endorsed on they shall be marked as approved by the Board, and shall CHAP. 32. be signed by both the Chairman and the Inspector; Approval or disand it from any just cause, as specified in this Chapter, the aproval to be Commissioners shall withhold their approval, they shall return. write upon the return their decision, with the grounds. thereof; and each Board, upon the recommendation of the Inspector, shall have power to authorize the payment of the provincial grant to any licensed teacher who may have Money, how taught in more than one poor or scattered section for at granted to itinleast three months. All school returns shall be transmitted to the Superintendent of Education. 12. erant teachers. distribution. Each Board of Commissioners shall forward with Certificates of the semi-annual returns, and Inspector's accounts, a certificate signed on behalf of the Board by the Chairman, and also by the Inspector, stating that, to the best of their knowledge, the accompanying distributions of provincial and county moneys have been made in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter. missioners. 13. Each Board of Cominissioners shall have power:- Powers of com(1.) To make such alterations in the existing bounda- To alter sections. ries of school sections, at any regular semi-annual meeting, as may from time to time be necessary, the Inspector having been consulted as to the propriety of any alterations, and to fix the time when such alterations shall take effect, whether at once, in six months, or in a year; and the Mode of. Commissioners shall in all cases have due regard to the number of children, and to the ability of each section to support an efficient school; but they shall not divide towns Limitation. and villages unless by the special direction of the Council of Public Instruction. houses unfit. 2.) To declare upon the Inspector's report, or upon To declare schocl other reliable information, the school-house, or the houses or buildings used as such, unfit for school purposes. Such declaration shall be forwarded to the trustees of the section, and the Board shall thereafter withhold all provincial Penalty on seeaid from any such section, if measures are not adopted whereby a suitable house or houses may be provided according to the ability of the section. tions for neglect. vincial grant in (3.) To withhold the provincial grant from any section To withhold propresenting a false return, and also to withhold the grant in certain cases. part or altogether from any teacher who may be found negligent of duty, immoral, or who may otherwise fail to sustain the standing indicated by his or her license; and the Board shall immediately report any such case, with a statement of the facts, to the Superintendent. (4.) To settle any dispute arising between the trustees and teacher respecting the teacher's salary or duty. To settle dis putes between trustees and teachers. pend teacher's (5.) To cancel the license of any teacher under their To cancel or sus charge, who may become guilty of drunkenness or any license. CHAP. 32. gross immorality, and to suspend at their discretion the license of any teacher under their charge, for negligence of duty or incapacity, and to notify the teacher of the same, and the trustees by whom such teacher may be And to report to employed; and the Board shall immediately acquaint the superintendent. Superintendent of any such case, and of the name, sex, and class of the teacher whose license shall have been cancelled or suspended. To appoint trustees in certain cases. Commissioners may hold real (6.) To appoint trustees, or a trustee for any section, in cases as hereinafter provided. 14. Any person may convey or devise real estate to estate in trust. the Commissioners for any district, and duly vest in the Commissioners and their successors in office the legal title thereto, in trust, for the purpose of erecting and keeping in repair a school-house or houses thereon; and the Commissioners may sue and be sued in respect thereof, but shall have no control over any school-house or houses or such lands as against the trustees of the school section, or the inhabitants, other than may be expressed by the conveyance or devise. Cases when com withhold county money. 15. The Commissioners shall withhold the money promissioners may vided by county assessment, from any trustees presenting a false return, and shall also withhold their approval of any school returns forwarded by them to the Superintendent if it shall appear that the teacher has been immoral, incompetent, or neglectful of duty, endorsing thereon explicitly their reasons for recommending the non-payment either of all or a portion of the provincial grant to such teacher. Three commis- Special aid for poor sections. Boards of com unite two or more sections into one. 16. Each Board of Commissioners shall have power to appoint a committee of not less than three of their number, to perform the duties imposed on them by sections 20 and 60 of this Chapter; and such committee when so appointed, are hereby authorized to perform such duties. 17. Each Board of Commissioners shall, in May of each year, determine what sections under its supervision are entitled to special aid as poor sections during the following school-year; and the Commissioners shall allow to the trustees of schools kept in any such section one-third more from the county fund than the allowance to other sections, and teachers employed in such poor sections shall also receive one-third more from the provincial grant. 18. The several Boards of Commissioners shall have missioners may power at the semi-annual meeting in May of each year, by vote of at least two-thirds present thereat, to unite two or more school sections into one school section, on a petition addressed to the Board of Commissioners by a majority of the rate-payers of each section, setting forth that they have agreed among themselves as to the terms on which the existing liabilities shall be borne by the rate-payers of the several sections. 19. The union shall take effect on the day fixed by law CHAP. 32. for the next annual school meeting, notice of which meet- Union, when to ing shall be issued by a County Inspector; and such meet. take effect. ing shall elect a board of three trustees for the new section. to appoint tain cases. 20. Where any section, at the time fixed for the annual Commissioners meeting, fails to elect three trustees, or to fill the annual trustees in oervacancy occurring in the trusteeship, or vacancies from other causes, the trustee or trustees shall be appointed, upou the written requisition of seven rate-payers in the section, by the Commissioners of Schools for the district in which the school-house is situate, or in which a majority of the rate-payers of the section reside; and where any trustee or trustees have been elected, and refuse to act, or shall neglect the performance of duty for twenty days after such election, the Board of Commissioners shall appoint trustees, or a trustee, in place of the persons or person so refusing to act; and in case any person, appointed by the Board of Commissioners as a trustee, shall refuse or neglect to act as aforesaid, the Board of Commissioners shall make such further appointments as may be necessary to fill any such vacancy; and any board of trustees, thus secured, shall, as soon as practicable, convene a meeting of the rate-payers of the section as provided for the annual meeting, and such meeting shall transact all business, except the election of trustees, required of the annual meeting, and in the same manner. missioners as to districts. 