Petition for organization. Clerk to notify board. When township to become single district. Proviso, as to subdistricts. TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN UPPER PENINSULA. 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: (298) § 5892. SECTION 1. Whenever the qualified electors of any organized township in the upper peninsula 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 petition, the township clerk shall notify the members of the 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 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. Am. 1903, Act 154. 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. cation, how how con (299) § 5893. SEC. 2. The officers of said district shall Board of educonsist of five trustees, who shall constitute the board of edu- constituted. cation 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 as provided in the general school laws. At the first election Elections, held in said district, the township board shall act as a board ducted. 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 trustees the person or persons receiving a majority of all the votes cast shall be declared elected, and he or they shall hold office until his or their successor or successors shall have been duly elected and filed his or their acceptance. The Annual annual meeting of said district shall occur on the second when held. Monday of July in each year, at the usual place of holding the annual township meeting, and it shall be the duty of the secretary to give notice of all annual meetings and of any special meeting of said district by posting a written or printed notice thereof in at least five conspicuous places in said township at least five days prior to said meeting. At the first school meeting and all succeeding annual meetings the polls shall open at three o'clock p. m. and be kept open four hours, during the last hour of which time the voters shall transact such business as may lawfully come before them, according to the provisions of section nine of this act. In all townships organized prior to April first, nineteen hun- First elecdred three, under the provisions of act number one hundred tions, when seventy-six of the public acts of eighteen hundred ninety-one, townships. the first election of trustees under this act shall be held on the second Monday of July, nineteen hundred three, in the manner provided in this section for the election in a township newly organized as a single school district; and immediately thereafter the records, property and documents belonging to said district shall be turned over to the newly meeting, held in certain Proviso. Officers, how notified of election. Proviso. Board of education, how organized. Duties of president. Secretary. Treasurer. elected board of education: Provided, That the district officers elected at the annual election in April, nineteen hundred three, under the provisions of act number one hundred seventy-six of the public acts of eighteen hundred ninety-one, shall act as the board of education until the trustees elected on the said second Monday in July, nineteen hundred three, shall have filed their acceptances and become duly qualified. Am. Id. Perrizo v. Kesler, 93/283. (300) § 5894. SEC. 3. Within five days after the first election under this act, the township clerk shall notify, in writing, the persons elected trustees of their election, and within five days thereafter said trustees so elected shall take and subscribe the oath of office prescribed by the constitution of this state, before any officer authorized to administer oaths, and file the same with the township clerk: Provided, That after the district shall have been organized under the provisions of this act, the members of the board of education shall file their acceptances with the secretary of the board. Am. Id. (301) § 5895. SEC. 4. The members of the board of education shall meet on the fourth Monday of July following the first election under this act and elect from their number a president, a secretary, and a treasurer, who shall severally serve in such capacity during his term of office and until his successor shall have been duly elected and duly qualified. The president shall preside at all meetings of the district, and of the board, and perform such other duties as are required of the moderator in a primary school district. The secretary shall faithfully record all proceedings of annual and special meetings of the district and of all meetings of the board, receive and file all records, papers, and other docu: ments belonging to the district, and perform such other duties as are required of the director in primary school districts. It shall be the duty of the treasurer in each district to execute and file with the secretary, within ten days after his election or appointment, a bond in the full amount of money to come into his hands as such treasurer during his term of office, as near as the same can be ascertained, with two sufficient sureties who shall be residents of the same county, or shall furnish a similar bond of some surety company authorized to do business in this state, to be approved by the president and secretary of the board, conditioned for the faithful performance of his duties under this act, and honestly accounting for all moneys coming into his hands belonging to said district. It shall be the duty of the treasurer of said board to apply for and receive from the township treasurer, or other officer holding the