Opinion
November 8, 1948.
1. School bonds — school buildings — school stadium.
Under a statute authorizing the issuance of bonds for the erection of school buildings, a school stadium and appurtenant athletic field are within the authorization when such a building and field are appropriate, proper and necessary to an adequate compliance with the requirements of the particular school as respects its department of physical education. Sections 3598, 6416, Code 1942.
APPEAL from the chancery court of Forrest County, LESTER CLARK, Chancellor.
T. Price Dale, for appellant.
Section 6416 of the Mississippi Code of 1942 is authority for the issuing and selling of said bonds for the realization of the money here involved, and that statute provides that the money arising therefrom shall be used "To erect, repair and equip school buildings including teachers' homes."
This statute contains the only authority known to appellant under which a municipal separate school district, such as is that in the City of Hattiesburg, may erect buildings incident to the operation of the schools within such district; and I submit that, unless a stadium can be classed as a school building, there is no authority for the construction by appellees of the stadium here in litigation.
Is a stadium a school building? Certainly it is not generally so classified in our State in the minds of trustees and patrons, perhaps largely because of the fact that but few districts in the State, if any, maintain stadiums, so that minds of trustees and patrons have not been directed to the question of the proper classification of a stadium; but, whatever the cause, we think that we have not yet classified such a structure as a school building; and I submit that, under the strict letter of the law, it cannot be so classified and that appellees have not the legal right to expend any part of said $1,290,000.00 for the construction of the stadium here in question.
C.W. Sullivan, for appellees.
The bonds issued and sold by the City of Hattiesburg on August 17, 1947, were general bonds of the City and were issued by virtue of Paragraph (a) Section 3598, Mississippi Code 1942 and were not issued under the authority of Section 6416, Mississippi Code 1942, as appellant mistakenly states in his brief. The purposes for which the bonds may be issued under the two sections are practically the same, with the exception that Section 6416 relates to Municipal Separate School District Bonds, while section 3598 relates to General Municipal bonds.
The same question as to the authority to expend the proceeds of the bond issue for the erection of a stadium for the benefit of public school system would have arisen had the bonds been issued under Section 6416.
The question for the determination of this court is whether a stadium is a school building as contemplated by Paragraph (a) section 3598, Mississippi Code 1942.
In this day, Physical Education is as much a part of curriculum of the public schools as the "Three R's," made so by the conditions under which we live as well as by the law of the State, and in order that school children may be properly instructed, trained and developed physically, buildings and equipment are necessary and any building used for instruction, whether in Physical Education, Home Economics or Music or any other subject in which instruction is permitted or authorized by law, would be a school building, and therefore within the provisions of Paragraph (a) section 3598, Mississippi Code 1942.
Physical education is one of the required subjects in the Elementary and Secondary schools of Mississippi. Section 6665, Code 1942.
It is the duty of the State Board of Education to prescribe and publish course of Physical Education. Section 6666, Code 1942.
It is the duty of the trustees of public schools of the State to make provision for course in Physical Education. Section 6670, Code 1942.
Trustees of Separate Districts to employ physical instructors. "6423. Trustees of Separate School Districts — Duties. — The powers and duties of separate school district trustees are as follows:
(16) To employ physical instructors and visiting nurses, and to provide for medical inspection of school children, acting either separately or jointly with other boards of trustees." Section 6423, Code 1942.
"Under statute authorizing school districts to borrow money for building and equipment of "school buildings" district had power to borrow funds for construction of gymnasium building with rooms for home economics and vocational agriculture." Young v. Linwood School District, 97 S.W.2d 627.
"Where physical education is one of the branches of knowledge legally imparted in the Phoenix Union High School and competitive athletic games and sports in both inter and intra mural games are legal and laudable methods of imparting such knowledge a structure whose chief purpose is to provide for the better giving of such athletic games and sports as aforesaid is reasonably a schoolhouse within the true spirit and meaning of section 2736." Alexander v. Phillips, 52 A.L.R. 244.
