1. A statement of the condition of the common schools of the state, and of all other schools and institutions under his supervision, and subject to his visitation as superintendent. 2. Estimates and accounts of expenditures of the school moneys, and a statement of the apportionment of school moneys made by him. 3. All such matters relating to his office, and all such plans and suggestions for the improvement of the schools and the advancement of public instruction in the state as he shall deem expedient. to teachers. $ 15. He may on the recommendation of any school com-Certificates missioner, or on other evidence satisfactory to him, grant, under his hand and seal of office, a certificate of qualification, and may, upon the like recommendation or evidence, revoke the same. While unrevoked, such certificate shall be conconclusive evidence that the person to whom it was granted, is qualified, by his moral character, learning and ability, to teach any common school in the state. He may also issue Licenses to temporary licenses to teach, limited to any school commissioner district or school district, and for a period not exceeding six months, whenever, in his judgment, it may be necessary or expedient for him to do so. teach certificates. $16. Upon cause shown to his satisfaction, he may annul May annul any certificate of qualification granted to a teacher by a school commissioner, or declare any diploma issued by the state normal school ineffective and null as a qualification to teach a common school within this state, and he may reconsider and reverse his action in any such matter. Lists of per sons holding certificates and diplo S17. He shall prepare and keep in his office alphabetical lists of all persons who have received, or shall receive, certificates of qualification from himself, or diplomas of the state mas. normal school, with the dates thereof, and shall note thereon all annulments and reversals of such certificates and diplomas, with the date and causes thereof, together with such other particulars as he may deem expedient. dent may school off S 18. Whenever it shall be proven, to his satisfaction, that Superintenany school commissioner, or other school officer, has been remove guilty of any willful violation or neglect of duty under this cers. act, or any other act pertaining to common schools, or of willfully disobeying any decision, order or regulation of the superintendent, the superintendent may, by an order under his hand and seal, which order shall be recorded in his office remove such school commissioner or other school officer from his office. pare blanks $ 19. He shall prepare suitable registers, blanks, forms and Shall pro regulations for making all reports and conducting all necessary etc. business under this act, and shall cause the same, with such information and instructions as he shall deem conducive to the proper organization and government of the common schools, and the due execution of their duties by school officers, to be transmitted to the officers and persons intrusted with the execution of the same. TITLE II.' School commissioners. tricts. OF THE SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS, THEIR ELECTION, POWERS $1. The office of school commissioner is continued, and the present incumbents shall continue in office in their respective districts for the residue of the terms for which they were elected or appointed. School-dis- S2. The districts as organized under existing laws, and as recognized in the election of school commissioners at the annual election in eighteen hundred and sixty-three, shall continue to be held and regarded as the school commissioner districts in this state, except as the same shall be altered or modified by the legislature. Election of commisBioners. Term of office. Oath of office. Commis Bioner may resign. be filled. $ 3. The school commissioner for each school commissioner district shall be elected by the electors thereof, by separate ballot, at the general election, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, and triennially thereafter, and the ballots shall be indorsed "school commissioner." The laws regulating the election of and canvassing the votes for county officers shall apply to such elections. S 4. The term of office of such commissioner shall commence on the first day of January next after his election, and shall be for three years and until his successor qualifies. Every person elected to the office, or appointed to fill a vacancy, must take the oath of office prescribed by the constitution, before the county clerk, or a judge of a court of record, and file it with the county clerk, within ten days after the commencement of the term, or after notice of his appointment; and if he omit so to do, the office shall be deemed vacant. S5. A commissioner may, at any time, vacate his office, by filing his resignation with the county clerk. His removal from the county, or his acceptance of the office of supervisor, town-clerk or trustee of a school-district, shall vacate his office. Vacancy to $6. The county clerk, so soon as he has official or other notice of the existence of a vacancy in the office of commissioner, shall give notice thereof to the county judge, or, if that office be vacant, to the superintendent of public instruction. In case of a vacancy, the county judge, or, if there be no county judge, then the superintendent, shall appoint a commissioner for the unexpired portion of the year. Salary of school com S 7. Every commissioner shall receive an annual salary of missioner. five hundred dollars, payable quarterly, by the treasurer, on the warrant of the comptroller and the certificate of the superintendent of public instruction, out of the income of the United States deposit fund appropriated to this purpose, or to the support of common schools. school com. $7. Every commissioner shall receive an annual salary of Salary of five hundred dollars, payable quarterly, by the treasurer, on missioner. the warrant of the comptroller and the certificate of the superintendent of public instruction, out of the income of the United States deposit fund appropriated to this purpose, or to the support of common schools. may in salary. $8. Whenever a majority of the supervisors from all the towns Supervisors composing a school commissioner district shall adopt a resolu- crease the tion to increase the salary of their school commissioner, beyond the five hundred dollars payable to him from the United States deposit fund, it shall be the duty of the board of supervisors of the county to give effect to such resolution, and they shall assess the increase stated therein upon the towns composing such commissioner district ratably, according to the corrected valuations of the real and personal estate of such towns. sioner's dent may salary. sioner to another. § 9. The board of supervisors shall annually audit and allow Commis the necessary expenses of each commissioner within the county, expenses. to an amount not exceeding two hundred dollars, and assess and levy the amount by tax upon the towns composing his district. $10. Whenever the superintendent of public instruction is sat- Superintenisfied that a school commissioner has persistently neglected to withhold perform his duties, he may withhold his order for the payment of the whole or any part of such commissioner's salary as it shall become due, and the salary so withholden shall be forfeited; but the superintendent may remit the