When township board deemed of case. the appeal. which the said school-house is located, a full and complete transcript of all their proceedings, actions, orders, or decisions with reference to which the appeal is taken, and of their records of the same; also said bond and appeal papers, and all petitions and remonstrances, if any, with reference to the matters appealed from; and upon the filing of the same with the said township clerk, the said township board or boards shall be deemed to be in possession in possession of the case, and if the return be deemed by them insufficient, may order a further and more complete return by said board or boards of school inspectors; and when such return shall Proceedings in by them be deemed sufficient, they shall proceed with the consideration of the appeal, at such time or times, within ten days after such return, and in such manner and under such affirmation, amendment or reversal of the action, order, or decision of the board or boards of school inspectors appealed from, as in their judgment shall seem to be just and right; or, they deem the appeal to be frivolous, they may summarily dismiss the same; but When members the decision of said board or boards of school inspectors shall board cannot not be altered or reversed, unless a majority of such township ing case. board or boards, not members of said board or boards of school see App. A., inspectors, shall so determine. CHAPTER X. of township act in determin ¶¶ 14, 15. GRADED SCHOOL DISTRICTS. as such. of meeting. ($107.) SECTION 1. Any school district containing more than See App. A., one hundred children between the ages of five and twenty years what districts ག། 135, 143. may, by a two-thirds vote of the qualified electors present at any may organize annual or special meeting, organize as a graded school district: Provided, That the intention to take such vote shall be expressed Proviso-notice in the notice of such annual or special meeting. When such change in the organization of the district shall have been voted, Election of the voters at such annual or special meeting shall proceed immediately to elect by ballot from the qualified voters of the district one trustee for the term of one year, two for the term of Term of office. two years, and two for a term of three years, and annually thereafter a successor or successors to the trustee or trustees ($107.) Elections held in graded school districts wherein two trustees were balloted for at the same time, on joint ballot, are void, and no person has been legally elected. It has frequently been held that, if a ballot contains the names of two persons for the same office, when but one is to be chosen, it is bad as to both. The election of two trustees on two separate ballots, would be good as to the first one chosen, and void as to the second. As it is the policy of the law to uphold elections where the choice of the people can be ascertained, the one first elected having received the necessary vote is the choice of the electors, and such action of the district is valid as to him. As the amendment of 1883 does not repeal section 1, act X, only so far as it is in conflict therewith, and as both statutes provide that trustees shall hold over until their successors shall be elected and qualified, the old board remain in office until a valid election is had. The law makes no provision for a special election for trustees of graded schools, hence where the regular election was void there can be no special election to fill the office. No election can be held without a law providing therefor, hence the law that both trustees hold over is in full force wherever there was a failure to elect, as provided by statute. Section 2, chapter 3, of the school law applies only to officers of district schools, and not to trustees of graded schools, and only permits a special election where two vacancies exist. The trustees have no power under section 2, chapter X, to appoint a trustee where there has been a failure to elect, but can only fill vacancies, as in case of death, resignation or removal.- Van Riper, Atty. Gen., July 26, 1883. trustees. Proviso. whose term of office shall expire: Provided also, In all districts organized prior to the year eighteen hundred and eighty-three there shall be one trustee elected at the annual meeting for the year eighteen hundred and eighty-three, and thereafter there shall be elected a trustee or trustees in the manner aforesaid, whose term of office shall be three years, and until his or their successor or successors shall have been elected and filed his or their Majority vote acceptance: Provided also, That in the election of trustees, and all other school officers, the person receiving a majority of all the votes shall be declared elected." necessary to elect. Acceptance of office to be filed. See App. B., form 5. Officers to be elected by trustees. ($108.) SEC. 2. Within ten days after their election such trustees shall file with the director acceptances of the offices to which they have been elected, and shall annually elect from their own number a moderator, a director, and assessor, and for cause may remove the same, and may appoint others of their own number in their places, who shall perform the duties prescribed by law for such officers in other school districts in this State, except as herinafter provided. The trustees shall have power to fill any vacancy that may occur in their number till the next annual When inspect meeting. Whenever, in any case, the trustees shall fail, through disagreement or neglect, to elect the officers named in this section, within twenty days next after the annual meeting, the school inspectors of the township or city to which such district makes its annual report snall appoint the said officers from the number of said trustees. Vacancy in board, how filled. ors shall appoint officers. See App. B., form 15. Duty of trustees. To classify pupils. To establish high schools, etc. See App. A., ¶ 142, 143. To audit and pay director's accounts. To employ teachers. See § 40. See App. B., form 