§ 199 Call of special district meeting by school commissioner. When the clerk and all the trustees of a school district shall have removed from the district, or their office shall be vacant, so that a special meeting can not be called, as herein before provided, the school commissioner may in like manner give notice of, and call a special district meeting.

§ 200 Effect of want of due notice of district meetings. The proceedings of no district meeting, annual or special, shall be held illegal for want of a due notice to all the persons qualified to vote thereat, unless it shall appear that the omission to give such notice was wilful and fraudulent.

§ 201 Penalty for failure to serve notice. Every taxable inhabitant, to whom a notice of any district meeting shall be delivered for service pursuant to any provisions of this article, who shall refuse or neglect to serve the same, as herein before prescribed, shall forfeit five dollars for the benefit of the district. § 202 Duty to attend district meetings. Whenever any district meeting shall 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.

§ 203 Qualifications of voters at district meetings. A person shall be entitled to vote at any school meeting for the election of school district officers, and upon all other matters which may be brought before such meeting who is:

1 A citizen of the United States.

2 Twenty-one years of age.

3 A resident within the district for a period of thirty days next preceding the meeting at which he offers to vote; and who in addition thereto possesses one of the following four qualifications:

a Owns or hires, or is in the possession under a contract of purchase of real property in such district liable to taxation for school purposes, or

b Is the parent of a child of school age, provided such child shall have attended the district school in the district in which the meeting is held for a period of at least eight weeks during the year preceding such school meeting, or

c Not being the parent, has permanently residing with him a child of school age who shall have attended the district school for a period of at least eight weeks during the year preceding such meeting, or

d Owns any personal property, assessed on the last preceding

assessment-roll of the town, exceeding fifty dollars in value, exclusive of such as is exempt from execution.

No person shall be deemed to be ineligible to vote at any such meeting, by reason of sex, who has the other qualifications required by this section.

§ 204 Declaration in case of challenge of voter. If a person offering to vote at any school district meeting shall be challenged as unqualified, by any legal voter in such 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, and have been, for the thirty days last past, an actual resident of this school district 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.

§ 205 Penalty for false declaration or unauthorized vote. A person who shall wilfully make a false declaration of his right to vote at a school meeting, after his right to vote thereat has been challenged, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. And a person not qualified to vote at such meeting, who shall vote thereat, shall thereby forfeit ten dollars, to be sued for by the supervisor for the benefit of the common schools of the

town.

§ 206 Powers of voters. The inhabitants 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.

2 To appoint a clerk for the time if the district clerk is absent. 3 To adjourn from time to time as occasion may require.

4 To elect one or three trustees as hereinafter provided, a district clerk and a district collector, and in any district which shall so determine, as hereinafter provided, to elect a treasurer, at their first meeting, and so often as such offices or any of them become vacated, except as hereinafter provided.

5 At the first meeting, or at any subsequent annual meeting, or at any special meeting duly called for that purpose, the qualified voters of any school district are authorized to adopt by a vote of a majority of such voters present and voting, to be ascertained by taking and recording the ayes and noes, a resolution to elect a treasurer of said district, who shall be the custodian of all

moneys belonging to said district, and the disbursing officer of such moneys. If such resolution shall be adopted, such voters shall thereupon elect by ballot a treasurer for said district. Any person elected treasurer at any meeting other than an annual meeting, shall hold office until the next annual meeting after such election, and until his successor shall be elected or appointed, and thereafter a treasurer shall be elected at each annual meeting for the term of one year. [Subdivision 5 amended by L. 1910, ch. 442.]

6 To fix the amount in which the collector and treasurer shall give bonds for the due and faithful performance of the duties of their offices.

7 To designate a site for a schoolhouse, or for the grounds to be used for playgrounds, or for agricultural, athletic center and social center purposes, or, with the consent of the district superintendent of schools within whose district the school district lies, to designate sites for two or more schoolhouses for the district. Such designation of a site for a schoolhouse, or for such grounds, can be made only at a special meeting of the district, duly called for such purpose by a written resolution in which the proposed site shall be described by metes and bounds, and which resolution must receive the assent of a majority of the qualified voters present and voting, to be ascertained by taking and recording the ayes and noes, or by ballot. [Subdivision 7, amended by L. 1913, ch. 221.]

