OF FREE SCHOOLS.
AN ACT concerning the establishment of a General System of Free Public Schools.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:
SECTION 1. The general supervision and control of the free public schools of this State, including those for colored children, shall be vested in a State Board of Education; which shall be composed of the Governor, the Secretary of State, the President of Delaware College, the State Auditor, and the senior member of each County School Commission by this act :created, as members by virtue and during the continuance of their office.
The Governor shall be the president and the Auditor shall be the Secretary of the said State Board of Education. The said State Board shall hold meetings quarterly, during the last week in each of the months of September, December, March and June in each year, in the office of the Auditor at Dover, and may hold special meetings at the call of the President (or Secretary.) The first meeting of the State Board herein created, shall be on Saturday, the twenty-fifth day of June, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon. Four members shall constitute a quorum to do business, but a less number may adjourn from time to time until a quorum is secured.
In any ease where, under the Constitution, the powers and duties of the office of Governor devolve upon some person other than he who was elected to fill said office, such persons shall take the place of the Governor upon said State Board so long as he shall continue to act as Governor under the said Constitution. Before entering upon the duties of their office, the members shall be severally sworn or affirmed to well and faithfully execute and discharge the duties of their said office.
Any member may administer such oath or affirmation.
SECTION 2. The State Board of Education shall have power to make all by-laws requisite for its own government, and to prescribe and cause to be enforced all rules and regulations necessary and proper for the execution of the powers and duties vested in it by the provisions of this act, and tending to the advancement of the standard of instruction and education in the free public schools, and to rendering the school system uniform throughout the State.
It shall, at stated periods, compile or cause to be compiled a set of examination papers, which examination papers shall be as nearly equal as to the said State Board shall deem advisable, for all the teachers in all the free schools for white children throughout the State; and another set of examination papers which shall be as nearly equal as to the State Board seems advisable, for all the teachers in the free schools for colored children. Provided, however, that in the case of teachers in graded schools, a different set of examination papers, teachers in graded schools, a different set of examination papers, adapted to the various grades, may be framed. The said examination papers shall be composed of questions on pedagogy, orthography, reading, writing, mental and written arithmetic, geography, history of the United States, the Federal and State Constitutions, English Grammar, Physiology and Hygiene, with special reference to the effects of alcoholic drinks, stimulants and narcotics upon the human system, and on any other subjects or branches of knowledge which the said State Board shall deem proper. New sets of examination papers shall be compiled as aforesaid, from time to time, or former sets so revised and altered, as that no advantage may or can be gained by an applicant for a certificate from having been present at any previous examination.
The State Board of Education shall, at its first meeting held under this act, adopt a list of text books "to be furnished the schools, as hereinafter provided, and make contracts for the rates at which such books shall be furnished which list shall be the same throughout the State ; and shall have full power and authority to make any changes in said list, or to compile new lists at any subsequent meeting, which to it shall seem proper and advisable for the cause of education. Such list shall always include books upon Physiology and Hygiene, with special reference to the effect of alcoholic drinks, stimulants and narcotics upon the human system. It shall have its jurisdiction to hear and determine finally all appeals from the several County School Commissions hereinafter created, and all appeals of teachers, applicants for certificates, county superintendents and members of school committees and boards of education. It shall issue a uniform series of blanks for the reports of teachers, and for those of any other school officer, which it shall deem advisable to be made for the advancement of education, the collection of statistics and the like for the clearer knowledge of the condition of the schools throughout the State ; and shall require all records to be kept and returns to be made according to such forms. It shall make report to each General Assembly of the work done, and suggest any alterations or amendments in the then existing school laws. The members shall receive no salaries or remuneration for their office, but each, exclusive of the Governor, Secretary of State and Auditor, shall be paid five dollars for each day actually spent in attendance at the meetings of the Board ; provided, that not more than thirty dollars in any one year shall be allowed to any one member for such attendance. The said allowance shall be paid by the State Treasurer to the said members, upon the warrant of the Governor, out of the general fund of the State. The said State Treasurer shall further pay all reasonable and proper bills incurred by the said State Board for printing and postage authorized under the provisions of this act, out of the general fund aforesaid, upon being presented with proper vouchers therefor by its secretary.
Whenever the State Board of Education shall hear any appeals, or take under consideration any matters or things, concerning the free schools for colored children in this State, or teachers in, or officers over, such schools, the President of the State College for Colored Students shall sit as a member of the said State Board in the place and stead of the President of Delaware College, and it is hereby made the duty of the Secretary of said State Board to give notice to the said President of the State College for Colored Students whenever such appeals, matters or things as aforesaid, shall come up for hearing or consideration by the said State Board ; provided, that nothing in this act shall he deemed or taken to confer upon said President of the State College for Colored Students any right or authority to attend at, or sit as a member of, or have any voice or vote in the meetings of the said State Board of Education except in the case of appeals and matters and things affecting schools for colored children as aforesaid, and no other.
