Randolph, 102996 MSAGO, AGO 96-634

• Case Date: October 29, 1996
• Court: Mississippi

Honorable Terry Randolph AGO 96-634 No. 96-0634 Mississippi Attorney General Opinions October 29, 1996          Honorable Terry Randolph          Superintendent Hancock County Schools          17304 Highway 603          Kiln, MS 39556          Re: Sixteenth Section Land Exchange           Dear Superintendent Randolph:          Attorney General Mike Moore received your request for an official opinion regarding the possible exchange of school trust lands. General Moore has received your request and has assigned it to me for research and reply.          In your letter, you presented the following questions:

1) May a school district swap lieu lands or other school-owned real property for private property to build public school buildings? 2) What procedure would the school district follow if a swap of said lands is allowed by law?

         The district's lieu lands are school trust lands and differ from other real property because of the fiduciary duty of the State and the Board in regard to the management of the property. The only way school trust lands may be severed by the school board from the school trust is prescribed in §29-3-27 Miss.Code Ann. (1972), which states:

[n]o sixteenth section land or lands granted in lieu thereof, in whole or in part, situated within the school

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