§ 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.