26. ($109.) SEC. 3. It shall be the duty of the board of trustees of any graded school district: First, To classify and grade the pupils attending school in such district, and cause them to be taught in such schools or departments as they may deem expedient; Second, To establish in such district a high school when ordered by a vote of the district at an annual meeting, and to determine the qualifications for admission to such school, and the fees to be paid for tuition in any branches taught therein; Third, To audit and order the payment of all accounts of the director for incidental or other expenses incurred by him in the discharge of his duties; but no more than fifty dollars shall be expended by the director in any one year for repairs of the buildings or appurtenances of the district property without the authority of the board of trustees; Fourth, To employ all qualified teachers necessary for the several schools, and to determine the amount of their compensation, and to require the director and moderator to make contracts with As amended by Act No. 28, Session Laws 1883, and Act No. 18, Session Laws 1885. ($ 109, paragraph four.) The question is as to whether the board of trustees of a graded school can employ a music teacher who has not passed the regular examination required of other teachers and received a certificate required by section 5153 of Howell's Statutes (Sec. 4, Chap. 11, School Laws)? It would be most difficult to imagine that an examination in the several branches and studies specified in the statutes would show sufficiently the qualifications of the applicants to teach either music or drawing. I do not think the statute applicable to such teachers nor does there appear to be any which is. The board probably has and will be held by the courts to possess such authority, still it is not a question free from doubt and additional legislation may be desirable.-Taggart, Attorney General, July 26, 1886. T 79-86. the same on behalf of the district, in accordance with the pro- See App. A., visions of law concerning contracts with teachers; officers, etc. Fifth, To employ such officers and servants as may be neces- To employ sary for the management of the schools and school property, and prescribe their duties and fix their compensation; Sixth, To perform such other duties as are required of district other duties. boards in other school districts. See Chap. III. tees necessary boundaries of not restricted in size. districts can district. (§110.) SEC. 4. No alteration shall be made in the boundaries Consent of trusof any graded school district, without the consent of a majority to change in of the trustees of said district, which consent shall be spread upon the records of the district, and placed on file in the office of the clerk of the board of school inspectors of the township or city to which the reports of said district are made; and graded school Such districts districts shall not be restricted to nine sections of land. (§111.) SEC. 5. Whenever two or more contiguous districts hav- Two or more ing together more than one hundred children betwen the ages of unite and form five and twenty years, after having published in the notices of the graded school annual meetings of each district the intention to take such action, shall severally, by a vote of two-thirds of the qualified voters attending the annual meeetings in said districts, determine to unite for the purpose of establishing a graded school district under the provisions of this chapter, the school inspectors of the township or townships in which such districts may be situated shall, on being properly notified of such vote, proceed to unite such districts, and shall appoint, as soon as practicable, a time and place for a meeting of the new district, and shall require Notice of three notices of the same to be posted in each of the districts so united at least five days before the time of such meeting, and at such meeting the district shall elect a board of trustees, as provided in section one of this chapter, and may do whatever business may be done at any annual meeting.' CHAPTER XI. LIBRARIES. meeting. libraries to be ($112.) SECTION 1. A township library shall be maintained in Township each organized township, which shall be the property of the maintained. township, and shall not be subject to sale or alienation from any cause whatever. All actions relating to such library, or for the recovery of any penalties lawfully established in relation thereto, shall be brought in the name of the township. to privileges of ($113.) SEC. 2. All persons who are residents of the township who are entitled shall be entitled to the privileges of the township library, subject library. to such rules and regulations as may be lawfully established in relation thereto: Provided, That persons residing within the Proviso. boundaries of any school district in which a district library has been established shall be entitled to the privileges of such district library only. New section added by Act No. 53, Session Laws of 1883. Inspectors to have charge. See App B., See App. A., Inspectors accountable for care, etc., of library. Powers of inspectors. See App. C. Where library to be kept. Librarian. What districts may establish libraries. District board to have charge of district library. Inspectors to report library statistics to tendent. (§114.) SEC. 3. The township board of school inspectors shall have charge of the township library, and shall apply for and receive from the township treasurer all moneys appropriated for the township library of their township, and shall purchase the books and procure the necessary appendages for such library. (§115.) SEC. 4. Said board shall be held accountable for the proper care and preservation of the township library, and shall have power to provide for the safe keeping of the same, to prescribe the time for taking and returning books, to assess and collect fines and penalties for the loss or injury of said books, and to establish all other needful rules and regulations for the management