pointment of a suitable person who is an elector, and if appointed for a ward or district, who is a resident of the ward or district for which he shall be ap pointed; and any officer appointed to fill a vacancy, if the office is elective, shall hold by virtue of such appointment, only until the first Monday of April next succeeding. If an elective officer whose office shall have become vacant, was one of a class, a successor for the unexpired term shall be elected at the next annual election."

By $ 32 every person so elected or appointed to the office of commissioner, shall, before he enters on the duties of his office, and within five days after being notified of such election or appointment, take the oath of office prescribed by the constitution of the State, before some officer authorized to take affidavits to be read in courts of justice, and file the same with the clerk of the city; and by § 34 his neglect to do so, or if required by the common council, to execute an official bond or undertaking, the neglect to execute and file the same in manner and within the time prescribed by the common council, shall be deemed a refusal to serve.

TITLE VI-SCHOOLS AND BOARD OF EDUCATION.

§ 161. The several wards of the city of Rochester shall constitute one school district, for all purposes except as herein otherwise provided, and the schools therein shall be free to all children between the ages of five and sixteen [twenty-one] residing in such wards.

§ 162. The titles of the school houses, sites, lots, furniture, books, appara tus and appurtenances, and all other school property in this act mentioned, shall, within three months from the passage of this act, be transferred and conveyed by the trustees of the several school districts in the said city, to the said city of Rochester.

§ 163. The several school districts now in the city of Rochester shall, within three months from the passage of this act, deliver over to and place in the care of the board of education hereinafter mentioned, all school district records, account books, vouchers, contracts, papers and other school property; and the said school officers of the said city and the several school districts thereof shall continue in office until the unfinished business of said districts shall have been finally closed up and settled, not exceeding three months after the passage of this act, with all the power and duties now by law imposed upon them for the purpose of closing such unfinished business.

§ 164. The common council of said city may, upon the recommendation of the board of education hereinafter mentioned, sell any of the school houses, lots or sites, or any other school property now or hereafter belonging to said eity, upon such terms as the said common council may deem reasonable. The proceeds of all such sales shall be paid to the city treasurer of the city, and shall be by the said common council again expended in the purchase, repairs or improvements of other school houses, lots, sites or school furniture, apparatus or appurtenances.

§ 165. The commissioners of common schools in said city shall constitute a board to be styled the "Board of Education of the city of Rochester," which shall be a corporate body in relation to all the powers and duties conferred upon them by virtue of this act; they shall meet on the first Monday of each and every month, and as much oftener as they shall from time to time appoint; a majority of the said board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. The said board shall appoint one of their number president, who shall, when present, preside at all the meetings of said board, and shall have power to call special meetings of the board, in the manner described by this act for the calling of special meetings of the common council. In the absence of the president, the board shall appoint some other member to preside at such meetings and perform the duties of the president. No member of said board of education shall, during the period for which he was elected, be appointed to, or be competent to hold any office of which the emoluments are paid from the city treasury, or paid by fees directed to be paid by any act or

ordinance of the board of education, cr be directly or indirectly interested in any contract, as principal, surety, or otherwise, the expenses or consideration whereof are to be paid under any ordinance of the board of education.

§ 166. The said commissioners shall annually appoint a city superintendent of common schools, who shall hold his office during the pleasure of the board, and whose compensation shall be fixed by the said board; the said superintendent shall officiate as clerk of the board, and shall keep a record of the proceedings of the board, and perform such other duties as the board may prescribe. The said record or a transcript thereof, certified by the president and clerk, shall be received in all courts as prima facie evidence of facts therein set forth; and such records and all the books, accounts, vouchers and papers of said board shall at all times be subject to the inspection of the common council and of any committee thereof.

§ 167. The common council of said city shall have the power, and it shall be their duty to raise from time to time, by tax to be levied equally upon all the real and personal estate in said city which shall be liable to taxation for the ordinary city taxes or for city or county charges, such sum or sums of money as may be necessary or proper for any or all the following purposes: 1. To purchase, lease or improve sites for school houses.

2. To build, purchase, lease, enlarge, improve, alter and repair school houses and their out-houses and appurtenances.

3. To purchase, improve, exchange and repair school apparatus, books, furniture and appendages,

4. To procure fuel and defray the contingent expenses of the common schools.

5. To pay the wages of teachers due after the application of the public moneys which may by law be appropriated and provided for that purpose: provided, nevertheless, that the tax to be levied as aforesaid and collected by virtue of this act, shall be collected at the same time and in the same manner as other city taxes.

6. And the amount to be raised for teachers' wages and contingent expenses, in any one year, shall not be less than four nor more than five times the amount appropriated to said city from the common school fund of the State during the previous year. Nor shall the amount to be raised in any one year, to lease, alter, improve and repair school houses and their out-houses and appurtenances, exceed three thousand dollars. Nor shall the amount to be raised in any one year to purchase and improve sites, and build or enlarge school houses, exceed three thousand five hundred dollars each; and the common council of said city are authorized and directed, when necessary, to raise by loan, in anticipation of the taxes, the moneys so to be raised, collected and levied as aforesaid.