forfeiture, in whole or in part, upon the commissioner disproving or excusing such neglect. $11. A commissioner, upon the written request of the commiscommissioner of an adjoining district, may perform any of serve for his duties for him, and upon requirement of the state superintendent of public instruction, must perform the same. $12. No school commissioner shall act as agent for any Not to act author, publisher or book-seller, nor directly or indirectly author or receive any gift, emolument, reward or promise of reward, etc. for his influence in recommending or procuring the use of any book, or school apparatus, or furniture of any kind whatever, in any common school, or the purchase of any book for a district library. Any one who shall procure or solicit a violation of this provision, or any part thereof, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor; and any such violation shall subject the guilty commissioner to removal from his office by the superintendent of public instruction. as agent for publisher, $ 13. Every commissioner shall have power, and it shall be Duties of his duty: commissioner. the bounda tricts 1. From time to time to inquire and ascertain whether the To define boundaries of the school-districts within his district are defi- ries of disnitely and plainly described in the records of the proper town-clerks; and in case the record of the boundaries of any school-district shall be found defective or indefinite, then to cause the same to be amended, or an amended record of the boundaries to be made. examine schools. school To visit and 2. To visit and examine all the schools and school-districts within his district as often in each year as shall be practicable, to inquire into all matters relating to the management, the course of study and mode of instruction, and the text-books and discipline of such schools, and the condition of the schoolhouses, sites, out-buildings and appendages, and of the district Libraries, generally; to examine the district libraries; to advise with houses, etc. and counsel the trustees and other officers of the districts in relation to their duties, and particularly in respect to the construction, warming and ventilation of school-houses, and the improving and adorning of the school grounds connected therewith; and to recommend to the trustees and teachers the proper studies, discipline and management of the schools, and the course of instruction to be pursued. Btudies. To direct trustees to make repairs. To condemn unfit schoolhouses. To examine and license teachers. Re-examine To examine charges against teachers. 3. Upon such examination, to direct the trustees to make any alteration or repair which shall, in his opinion, be necessary to the health or comfort of the pupils; and to abate any nuisance in or upon the premises, provided the same can be done at an expense not exceeding twenty-five dollars. 4. In concurrence with the supervisor of the town in which a school-house is situated, by an order under their hands, reciting the reason or reasons, to condemn such school-house, if they deem it wholly unfit for use and not worth repairing, and to deliver the order to the trustees or one of them, and transmit a copy to the superintendent of public instruction. Such order, if no time for its taking effect be stated in it, shall take effect immediately; and from the time of its taking effect, the district whose house it was, shall not, in respect to it, or to teachers employed or pupils taught in it be entitled to share in any school or library moneys in this act mentioned. 5. To examine persons proposing to teach common schools within his district, and not possessing the superintendent's certificate of qualification or a diploma of the state normal school, and to inquire into their moral fitness and capacity, and, if he find them qualified, to grant them certificates of qualification, in the forms which are or may be prescribed by the superintendent. 6. To re-examine any teacher holding his or his predecessor's certificate, and, if he find him deficient in learning or ability, to annul the certificate. 7. To examine any charge affecting the moral character of any teacher within his district, first giving such teacher reasonable notice of the charge, and an opportunity to defend himself therefrom; and if he find the charge sustained, to annul the teacher's certificate, by whomsoever granted, and to declare him unfit to Annul cer- teach; and if the teacher held a certificate of the superintendent, or a diploma of the state normal school, to notify the superintendent forthwith of such annulment and declaration. 8. And generally, to use his utmost influence and most strenuous exertions, to promote sound education, elevate the tificates. Generally. 1 of instruction, and advance the interests of the schools under his supervision. sioners to vita. $ 14. Every school commissioner shall have power to take Commis affidavits and administer oaths in all matters pertaining to take affida common schools, but without charge or fee; and, under the direction of the superintendent of public instruction, to take and report to him the testimony in any case of appeal. the super annually, S 15. The commissioners shall be subject to such rules and Subject to regulations as the superintendent of public instruction shall, intendent of from time to time, prescribe; and appeals from their acts and struction. decisions may be made to him, as hereinafter provided. They shall, whenever thereto required by the superintendent, To report report to him, as to any particular matter or act, and shall etc. severally make to him, annually, up to the first day of October in each year, a report in such form, and containing all such particulars as he shall prescribe and call for; and for that purpose shall procure the reports of the trustees of the schooldistricts from the town-clerks' offices, and, after abstracting the necessary contents thereof, shall arrange and indorse them properly, and deposit them, with a copy of his own abstract thereof, in the office of the county clerk; and the clerk shall safely keep them. TITLE III. OF THE STATE AND OTHER SCHOOL MONEYS, THEIR APPOR- FIRST ARTICLE. Of the state school moneys and their apportionment by the superintendent of public instruction, and payment to the county and city treasurers. the support $1. There shall continue to be raised by tax, in the present State tax for and each succeeding year, upon the real and personal estate of schools. of each county within the state, three-fourths of a mill upon each and every dollar of the equalized valuation of such estate, for the support of common schools in the state; and the proceeds of such tax shall be apportioned and distributed as herein provided. board of su may not include the mill tax. $ 2. No clerk of any board of supervisors, or other person clerk of who shall make out the tax list or assessment roll of any pervisors town, shall omit to include and apportion among the moneys omit to to be raised thereby, the amount hereby required to be raised three-fourth for the support of schools, by reason of the omission of the board of supervisiors to pass a resolution for that purpose. $3. The moneys so raised shall be paid into the state treas- Shall be paid ury, and the treasurer may transfer them from one depository treasury. to another by his draft, countersigned and entered by the superintendent of public instruction. No such money shall be paid into State |