Ib. TITLE 2. name of the teacher, and the time when his certificate was annulled, shall be made by the inspectors, and filed in the office of the clerk of their town.49 Ib. as to vi $51. Where any school district shall be composed of a part of two or more towns, or any school-house shall stand on the division line of any two towns, the inspectors of either town may examine into and certify the qualifications of any teacher, offering to teach in such district, in the same manner as is provided by the preceding sections of this Article; and may also in the same manner annul the certificate of such teacher.50 $ 52. It shall be the duty of the inspectors to visit all such comsiting schools. mon schools, within their town as shall be organized according to law, at least once a year, and oftener if they shall deem it necessary.5 Ib. Ib. 51 $53. At such visitation, the inspectors shall examine into the state and condition of such schools, both as respects the progress of the scholars in learning, and the good order of the schools; and may give their advice and direction to the trustees and teachers of such schools, as to the government thereof, and the course of studies to be pursued therein.51 $ 54. Each of the inspectors, by agreement with, or direction of, the other inspectors, may be assigned to a certain number of school districts, which it shall be his special duty to visit and inspect. 51 ARTICLE FIFTH. Of the Formation of School Districts, and of the Choice, Duties and Powers of their Officers. SEC. 55. Duty of commissioners when district formed; notice to be given. 56. Manner of serving notice. 57. In certain cases, notice to be renewed. 58. For not serving notice, forfeiture $5. 59. When meeting called, duty of inhabitants to assemble. 60. Qualifications of voters; fine for voting without right. 61. Powers of meeting. 62. Annual meeting, how and when to be appointed. 63. Who to call special meetings: want of notice; effect of. 64. Limitation of amount of tax to be voted at meeting, for hiring, &c. school-house. 65. Special meeting when called, to alter a district formed from several towns. 66. When site of school-house shall not be changed, or building removed. 67. In dividing districts, proportion due new district to be ascertained. 68. Proportion how ascertained; and deduction for debts of former district. 69. Amount of such proportion, how collected and applied. 70. Duration of office of district officers. 71. Vacancies in such offices, how filled. 72. Penalty for refusing to serve after appointment, and for neglecting without refusing 78. Persons chosen may resign, and in what manner. 74. Duty of clerk of district. 75. Duty and powers of trustees. 76. Among whom tax to be apportioned, and upon what to be assessed. (49) Laws of 1819, p. 190, § 18. (50) Laws of 1822, p. 288, § 8. (51) Laws of 1819, p. 198, § 19. SEC. 77. Persons owning lands occupied by agents, considered taxable inhabitants. 78. Improved land unoccupied, liable to taxation, though owner reside out of district. 79 & 80. Valuations of taxable property, how ascertained, and when reduced. 81. Who exempted from taxation to build a school-house. 82. Trustees to assess district tax, and make list thereof. 83. When tenant may charge tax paid by him, to the owner of the land. 84. Where fuel for school is not provided by tax, who to furnish same. 85. Trustees to determine the proportion to be provided by each person. 86 & 87. If any person omit, trustees to furnish; how collected. 88. Collector's warrant, and his duty under it. 89. When trustees to renew warrant ; and when to collect tax by suit. 90. Monies apportioned to a district if unpaid; how to be recovered and applied. 91. Trustees of district to report; when and to whom. 92. To whom report to be delivered, and what to specify. 93. Who to be deemed qualified teachers. 94. When a district is formed of two or more towns, trustees to whom to report. 95. Trustee of separate neighborhood, how chosen ; when and to whom to report. 96. Penalty on trustees for signing a false report. 97. Property vested in trustees, held by them as a corporation. 98 & 99. At expiration of office, trustees to account; balance how paid. 100. Penalty for refusing, &c. to account. 101. Who to prosecute for same, and how applied. 102. Remedy for recovering balance from a former trustee ; who to sue for it. 103. Bonds, &c. taken by trustees, to be delivered to their successors. 104. Fees of collector of district. 105. To pay to trustees monies collected, and when. 106. When required by them, to give bond to trustees; its conditions. 107. If he do not execute bond, office to be vacated. 108. If money lost by his neglect, what he shall forfeit. 109. Who to sue for such forfeiture, and for balances remaining in his hands. 110. From the decision of district meetings and trustees, appeal lies to commissioners. 