Request By:
Mr. Gary R. Lee, Superintendent
Cumberland County Board of Education
353 North Main Street
Post Office Box 420
Burkesville, Kentucky 42717
Opinion
Opinion By: CHRIS GORMAN, ATTORNEY GENERAL; Anne E. Keating, Assistant Attorney General
You have asked this office for an opinion concerning the propriety of an expenditure of school funds by the Cumberland County Board of Education for a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any person or persons responsible for recent vandalism committed against school property. On the night of March 30, 1992, someone broke into the Cumberland County Board of Education's school bus compound and destroyed 60 school bus tires, at a cost to the school system of at least $10,000.
Sections 180, 184, and 186 of the Kentucky Constitution set limits on school board authority to expend school funds and, "to do all things necessary to accomplish the purposes for which it is created." KRS 160.160. Kentucky courts have stated:
[T]he powers conferred by the statute are necessarily limited by the express inhibitions imposed by the constitution, with the result that the discretion vested in boards of education to expend school monies is subject to the restriction that such expenditures must be for purposes of common school education. . . . [W]e know of no better test to be applied than . . . [the following]: Is the contemplated expenditure for the interest of the schools comprising the districts making the expenditure?
Schuerman v. State Board of Education, 284 Ky. 556, 145 S.W.2d 42, 45 (1940). The Court of Appeals concluded, in that case, that the power of the board to use school funds to promote public education was sufficiently broad to allow the boards to use public school funds to pay for annual membership dues in the Kentucky School Boards Association which was organized to promote education. Many court decisions and opinions from this office have addressed, and attempted to define, what constitutes an educational purpose. School boards may pay for sewer user charges so long as they are reasonably related to the value of the services provided to the schools.
Board of Education of Fayette County v. Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, Ky., 691 S.W.2d 218 (1985). Boards may expend school funds to support litigation efforts related to the equity of distribution of the school funds. OAG 85-100. Boards may have a contract with the local health department to provide preventive medical services (OAG 65-293); however, boards may not spend school funds to defray operating expenses of the county health department. OAG 68-143. Boards may purchase liability insurance to cover liability for sick leave when all of the benefits would be payable to the school board, rather than to individual employees. OAG 64-841.
In the situation that you present, you indicated that the cost of insurance against vandalism is prohibitive, and the Cumberland County Board of Education must, therefore, absorb the entire loss. It is crucial that every effort be made to locate and to prosecute the vandals who damaged school property, and the idea of offering a reward was raised as an important step.
It is the opinion of this office that a reward, offered by the local school board, for the purpose of apprehending the vandals who damaged school property constitutes a proper educational purpose within the meaning of Sections 180, 184 and 186 of the Kentucky Constitution. The act also falls within the parameters of KRS 160.160 as being necessary in order that the board may accomplish the purposes for which it was created. The resources of each school system are limited, and must be protected. The practice of solving crimes by offering rewards is well known, and effective. This act is an act of discretion similar to the purchase of liability insurance to protect against liability for sick leave payments, and may be distinguished from payment to other agencies. OAG 64-841 and 68-143. Therefore, there is no abuse of discretion if the board elects to offer a reward in an effort to solve the recent crime, and to deter others.