8 To vote a tax upon the taxable property of the district, to purchase, lease and improve such sites or an addition to such sites and grounds for the purposes specified in the preceding subdivision, to hire or purchase rooms or buildings for schoolrooms or schoolhouses, or to build schoolhouses; to keep in repair and furnish the same with necessary fuel, furniture and appurtenances, and to purchase such implements, apparatus and supplies as may be necessary to provide instruction in agriculture and other subjects, and for the organization and conduct of athletic, playground and other social center work. [Subdivision 8 amended by L. 1913, ch. 221.]

9 To vote a tax, not exceeding twenty-five dollars in any one year, for the purchase of maps, globes, reproductions of standard works of art, blackboards and other school apparatus, and for the purchase of textbooks and other school necessaries for the use of poor scholars of the district. [Subdivision 9 amended by L. 1914. ch. 216.]

10 To vote a tax for the establishment of a school library and the maintenance thereof, or for the support of any school library already owned by said district, and for the purchase of books therefor, and such sum as they may deem necessary for the purchase of a bookcase.

11 To vote a tax to supply a deficiency in any former tax arising from such tax being, in whole or in part, uncollectible.

12 To authorize the trustees to cause the schoolhouses, and their furniture, appurtenances and school apparatus to be insured by any insurance company created by or under the laws of this State, or any other insurance company authorized by law to trans

act business in this State.

13 To alter, repeal and modify their proceedings, from time to time, as occasion may require.

14 To vote a tax for the purchase of a book for the purpose of recording their proceedings.

15 To vote a tax to replace moneys of the district, lost or embezzled by district officers; and to pay the reasonable 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.

16 To vote a tax to pay whatever deficiency there may be in teachers' wages after the public money apportioned to the district shall have been applied thereto.

17 To vote a tax to pay and satisfy of record any judgments of a competent court which may have been or shall hereafter be obtained in an action against the trustees of the district for unpaid teachers' wages, where the time to appeal from said judgments shall have lapsed, or there shall be no intent to appeal on the part of such district, or the said judgments are or shall be of the court of last resort.

18 Whenever any district shall have contracted with the school authorities of any city, or or other school district for the education therein of the pupils residing in such school district, or whenever in any school district children of school age shall reside so remote from the schoolhouse therein that they are practically deprived of school advantages during any portion of the school year, the inhabitants thereof entitled to vote are authorized to provide, by tax or otherwise, for the conveyance of any or all pupils residing therein to the schools of such city, or 'district with which such contract shall have been made, or to the

school maintained in said district, and the trustees thereof may contract for such conveyance when so authorized in accordance with such rules and regulations as they may establish, and for the purpose of defraying any expense incurred in carrying out the provisions of this subdivision, they may if necessary use any portion of the public money apportioned to such district as a district quota.

§ 207 Vote on proposition to expend money. In all propositions arising at said district meetings, involving the expenditure of money, or authorizing the levy of taxes, the vote thereon shall be by ballot, or ascertained by taking and recording the ayes and noes of such qualified voters attending and voting at such district meetings.

ARTICLE 7-A

(Added by L. 1917, ch. 791, in effect June 8, 1917)

School Elections in Certain Cities

Section 208 Application of article

209 Annual school election

210 Qualifications of electors

211 Division of city or district into districts; elections held in schoolhouses

212 Notices of election

213 Preparation of poll lists; correction

214 Inspectors of election; organization

215 Nomination and ballot

216 Conduct of election; challenges

217 Canvass of votes and return to board of education; declaration

of result

218 Use of voting machines

§ 208 Application of article.

This article shall apply to each city in the State, in which members of the board of education are elected by the qualified electors of such city at an election other than a general or municipal election. [Added by L. 1917, ch. 791, in effect June 8, 1917.]

§ 209 Annual school election. 1 An annual election shall be held on the first Tuesday of May in each city to which this article applies.

2 The polls of such election shall be open from twelve o'clock noon until eight o'clock in the evening. [Added by L. 1917, ch. 791, in effect June 8, 1917.]