CHAPTER 64.

OF THE LEVY OF DISTRICT TAXES, AND OF RATE BILLS FOR

SECTION 1. District taxes shall be levied on the ratable property of the district, according to its value in the town assessment then last made, unless the district shall direct such taxes to be levied upon the next town assessment; and no notice thereof shall be required to be given by the trustees.

SEC. 2. The trustees of any school district, if unable to agree with the parties interested, with regard to the valuation of any property in such district, shall call upon one or more of the town assessors not interested, and not residing in the district, to assess the value of such property so situated, in the following cases, namely: When any real estate in the district is assessed in the town tax bill with real estate out of the district, so that there is no distinct or separate value upon it: when any person possessing personal property shall remove into the district after the last town assessment: when a division and apportionment of a tax shall become necessary by reason of the death of any person, or the sale of such property: when a person has invested personal property in real estate, and shall call upon the trustees to place a value thereon: and when property shall have been omitted in the town valuation.

SEC. 3. The assessors shall give notice of such assessment by putting up notices for ten days in three of the most public places in or near the district; and after notice is given as aforesaid, no person neglecting to appear before the assessors shall have any remedy for being overtaxed.

SEC. 4. If a district tax shall be voted, assessed and approved of, and a contract legally entered into under it, or such contract be legally entered into without such vote, assessment or approval, and said district shall thereafter neglect or refuse to proceed and collect a tax, the commissioner, after notice to and hearing of the parties, may appoint assessors to assess a tax, and may issue a warrant to

the collector of the district, or to a collector by him appointed, authorizing and requiring him to proceed and collect said tax.

SEC 5. Errors in assessing a tax may be corrected, or the tax reassessed in such manner as may be directed or approved by the commissioner.

SEC. 6. When any person who has paid a tax for building or repairing a school-house in one district, shall, by alteration of the boundaries thereof, become liable to pay a tax in any other district, if such person cannot agree with the district, such abatement of the tax may be made as the school committee, or in case of a district composed from different towns, as the commissioner may deem just and proper.

SEC. 7. When a joint district shall vote to build or repair a school-house by tax, the amount of the tax and the plan and specifications of the building and repairs shall be approved by the school committees of the several towns, or by the commissioner.

SEC. 8. In case of assessing a tax by a joint or secondary district, if the town assessments be made upon different principles, or the relative value be not the same, the relative value and proportion shall be ascertained by one or more persons, to be appointed by the commissioner, and the assessment shall be made accordingly.

SEC. 9. Any school district, in addition to the money received from the state and town appropriations, may fix or authorize its trustees to fix, subject to the approval of the school committee of the town, a rate of tuition, to be paid by the persons attending school, or by their parents, employers or guardians, towards the expense of fuel, books and other expenses, including estimated deficiencies of payments.

SEC. 10. The rate of tuition so fixed, shall not exceed one dollar for each scholar for any term of eleven weeks, except in towns or districts where different grades of schools are established; and in such towns or districts the rate for the higher grades shall not exceed two dollars for each scholar, for the same time.

SEC. 11. In all cases in which there is no district organization, the school committee may fix the rate of tuition.

SEC. 12. The district, the trustees, or committee, shall exempt from the payment of any such rate bill any person whom they shall consider unable to pay the same.

SEC. 13. All such rate bills may be required to be paid in advance, or may be delivered to the town or district collector, and may be by them collected in the same manner as town taxes are collected.

SEC. 14. The trustees may prescribe and collect a rate in their discretion, sufficient to keep the school for the four months required by law, without any vote of the district.

SECTION 1. The trustees of the school districts shall have the custody of the school-house and other district property, and shall employ one or more qualified teachers for every fifty scholars in average daily attendance.

SEC. 2. They shall provide school-rooms and fuel, and shall visit the schools twice at least during each term, and notify the committee or superintendent of the time of opening and closing the school.

SEC. 3. They shall see that the scholars are properly supplied with books, and in case they are not, and the parents, guardians or masters have been notified thereof by the teacher, shall provide the same at the expense of the district, and add the same to the next rate bill of such person.

SEC. 4. They shall make out the tax bill and rate bills for tuition against the person liable to pay the same, and deliver the same to the collector with a warrant by them signed annexed thereto, requiring him to collect and pay over the same to the treasurer of the district.

SEC. 5. They shall make returns to the school committee in manner and form prescribed by them or by the commissioner, or as may be required by law, and perform all other lawful acts required of them by the district, or necessary to carry into full effect the powers and duties of districts.

