§ 1913. Laying out; referendum procedure. 1. The commissioner is
authorized to lay out a central high school district for the
establishment and maintenance of instruction for secondary pupils in
grades seven through twelve and to fix its boundaries.

2. Within ten days after the making and entry of the order pursuant to
this section, the commissioner shall transmit a certified copy thereof
to the clerk, or in the event there is no clerk, to the trustee or
trustees of each school district affected by such order. The clerk, the
trustee or trustees, as the case may be, shall, within five days after
receipt of such order, post a copy thereof in five conspicuous places in
such district.

3. No central high school district laid out by order of the
commissioner shall operate as such until it has been established by the
qualified voters of the district in accordance with the provisions of
this article.

4. Upon the request of the boards of education of two or more school
districts involved, or upon the receipt of petitions representing
qualified voters equal to ten percent of resident school age pupils from
each of a majority of the districts to be included, the commissioner
shall order a referendum to be conducted in each of the districts
included in the proposed reorganization. The conduct of such referenda
shall be consistent with the provisions of sections eighteen hundred
one, eighteen hundred two, eighteen hundred three and eighteen hundred
four of this chapter, except as specifically provided in this article.
If the resolution to establish the central high school district is
passed in all of the districts, the central high school district shall
be established as laid out. If the proposition to establish the central
high school district shall fail to receive a majority of the votes cast
in any district, the order laying out such central high school district
shall be deemed void. However, nothing herein contained shall prevent
the commissioner from issuing a new order and ordering a vote in
districts in which a resolution shall have received a majority of the
votes cast. An order defeated at the polls may not be reissued for two
years. Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of law, upon consent
of the commissioner and each of the boards of education of the school
districts involved, there may also be offered before the qualified
voters of all the districts, at the same time as the referendum to form
a central high school district, a bond referendum for the construction
of a new high school to serve as the central high school of the new
central high school district, provided, however, that if either
referendum shall fail to gain approval, both shall be deemed to have
failed and provided, further, that the boards of education of the school
districts involved shall submit the proposition and that such
proposition shall be deemed to have been submitted by the board of
education of the newly formed central high school district. The board of
education of the central high school district subsequently formed shall
be authorized to carry out all acts necessary to effectuate such
construction, and such board shall be deemed to have assumed full
authority to take all action necessary and to proceed with all other
business to establish the central high school district and to enter into
any and all contracts, including but not limited to construction
contracts, and be eligible for any and all state aid and state aid
reimbursement pursuant to subdivision six and paragraph c of subdivision
fourteen of section thirty-six hundred two of this chapter, provided
that the percent increase pursuant to such paragraph c shall be thirty,
and shall be in effect for expenditures incurred on or after the date
upon which a bond referendum for the construction of a new high school
to serve as the central high school of the new central high school
district is offered before the qualified voters of the district.