REVIEW QUESTIONS

What are the officers of a common-school district? What two qualifications must a person possess to be eligible to the office of trustee? What women are eligible to this office? What offices are trustees prohibited from holding? What would be the effect if a trustee should accept such office? When are trustees elected? How must such officers accept such office? How must such officers be voted for at school meetings? How are ballotboxes supplied? How are inspectors of election chosen? Describe the process of voting for a trustee at a district meeting. How may an illegal election be set aside? What kind of ballots must be used? Who keeps the poll-list at a district election?

What is the term of office of a trustee? What is one year in this meaning? What is the term of a joint trustee? What is meant by a joint trustee? How is the number of trustees for a district determined? Describe the process of election where a district decides to elect three trustees? At elections thereafter, how many trustees are elected and for what period? Describe fully how a district having three trustees may change to one. From one to three. Who should notify a trustee of his election? How? What is considered a notice of election? When are officers deemed to have accepted?

What is the ruling of the State Department in relation to trustees of districts in which an annual election did not occur? In what ways may the office of trustee become vacated? How may a trustee vacate his office by refusal to serve? Who may remove a trustee from office? For what reasons? How must such proceedings be brought? How may a vacancy in the office of trustee be filled by election? By appointment? When a vacancy is filled by election, for what period is a trustee chosen? For what period when appointed? How is the appointment by a district superintendent made? Where is it filed? What action must the district clerk take?

What is the penalty or refusing to accept the office of trustee? What is the penalty in cases where trustees do not refuse to accept, but refuse or neglect to perform their duties? What is a bar to recovery of penalty in either case? Explain the application of the term "board of trustees." What is a corporate body? What power have boards of trustees to hold property? What power have sole trustees? Explain fully how the action of a board is determined. What should the minutes of meetings of a board show? When are regular meetings of a board held? When may special meetings be held? In case of a vacancy on a board of trustees, what powers do the remaining trustees possess? In case of two vacancies, what power does the remaining trustee posssess? When a vacancy on a board exists, what action should be immediately taken by the remaining members?

The trustee of a school district is its most important officer. He is the executive officer of the district and has the general management of its affairs. He should execute such official acts as the law directs and should carry into effect instructions received at a district meeting, provided they do not conflict with the school law or with the authority vested in him by virtue of such law. The important powers and duties of trustees as defined by law are as follows:

Special Meetings. stances require it.

Notice of Meetings.

To call special meetings when circum

When there is no clerk of the district, or when the clerk is absent, is unable to act, or refuses to act, the trustees may give notice of special, annual, or adjourned meetings.

Tax-Lists and Warrant to Collector.- Whenever a district meeting has voted a tax, or whenever a tax is authorized by law, it is the duty of the trustees to make out a tax-list for such tax and annex thereto their warrant directed to the district collector, for the collection of the taxes included in such tax list.

To Purchase or Lease Schoolhouses, Sites, etc.- When directed by a district meeting, trustees may purchase or lease a site or sites for school buildings. They may also, when directed by the district, build or purchase a schoolhouse or schoolhouses. They may also hire rooms or buildings for school purposes.

Fuel and Furniture.- Trustees should also furnish schoolhouses, rooms, or school buildings with necessary fuel, furniture, school apparatus, heating apparatus, and appendages; and they may pay the expense thereof when such expense is not more than $50 in any one year, without a vote of the district. The district may vote an additional amount for this purpose.

Custody of Property.- Trustees are the custodians of the property belonging to the district; such as schoolhouses, sites, and appurtenances thereto.

Insurance of School Property.-To insure the school buildings, furniture, apparatus, etc., in some company created under the laws of this State, or authorized to do business in this State and to raise the premium to pay for such insurance by a tax upon the district.

Insurance of Library. It is also the duty of trustees to insure the school library in such a company in an amount fixed by the district and to raise the premium by a district tax.

Employment of Teachers.—It is the duty of trustees to contract with all teachers employed in the district; to determine the number of teachers to be employed; and to determine their compensation, term of service, etc. A district meeting cannot by resolution restrict the power of a trustee in this respect. A trustee cannot legally employ a teacher who is not qualified under the law.

Removal of Teachers- For reasons approved by the Commissioner of Education the trustees of a district may dismiss a teacher.

