Free textbooks, may

the president of said board or any member of the board, to the voters of the township at their annual meeting on the second Monday of July.

(329) § 5925. SEC. 17. The board of education at any be submitted. annual or special meeting may submit to the voters of the district the question of free text-books, and if a majority of the voters present shall vote in favor of the use of free text-books, the said board shall be authorized to proceed to make a contract with some dealer or publisher to furnish the necessary books used in said district at a price not greater than the net wholesale price of such books, and to vote a tax for such purProviso, bids. pose: Provided, That the voters at such meeting may direct the board of education to advertise for proposals and bids on such contract. Annually thereafter the board of education shall include in its budget a sufficient amount to maintain and provide the proper text-books for use in schools and such text-books shall be sold to pupils at cost and furnished free to such pupils as are unable to buy them, and such books furnished free shall be the property of the district: Provided further, That nothing herein contained shall prevent any district having once adopted free text-books from taking further action on the subject at any subsequent annual meeting.

Further proviso.

Property and debts.

Tax not invalidated, etc.

Compensation of board and officers.

Unlawful to act as agent,

(330) § 5926. SEC. 18. All school property, both real and personal, within the limits of the township district as created or organized under this act, shall by force of this act become the property of the public schools of the township, and all debts and liabilities of the several districts heretofore organized in such township as they existed prior to the passage of this act shall become the debts and liabilities of the said public schools of the township.

(331) § 5927. SEC. 19. All money raised or being raised by tax, or accrued or accruing to the school districts of said township as described herein, shall become the money of the public schools of the township, and no tax heretofore ordered assessed or levied for school purposes in said township or other proceedings shall be invalidated or affected by means of this act.

(332) § 5928. SEC. 20. The compensation of members of the board of education other than the secretary and treasurer shall be two dollars for attendance at each regular meeting of the board. The secretary and treasurer of said board shall receive such compensation for their services as the board of education may determine, not exceeding one hundred dollars for the treasurer and one hundred twenty-five dollars for the secretary per annum. The amount of money necessary for the services of district officers shall be included in the regular budget voted by the board of education and shall be paid from the general fund.

(333) § 5929. SEC. 21. It shall be illegal for any memetc., for pub ber of the board of education to act as agent for any author, publisher or seller of school books or school apparatus, or to receive any gift or reward for his influence in recommending

lisher, etc.

interested in

the purchase or use of any school book or apparatus in the state of Michigan. It shall be illegal for any member of the Not to be board of education to perform any labor except as provided in contracts, this act, or furnish any material or supplies for the school dis- etc. trict in which he is an officer, and he shall not be personally interested in any way whatever, directly or indirectly, in any contract with the district in which he holds office. Any act herein prohibited, if performed by any such school officer, shall be deemed a misdemeanor and he shall be liable to the punishment provided for such offense in accordance with the provisions of the statute in such case made and provided.

Am. 1923, Act 188.

Justices of the peace who were selected trustees of a school district and recognized as proper officials thereof for a year or upwards were de facto officials, though disqualified from acting in the two capacities by 2 compiled laws 1915, § 5929.-Connine v. Smith, 190 / 632.

Removal

(334) § 5930. SEC. 22. Any person duly elected to the Refusal to office of trustee of any township district, who shall neglect accept office. or refuse without sufficient cause to accept such office and serve therein, or who having entered upon the duties of his office shall neglect or refuse to perform any duty required of him by virtue of his office, shall, upon conviction in any court of competent jurisdiction, be fined not less than ten dollars in the discretion of the court, and if he shall still continue to neglect or refuse to perform the duties he shall be liable for a similar forfeiture for each such offense; or any such officer may be removed from office in the manner provided in this act. (335) § 5931. SEC. 23. The superintendent of public instruction shall have power and is hereby required to remove from office. from office, upon satisfactory proof and after at least ten days' notice to the party implicated, any trustee of any township school district who shall have illegally used or disposed of any of the public moneys entrusted to his charge, or who shall persistently and without sufficient cause refuse or neglect to discharge any of the duties of his office, and in case of such removal it shall be the duty of the said state superintendent to record in the office of the township clerk of such township the resolution or order for such removal, and such record of such resolution or order so entered, or a certified copy thereof, shall be prima facie evidence in all courts and places of jurisdiction of the regularity of such proceedings for removal, and said state superintendent shall file a similar copy of the proceedings in the records of his office: Provided, That if Proviso, the party so removed shall, within thirty days after such re- when order moval, institute proceedings before a court of competent jurisdiction for the setting aside of such order for removal from office, or if after said thirty days such proceedings to obtain such removal shall be discontinued or dismissed, the said order for removal from office shall stand and not be subject to attack by any legal proceedings thereafter. (336) § 5932. SEC. 24. When any township district when towncomprising one township shall be divided into two or more dated. townships or when any two townships are consolidated for

to stand.

ships consoli

of boards.

When limits altered.

