(a) A town or city corresponding to a preexisting school district that voted to form a unified union school district may vote to withdraw from the district if one year has elapsed since the unified union school district became a body politic and corporate as provided under section 706g of this title.

(b) When a majority of the voters of the town or city present and voting at a meeting duly warned for that purpose votes to withdraw from a unified union school district, the vote shall be certified by the clerk of the town or city to the Secretary of State who shall record the certificate in his or her office and give notice of the vote to the other towns or cities corresponding to the preexisting school districts that voted to form the unified union school district. Such other towns and cities shall vote by Australian ballot on the same day during the same hours whether to ratify the withdrawal of the town or city. To be effective, action to withdraw shall be approved by an affirmative vote of each of the other towns or cities within the unified union school district.

(c) If the vote to ratify the withdrawal of the town or city is approved by each of the other towns or cities, the unified union school district clerk 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 town or city will attend a school that is in compliance with the rules adopted by the State Board pertaining to educational programs, the State Board shall declare the membership of the withdrawing town or city to be at an end as of July 1 immediately following or as soon thereafter as the obligations of the withdrawing district have been paid to, or an agreement made with, the union school district in an amount satisfactory to the electorate of each of the other towns and cities within the unified union school district. In addition, the State Board shall declare the preexisting school district corresponding to the withdrawing town or city to be reconstituted. The State Board shall give notice to the remaining towns and cities in the unified union school district of its meeting and give the relevant representatives an opportunity to be heard. It shall then determine whether it is in the best interests of the State, the students, and the school districts remaining in the unified union school district that the unified union district continue to exist. The State Board may declare the unified union school district dissolved as of July 1 immediately following or as soon thereafter as each remaining town's or city's obligations have been satisfied, or it may declare that the unified union district shall continue to exist despite the withdrawal of the former town or city member. The State Board shall file its declaration with the Secretary of State, the clerk of the withdrawing town or city, and the clerk of the affected unified union school district.

(d) A vote of withdrawal taken after a unified 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 is void. (Added 2007, No. 154 (Adj. Sess.), § 33; amended 2013, No. 92 (Adj. Sess.), § 92, eff. Feb. 14, 2014.)