111. From decision of commissioners, appeal lies to superintendent of common schools. ART. 5. ers to give $ 55. Whenever any school district shall be formed in any town Commission by the commissioners of common schools, it shall be the duty of some notice. one or more of the commissioners, within twenty days thereafter, to prepare a notice, in writing, describing such district, and appointing a time and place for the first district meeting, and to deliver such notice to a taxable inhabitant of the district. 52 first meeting $56. It shall be the duty of such inhabitant to notify every other Notice for inhabitant of the district, qualified to vote at district meetings, by reading the notice in the hearing of each such inhabitant, or in case of his absence from home, by leaving a copy thereof, or of so much thereof as relates to the time and place of such meeting, at the place of his abode, at least six days before the time of the meeting. 52 renewed. $ 57. In case such notice shall not be given, or the inhabitants of When to be a district shall refuse or neglect to assemble, or form a district meeting, when so notified; or in case any such district, having been formed and organized in pursuance of such notice, shall afterwards be dissolved, so that no competent authority shall exist therein, to call a special district meeting in the manner herein after provided; such notice shall be renewed by the commissioners, and served in the manner above prescribed. 52 (52) Laws of 1819, p. 193, § 13. TITLE 2. § 58. Every taxable inhabitant to whom a notice of a district meeting, shall have been properly delivered for service, who shall refuse not serving or neglect to serve the notice in the manner above in this Article enjoined, shall for every such offence forfeit the sum of five dollars. 53 Penalty for notice. Inhabitants when to as semble. Qualification of voters. Powers of district meet ing. Annual meet ang. Special meeting. $59. Whenever any district meeting shall be called, in the manner prescribed in the preceding sections of this Article, it shall be the duty of the inhabitants of the district, qualified to vote at district meetings, to assemble together at the time and place mentioned in the notice. 54 $60. No person shall vote at any school district meeting, unless he shall be a freeholder in the town where he votes, or shall have been assessed the same year in which he votes, or the preceding year, to pay taxes therein; or shall possess personal property over and above such as is exempt from execution, to the amount of fifty dollars, liable to taxation in the district and every person not so qualified, who shall vote at any such meeting, shall for each offence forfeit the sum of ten dollars. 54 $61. The inhabitants so entitled to vote, when so assembled in such district meeting, or when lawfully assembled at any other district meeting, shall have power, by a majority of the votes of those present, 1. To appoint a moderator for the time being: 2. To adjourn from time to time, as occasion may require : 3. To choose a district clerk, three trustees, and one district collector, at their first meeting, and as often as such offices, or either of them, become vacated: 4. To designate a site for the district school-house : 5. To lay such tax on the taxable inhabitants of the district, as the meeting shall deem sufficient to purchase or lease a suitable site for a school-house, and to build, hire, or purchase such school-house, and to keep in repair and furnish the same with necessary fuel and appendages : 6. To repeal, alter, and modify their proceedings from time to time, as occasion may require.54 $62. In each school district, an annual meeting shall be held at the time and place previously appointed; and at the first district meeting, and at each annual meeting, the time and place of holding the next annual meeting shall be fixed.54 $63. A special meeting shall be held in each district whenever called by the trustees; and the proceedings of no district meeting, annual or special, shall be held illegal, for want of a due notice to all the persons qualified to vote thereat, unless it shall appear that the omission to give such notice, was wilful and fraudulent. 54 (53) Laws of 1819, p. 193, § 13. (54) Ib. § 20. $ 64. No tax to be voted by a district meeting for building, hiring, ART. 5. or purchasing a school-house, shall exceed the sum of four hundred Limitation dollars, unless the commissioners of common schools of the town, in of tax. which the school-house is to be situated, shall certify in writing their opinion that a larger sum ought to be raised, and shall specify the sum; in which case, a sum not exceeding the sum so specified, shall be raised. 