SECTION 3. The supervision of all the free public schools, including those for colored children, in each of the counties of this State, subject to the general supervision and control hereinbefore vested in the State Board of Education shall be vested in a County School Commission for each county. The said commission shall be composed of three members, no more than two of whom shall be of the same political party.
They shall be appointed by the Governor, and hold office for three years, or until their successors are duly qualified, however that in the appointment of the first set of County School Commissioners under this act, one member of each of said commissions shall be appointed for one year, one for two years, and one for three years, for each county; and provided further, that in the appointment of said first set of said commissioners for the several counties, not more than two of either the one year members, or the two year members, or the three year members, shall be of the same political party.
In the appointment of said first set of commissions, the member appointed for each county for one year, shall be the senior member during the first year; the member appointed for two years, shall be the senior member the second year; and thereafter, the member serving for his third year in the appointment of any set of said commissions, shall be the senior member.
Each County School Commission shall hold meetings quarterly, during the first week in the months of September, December, March and June, in each year, in the office of the County Treasurer, or some other convenient place, in its respective county. Special meetings may be held upon the call of any two members. The first stated meeting of each of the County School Commissions created by this act, shall be held on Saturday, the fourth day of June in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight at eleven o’clock in the forenoon. The senior member of the commission shall be its President and the junior member shall be its Secretary. Two members shall constitute a quorum to do business, but one may adjourn from time to time until a quorum is secured.
Before entering upon the duties of his office, each member of said commission shall be sworn or affirmed to well and faithfully discharge the same. The oath or affirmation may be administered by any member. A vacancy in the office of County School Commissioner, caused by death, resignation, removal, disability, or otherwise, shall be filled by the Governor for the unexpired term, provided, that such appointee shall be of the same political party as he, to fill whose unexpired term, the appointee is chosen. A commission for an unexpired term as aforesaid, shall vest in the holder thereof all the powers, and subject him to all the duties which would have devolved upon him had he been commissioned at the beginning of said term. Each of said commissions shall have power to make all such by-laws as are or may be necessary for its own government, and to formulate and carry into effect all such rules and regulations as are requisite and proper for the execution of the powers and duties conferred upon it by this
SECTION 4. The object of the County School Commission shall be the investigation of the school system throughout the county of its jurisdiction, the methods of instruction and discipline employed in the schools, the performance of their several duties by the various school officers and teachers, and the condition of school property. To this end, each commission shall have full power and authority to visit all the schools in its county, including incorporated schools, and to observe and question the teachers concerning their method of instruction and discipline; to examine all reports and papers made to or filed with the County Superintendent for its county, and to confer with and aid him concerning the methods and systems which he has adopted, or desires to introduce into the schools under his supervision ; to make reports quarterly to the State Board of Education at its stated quarterly meetings, containing any suggestions as to improvement in school methods and systems, and specifying any neglect or abuse on the part of any teacher or school officer whomsoever in its county. The commission shall, at any of its stated meetings, be ready to receive any and all complaints concerning teachers, the County Superintendent, or any school officer, whomsoever, of the county under its jurisdiction, and to hear evidence upon the Sallie. The said commission shall have power to determine the complaints aforesaid according to the best ability of its members, subject, however, to the right of appeal to the State Board of Education as hereinbefore provided. It shall be the further duty of each of the said County School Commissions to act as a Sanitary Commission over any and all school property in the county under its supervision ; with full power to condemn any school building, or any part thereof, as unsafe or unhealthy; and upon the certificate of such condemnation by the commission, the Trustee of the School Fund shall withhold from the district in which such condemned property is situated, its share of the State appropriation, until the further certificate of the commission that such condemned property has been repaired or replaced, or that provision therefor been made. Provided, however, that nothing in this act shall be construed or taken to confer upon any of said County School Commission any power, right, or authority to close or suspend any school for any reason whatever.
SECTION 5. No member of any County School Commission shall receive any salary by virtue of his office, but, upon the warrant of the Governor, the State Treasurer shall, out of the general fund of the State, pay to each member, of said commissions the sum of five dollars for each day actually spent in attendance upon the meetings of the commission of which he is a member; provided, that such allowance shall not exceed the sum of thirty dollars to any one member in any one year for such attendance ; and the further sum of six cents per mile expended in visiting any of the schools under the supervision of the commission of which he is a member; provided , that such mileage shall not be allowed for more than one visit to any one school by any one member during a single quarter ; and provided further, that such allowance for mileage shall not exceed the stun of twenty-five dollars to any one member during any one year. The said State Treasurer shall further pay all reasonable and proper bills incurred by the said County School Commission for printing and postage out of the general fund aforesaid, upon being presented with proper vouchers therefor by its president or secretary.
