(a) A school district that is a member of a union school district may vote to withdraw from the union school district if one year has elapsed since the union school district has become a body politic and corporate as provided in section 706g of this title.

(b) When a majority of the voters of a school district that is a member of a union school district present and voting at a school district meeting duly warned for that purpose votes to withdraw from the union school district, the vote shall be certified by the clerk of the school district to the Secretary of State who shall record the certificate in his or her office and give notice of the vote to the Secretary of Education and to the other members of the union school district. Within 90 days after receiving notice, those other members shall vote by Australian ballot on the same day during the same hours whether to ratify withdrawal of the member. Withdrawal by a member shall be effective only if approved by an affirmative vote of each of the other members of the union school district.

(c) If the vote to ratify the withdrawal of a member is approved by each of the other members, the union school district shall notify the Secretary of Education who shall advise the State Board. At a meeting held thereafter, if the State Board finds that the students in the withdrawing member will attend a school that is in compliance with the rules adopted by the Board pertaining to educational programs, then the State Board shall declare the membership of the withdrawing member in the union school district to end as of July 1 immediately following or as soon thereafter as the obligations of the withdrawing member have been paid to, or an agreement made with, the union school district in an amount satisfactory to the electorate of each member of the union school district. The State Board shall give notice to the remaining members in the union of its meeting and give representatives of the remaining members an opportunity to be heard. It shall then determine whether it is in the best interests of the State, the students, and the members remaining in the union district for the union to continue to exist. The State Board may declare the union district dissolved as of July 1 immediately following or as soon thereafter as each member's obligations have been satisfied, or it may declare that the union district shall continue to exist despite the withdrawal of the former member. The State Board shall file the declaration with the Secretary of State, the clerk of the withdrawing member, and the clerk of the union school district concerned.

(d) A vote of withdrawal taken after a union school district has become a body politic and corporate as provided in section 706g of this title but less than one year after that date shall be void. (Added 1967, No. 277 (Adj. Sess.), § 36; amended 1977, No. 7; 2007, No. 154 (Adj. Sess.), § 29; 2009, No. 44, § 11, eff. May 21, 2009; 2013, No. 92 (Adj. Sess.), § 91, eff. Feb. 14, 2014.)