trict may, at any annual meeting, adopt a resolution prescribing some other mode of giving notice of special meetings, which resolution and the mode thereby prescribed, shall continue in force until rescinded or modified at some subsequent annual meeting. $ 7. The proceedings of no neighborhood or district meet- when proceedings ing, annual or special, shall be held illegal for want of a due ilegal. notice to all the persons qualified to vote thereat, unless it shall appear that the omission to give such notice was willful and fraudulent. meeting in hood. S8. The annual meeting of each neighborhood shall be Annual held on the second Tuesday of October in each year, at the neighborhour and place fixed by the last previous neighborhood meeting; or, if such hour and place has not been so fixed, then at the hour and place of such last meeting. district S9. An annual meeting of each school-district shall be held Annual on the second Tuesday of October in each year, and unless the meetings. hour and the place therefor shall have been fixed by the vote of a previous district meeting, the same shall be held in the school-house at seven o'clock in the evening. If a district possess more than one school-house, it shall be held in the one usually employed for that purpose, unless the trustees designate another. when annu not held. $10. Whenever the time for holding the annual meeting in Proeedings school-districts shall pass without such meeting being held at meeting in any district, a special meeting shall thereafter be called by the trustees or by the clerk of such district, for the purpose of transacting the business of the annual meeting; and if no such meeting be called by the trustees or the clerk within twenty days after such time shall have passed, the supervisor, or the superintendent of public instruction, may order any inhabitant of such district to give notice of such meeting in the manner provided in the second section of this title, and the officers of the district shall make to such meeting the reports required to be made at the annual meeting, subject to the same penalty in case of neglect; and the officers elected at such meeting shall hold their respective offices only until the next annual meeting and until their successors are elected and shall have qualified as in this act provided. to assemble. ffho $11. Whenever any district or neighborhood meeting shall Inhabitants be duly called, it shall be the duty of the inhabitants qualified to vote thereat to assemble at the time and place fixed for the meeting. their qualifi S 12. Every male person of full age residing in any neigh- Voters, borhood or school-district and entitled to hold lands in this cations. state, who owns or hires real property in such neighborhood or district subject to taxation for school purposes, and every resident of such neighborhood or district authorized to vote at town meetings of the town in which he resides, and who has paid any rate bill for teachers' wages in such district voters. within one year preceding, or who owns any personal property liable to be taxed for school purposes in any such district exceeding fifty dollars in value, exclusive of such as is exempt from execution, and no other, shall be entitled to vote at any school meeting held in such neighborhood or district. Challenged $ 13. If any person offering to vote at any neighborhood or school-district meeting shall be challenged as unqualified, by any legal voter in such neighborhood or district, the chairman presiding at such meeting shall require the person so offering to make the following declaration: "I do declare and affirm that I am an actual resident of this school-district (or separate neighborhood), and that I am qualified to vote at this meeting." And every person making such declaration shall be permitted to vote on all questions proposed at such meeting; but if any person shall refuse to make such declaration, his vote shall be rejected. Illegal voting, etc. Powers of neighbor ing. S 14. Any person who, upon being so challenged, shall willfully make a false declaration of his right to vote at any such meeting, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and punished by imprisonment in the county jail for not less than six months nor more than one year. And any person not qualified to vote at any such meeting who shall vote thereat, shall thereby forfeit five dollars, to be sued for by the supervisor for the benefit of the common schools of the town. S15. The inhabitants of any neighborhood entitled to vote, hood meet when assembled in any annual meeting or any other neighborhood meeting duly called by the commissioner, pursuant to the first or third sections of this title, shall have power, by a majority of the votes of those present: Powers of district meeting. Chairman. Clerk. Adjournment. Choose officers. Collector's bond. Sites for houses. 1. To appoint a chairman for the time being. 2. To choose a neighborhood clerk and one trustee, and to fill vacancies in office. S 16. The inhabitants so entitled to vote, when duly assembled in any district meeting, shall have power, by a majority of the votes of those present: 1. To appoint a chairman for the time being. 2. If the district clerk be absent, to appoint a clerk for the time. 3. To adjourn from time to time, as occasion may require. 4. To choose one or three trustees as hereinafter provided, a district clerk, a district collector, a librarian, at their first meeting, and so often as such offices or any of them become vacated, except as hereinafter provided. 5. To fix the amount in which the collector shall give bail for the due and faithful performance of the duties of his office. 6. To designate a site for a school-house, or, with the consent of the commissioner or commissioners within whose district or districts the school-district lies, to designate sites for two or more school-houses for the district. purchase 7. To vote a tax upon the taxable property of the district Tax for sites to purchase or lease such site or sites, and to hire, build or and repairs. purchase such school-houses, and to keep in repair and furnish the same with necessary fuel and appendages. paratus and 8. To vote a tax, not exceeding twenty-five dollars in any Tax for apone year, for the purchase of maps, globes, blackboards, and text-books. other school apparatus, and for the purchase of text-books and other school necessaries for the use of poor scholars of the district. Tax for dis 9. To vote a tax, not exceeding ten dollars in any one year, trict library. for the purchase of such books as they shall direct for the district library, and such further sum as they may deem necessary for the purchase of a book-case. ciency. 10. To vote a tax to supply a deficiency in any former tax, For defiarising from such tax being, in whole or in part, uncollectible. 11. To authorize the trustees to cause the school-house or Insurance. school-houses, and their furniture, appendages and school apparatus to be insured by any insurance company created by or under the laws of this state. 12. To alter, repeal and modify their proceedings from time to time, as occasion may require. 13. To vote a tax for the purchase of a book for the pur- Records. pose of recording their proceedings. lost money. 