Contract for transportation of children under Section 2, act of June 22, 1897. 241. The entire common school system of this Commonwealth is special and statutory, and in order to create any liability under a contract provided for by the common school laws, the statutory requisitions must be complied with.12 Before a person may recover for the transportation of a child to a school, he must affirmatively show that the school board contracted for such transportation by the affirmative votes of a majority of the board, duly recorded on the minutes of the board.13 Attending school in adjoining districts. 242. If it shall be found, that on account of the great distance from or difficulty of access to the proper school house in any district some of the pupils thereof could be more conveniently accommodated in the schools of an adjoining district, it shall be the duty of the directors or controllers of such adjoining districts to make an arrangement by which such pupils may be instructed in the most convenient school of the adjoining district; and the expenses of such instructions shall be paid, as may be agreed upon by the directors or controllers of such adjoining districts by resolution or agreement entered upon the minutes of the respective boards. 14 Discretionary power of school boards. 243. Chief Justice Lowrie said: "The school law does not leave the directors without any discretion relative to sending children to the schools of an adjoining district, and does not seriously impair the district division. Each board has express discretion relative to the school within the district which each pupil shall attend; and it would be quite absurd to leave them without it, when there is a nearer school in an adjoining district to which the pupil wishes to go. 12. Cascade School Dist. vs. Lewis School Dist., 43 Pa. 318, 1862. 13. Boyle vs. Summit Twp. School Dist., 28 Pa. C. C. 351, 1903. "There must be great distance and great difficulty of access to the schools of the district, before there can be any right to ask to be sent to a more convenient school of au adjoining district; and it seems to us that there is nothing of the kind here. Whether the distance or difficulty of access is to be regarded as great or not, depends much upon circumstances,-such as the age of the children, the density of the population, and the customs of the locality, and therefore must be left in a great degree, to the discretion of the directors; and of course their abuse of this discretion must be very clear before they can be adjudged guilty of official misconduct. We must be liberal and generous towards this discretion, in reviewing the exercise of it; for a strict and jealous supervision would be fatal to the discretion itself. We must not interpret the law so as to keep the directors in perpetual fear of the courts, nor so as to set them to guard against this law, by so arranging their school houses around the district, that few or none can have the chance of claiming that any school of an adjoining district is more convenient. "We think that the dismissal of the plantiff's petition is fully justified by the reason assigned by the learned president of the sessions. It is well for the school system, for the peace of the neighborhoods, and for the securing or discreet men for directors, that he has so treated the case as to warn men that they must be cautious in attempting to get the courts to interfere with the discretion of the school directors. "Honorable and trustworthy men will not accept public positions, if they understand it to be the rule that all their official acts are subject to a suspicious supervision by the people, or by their official superiors. Real worth is generous in its judgment and treatment of others, and will always expect the same for itself; and will resent the contrary by refusing all functions that are subject to it."15 15. Freeman vs. School Directors, 37 Pa. 386, 1860. In re East Hopewell Twp. Sch. Dist., 7 D. R. 177, 1898. Discretion of directors reviewable by the courts. 244. Under the act of May 8, 1854, the discretion vested in directors to make an arrangement whereby scholars may attend a school in an adjacent district is reviewable by the court, and if it be shown that petitioners' children have nearly one and one-fourth miles farther to travel to reach the school house in their proper district than to reach the school house in an adjacent district, and are of very tender years, the court will interfere and make. an order requiring directors to enter into an arrangement whereby they may attend school in the adjacent district.16 Contract between districts. 245. The Supreme Court said: "The whole system of common schools is special and statutory. If one district is to be charged with the expense of educating the children of an adjoining district, it must be done in the manner the statute prescribes. It must be done in pursuance of an 'arrangement' between the directors of the respective districts, and that arrangement must be by 'resolution or agreement', and the resolution or agreement must be entered upon the minutes of the respective boards.' "Out of nothing less than this can pecuniary liability for such service result. Regular official action, evidenced by official minutes, is what the statute requires to ground. such action as the present, and because it is a statutory requisition, all equities and implied liabilities are excluded. "In this case that was not done."17 Payment of tuition by non-resident pupils. 246. A promise by a non-resident parent to pay a school district for the tuition of his children may be enforced, although a charge for such tuition could not be enforced in the absence of such promise.18 16. Young vs. Pymatuning Twp. School Dirt., 14 D. R. 773, 1905. 17. Cascade School District vs. Lewis School District, 43 Pa. 318, 1862. 18. Westfield Borough Sch. Dist. vs. Dillman, 22 Pa. C. C. 567. CHAPTER X. PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS. PAGE 247. Public schools in cities or boroughs with a population of 5000 or over. Powers of controllers and directors..... 92 253. Maximum length of term. Payment of expenses.. 94 divided into wards....... 257. Councils shall levy tax. Levying of tax in boroughs not 258. May borrow money and issue bonds therefor.... 96 96 267. Centralization of township schools and provision for township high schools. Definition of "centralization 99 268. Petition and duty of school board... 99 269. Elections and ballots...... 100 270. Issuing of bonds......... 100 100 271. Course of instruction and transportaion of pupils........... 272. When children may attend high school in another district...... IOI 273. Children may attend higher grades in other districts............... ΙΟΙ Public high schools in cities or boroughs with a population of 5000 or over. Powers of controller and directors. 247. The board of controllers or directors of school districts which are composed of cities or boroughs divided into wards for school purposes, or boroughs not divided into wards for school purposes, having a population of five thousand or over, shall, in addition to the powers and duties confered or enjoined by the act of the eighth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, and the supplements thereto, possess the following powers and perform the following duties.—1 They may establish a public high school. Admission. 248. They shall admit to said public high school all children under the age of twenty-one years residing within said school district, who shall be found qualified for admission thereto after having undergone such an examination as shall be prescribed by the said board of directors or controllers: Provided, Said board of controllers or directors shall have power to prescribe the terms upon which other children than those residing in the said district shall be allowed to attend said public high school.' Supervision over teachers and pupils. 249. They shall exercise a general supervision over said public high school, appoint all the teachers therefor, fix the amount of their salaries, and shall have power to dismiss any teacher at any time for incompetency, cruelty, negligence, immorality, or other cause; they may suspend or expel from said school all pupils found guilty, on full examination and hearing, of refactory or incorrigible bad conduct, and shall have power to make all proper regulations and rules for the government and discipline of said school.3 Visitation. 250. Said board of controllers or directors shall visit said public high school, by at least one of their number, at least once in each week and cause the result of such visit to be entered on the minutes of said board of controllers.4 Branches to be taught and books used. 251. They shall direct what branches of learning shall be taught and what books shall be used in said public high school.5 Qualifications of teachers. 252. The said board of controllers or directors shall not employ any person as teacher in said public high school |