SEC. 6. Trustees shall receive no compensation for services out of the money received from either the state or town appropriations, nor in any way unless raised by tax by the district.

SECTION

3. Committee may alter and discontinue districts.

4. To locate all school-houses.

5. Land for school-house sites, if taken without owners' consent, how appraised.

6. Appeals, how taken.

7. Committee to examine teachers, and when to annul certificates.

8. To visit schools, when and how often.
9. May employ person to visit schools.
10. To make rules and regulations for
schools.

11. May suspend or expel pupils.
12. Vacancies in committee, how filled.
13. Committee to manage schools if town
is not divided into districts.

14. Apportionment of the town's share of
thirty-five thousand dollars.

SECTION 1. The school committee of each town shall choose a chairman and clerk, either of whom may sign any orders or official papers, and may be removed at the pleasure of said committee.

SEC. 2. They shall hold at least four stated meetings, viz.: on the second Mondays of January, April, July and October, in every year, and as much oftener as the state of the schools shall require. A majority of the number elected shall constitute a quorum, unless the committee consist of more than six, when four shall be a quorum, but any number may adjourn.

SEC. 3. They may alter and discontinue school districts, and shall settle their boundaries when undefined or disputed; but no new district shall be formed with less than forty children, between the ages of four and sixteen, unless with the approbation of the commissioner.

SEC. 4. They shall locate all school-houses, and shall not abandon or change the site of any without good cause.

SEC. 5. In case the school committee shall fix upon a location for a school-house in any district, and the district shall have passed a vote to erect a school-house, or where there is no district organization and the committee shall fix upon a location for a schoolhouse, and the proprietor of the land shall refuse to convey the same, or cannot agree with the district for the price thereof, the school committee of their own motion, or upon application of the district, shall be authorized to appoint three disinterested persons, who shall notify the parties and decide upon the valuation of the land; and upon the tender, or payment of the sum so fixed upon, to the proprietor, the title to the land so fixed upon by the school committee, not exceeding one quarter of an acre, shall vest in the district for the purpose of maintaining a school-house and the necessary appendages thereof.

SEC. 6. An appeal in such cases shall be allowed to the court of

common pleas in the same manner and with the same effect, as is provided by law, in cases of laying out of highways.

SEC. 7. The committee shall examine by themselves or by some one or more persons by them appointed, all applicants for the situation of teachers in the public schools of the town, and shall after five days' notice in writing annul the certificates of such as prove unqualified or will not conform to the regulations of the committee, and in such case shall give immediate notice thereof to the trustee of the district in which such teacher is employed.

SEC. 8. They shall visit by one or more of their number every public school in the town, at least twice during each term, once within two weeks of its opening, and once within two weeks of its close, at which visits they shall examine the register and other matters touching the school-house, library, studies, books, discipline, modes of teaching and improvement of the schools.

SEC. 9. The committee may employ some person, of or not of their number, to perform the duty required of them by the next preceding section, and such person shall receive such compensation as the committee may allow, out of the money raised by the town, or as the town may allow.

SEC. 10. They shall make and cause to be put up in each schoolhouse rules and regulations for the attendance and classification of the pupils, for the introduction and use of text-books, and works of reference, and for the instruction, government and discipline of the public schools, and shall prescribe the studies to be pursued therein.

SEC. 11. They shall suspend during pleasure, or expel during the school term, all pupils found guilty of incorrigibly bad conduct, or violation of the school regulations, and shall re-admit them on satisfactory evidence of amendment.

SEC. 12. They shall fill any vacancy in the committee occasioned by death, declining or refusing to serve, resignation, removal from office or from the town, or otherwise.

SEC. 13. Where a town is not divided into districts, or shall vote in a meeting duly notified for that purpose, to provide schools, without reference to such division, the committee shall manage and regulate said schools, and draw all orders for the payment of their expenses.

SEC. 14. When the public schools are maintained by district organization, the committee shall apportion, as early as practicable in each year, among the districts, the town's proportion of the sum of thirty-five thousand dollars received from the state, one half equally, and the other half according to the average daily attendance of the schools of the preceding year.

SEC. 15. When the town is divided into school districts having the management of their own concerns, the committee shall apportion equally among all the districts of the town, the town's proportion of the sum of fifteen thousand dollars received from the

state.

SEC. 16. They shall apportion the money received from the town, from the registry tax, from funds or other grants, either