April 6, 1977

Mr. Ronald K. Roehr 
Grant County State's Attorney 
Post Office Box 266 
Milbank, South Dakota 57252

Official Opinion No. 77-26

Whether a holiday may qualify as the last school day when preceded by Saturday and Sunday

Dear Mr. Roehr:

You have requested an official opinion from this office based upon the following facts:

FACTS: 

The Milbank Independent School District has adopted a calendar of 190 days for the 1976-77 school year, which ends on Monday, May 30, 1977.  Nine of these 190 days, including the last day, Monday, May 30, 1977, were scheduled to be days of legal discontinuance--leaving 181 days in which the school planned to actually be in session.  Because of inclement weather, the school has incurred seven additional days of legal discontinuance, leaving only 174 days to be actually in session.  The school plans to be in actual session on Friday, May 27, 1977, and take Monday, May 30, 1977, as a day of legal discontinuance; of course, no school is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, May 28 and 29, 1977.  If May 30 may be counted as a day of legal discontinuance, days of legal discontinuance (16) and days of school in actual session (174) will total 190 and the schedule need not be changed to provide for 175 days of actual session.  If it may not be counted, the total will be only 189 days and the schedule must be changed to accommodate another day of actual session.

Based on the above facts you ask:

QUESTION: 

Does the last day of a school year (Monday, May 30, 1977) qualify as a day of legal discontinuance when it is immediately preceded by a Saturday and Sunday on which no school was held, and by a Friday (May 27, 1977) on which school was in actual session?

SDCL 13-26-2 provides: 
    
The school board shall operate the schools for at least a nine month regular term in any one school year.  Such regular school term shall consist of school actually in session for a minimum of one hundred and seventy-five days provided, however, that the days in session plus days of legal school discontinuance need not exceed one hundred and ninety days.

In my opinion, the last day of a school year can nonetheless qualify as a day of legal discontinuance for purposes of meeting the minimum 190 day requirement.  Some days of legal discontinuance are specified by statute and it would appear to me that the Legislature must have recognized that it is possible for such days of legal discontinuance to fall on a Monday and also be in a situation where such a date would constitute the 190th day of the school year.

Accordingly, the answer to your question is yes.

Respectfully submitted,

William J. Janklow
Attorney General

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