I submit that an adequate public school program of this day must develop the body as well as the mind, and this can only be done by a proper physical education course taught by competent physical directors supplied and equipped with the proper place for such instruction and the necessary equipment.
The law of the State of Mississippi required the teaching of physical education and surely a building, call it stadium or what you will, constructed for the purpose of properly teaching and giving training in a required subject is a schoolhouse or schoolbuilding within the meaning of Paragraph (a), Section 3598, Code of 1942.
At an election held on May 13, 1947, the majority of the qualified electors of the City of Hattiesburg authorized the issuance of the bonds of said City in the sum of $1,290,000, "for the purpose of raising money for the erection of school buildings, and the purchase of such lands as may be necessary therefor, and the improvement, repair, adornment and equipment" thereof. Some question has been raised whether the bonds were authorized under Sec. 3598 or Sec. 6416, Code 1942, but this is immaterial so far as concerns the immediate question before us:
The municipal authorities made it known that they proposed to expend the funds for the following purposes: To erect new school buildings, consisting of Junior High School Building, West End Elementary School Building, and to make repairs, alterations, and additions to existing Camp, Walthall, Eaton, Lamar and Davis Elementary School Buildings, and Senior High School and Eureka Negro High School Building, and to construct a new Stadium and Athletic Field.
Appellant, a taxpayer, thereupon filed his bill to enjoin the expenditure of any of said money for a stadium and athletic field on the ground that such expenditures would not be for a purpose for which bonds could be issued, that is to say, that a stadium is not a school building and that an athletic field is not land for a school building. The parties, on presentation of the case, agreed by written stipulation on the following facts:
"It is agreed that the State Board of Education of the State of Mississippi has heretofore prescribed a course of physical education to be taught in the public schools of the State of Mississippi and acting pursuant to said order the State Department of Education of the State of Mississippi has issued Bulletin number 119, being a manual for teaching physical education for the schools of Mississippi and which manual is made an exhibit hereto. The manual exhibited hereto is the latest manual issued by the State Department of Education, but other manuals have been issued throughout the preceding years.
"It is also agreed that the public schools of the Hattiesburg Municipal Separate School District, acting under the order adopted by the State Board of Education prescribing a course in physical education, prescribed by Bulletin No. 119 and those Bulletins which have preceded it for a period of ten (10) or more years. That in teaching said course the public schools of the City of Hattiesburg now have three physical directors employed and for the past eight or ten years prior thereto have had constantly employed two physical directors.
"It is further agreed between the parties hereto that among other things taught and done in connection with physical education the City Schools of Hattiesburg train and discipline football teams and baseball teams and track teams, basketball games, and that they sponsor intra and inter school games and that a stadium and athletic field are essential and necessary in carrying out such physical education."
It is not questioned that the Board of Education and the Trustees of the schools, such as the schools of the City of Hattiesburg, were fully authorized to prescribe the courses in physical education and to promulgate the manuals and the rules mentioned in the stipulation, the statutes being as follows: Sections 6665, 6666, 6670, also 6423, Code 1942.
We do not find it necessary to belabor the question whether a school stadium is a school building. It will be noted that the statutes did not limit the purposes for which bonds might be issued to schoolhouses. If that had been the statutes, it could be argued with weighty persuasiveness that the limitation was of structures with enclosed walls, doors, windows, and roofs. (Hn 1) But the statutes in using a broader term evidence a broader purpose, broader than that of enclosed walls, doors, windows, and roofs, and within this broader purpose the school stadium is an example and therefore is within the statutes, provided it is shown that the stadium is appropriate, proper, and necessary to an adequate compliance with the requirements of the particular school as respects its department of physical education; and this is admitted to be the case here. In such a case it has been held that a school stadium is a schoolhouse within statutes such as we are here considering. See Alexander v. Phillips, 31 Ariz. 503, 254 P. 1056, 52 A.L.R. 244.
Little or nothing has been said in the briefs about the athletic field. We assume it will be a part of the set-up of the stadium and is therefore carried along by the stadium in view of the statutory authority to purchase land for the authorized buildings.
Affirmed.