If an Arkansas school board member moves out of their election zone but stays in the school district, do they automatically lose their seat?

Plain-English summary

A state representative asked the AG about a common situation: a school board member is elected from a single-member zone, then during the term moves to a new residence outside that zone but still inside the school district. Does the board member lose the seat? And if the member then chooses not to run for reelection and no one else files for the seat, can the member stay on as a holdover?

The AG answered yes to both. The statutes required residency in the zone to file for candidacy, but they did not require continued zone residency for continued service. A 2015 amendment (Act 843) reinforced that reading by spelling out that a vacancy occurs when a board member "moves his or her bona fide permanent residence outside the boundaries of the school district." That is the trigger the General Assembly chose; moving to a different zone within the district was deliberately not listed.

The AG also confirmed that an elected director may hold over for up to one full term if no successor has been elected and qualified by the time the term expires. Holdover service was not prohibited, and a member can serve one full term as a holdover.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2015. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Background and statutory framework

Arkansas Code §§ 6-13-630(a)(2) and 6-13-631(d)(1)(A) required candidates for a single-member-zone school board seat to reside in the appropriate zone, and § 6-13-615 implied the same candidacy residency requirement. The AG noted that a person who is not a "qualified elector" of the district is not eligible to be a board member under § 6-13-616(a), and a person is not a qualified elector unless he or she resides in the district. § 6-14-108.

The AG then applied the cardinal rule of statutory construction: a statute is read as it is written, and provisions that simply are not there cannot be implied in. The applicable statutes required residence in the zone for candidacy, but they did not require it for continued service.

Act 843 of 2015 rewrote section 6-13-611 to address school board vacancies. As rewritten, the statute provided that a vacancy occurs if a board member "moves his or her bona fide permanent residence outside the boundaries of the school district." § 6-13-611(a)(1). The vacancy is then filled by appointing a person who, among other things, "resides in the same zone, if applicable, as required by the vacant position." § 6-13-611(c). The AG read those two provisions together as showing that the General Assembly was aware of the distinction between zones and districts and chose not to provide that moving out of the zone alone created a vacancy. The AG contrasted the school-board rule with § 14-43-310, which expressly creates a vacancy when an alderman moves out of the ward he or she was elected from. If the legislature had wanted that rule for school boards, it would have written it.

On holdover service, § 6-13-615(d) provided that a school director elected from a single-member zone "shall hold office until his or her successor has been elected and qualified." Section 6-13-608(c)(1) limited a director to no more than one full term as a holdover. The AG read those provisions together to allow exactly one full holdover term.

The AG also noted a prior office opinion (Op. Att'y Gen. 96-187) had reached the same substantive conclusion on the zone-residency question. The opinion treated Act 843 as confirming, not changing, the pre-existing law.

Common questions

A board member moved across town but is still in the same school district. Does the seat become vacant automatically?

No. Under this opinion, only a move outside the district triggers a vacancy. Moving within the district, even to a different zone, did not.

What if voters in the original zone want someone who actually lives in their zone?

The remedy is electoral: vote for a candidate at the next election who does live in the zone (since candidacy requires zone residency). A mid-term forfeiture of the seat was not part of the law.

The member's term is ending and nobody filed for the seat. Can the member just keep serving?

Yes, for up to one full additional term. The statute says directors hold office until a successor is elected and qualified, and the AG confirmed that holdover service is permitted for one term. After that, § 6-13-608(c)(1) bars further holdover.

Does Act 843 of 2015 change earlier rules?

The AG read Act 843 as consistent with prior law, not changing it. The Act enumerated the events that create a vacancy and chose to include only out-of-district moves, confirming the same reading the AG had previously adopted in Op. Att'y Gen. 96-187.