Proviso.

school purposes, the existing board or boards of trustees shall continue to act for all the townships until the same shall have been organized and the township boards of trustees duly Joint session elected and qualified therein. Immediately after such organization the township boards of education of each of the townships shall meet in joint session and direct an appraisal of all the school property of the former township to be made. When such appraisal has been made said township board of education shall make an equitable division of the existing assets and liabilities of the school districts of such former township, basing their apportionment upon the amount of taxable property in the township divided, as shown by the last assessment roll of such former township. When the township district shall be altered in its limits by annexing a portion of its territory to another township or townships, the township boards of education of such townships shall, immediately after such alteration, meet in joint session and make an equitable division of the assets and liabilities of the school districts of the township from which the territory has been detached, basing their division upon the amount of taxable property as the same shall appear upon the last assessment roll of such township: Provided, That any township school district operating under a special act, shall operate under the provisions of this act after the annual meeting in July, nineteen hundred twenty-four, without reorganization. At the annual meeting on the second Monday in July, nineteen hundred twenty-four, there shall be elected in such township districts, five trustees in the manner and for the terms provided in this act for the election of the first board of education. The said board of education immediately after its organization as provided in this act shall settle with the treasurer of the board of education in control of said district operating under the special act, and all records, papers, books, money, and other property of said board shall be turned over immediately thereafter to the proper officers of the board of education elected Proviso, may under the provisions of this act: Provided, That the boundary lines of any township district organized under the provisions of this act may be altered by attaching or detaching territory. In such altering of the boundary lines of said township district the school board of the township district or district [districts] shall act for the township districts, and the township board or boards, if fractional, shall act for primary or graded districts in the same manner as provided in the general school law for the change of boundaries of primary districts. In such annexation or detaching of territory the township school district organization shall continue to be the school organization for the township school district the same as if no territory had been attached or detached.

Trustees,

election of.

alter boundaries.

Appeal from action of board.

Am. 1921, Act 133; 1923, Act 188.

(337) § 5933. SEC. 25. When any ten or more qualified voters in any township district shall feel themselves aggrieved by any action, order or decision of the board of education

lic instruc

with reference to the formation of any school, the division or arrangement of any territory, or location of the schools, or the maintaining of school in any part of said district, they may, at any time within ninety days from the time of such action on the part of said board of education, appeal from such action, order or decision of said board of education to the state superintendent of public instruction, and notice of such appeal shall be served on the secretary of the board of education. The superintendent of public instruction, upon the Supt. of pubreceipt of such appeal, shall have power to entertain such tion, duty of. appeal, and review, confirm, set aside or amend the action, order or decision of the board of education thus appealed from, or if in his opinion the appeal is frivolous or without sufficient cause, he may summarily dismiss the same. Said state superintendent of public instruction, before acting upon such appeal, may visit the locality or appoint some one to do so, and investigate carefully the action, order or decision and its effect upon the district and the conditions surrounding the same, and he or his appointee shall give a hearing at some place within the county where such township district may be located and to such hearing he may summon the board of education, the complainants and any persons who may have knowledge of the matter at issue. After the hearing and due consideration, said superintendent shall render his decision which shall be final.

An Act for the organization of township school districts in the upper

peninsula.

[Act 176, P. A. 1891.]

The People of the State of Michigan enact:

(338) § 5892. SECTION 1. Whenever the qualified Petition for electors of any organized township in the upper peninsula organization. desire to become organized into a single school district, they may petition the township board to proceed as hereinafter provided for organizing a township school district. Such petition shall be signed by a majority of the electors of the township qualified to vote at school meetings and shall be filed in the office of the township clerk at least fifteen days prior to the first day of July. Upon the receipt and filing of said Clerk to petition, the township clerk shall notify the members of the notify township board and the school inspectors of the township to attend a special meeting to be held not more than five days thereafter, at which meeting it shall be the duty of such township board to compare the names signed to the petition with the names appearing on the list of registered voters qualified to vote at school meetings, and if it be found that a majority of the voters so qualified to vote have signed the

board.

When to be single district.

Proviso,
sub-districts.

Board of education.

When trustees elected.

Term on ballot.

petition that the organized township of which they are residents be organized as a single school district, the township board shall give notice by posting notices thereof in five public places in said township, that on the second Monday of July the following officers will be elected for such school district; and they shall make and file, both with the county clerk and with the county commissioner of schools of the county in which such township is located, a certified copy of the above mentioned petition, together with their finding and doings thereon; and when the district officers shall have been duly elected and shall have filed their acceptance with the township clerk, such township shall become a single school district which shall be subject to all the general laws of the state, so far as the same may be applicable, and said district shall have all the powers and privileges conferred upon graded school districts by the laws of this state, all the general provisions of which relating to common or primary schools shall apply and be enforced in said district, except such as shall be inconsistent with the provisions of this act: Provided, That, immediately after the organization of the township district, the board of education may divide the township into such number of sub-districts as they may deem necessary for the accommodation of all children of school age therein, designating the same as follows: Sub-district number one, sub-district number two, etc.

This act is constitutional.-Perrizo v. Kesler, 93/280; Keweenaw Ass'n v. Sch. Dist., 98/441. The provision authorizing the township board and school inspectors to determine whether a majority of the qualified electors of the township have signed the petition, is sufficient.--Id. As to filing a certified copy of the petition. etc., with the county commissioner of schools, instead of with the secretary of the board of school inspectors, see Id. 284. See Auditor General v. Ayer,

211/244.

(339) § 5893. SEC. 2. The officers of said district shall consist of five trustees, who shall constitute the board of education of said district, and the term of office shall be three years. On the second Monday of July following the action of the township board, as stated in section one of this act, the qualified voters of the township shall proceed to elect from their number, by ballot, one trustee for the term of one year, two for the term of two years and two for the term of three years, and annually thereafter a successor or successors to the trustee or trustees whose term of office shall expire. The term for which the person voted for is intended shall be designated on the ballot. The qualifications of voters and the conditions of eligibility for office holding shall be the same First election. as provided in the general school laws. At the first election held in said district, the township board shall act as a board of election, and they shall canvass the votes in the same manner as votes for elective township officers are canvassed. At succeeding elections the qualified voters present shall designate three qualified voters to act as a board of election and board of canvassers, who shall respectively take and subscribe the constitutional oath of office, which oath any member of the board of trustees may administer. In the election of

Succeeding elections.