TITLE 2.

Penalty for

$58. Every taxable inhabitant to whom a notice of a district meet

ing, 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

notice.

Inhabitants

when to as

semble.

Qualification

of voters.

Powers of district meet.

ing.

Annual meet

ing.

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.

ART. 5.

Limitation

$ 64. No tax to be voted by a district meeting for building, hiring, or purchasing a school-house, shall exceed the sum of four hundred 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

&c. disposed

$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 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.

and applied.

$69. Such proportion, when ascertained, shall be levied, raised How levied and collected, with the fees for collection, by the trustees of the district 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.

such district, at least five days before the time appointed for such ad- ART. 5. journed meeting:

4. To give the like notice of every annual district meeting:

5. To keep and preserve all records, books, and papers, belonging

to his office, and to deliver the same to his successor in office, in the manner and subject to the penalties provided by law, in relation to the town clerk.58

tees.

$75. It shall be the duty of the trustees of every school district, Daty of trusand they shall have power,

1. To call special meetings of the inhabitants of such districts liable to pay taxes, whenever they shall deem it necessary and proper: 2. To give notice of special, annual and adjourned meetings, in the manner prescribed in the last preceding section, if there be no clerk of the district, or he be absent or incapable of acting:

3. To make out a tax list of every district tax, voted by any such meeting, containing the names of all the taxable inhabitants residing in the district at the time of making out the list, and the amount of tax payable by each inhabitant, set opposite to his name:

4. To annex to such tax list a warrant, directed to the collector of the district, for the collection of the sums in such list mentioned, with five cents on each dollar thereof, for his fees:

5. To purchase or lease a site for the district school-house, as designated by a meeting of the district, and to build, hire or purchase, keep in repair, and furnish such school-house with necessary fuel and appendages, out of the funds collected and paid to them for such purposes:

6. To have the custody and safe keeping of the district schoolhouse:

7. To contract with and employ all teachers in the district :

8. To pay the wages of such teachers when qualified, out of the monies which shall come into their hands from the commissioners of common schools, so far as such monies shall be sufficient for that purpose; and to collect the residue of such wages, excepting such sums as may have been collected by the teachers, from all persons liable

therefor:

9. To divide the public monies received by them, whenever authorised by a vote of their district, into not exceeding four portions for each year; to assign and apply one of such portions to each quarter or term during which a school shall be kept in such district, for the payment of the teacher's wages, during such quarter or term; and to collect the residue of such wages, not paid by the proportion of public money allotted for that purpose, from the persons liable therefor, as above provided:

TITLE 2. 10. To exempt from the payment of the wages of teachers, such indigent persons within the district, as they shall think proper:

11. To certify such exemptions, and deliver the certificate thereof, to the clerk of the district, to be kept on file in his office:

12. To ascertain by examination of the school lists kept by such teachers, the number of days for which each person not so exempted shall be liable to pay for instruction, and the amount payable by each person:

13. To make out a rate bill, containing the name of each person so liable, and the amount for which he is liable, adding thereto five cents on each dollar of the sum due from him, for collector's fees; and to annex thereto a warrant for the collection thereof:

14. To deliver such rate bill, with the warrant annexed, to the collector of the district, who shall execute the same in like manner with other warrants directed to him, by them.59

$76. In making out a tax list, the trustees shall apportion the tax on all the taxable inhabitants within the district, according to the valuations of the taxable property which shall be owned or possessed by them, at the time of making out the list within the district, or which being intersected by the boundaries of the district, shall be so owned or possessed by them, partly in such district and partly in any adjoining district; but where taxable property shall be owned by one inhabitant, and possessed by another, only one of them shall be taxed therefor.6

$77. Every person owning or holding any real property within any school district, who shall improve and occupy the same by his agent or servant, shall, in respect to the liability of such property to taxation, be considered a taxable inhabitant of such district, in the same manner as if he actually resided therein.60

$ 78. If there shall be any real property within a district, cultivated and improved, but not occupied by a tenant, or agent, and the owner of which shall not reside within the district, nor be liable to be taxed for the same in an adjoining district, such owner shall be taxable therefor, in the same manner as if he were an inhabitant of the district; but no portion of such property, but such as shall be actually cleared and cultivated, shall be included in such taxation.

$79. The valuations of taxable property shall be ascertained, as far as possible, from the last assessment roll of the town; and no person shall be entitled to any reduction in the valuation of such property, as so ascertained, unless he shall give notice of his claim to such reduction, to the trustees of the district, before the tax list shall be made out.60

(59) Compiled with some amendments from laws of 1819, P. 199, § 20, 23, 25, & 26, except subdivision 9, which is entirely new. (60) Ib. § 25.