55 ing of com. $65. If the commissioners of common schools in any town, shall Joint meetrequire in writing, the attendance of the commissioners of any other missioners. town or towns, at a joint meeting, for the purpose of altering a school district, formed from their respective towns, and a major part of the commissioners notified shall refuse or neglect to attend, the commissioners attending, by a majority of votes, may call a special district meeting of such district, for the purpose of deciding on such proposed alteration; and the decision of such meeting shall be as valid, as if made by the commissioners of all the towns interested, but shall extend no further than to dissolve the district formed from such towns. 56 house, how $ 66. Whenever a school-house shall have been built or purchased Site of school for a district, the site of such school-house shall not be changed, nor altered. the building thereon be removed, as long as the district shall remain unaltered; nor after such alteration, without the consent in writing of the commissioners of common schools of the town or towns, within which, the district shall be situate. trict, how $67. When a new district shall be formed from one or more dis- Altering districts, possessed of a school-house; and in cases where any district school-house &c. disposed from which such new district shall be in whole or in part formed, of. shall be entitled to other property than its school-house; then the commissioners of common schools, at the time of forming such new district, shall ascertain and determine the amount justly due to such new district, from any district out of which it may have been in whole or in part formed, as the proportion of such new district of the value of the school-house and other property belonging to the former district, at the time of such division. how ascer $68. Such proportion shall be ascertained, according to the taxa- Proportion, ble property of the inhabitants of the respective parts of such former tained. district, at the time of the division, by the best evidence in the power of the commissioners; and deduction shall be made therein for any debts due from the former district. $69. Such proportion, when ascertained, shall be levied, raised How levied and collected, with the fees for collection, by the trustees of the dis- and applied. trict retaining the school-house or other property of the former district, upon the taxable inhabitants of their district, in the same man (55) Laws of 1819, p. 198, § 20. (56) Laws of 1822, p. 288, § 6. TITLE 2 ner, as if the same had been authorised by a vote of their district for the building of a school-house; and when collected, shall be paid to the trustees of the new district, to be applied by them towards procuring a school-house for their district; and the monies so paid to the new district, shall be allowed to the credit of the inhabitants who were taken from the former district, in reduction of any tax that may be imposed for erecting a school-house. $70. The clerk, trustees, and collector of each school district, shall hold their respective offices, until the annual meeting of such district, next following the time of their appointment, and until others shall be elected in their places.57 $71. In case any such office shall be vacated by the death, refusal to serve, removal out of the district, or incapacity of any such officer, and the vacancy shall not be supplied by a district meeting within one month thereafter, the commissioners of common schools of the town, may appoint any person residing in such district, to supply such vacancy. 57 $72. Every person duly chosen or appointed to any such office, who, without sufficient cause, shall refuse to serve therein, shall forfeit the sum of five dollars; and every person so chosen or appointed, and not having refused to accept, who shall neglect to perform the duties of his office, shall forfeit the sum of ten dollars. 57 $73. Any person chosen or appointed to any such office, may resign the same in the manner provided in Chapter eleventh, Title third, section thirty-third of this Act; and the acceptance of such resignation, shall be a bar to the recovery of either of the penalties mentioned in the preceding section. The justices accepting the resignation shall give notice thereof, to the clerk, or to one of the trustees of the school district, to which the officer resigning shall belong. $74. It shall be the duty of the clerk of each school district, 1. To record the proceedings of his district in a book to be provided for that purpose by the district, and to enter therein true copies of all reports made by the trustees of his district, to the commissioners of common schools: 2. To give notice of the time and place for special district meetings, when the same shall be called by the trustees of the district, to each inhabitant of such district liable to pay taxes, at least five days before such meeting shall be held, in the manner prescribed in the fifty-sixth section of this Title: 3. To affix a notice in writing of the time and place for any adjourned district meeting, when the same shall be adjourned for a longer time than one month, in at least four of the most public places of (57) Laws of 1819, p. 199, § 22. |