of the library, as said board shall deem proper, or the superintendent of public instruction may advise. (§116.) SEC. 5. The board of school inspectors shall cause the township library to be kept at some central or eligible place in the township, which it shall determine; such board shall also, within ten days after the annual township meeting, appoint a librarian for the term of one year, to have the care and superintendence of said library, who shall be responsible to the board of school inspectors for the impartial enforcement of all rules and regulations lawfully established in relation to said library. (§117.) SEC. 6. Any school district having a school census of not less than one hundred children, by a two-thirds vote at any annual meeting, may establish a district library, and such district shall be entitled to its just proportion of books from the library of any township in which it is wholly or partly situated, to be added to the district library, and also to its equitable share of any library moneys remaining unexpended in any such township or townships at the time of the establishment of such district library, or that shall thereafter-be raised by tax in such township or townships, or that shall thereafter be apportioned to the township to the inspectors of which the annual report of its director is made. ($118.) SEC. 7. The district board of any school district in which a district library may be established in accordance with the provisions of this act shall have charge of such library; and the duties and responsibilities of said district board in relation to the district library, and all moneys raised or apportioned for its support, shall be the same as those of the board of school inspectors are to the township library. (8119.) SEC. 8. The school inspectors shall give in their annual report to the superintendent of public instruction, such facts State superin- and statistics relative to the management of the township library and the library moneys, as the superintendent of public instruction shall direct; and the district board of any school district having a library, shall cause to be given in the annual report of the director to the board of school inspectors, like facts and statistics relative to the district library, which items shall also be included by the said inspectors in their annual report. As amended by Act No. 114, Session Laws of 1883. ure of moneys (§120.) SEC. 9. In case the board of school inspectors of any Failure to township, or the district board of any school district, shall fail use of moneys to make the report required by the preceding section, or in case to cause forfeit it shall appear from the reports so made that any township or thereafter. school district has failed to use the library money in strict accordance with the provisions of law, such township or district shall forfeit its share of the library moneys that are apportioned, and the same shall be apportioned to the several other townships and districts in the county as hereinafter provided: Provided, Proviso. that in townships where the boards thereof shall determine and report to the superintendent that the public will be better served by using the said money for general school purposes, no such forfeiture shall occur. tendent to pro clerk with (§121.) SEC. 10. The superintendent of public instruction shall State superinannually and previous to the tenth day of May, transmit to the vide county clerk of each county a statement of the townships in his county statement. that are entitled to receive library moneys, giving the number of children in each of such townships between the ages of five and twenty years, as shall appear from the reports of the boards of school inspectors for the school year last ending; said clerk shall Statement to be file such statement in his office, and shall forthwith furnish a given to county copy thereof to the county treasurer. filed and copy treasurer. of proceeds of ་ 146. ($122.) SEC. 11. The clear proceeds of all fines for any breach Apportionment of the penal laws of this State and for penalties, or upon any penal fines. recognizances in criminal proceedings, and all equivalents for exemptions [exemption] from military duty when collected in See App. A., any county and paid into the county treasury, together with all moneys heretofore collected and paid into said treasury on account of such fines or equivalents, and not already appropriated [apportioned], shall be apportioned by the county treasurer How applied, before the first day of June in each year, among the several townships in the county, according to the number of children therein, between the ages of five and twenty years, as shown by the statement of the superintendent of public instruction provided for in the preceding section, which money shall be exclusively applied to the support of the township and district libraries, and to no other purpose: Provided, That from and Proviso. after January first, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-two, such money may be used for general school purposes in any township wherein the township board thereof shall so determine. (§123.) SEC. 12. The qualified voters of each township shall Voters may levy have power, at any annual township meeting, to vote a tax for of libraries. the support of libraries established in accordance with the provisions of this act, and the qualified voters of any school district, in which a district library shall be established, shall have power, at any annual meeting of such district, to vote a district tax for ($121.) I am clearly of the opinion that the superintendent could make his report at any time before the first day of June, and that it would be the duty of the clerk to forward the same to the county treasurer, and that it would be his duty to make the apportionment, even if delayed beyond the time fixed by law. This, however, is with the superintendent, and it must be a very exceptional case that would justify him in a failure to comply with the clearly expressed provisions of law. tax for support |