SECTION 6. It shall be the duty of the State Board of Education, and also of each of the County School Commissions, to give notice of the time and place of each of its stated meetings, by advertisement in two successive issues of three newspapers in the State, at least ten clays before the time fixed for such meeting.
In the case of the County School Commission, such advertisement shall be in newspapers published in the county under its jurisdiction.
SECTION 7. It shall be the duty of each of the first set of County School Commissions appointed under the provisions of this act, to lay out and divide the county under its jurisdiction into districts for colored schools. For this purpose, each of said commissions shall hold a special meeting on Tuesday, the seventh day of June in the year eighteen hundred and of ninety-eight at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, at some suitable place in, with regard to the commission for New Castle county, the city of Wilmington and in, with regard to the commission for Kent county, the town of Dover, and ill, with regard to the commission for Sussex county, the town of Georgetown ; each of said commissions having first given notice by advertisement in two successive, issues of two newspapers, of the time, place and purpose of such special meeting, and of the willingness of said commission to hear any and all persons who might have anything to state concerning the laying out of said districts.
Each of said commissions may adjourn from time to time.
Each of said commissions shall then, and as soon after the date of the special meeting aforesaid as may be, proceed to its work of laying- out and establishing districts for colored schools in the county under its jurisdiction, and shall make return of their determination, giving the names, and the metes and bounds of the several districts so laid out by it, to the Clerk of Peace for the proper county, who shall preserve the same in the records of his office, and who shall, within five days after the receipt of such return, certify to the Trustee of the School Fund the names and numbers of the districts so laid out as aforesaid.
Immediately upon making return as aforesaid, each commission shall determine upon a time and place for each district thus laid out for the first meeting of the school voters held under this act in said districts, and shall advertise the same by posting five notices stating such time and place, in five of the most public places in each of the said districts, provided that the time for the holding of the meeting of the school voters shall not, in any case, be later than the last week in August in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight.
The districts so laid out by each of the said commissions shall be numbered in continuation of the school districts in the same county, and shall thenceforth be entitled to all the rights and powers, and subject to all liabilities and penalties by this act provided. The determination and return of a majority of the County School Commission for any one of the counties, shall be as valid and effective as if made by all.
Each member of each of said commissions shall receive the sum of one hundred dollars for the performance of the task in this section assigned, and the State Treasurer shall pay him said amount out of the general fund of the State, upon the warrant of the Governor; provided, that no member shall be entitled to receive any sum whatever if the commission of which he is a member shall not have fully performed and executed the duties prescribed in this Section before Wednesday, the tenth day of August, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight.
The districts for colored schools when laid out and established as aforesaid, may be changed or altered, divided, consolidated or united by the County School Commissions, for the proper county at any time within the space of one year following; but not afterwards, except in the manner hereinafter provided in this act.
In determining upon the number of districts to be laid out as aforesaid, each commission shall be limited to the number of colored schools in existence at the time of the passage of this act.
SECTION 8. At the elections held mid& the provisions of Section 7 of this act in the districts for colored schools, any colored male person over the age of twenty-one years shall have a right to vote. In the apportionment and distribution to the school districts by the Trustee of the School Fund in the month of September, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, the districts for colored schools laid out and established under the provisions of Section 7 of this act, shall be entitled to share therein, and none of the provisions of this act as to the withholding of a district's share in such apportionment, shall apply to the districts aforesaid in said first apportionment and distribution.
SECTION 9. The mode of having property transferred from one school district to another, or of altering the boundaries of existing school districts, or of creating new districts shall be as follows:
A petition stating the object sought shall be presented to the County School Commission of the proper county at any of its stated meetings; signed, in the case of a petition to transfer, by the owner or owners of the property affected, or in the case of a petition to create a new district by twelve or more freeholders of the district or districts affected; Notice of the intention to present such petition must, in all cases, have been posted in four public places in the district or districts affected and a copy of the same transmitted to school committee of each district affected, through its clerk, ten days at least before the presentation of such petition. The County School Commission shall then determine the matter, and shall certify its finding to the Clerk of the Peace of the county, specifying, when the prayer of the petition shall have been allowed, the metes and bounds of the new districts, and of the alterations in the boundaries of old districts by the transfer of property. A new district shall not be created unless it be made to appear to the Commission that such proposed new district shall contain at least thirty-five children over the age of five years, and that at least that same number will remain in each of the old districts affected. A new district thus created shall be numbered in continuation of the school districts of the county, shall be subject to and have all the rights and powers given by all the laws of this State having reference to free public schools. The commission so having created a new district as aforesaid shall give notice in writing, at least ten days before the holding of the first regular meeting of the school voters to be held in districts created as aforesaid, of the time and place for holding. such meeting, which notice shall be posted in five of the most public places of the district. A failure to give notice as aforesaid shall in no wise affect or invalidate organization that may be made by the school voters in such district, provided, that a majority of the school voters of the district be present at any meeting, held without notice given as aforesaid. The finding or return of a majority of the members of the commission upon any petition as aforesaid, shall be as effectual and binding as if made by all. The limits of the school districts so created, and alterations of the limits of old districts by division, union of several as hereinafter provided, or otherwise, shall be recorded in the office of the Clerk of the Peace of the proper county ; and the number and location of such new districts and the alterations of old districts shall be certified to the Trustee of the School Fund by said Clerk of the Peace.