Rules and Course of Study. It is the duty of trustees to establish courses of study, and rules for the government and discipline of the school. This must not be interpreted as meaning that trustees have the power to prescribe the method of imparting instruction, as this is a right vested solely in the teacher.

Trustees are also required to make provision for teaching the effects of alcoholic drinks, stimulants, and narcotics upon the human system.

Payment of Teachers' Salaries.- Trustees may draw orders upon the supervisor of the town or upon the collector or treasurer of the district for the payment of teachers' salaries from the public money received from the State for that purpose. When this money is insufficient, trustees may raise the remainder by a the district.

tax upon

May Levy in Advance for Teachers' Salaries.- When there is no public money due a district or in the hands of district. officers, and when no money has been raised by local taxation for the payment of teachers' salaries, and when a district meeting has not voted a tax therefor, the trustees may levy and collect, in advance, a tax sufficient to pay the salary of the teachers employed for the then current school year.

To Provide Toilets, etc. It is the duty of a board of trustees to provide suitable toilets for the district in the manner required by law, and it must keep them in a clean and wholesome condition. A failure to do this is sufficient cause to remove a trustee from office and to withhold from the district its share of public money. When a district is unprovided with suitable toilets, trustees, upon direction from the district superintendent having jurisdiction, or from the Commissioner of Education, must install the same.

Repairs to Schoolhouses, Staircases, etc.—It is the duty of trustees to keep all school buildings, furniture, and apparatus in proper repair and to make them reasonably comfortable for use. They may expend each year for this purpose, without a vote of the district, an amount not to exceed $50.

Trustees are also required by law in all districts throughout the State, except the city of New York, to provide stairways constructed on the outside of all school buildings that are more than two stories high, with suitable doors connecting therewith from each story above the first. Trustees are directed to provide these stairways, without a vote of the district, at a reasonable cost, which shall be raised by tax as other taxes upon the district are raised.

May Abate Nuisances.- When they are so directed by the district superintendent, it is the duty of trustees to abate any nuisance in or upon the school premises.

Clean Rooms - Employ Janitors, etc.-Trustees should see that the schoolroom is always reasonably clean, and should provide pails, brooms, and other implements necessary for such purpose. It is also the duty of trustees to employ a janitor to build fires, sweep and otherwise clean the school-rooms, and to do the janitor work generally in and about the schoolhouse. They may pay a reasonable compensation for such services without a vote of the district, and may raise such money by tax in the same manner as other district taxes are raised.

Purchase of School Apparatus, Account Books, etc.- The trustees of a district may expend, without a vote of the district, for a dictionary, maps, globes, or other school apparatus, a sum not to exceed $25 in any one year. They may also provide. blank-books in which to record their accounts and in which to make a record of all business transactions of the district.

Trustees May Establish Temporary or Branch Schools.Whenever it is established to the satisfaction of the trustees of a district that it is necessary to form a branch school in the district for the purpose of placing within the reach of a portion of the children of such district the school advantages to which all children are entitled, said trustees must establish such temporary or branch school. If a portion of a district is so remote from the schoolhouse that the children of such locality are unable in inclement or winter weather to attend the regular school, without suffering unreasonable inconvenience or hardship, it has been held by the Commissioner of Education that such a state of affairs is sufficient ground for creating a branch school. Or if the rooms of the school building are overcrowded and insufficient for the accommodation of all children of school age, it is a proper reason for establishing a temporary school.

The trustees, under either of the above conditions, must hire and furnish suitable rooms in which to maintain such branch school, with proper accommodations, and all expenses incurred are a charge upon the district. This power to establish a temporary or branch school is vested in the trustees without a vote of the district; but in exercising this power they must use proper discretion and be warranted under the circumstances to establish such school.

May Raise any Legal Tax.- When authorized by law or when directed by a vote of the district meeting to incur any expense for the district, trustees have the power and it is their duty to raise any such amount by tax in the same manner as if a specific sum had been voted by a district meeting.

Use of School Building. The trustees of a district may permit the use of the school building, when it is not in use for school purposes, for the purpose of giving and receiving instruction in any branch of education, learning and the arts, and for any other purpose specifically provided in section 455 of the Education Law. (See discussion post, p. 145.)

The use of the school buildings for religious or other purposes is a different proposition. In cases of this kind it has been a ruling of the State Department, to which all State Superintendents and the Commissioner of Education have adhered, that, where no objection is raised, the schoolhouse may, in the discre