Could a Louisiana school bus driver also serve as an elected school board member?

Plain-English summary

A Louisiana legislator asked whether a school bus driver could also serve as an elected school board member. The attorney general's office concluded in 1998 that the two positions could not be held at the same time. It read the school board seat as local elective office and the bus driver's role as employment in the same political subdivision.

The opinion also addressed an older exception that had allowed some drivers in small parishes to serve on a school board. It said the Legislature had repealed that provision in 1997, so it no longer supplied an exception.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1998. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

School board members at the time

The opinion said an elected school board member could not simultaneously hold employment as a school bus driver in the same political subdivision.

School bus drivers at the time

The office rejected the former small-parish exception because the provision on which it rested had been repealed. Its conclusion concerned simultaneous service in the two positions.

Common questions

Q: Could a school bus driver also hold an elected seat on the school board?
A: The 1998 opinion said no. It treated the board seat and the driver's job as prohibited simultaneous positions in the same political subdivision.

Q: Did the answer change for a small parish?
A: The opinion said a former exception for drivers in parishes with no more than 16,000 people had been repealed in 1997.

Q: Why did the opinion treat a school board as a political subdivision?
A: It cited LSA-R.S. 42:62(9), whose definition expressly included a school board.

Background and statutory framework

The opinion applied LSA-R.S. 42:63(D), which barred someone holding local elective office from also holding government employment in the same political subdivision. It cited LSA-R.S. 42:62(9) to identify a school board as a political subdivision. The opinion then discussed the repeal of the former LSA-R.S. 17:428(C) exception for some small parishes.

Citations and references

• LSA-R.S. 42:63(D) (dual officeholding restriction)
• LSA-R.S. 42:62(9) (political subdivision definition)
• LSA-R.S. 17:428(C) (former exception discussed as repealed)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinions
• Original PDF: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinion/Download/98-0452

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain; the linked PDF is authoritative.

DEPARTMENT OF ~USTICE

RICHARD P. IEYOUB
P.O. Box 94005
ATTORNEY (3ENERAL
70804-9005
TEL: (504) 342-7013
FAX: (504) 342-7335

November 19, 1998
OPINION 98-452

Honorable Charles A. Riddle, III 78 DUAL OFFICEHOLDING
312 N. Main Street
LSA-R.S. 42:63(D); LSA-R.S. 17:428 (C); LSA-R.S. 42:62(9)
Courthouse Building
School bus driver may not simultaneously serve as school board
member, as this combination of employment and elective office is in
P. O. Box 315
violation of the Louisiana Dual Officeholding law.
Marksville, LA 71351

Dear Representative Riddle:

In your correspondence to this office of recent date you ask whether a school bus driver may simultaneously serve in the elected position of school board member.

An individual is prohibited from holding local elective office and employment in the same political subdivision in which he holds elective office. LSA-R.S. 42:63(D) of the Louisiana Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment law provides herein:

D. No person .holding an elective office in a political subdivision of this state shall at the same time hold another elective office or full-time appointive office in the government of this state or in the government of a political subdivision thereof. No such person shall hold at the same time employment in the government of this state, or in the same political subdivision in which he holds an elective office. In addition no sheriff, assessor, or clerk of court shall hold any office or employment under a parish governing authority or school board, nor shall any member of any parish governing authority or school board hold any office or employment with any sheriff, assessor, or clerk of court. (Emphasis added).

The local elective office contemplated here is school board member, while the position of employment is school bus driver. Both positions fall within the same political subdivision as LSA-R.S. 42:62(9) states:

(9) "Political subdivision" means a parish, municipality, and any other unit of local government, including a school board and a special district, authorized by law to perform governmental functions. In addition, for the purposes of this part, mayor’s courts, justice of the peace courts, district attorneys, sheriffs, clerks of court, coroners, tax assessors, registrars of

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Honorable Charles A. Riddle, III
OPINION 98-452
Page 2
voters, and all other elected parochial officials shall be separate political subdivisions.

Note further that LSA-R.S. 17:428 (C) formerly provided:

C. School bus drivers in parishes with population not exceeding sixteen thousand may at the same time serve as a member of the school board.
(Emphasis added).

Insofar as LSA-R.S. 17:428(C) may have been applicable to your question, it is now unavailable as an exception of special law arguably prevailing over the prohibition of the dual officeholding law stated above, as this provision has been repealed by the legislature in Act 763, Section 1, of the Louisiana Regular Legislative Session of 1997.

In summary, an elected school board member is prohibited by law from concurrently holding employment as a school bus driver.

Should you have other questions, please contact this office.

Very truly yours,

RICHARD P. IEYOUB
ATTORNEY GENERAL

BY:

ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL

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