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The Register of the State Land Office may sell, at the price stipulated by law, to any school board of this state any amount of land not less than five acres on which to erect a school house.  The land must be within the school district and a portion of that land donated by Congress to this state either for the use of a seminary of learning or for the purpose of internal improvement.

The Register of the State Land Office also shall sell to any school board of the state, for public educational purposes, any tract of not less than five acres, of sixteenth section lands donated by Congress to this state for school purposes, provided such land is located within the parish wherein such school board exists and provided that such land has not been otherwise disposed of or alienated by the state.  The only procedure which shall be required for the sale of such sixteenth section lands and the issuance of patent thereto by the Register of the State Land Office to the school board and its successors pursuant to this section shall be the delivery by the school board to the Register of its application for purchase of such land, a survey thereof by the parish surveyor or engineer, a duly authenticated copy of a resolution duly adopted by such school board authorizing such purchase and agreeing to utilize such lands for public educational purposes, and a tender of the purchase price.  The price of such lands sold to school boards pursuant to this Section is hereby fixed at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.  The Register of the State Land Office shall transmit to the State Treasurer any monies received from the sale of such lands pursuant to this Section, and the State Treasurer shall credit such funds to the township wherein the land is situated making such disposition of the funds as is provided by law.  The Register of the State Land Office shall notify the state auditor and the state superintendent of education of the result of all such sales.

None of the provisions of this Section shall be applicable to school indemnity lands, nor to the leases of any public lands, nor to timber sales covering sixteenth sections, all of which are dealt with under other provisions of existing law; provided, however, that in the case of sales to school boards of sixteenth section lands or any portions thereof pursuant to this Section, the timber located on such land shall be included in the sale to the school board if it has not been previously alienated or disposed of according to law.  None of the provisions of this Section shall be applicable to oil and gas or other minerals upon sixteenth section lands, which shall be dealt with under other provisions of existing law.

In the event any sixteenth section land purchased by a school board under this Section should no longer be used for the purpose of a school site, such school board is prohibited from selling said land to any third person or persons, but such land shall be re-conveyed to the state of Louisiana by such school board to be used for the purposes as are now provided by law.

Amended by Acts 1954, No. 86, §1.