14. To vote a tax to replace moneys of the district, lost or To replace embezzled by district officers; and to pay the reasonable etc. expenses incurred by district officers in defending suits or appeals brought against them for their official acts, or in prosecuting suits or appeals by direction of the district against other parties. tingencies. 15. To vote a tax, not exceeding twenty-five dollars in each Tax for conyear, for anticipated deficiencies or contingencies, or to pay the wages of teachers in anticipation of the ordinary collections for that purpose, to be replaced by such collections when made. SECOND ARTICLE. Of district school-houses and sites. $ 17. No school-house shall be built so as to stand, in whole schoolor in part, upon the division line of any two towns. house, location of school S18. No tax voted by a district meeting for building, Tax for hiring or purchasing a school-house, exceeding the sum of house. eight hundred dollars, shall be levied by the trustees, unless the commissioner, in whose district the school-house of said district is situate, shall certify, in writing, his approval of such larger sum. stallments $ 19. Whenever a majority of all the inhabitants of any Tax by inschool-district entitled to vote, to be ascertained by taking and recording the ayes and noes of such inhabitants attend Site, when changed. Proceedings for the sale of lot. ing at any annual, special or adjourned school-district meeting legally called or held, shall determine that the sum proposed and provided for in the next preceding section shall be raised by installments, it shall be the duty of the trustees of such district, and they are hereby authorized, to cause the same to be raised, levied and collected in equal annual installments, in the same manner and with the like authority that other school-district taxes are raised, levied and collected, and to make out their tax list, and warrant for the collection of such installments, with interest thereon, as they become payable, according to the vote of said inhabitants; but the payment or collection of the last installment shall not be extended beyond five years from the time such vote was taken; and no vote to levy any such tax shall be reconsidered except at an adjourned, general or special meeting, to be held within thirty days thereafter, and the same majority shall be required for reconsideration that was had to impose such tax. $20. So long as a district shall remain unaltered, the site of a school-house owned by it shall not be changed, nor such school-house be removed, unless by the consent in writing of the supervisor or supervisors of the town or towns within which such district shall be situated, stating that in his or their opinion such removal is necessary; nor with such consent, unless a majority of all the inhabitants of said district present and entitled to vote, to be ascertained by taking and recording the ayes and noes, at a special meeting called for that purpose, shall be in favor of such new site. 21. Whenever the site of a school-house shall have been changed, as herein provided, the inhabitants of a district entitled to vote, lawfully assembled at any district meeting, shall have power, by a majority of the votes of those present, to direct the sale of the former site or lot, and the buildings thereon and appurtenances, or any part thereof, at such price and upon such terms as they shall deem proper; and any deed duly executed by the trustees of such district, or a majority of them, in pursuance of such direction, shall be valid and effectual to pass all the estate or interest of such schooldistrict in the premises, and when a credit shall be directed to be given upon such sale for the consideration money, or any part thereof, the trustees are hereby authorized to take, in their corporate name, such security, by bond and mortgage, or otherwise, for the payment thereof, as they shall deem best, and shall hold the same as a corporation and account therefor, to their successors in office and to the district, in the manner they are now required by law to account for moneys received by them; and the trustees of any such district for the time being may, in their name of office, sue for and recover the moneys due and unpaid upon any security so taken by them or their predecessors. sale, how $22. All moneys arising from any sale made in pursuance Proceeds of of the last preceding, section, shall be applied to the expenses applied. incurred in procuring a new site, and in removing or erecting thereon a school-house, and improving and furnishing such site and house, and their appendages, so far as such application shall be necessary; and the surplus, if any, shall be devoted to the purchase of school apparatus and the support of the school, as the inhabitants at any annual meeting shall direct. THIRD ARTICLE. Of the qualification, election, choice and terms of office of district and neighborhood officers, and of vacancies in such offices. Trustee, $ 23. No school commissioner or supervisor is eligible to who may the office of trustee, nor can either be a member of any board not be. of education within his district or town; and no trustee can hold the office of district clerk, collector or librarian. trict officer $24. Every district and neighborhood officer must be a Where dis resident of his district and neighborhood, and qualified to must reside. vote at its meetings. Terms of $ 25. From one annual meeting to the next is a year, with-e in the meaning of the following provisions: The term of office of a trustee of a neighborhood, and a sole trustee of a district, is one year. The full term of a joint trustee is three years, but a joint trustee may be elected for one or for two years, as herein provided. The term of office of all other district and neighborhood officers is one year. Every district and neighborhood officer shall hold his office, unless removed, during his term of office and until his successor shall be elected or appointed. Officers $26. The terms of all officers elected at the first meeting of new of a newly erected neighborhood or district, except of a union districts, free school-district, shall expire on the second Tuesday of October next thereafter. people to three. $27. On the second Tuesday of October next after the Trustees, erection of a district, at its first annual meeting, the electors elect one or shall determine, by resolution, whether the district shall have one or three trustees, and if they resolve to have three trustees, shall elect the three for one, two and three years respectively, and shall designate, by their votes, for which term each is elected. Thereafter, in such district, one trustee shall be elected at each annual meeting to fill the office of the outgoing trustee. The electors of any district having three trustees, shall have power to decide, by resolution, at any annual meeting, whether the district shall have a sole trustee or three trustees, and, if they resolve to have a sole trustee, the trustee or trustees in office shall continue in office until their term or terms of office shall expire, and no election of a trustee shall be had in the district until the offices of such trustee or |