21. Each Board of Commissioners shall have power to Powers of comexempt from the sectional school rate, either altogether or islands and in part, persons dwelling more than three miles from the sparsely peopled school-house in the section where they reside, or in places too sparsely peopled to maintain public schools, or on islands too distant from the mainland to permit children to attend school; and each such Board shall also have power to make such arrangements as they may deem necessary to establish schools on such islands, and in such sparsely peopled places, for at least four months in the year. TRUSTEES, for each section. 22. Each school section shall have a Board of three Three trustees Trustees; and no section shall have more than one Board. 23. At the first annual meeting of any section, under Mode of appointthis Chapter, the majority of the qualified voters present shall ing trustees. elect from their own number three Trustees; and at the second and third annual meetings one of the Trustees elected at the first meeting shall go out of office by ballot, and at each annual meeting thereafter he who has served the longest shall retire from office, and each of the vacancies CHAP. 32. shall be filled by the election of a new Trustee; provided always, that he whose term of office has expired may be reelected, with his own consent, his time of service to date from such re-election; but it shall always be competent for existing Trustees to complete the business of the closing school year. Trustees, how disqualified to act, &c. Penalty for not acting as trustee. Trustees may separate grants. 24. Any person holding the office of Trustee of Schools in any section, who shall become insolvent or assign his property for the benefit of his creditors, or become permanently unfitted for business, or shall cease to reside in the section, shall thereupon cease to hold such office of Trustee; and the other Trustees shall call a meeting for the election of a new Trustee in his stead, as provided in the case of extraordinary vacancies. 25. Any person elected or appointed a Trustec, not being a Commissioner of Schools, and refusing to act, or any Trustee who, having accepted office, shall not perform the duties thereof, shall, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of twenty dollars, to be collected by any rate-payer in the section; such sum to be payable to the Inspector, or his order, and applied by the Board of School Commis sioners of the county or district as special aid to the erection of school houses. 26. It shall be lawful for the Trustees of any section, trustees of insti- Wherein are located academic institutions other than tutions receiving county academies, to co-operate with an equal number of persons, chosen by the governing bodies of such institutious, in order that the section may secure the educational advantages supplied by such institutions; such combined Board of Trustees to manage the school or schools, as the case may be, in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter. May admit to school pupils from other sections. Trustees to be body corporate. Trustees to insure. 27. The Trustees of any section may, in their discretion, a dmit to school privileges pupils from other sections; and if the Trustees shall deem it necessary, they may exact from such pupils a reasonable tuition fee. 28. The Trustees of any section shall be a body corporate for the prosecution and defence of all actions relating to the school or its affairs, and other necessary purposes, under the title of "Trustees of School Section No. in the district [or districts] of -;" and they shall have power, when authorized by the school meeting, to borrow money for the purchase or improvement of grounds for school purposes, or for the purchase or building of school-houses; and all such amounts shall be paid by equal yearly instalments, not exceeding five, to be assessed upon the section; and the money so borrowed shall be a charge upon the school section. 29. The Trustees in the several counties are authorized to effect insurances on school-houses. 30. The duties of the Trustees shall be as follows: - CHAP. 32. organize. (1.) To meet as soon after the annual election or ap: Duties of trus pointment of Trustees, or a Trustee, as practicable, and tees. appoint one of themselves, or some other person, to be To meet and Secretary to the Board of Trustees, and to provide him with a suitable blank-book, and instruct him to keep therein and carefully preserve a correct record of all the doings of the Board. (2) To take possession of, and hold as a corporation, To hold school all the school property of the section, or which may be property. purchased for, or given to it for the use or support of common or academic schools; provided always, that they shall not interfere with any private rights or the rights of any religious denomination. lands. (3.) To lease or rent lands or buildings, if necessary, To lease or rent for school purposes, for a period of not less than five months, or, if the section be poor, not less than three months. school houses. (4.) To determine the sites of school houses, subject to To fix sites of the sanction of the three nearest commissioners, residing out of the section; and, in case the three nearest commis- Proviso. sioners do not agree as to the site of a school house, the matter shall be referred to the Board of Commissioners for the district or county in which the school is situate, and their decision shall be final. In cases of border sections where the three nearest commissioners do not agree, it shall be referred to the Inspector of the county in which a majority of the rate-payers of such border section reside, subject to an appeal to the Superintendent of Education, whose decision shall be final. school accommo (5.) To provide school privileges, free of charge, for To provide all persons resident in the section, five years of age and dat on as folupwards, who may wish to attend school, and, when author. lows: ized by the school meeting, improved school accominoda. tions; such accommodations to be provided, as far as possible, in accordance with the following arrangements: (a.) For any section having fifty pupils or under, a house with comfortable sittings for the same, with one teacher. (b.) For any section having from fifty to eighty pupils, a house with comfortable sittings for the same, and a good class-room, with one teacher and an assistant. (c) For any section having from eighty to one hundred pupils, a house with comfortable sittings for the same, and two good class-rooms, with one teacher and two assistants; or, a house having two apartments, an elementary and preparatory, with two teachers: or, if one commodious building cannot be secured, two houses may be provided in different parts of the section, with a teacher in each; |