SCHOOL HOUSES. PAGE 317. Buildings for school purposes... 129 318. Purpose of plans and specifications of school houses.............. 319. School houses...... 129 130 320. Lighting...... 130 321. Class rooms. Air space... 130 322. School boards may permit use of grounds for recreation pur 332. Removal of directors for failure to comply with the require ments.......... 134 333. Houses must be separate....... 135 334. Duties of school directors and controllers to remove excre ment and waste matter.. 135 335. Duty of the president...... 135 336. The duty imposed upon directors is manditory.... . 337. Powers of school board to contract for water supply. 340. Power of school board to approve bond of contractors........ 341. Void contracts....... 138 139 139 317. School directors and controllers shall cause suitable lots of grounds to be procured, and suitable buildings to be erected, purchased or rented for school houses, and shall supply the same with the proper convenience and fuel.' Purpose of plans and specifications of school houses. 318. Whereas, it is of great importance to the people of this Commonwealth that public school buildings, hereI. Act May 8, 1854, Sec. 23, P. L. 621. after erected by any board of education, school trustees or school directors, shall be properly heated, lighted and ventilated.2 School houses. 319. In order that due care may be exercised in the heating, lighting and ventilating of public school buildings hereafter erected, no school house shall be erected by any board of education or school district in this state, the cost of which shall exceed four thousand ($4,000.00) dollars, until the plans and specifications for the same shall show in detail the proper heating, lighting and ventilating of such building.3 Lighting. 320. Light shall be admitted from the left or from the left and rear of class rooms, and the total light area must, unless strengthened by the use of reflecting lenses, equal at least twenty-five per centum of floor space.4 Class rooms. Air Space. 321. School houses shall have in each class room at least fifteen square feet of floor space, and not less than two hundred cubic feet of air space per pupil, and shall provide for an approved system of indirect heating and ventilation, by means of which each class room shall be supplied with fresh air at the rate of not less than thirty cubic feet per minute for each pupil, and warmed to maintain an average temperature of seventy degrees Fahrenheit during the coldest weather.5 Protection of school property of cities and boroughs. School boards may permit use of grounds for recreation purposes. 322. It shall be lawful for the ward or sub-district school boards, as well as for the central boards of education or of school controllers or directors in the several cities and boroughs of the Commonwealth, tó permit the use of the school grounds under their jurisdiction for park and recreation purposes by the public. Care and protection. 323. It shall be lawful for all such ward or sub-district school boards and central boards of education, or of school controllers or directors in the several cities and boroughs of the Commonwealth, to make arrangements with the city or borough authorities for the enlargement, improvement, care and protection of the school grounds when used for park and recreation purposes by the public, and power is hereby conferred upon such city and borough authorities to make such expenditures as may be necessary to carry such arrangements into effect.7 May lease or permit use of grounds. 324. The said city, borough and school authorities are hereby empowered to make similar arrangements with corporations, societies, associations or individuals having property which they are willing to donate, lease or permit the use of for public park or recreation purposes, and said city and borough authorities are also empowered hereby to make all expenditures necessary to make such arrangements effective.8 Protection of school houses. 325. If any person shall wilfully and maliciously break or enter any public school house, public school building or other building used for public school purposes, or any out house used in connection therewith, or shall injure, damage or destroy any school furniture, books, papers, maps, charts or apparatus contained in any public school house or other building used and occupied for public school purposes, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, or undergo an imprisonment 6. Act June 26, 1895, Sec. 1, P. L. 331. 7. Act June 26, 1895, Sec. 2, P. L. 331. 8. Act June 26, 1895, Sec. 3, P. L. 331. in the county jail for a period not exceeding six months, or either, or both, at the discretion of the court." Use of school houses for literary purposes. 326. It shall be lawful for school boards to grant the use of school houses for lyceum and other literary purposes, non-sectarian, in their respective districts.1o School boards may purchase United States flag. 327. The board of education or the board of school trustees in the several cities, towns, townships, boroughs, villages and school districts of this state, may purchase a United States flag, flag-staff and the necessary appliances therefor, and shall display said flag upon, near or in the public school building during school hours, and at such times as the said board may deem proper; and that the necessary funds to defray the expenses to be incurred herein shall be assessed and collected in the same manner as moneys for public school purposes are now raised by law." and this act shall take effect immediately.12 Fire escapes. 328. All the following described buildings within this Commonwealth, to be provided with permanent, safe external fire escapes, to wit: Every building used as a sanitary, college, academy, hospital, asylum, or hotel for the accommodation of the public, every storehouse, factory, manufactory, or workshop of any kind in which employes or operatives are usually employed at work in the third or any higher story, every tenement house or building in which rooms or floors are usually let to lodges or families, every public hall or place of amusement, every parochial or public school building, when any of such buildings are three or more stories in height, shall be provided with a permanent, safe external means of escape therefrom, in case of fire independent of all internal 9. Act May 19, 1897, Sec. 1, P. L. 76. stairways; the number and location of such escapes to be governed by the size of the building, and the number of its inmates, and arranged in such a way as to make them readily accessible, safe and adequate for the escape of said inmates. Such escapes to consist of outside, open, iron stairway, of not more than forty-five degrees slant, with steps not less than six inches in width and twenty-four inches in length." Examination and approval of fire escapes. 329. It shall be the duty of the board of fire commissioners in conjunction with the fire marshal of the district where such commissioners and fire marshal are elected or appointed, to first examine and test such fire escape or escapes, and, after upon trial said fire escape or escapes should prove to be in accordance with the requirements of section one of this act, then the said fire marshal, in connection with the fire commissioners, or a majority of them, shall grant a certificate approving said fire escape, thereby relieving the party or parties to whom such certificate is issued, from the liabilities of fines, damages and imprisonment imposed by this act: Provided, further, That in counties where no such fire marshals or fire commissioners exist, then the county commissioners in each said county shall be the board of examiners and shall grant certificates of approval when escapes are erected in accordance with the requirements of section one of this act.13 Criminal liability for neglect of duty. 330. That every person, corporation, trustee, board of education, and board of school directors, neglecting or refusing to comply with the requirements of section one of this act, in erecting said fire escape or escapes shall be liable to a fine not exceeding three hundred dollars, and also be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not less than one month, or more than two months. And in case of fire occurring in any of said buildings in the absence of such fire escape or escapes, ap |