Washington State

Office of the Attorney General

Attorney General

Bob Ferguson

AGO 1956 NO. 211 >

1. The board of directors of a first class school district is authorized to purchase and hold either real or personal property without a vote of the district electors and may purchase options to purchase real estate if it has provided for such expenditures in its budget.  The board of directors of a second class school district is authorized to purchase real estate contiguous to a school site upon which a schoolhouse is situated by unanimous vote of the board, but to purchase real estate non-contiguous [[noncontiguous]] requires a vote of the majority of the electors of the district, and the board of directors of a third class school district is authorized to purchase additional sites either contiguous or non-contiguous [[noncontiguous]] only when authorized by a majority of the vote of the electors of the district.  2. There is no statutory limitation on the time for which an option to purchase real estate may run.

AGO 1953 NO. 498 >

RCW 36.13.020 is not violated by the commencement of census work 11 days prior to the expiration of the three‑year waiting period required by the statute provided the census work is not completed until after the three years have expired, since the term "made" imports completion of the census enumeration.In determining whether a county has sufficient population to rate a change of classification under chapter 36.13 RCW, the State Census Board may not forego obtaining the name, age, and occupation, if any, of each person resident in the county, but rather must strictly comply with the procedure set forth in RCW 36.13.030 for taking county censuses.