations of the year in which such tax shall be levied and no greater amount shall be apportioned than is necessary to pay the above-named salaries for a term of nine and one-half months. Provided, that in cases of county high school districts and union high school districts apportionment for high schools shall be based upon actual enrollment of students resident within this state as hereinafter provided.Provided, that school districts of the third class maintaining high schools, and third class districts wherein branch county high schools are maintained, shall have an apportionment for an additional teacher each twenty or major fraction thereof of high school enrollment, when certified by the board of education or high school committee to the county superintendent of schools.Provided, further, that high school districts and union high school district shall be apportioned an amount sufficient to pay said salary to one teacher for every twenty-five or major fraction thereof of the high school enrollment on October first of said school year when properly certified by the high school committee of said union or county high school district to the county superintendent schools. Provided, further, that all districts of the first or second class maintaining high schools, shall be apportioned an amount sufficient to pay said salary to every high school teacher in the public schools of said district, except substitute teachers, part-time teachers and teachers of special subjects, when certified by board of education or the board of directors of said district to the county superintendent of schools according to the school population basis as stated in previous paragraphs of this section. Provided, further, that all money derived from the county general school fund levy made in 1928 for payment of minimum salaries teachers and received by the county treasurers of Colorado during the year 1929, shall be apportioned to the respective districts upon the basis of the number of teachers certified by the county superintendent schools in 1928.
Provided, further, that in junior college districts organized in accord with this act an apportionment shall be made to said districts of enough money to one teacher for each seven (7) pupils enrolled taking full time work in said junior college as October first of the calendar year in which the junior college is organized and thereafter enough money to pay one teacher for each seven (7) pupils carrying an average of forty-five (45) quarter hours or thirty (30) semester hours of credit during the preceding regular academic year. In determining the amount of money which shall be allotted to a junior college district by this act the total number of the quarter or semester hours of the preceding regular academic year shall be divided by the number forty-five (45) if quarter hours and by the number thirty (30) if semester hours. The quotient arrived at in either case shall be divided by the number seven (7) and the quotient arrived at thereby shall be the number that shall be used in computing the amount sufficient to pay the salaries of the number of teachers who shall be allowed to participate in said apportionment. Said apportionment shall be made only to those junior college districts that have made a special levy for the support the junior college organized under this act on the valuation of the property of their respective nets as follows: At least .75 mill in a junior college district having an assessed valuation of $20,000,000 and less than $50,000,000; and .5 mill in all junior college districts having an assessed valuation of over $50,000,000. The funds arising from the apportionment from the general county school fund to junior districts and from the special minimum mill levy required herein shall be placed by the county treasurer of each county in which a junior college district is organized in a fund designated “For the Expense of the Junior College” and shall be paid out on warrants legally drawn on the county treasurer of the county in which the junior college buildings are located by
the junior college committee. The fund created by this act for the support of junior colleges may be used for any purposes for which public money may be expended for the current costs of education.
Nothing in this act shall be construed to prohibit persons certified as grade school teachers on a census basis teaching high school subjects when in the opinion of the board of directors of the district this is necessary or desirable, provided, such teachers are properly certificated.
Section 25. Subsection 247, Chapter 146, 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, is hereby amended to read as follows:
Sub-section 247. If in any county the said maximum rate of levy of five mills on the dollar shall be insufficient to raise or provide sufficient funds with which to pay the minimum salary of seventy-five dollars ($75.00) per month to every public school and junior college teacher within that county, as aforesaid, the county superintendent of schools, on or before the first day of June and December in each year, shall certify to the state superintendent of public instruction the said fact, together with the amount necessary to supply the deficiency.
If the state superintendent of public instruction, after investigation, shall be convinced of the necessity as set forth in the certificate of the county superintendent, it shall be his duty before apportioning the public school income fund of the state, to apportion to such county, in addition to the amount otherwise specified, a sum of money sufficient to supply the amount of such deficiency as ascertained by him, and shall certify said apportionment to the state auditor.
Upon such certificate, the state auditor shall his warrant on the state treasurer in favor the of county treasurer of such county for the amount so certified to be paid out of the said public school income fund. The sum of money so paid into the treasury of county shall be, by the county treasurer, placed in the said general school fund and used for the payment of teachers’ salaries only, except as in this Act provided otherwise for junior college districts.
Provided, That no school district shall share in such distribution which has not made a special school tax levy of five mills or more for the same year, and, that no junior college district shall share in such distribution which has not made the minimum special tax levy provided for junior college districts in Section 24 of this Act.
The remainder of said public school income fund shall be apportioned as provided by law.
26. Each junior college district organized under the provisions of this act shall exercise all powers, and perform all the duties that are at the time of the passage of this act accorded to and required of directors of first-class public school districts throughout the state. In addition to any other powers hereby granted junior college districts within this state are empowered and directed to cooperate with the State Board for vocational education in carrying out the provisions of the National and State Vocational Education and Rehabilitation Acts or amendments thereto or any such Acts providing for vocational education or vocational rehabilitation of physically disabled persons
.
Section 27. This act shall be known as the “Junior College Organization Act.”
Section 28. If any provision of this act or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of the act which can be given
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effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this act are declared to be severable.
Section 29. All acts or parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.
Section 30. The General Assembly hereby finds, determines and declares that this act is necessary the for immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety.
Section 31. In the opinion of the General Assembly an emergency exists; therefore, this act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.
Approved: May 6, 1937