same, on the presentation of a warrant signed by the president and secretary of the school board, all moneys appropriated or apportioned for primary schools and for district library of said district. The said treasurer shall have the keeping of all school and library moneys, and shall not pay out the same without the authority of the board, upon warrants or orders drawn upon him and signed by the secretary and countersigned by the president; and he shall perform such other duties as are required of the treasurer in primary school districts. Am. Id. (302) § 5896. SEC. 5. Said board of education shall Vacancies. have power to fill all vacancies that may occur in the office of trustee until the next annual election, and such trustee shall file with the secretary of said board his oath of office within five days after such appointment by the board. Am. Id. meetings. (303) 5897. SEC. 6. § A majority of the members of Quorum, said board shall constitute a quorum, and the regular meetings of said board shall be held on the fourth Monday of March, June, September, and December in each year, and no notice of such meeting shall be required, and any two members of said board shall be sufficient to adjourn any meeting from time to time until a quorum is present. Special meetings of said board may be called at any time on the request of the president, or any two members thereof, in writing, delivered to the secretary; and the secretary, upon receiving such request, shall at once notify each member of said board of the time of holding such meeting, which shall be at least two days subsequent to the time of receiving such request by said secretary: Provided, That in case all the members shall Proviso. sign a waiver of notice on the minute book of the secretary no notice shall be necessary. All records and papers of said district shall be kept in the custody of said secretary and shall be open to the inspection of any qualified voter of said district. of school (304) § 5898. SEC. 7. The said board shall be the board To be board of school inspectors for said district and shall, as such, re- inspectors. port to the clerk of the county in which such township is located and shall have all the powers and perform all the duties now enjoyed and performed by boards of school inspectors; and the secretary of said board shall perform all the duties required by law of the chairman of the board of school inspectors; and the board of school inspectors for such township is hereby abolished, except as its powers are vested in said board of education. Am. Id. Powers and duties. Electors to deterinine amount to be raised. Proviso as to neglect. Proviso as to amount. Taxes to be set forth in roll. (305) § 5899. SEC. 8. The board of education of said district shall have power and authority to designate and purchase schoolhouse sites, erect buildings and furnish the same, employ legally qualified teachers, provide books for district library, make by-laws relative to taking the census of all children in said district between the ages of five and twenty years, and to make all necessary reports and transmit the same to the proper officers as designated by law, so that the district may be entitled to its proportion of the primary school interest fund; and said board shall have authority to make all needful regulations and by-laws relative to the visitation of schools; relative to the length of time school shall be kept, which shall not be less than five months in each year; relative to the employment of teachers duly and legally qualified; relative to the regulation of schools and the books to be used therein; and generally, to do all things needful and desirable for the maintenance, prosperity, and success of the schools of said district, and the promotion of a thorough education of the children thereof. When in any contiguous territory of said township district there are ten or more children of school age, living not less than three miles nor more than eight miles, from any schoolhouse in said district, the board of education shall, upon the petition of a majority of the parents or legal guardians of said children, provide school advantages for such children, either by establishing a sub-district, or by providing transportation to some school already established within the township. Am. Id. Perrizo v. Kesler, 93/283. (306) 5900. SEC. 9. At each annual school meeting held in said township, the qualified voters present shall determine the amount of money to be raised by tax for all school purposes for the ensuing year: Provided, That in case the voters at any annual school meeting shall neglect or refuse to determine the amount to be raised as aforesaid, then the board of education shall determine the same at the first regular meeting thereof, which amount the secretary shall, within thirty days thereafter, certify to the supervisor of the township, who shall spread the same upon the regular tax roll of said township, and the same shall be levied, collected and returned in the same manner as other township taxes: Provided, That for purchasing school lots and for erecting school-houses no greater sum than three mills on the dollar of all the taxable valuation of the real and personal property in said township shall be levied in any one year. Am. Id. Auditor General v. Duluth, South Shore, etc., 116/122; Auditor General v. Sparrow, 116/576. (307) § 5901. SEC. 10. All taxes assessed within said township for school purposes shall be set forth in the assess |