§ 168. All moneys to be raised pursuant to the provisions of this act, and all school moneys by law appropriated to, or provided for said city, shall be paid to the city treasurer thereof, who, together with their sureties upon his official bond, shall be accountable therefor in the same manner as for other moneys of said city. The said city treasurer shall be liable to the same penalties for any official misconduct in relation to the said moneys, as for any similar misconduct in relation to other moneys of said city.

§ 169. The said board" shall have power, and it shall be their duty, 1. To establish and organize in the several wards of said city such and so many schools (including the common schools now existing therein) as they shall deem requisite and expedient, and to alter and discontinue the same. 2. To hire school houses and rooms and improve them as they may deem

proper.

3. To alter, enlarge, and improve and repair school houses and appurtenances as they may deem advisable.

4. To purchase, exchange, improve and repair school apparatus, furniture and appendages, and to defray their contingent expenses.

5. To have the custody and safe keeping of the school houses, out-houses, fences, books, furniture and appendages, and to see that the ordinances of the common counncil in relation thereto be observed.

6. To contract with, license and employ all teachers in said schools and at their pleasure to remove them.

7. To pay the wages of such teachers out of the moneys appropriated and provided by law for the support of schools in said city, so far as the same shall be sufficient, and the residue thereof from the money authorised to be raised for that purpose by section 167 of this act, by tax upon said city.

8. To defray the necessary contingent expenses of the board including an annual salary to the superintendent.

9. To have in all respects the superintendence, supervision and management of the common schools in said city, and from time to time to adopt, alter, modify and repeal, as they may leem expedient, rules and regulations for their organization, government, visitation and instruction, för the reception of pupils and their transfer from one school to another, and generally for the promotion of their good order, prosperity, and public utility.

10. Whenever, in the opinion of the board it may be advisable to sell any of the school houses, lots, or sites, or any of the school property now or here, after belonging to the city, to report the same to the common council.

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11. To prepare and report to the common council such ordinances and regulations as may be necessary or proper for the protection, safe keeping, care and preservation of school houses, lots, and sites and appurtenances, and all the property belonging to the city connected with, or appertaining to the schools, and to suggest proper penalties for the violation of such ordinances and regulations; and annually on or before the first day of September on each year to determine and certify to said common council, the sumns in their opinion necessary or proper to be raised under the 167th section of this act, specifying the sums required (for the year commencing on the first Monday of Âpril thereafter) for each of the purposes therein mentioned and the reasons therefor.

12. Between the first day of January and the fifteenth day of January in each year, to make and transmit to the county clerk or such other officer as may be designated by law, a report in writing, bearing date the first day of January in the year of its transmission, and stating:

1. The number of school houses in said city, and an account and description of all of the common schools kept in said city during the preceding year, and the time they have severally been taught.

2. The number of children taught in said schools respectively, and the number of children over the age of five [four] years, and under the age of sixteen [21] years residing in said city on the last day of December previous. 3. The whole amount of school moneys received by the city treasurer of said city during the year preceding, distinguishing the amount received from the county treasurer from the city tax, and from any other source.

4. The manner in which such moneys had been expended, and whether any and what part remains unexpended and for what cause.

5. The amount of money received for tuition fees from foreign pupils during the year, and the amount paid for teachers' wages in addition to the public moneys, with such other information relating to the common schools of said city, as may from time to time be required by the state superintendent of common schools.

§ 170. The said board of education shall have power to allow the children of persons not resident within the city to attend any of the schools of said city under the care and control of said board, upon such terms as said board shall by resolution prescribe, fixing the tuition which shall be paid therefor.

§ 171. It shall be the duty of said board in all-their expenditures and contracts to have reference to the amount of moneys which shall be subject to their order during the then current year, for the particular expenditure in question, and not to exceed that amount, and they shall apply the moneys levied, raised and received by them for the support of common schools in said city, in

such a manner as shall secure equal educational advantages to all the children of said city over five andunder sixteen [21] years of age, by continuing the schools in each district an equal period as near as may be.

§ 172. The said board of commissioners shall be trustees of the school library or libraries in said city, and all the provisions of the law which now are or hereafter may be passed relative to district school libraries shall apply to the said commissioners. They shall also be vested with the same discretion as to the disposition of the moneys appropriated by any laws of this State for the purchase of libraries which is therein conferred upon the inhabitants of school districts. It shall be their duty to provide for the safe keeping of the libraries. The city superintendent shall be the general librarian. The bourd shall also appoint a librarian for each school, to have the care of the books and to superintend the letting out and return thereof. The several school librarians shall from time to time inform the general librarian of the state and condition of their libraries, and the said board or the general librarian under the direction or by resolution of the said board, may make all purchases of books for the libraries, and provide for their equitable distribution among the schools, and exchange or cause to be repaired, the damaged books belonging thereto, and also to sell any books which may be deemed useless, and apply the proceeds to the purchase of other books for said libraries.