Citations

• Ark. Code Ann. § 6-13-608(c)(1) (one-term limit on holdover service)
• Ark. Code Ann. § 6-13-611 (school board vacancies, as rewritten by Act 843 of 2015)
• Ark. Code Ann. § 6-13-611(a)(1), (c)
• Ark. Code Ann. § 6-13-615 (general director eligibility and holdover provision)
• Ark. Code Ann. § 6-13-615(d) (holdover until successor elected and qualified)
• Ark. Code Ann. § 6-13-616(a) (eligibility tied to qualified elector status)
• Ark. Code Ann. § 6-13-630(a)(2) (residency for candidacy)
• Ark. Code Ann. § 6-13-631(d)(1)(A) (residency for candidacy)
• Ark. Code Ann. § 6-14-108 (qualified elector definition)
• Ark. Code Ann. § 14-43-310 (alderman vacancy on move out of ward, by contrast)
• Act 843 of 2015 (school board vacancy statute rewrite)
• Friar v. Erwin, 2014 Ark. 487, 450 S.W.3d 666 (statutory construction)
• Op. Att'y Gen. 96-187 (prior office opinion reaching same result)

Source

• Landing page: https://arkansasag.gov/divisions/opinions-foia/attorney-general-opinions-search/

Original opinion text

Opinion No. 2015-112
November 20, 2015
STATE OF ARKANSAS
ATTORNEY GENERAL
LESLIE RUTLEDGE
The Honorable David Hillman
State Representative
403 Essex Road
Almyra, AR 72003-8109
Dear Representative Hillman:
This is in response to your request for an opinion about residency requirements for school board members. You ask, with respect to a school district that elects board members from single-member zones, the following questions:

1. If a member of a school board of directors was a resident in the single member zone assigned to the position at the time he or she was elected and the member moves to a residence that is not in the single member zone but is within the school district during his or her term, is the member qualified to continue to hold his or her position?
2. If the member is qualified to hold his or her position, does not run for re-election at the next annual school election, no other candidate runs for election to that position at the next annual school election, and no person is elected to hold that position, is the member qualified to hold his or her position as a holdover?

RESPONSE

In my opinion, the answer to both your questions is "yes."

DISCUSSION

Question 1: If a member of a school board of directors was a resident in the single member zone assigned to the position at the time he or she was elected and the member moves to a residence that is not in the single member zone but is within the school district during his or her term, is the member qualified to continue to hold his or her position?

Clearly, a person must reside in the appropriate single-member zone to be a candidate for that zone's school board seat. There is no express requirement in the statutes, however, that a person must continue to reside in the zone in order to continue to serve.

The cardinal rule of statutory interpretation is to construe a statute just as it reads, giving the words their ordinary and usually accepted meanings. When a statute is clear, the courts give it its plain meaning and will not search further for legislative intent, which is instead gleaned from the plain meaning of the language used. Here, the applicable statutes require residence in the zone for candidacy, but do not require it for continued service on the board. Statutory interpretation should not include implying provisions that simply are not present in the statutory language.

A recent enactment supports the proposition that a director may continue to serve notwithstanding the relocation of his or her residence outside the zone, provided the new residence is within the district. Act 843 of 2015 rewrote a statute concerning school board vacancies. As rewritten, the statute provides that a vacancy occurs if a board member "moves his or her bona fide permanent residence outside the boundaries of the school district." It also provides that, in the event a vacancy occurs, it is to be filled by the appointment of a person who, among other things, "resides in the same zone, if applicable, as required by the vacant position ...." The two quoted provisions, both contained in Act 843, demonstrate that the General Assembly was well aware of the distinction between a school district and a zone, and consciously chose not to provide that moving one's residence outside the zone, but not outside the district, would result in a vacancy. If the General Assembly wanted to say that an elected director who moves outside the zone (but within the school district) automatically loses his or her seat, it would have said so. (Compare Ark. Code Ann. § 14-43-310, which provides that a vacancy is created when an alderman removes residence from the ward from which elected.)

I do not mean to suggest by this discussion that Act 843 made a substantive change in the law relevant to your narrow question, but only that the General Assembly has recently and simultaneously legislated with respect to districts and zones and therefore should be presumed to have done so deliberately. To the contrary, with respect to the substantive law, this office previously gave the same answer to a question indistinguishable from yours. See Op. Att'y Gen. 96-187.

Question 2: If the member is qualified to hold his or her position, does not run for re-election at the next annual school election, no other candidate runs for election to that position at the next annual school election, and no person is elected to hold that position, is the member qualified to hold his or her position as a holdover?

A school director elected from a single-member zone "shall hold office until his or her successor has been elected and qualified." While a director may not "serve more than one (1) full term as a holdover," nothing in the law prohibits him or her from serving that single term as a holdover.

Sincerely,
LESLIE RUTLEDGE
Attorney General