§ 173. It shall be the duty of the said board, at least twenty days before the annual election for commissioners in each year, to prepare and report to the common council true and correct statements of the receipts and disbursements of money under and in pursuance of the provisions of this act, during the preceding year, in which account shall be stated under appro priate heads,

1. The moneys raised by the common council under the 167th section of this act:

2. The school moneys received by the city treasurer of the city:

3. The moneys received by the common council under the 167th section of this act:

4. All other moneys received by the city treasurer subject to the order of the board specifying the same and sources:

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5. The manner in which such sums of money shall have been expended, specifying the amount paid under each head of expenditure. And the common council shall, ten days before such election, cause the same to be published in at least two of the newspapers published in said city.

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§ 174. The common council of the said city shall have the power to pass such ordinances and regulations as the said board of education may report as necessary and proper for the protection, safe keeping, care and preservas tion of the school houses, lots, sites, appurtenances and appendages, libraries, and all necessary property belonging to or connected with the schools in said city, and to impose proper penalties for the violation thereof, subject to the restrictions and limitations contained in this act; and all such penalties shall be collected in the same manner that the penalties for the violation of the city ordinances are by law collected, and when collected shall be paid to the city treasurer of the city, and be subject to the order of the board of education in the same manner as other moneys raised pursuant to this act.

$ 175. It shall be the duty of the common council, within fifteen days after receiving the certificate of the commissioners required by the 169th section of this act, of the sums necessary or proper to be raised under the 167th section of this act, to determine and certify to said board of education the amount that will be raised by them for the year commencing on the first Monday of April thereafter, for the purposes mentioned in said 167th section, distinguishing between the amount to be raised for teachers' wages and contingent expenses, and the amount to be raised for the repair of school houses, which amounts shall be subject to the disposal of the board of education.

§ 176. All the moneys required, to be raised by virtue of this act or received by the said city for or on account of the common schools, shall be des

posited for the safe keeping thereof with the city treasurer of said city to the credit of said board of education, and shall be drawn out in pursuance of a resolution or resolutions of said board by drafts drawn by the president and countersigned by the clerk of said board, payable to the order of the person or persons entitled to receive such moneys, and said city treasurer shall keep the funds authorized by this title to be received by him separate and distinct from any other fund which he is or may by law be authorized to receive.

§ 177. The real and personal estate in each of the school districts, numbers fourteen and sixteen, as at present existing shall be assessed toward defraying the expense of building a school house in each of said districts respectively as follows: Number fourteen, a sum not exceeding two thousand dollars, and number sixteen a sum not exceeding one thousand dollars, and the balance, which may be found necessary to complete the school houses in said districts fourteen and sixteen, respectively, shall be paid out of moneys authorized to be raised by section 167 of this act, to build and enlarge school houses.

§ 178. The said board of education shall have power to establish and cause to be kept, such number of schools in said city for the instruction of colored children, as they shall deem expedient.

§ 179. The said board of education shall possess all the power and be subject to all the duties and responsibilities of trustees of common schools in the towns, in respect to the school mentioned in the last preceding section, se far as the same are applicable; and shall pay the compensation of the teachers of the said schools, and all the other expenses thereof, out of the moneys raised by tax under this act, for the support of common schools; and until such schools for the instruction of colored children shall be so provided, it shall not be lawful to impose any tax upon the property of any colored person in said city, for the support of common schools.

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§ 180. Whenever the said board of education shall determine to establish any schools for the instruction of colored children, they shall divide the said city into convenient districts for the accommodation of such children, and enter the boundaries thereof on their records; they shall make an estimate of the expense of erecting a suitable school house in each of said districts, and determine the sites thereof respectively, and report all their doings under this section, to the common council.

§ 181. The common council shall have power to raise by general tax, in the manner hereinbefore provided, and on a separate warrant, such sum as shall be necessary to build a school house in each of the said districts, or in as many of them as they may deem expedient, not exceeding in the aggregate the sum of five thousand dollars, or the said common council may refuse to raise such tax.

§ 182. In case the common council shall refuse to raise such tax, the said board of education shall have power to provide, and lease suitable rooms or buildings for the accommodation of such schools, or either of them; but the annual expenditure for this purpose shall not exceed the sum of five hundred dollars.

§ 183. It shall be the duty of the trustees of the Rochester Collegiate In"stitute to make the reports and returns which by law they are required to make, as trustees of a school district, to the said board of education.

SALEM.

[Laws of 1851. Chap. 206.]

§ 88. The board of trustees [of the village of Salem] aforesaid, shall, within twenty days after the passage of this act, appoint six commissioners of schools. The persons so appointed, shall, within five days after their appointment, take the oath of office prescribed by the constitution of this state for state officers, and file the same with the clerk.

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