SECTION 10. Two or more school districts in any county may unite for establishing and supporting a free school for their common benefit ; and such districts, when united, shall be one district by the name of "United School District Nos………….., in ……………. county." The manner of forming a union of districts shall be this :
1. Notice shall be given in each district which it is proposed to unite, as required for stated meetings in the several districts.
2. At the meeting, thus called in each district, if two-thirds of the voters present are in favor of the union, a committee of three of such voters shall be appointed to arrange the terms and the meeting may be adjourned to hear their report ; if a majority of them agree upon a union with any other district, or districts, and settle with the terms thereof, the same shall be reported to an adjourned meeting, and if such report shall be adopted by two-thirds of the voters present, it shall be obligatory, and the districts mentioned shall be united ; provided, like proceedings be had in all the said districts ; but, if, in either district, the report be not adopted by a vote of two-thirds, this shall not defeat the union between the other districts so adopting it ; they shall be united, and die other shall be excluded.
3. A meeting- of the united district shall be then held at the time and place fixed by the terms of the Union. At this meeting, a school committee for the united school district shall be chosen, and a vote may be passed to raise money by contribution, but not by tax. This meeting shall also inquire into the proceedings preparatory to the union of the districts and its determination thereupon shall be conclusive. United school districts shall have the same powers and exercise them in the same manner as original districts. The power of taxation shall extend to the amount that could be lawfully raised by tax in the several districts composing such united districts, if acting separately. The union of districts shall not effect the account of the Trustee of the School Fund, but dividends of the income of the Fund shall be apportioned and credited to the original districts as before the union ; and all sums placed to the credit of the several districts of which the union is formed, shall be paid upon the order of the school committee of the united district, and applied to the use of such district, upon their showing that a sum has been raised sufficient to entitle these several districts to draw their dividends as hereinafter provided. The place of meeting of school voters of a united school district shall be the school house of the district; or, if there be none, then one at the school house mentioned in the notices, which shall conform to any standing order of the school voters. A proposal to have several school houses in a united district may be brought before a regular meeting of the school voters by inserting it in the notices of such meeting; if such proposal is made the secretary shall inquire concerning the regularity of the notice and make a minute of the fact. If it be carried, the school committee shall have power to execute it.
SECTION 11. All the school districts of this State, whether single, united, consolidated or incorporated, as they were established at the time of the passage of this act, shall be, and they are hereby continued school districts of the State, by the same names, and with the same metes and bounds, as they severally possessed and were defined at the time of the passage of this act, shall be, and they are hereby, continued as such clerks, commissioners, trustees, or members of the Boards of Education in any or all of said districts for the full term for which each of said clerks, commissioners, trustees, or members of Boards of Education were elected or chosen at the meeting of the school voters last preceding the passage of this act.
SECTION 12. Each school district, by the name of "School Power of District No …………….. in ……………….. county" or United School ……….. in …………… county" (as the case may be, and filling the blanks properly,) may take and hold ground for a school house, and the appurtenances and furniture ; may take and hold by devise, bequest, or donation, real and personal estate, the, not exceeding in clear annual income one thousand dollars, for the use of the free school in said district, and may alien the same ; may take bond from the collector, or from the clerk ; may prosecute actions upon it, and any action for in jury done to any property of the district, in which action double damages and costs shall be recovered ; and also any action for forfeiture or penalty due to the district ; any of the said actions may be brought before a Justice of the Peace, if the sum demanded does not exceed two hundred dollars, and said Justice shall proceed as in other demands of like amount ; may, where it appears upon settlement by the school committee of the districts that there is due from said committee of the district any sum of money actually received by said committee, bring an action of debt against the said committee, or the survivor or survivors of them in their individual names for recovery of the same as also for the penalty provided by this act and judgment thereon shall be given as in other cases, and may be executed accordingly ; such action, no matter what the sum demanded be, may he brought before a Justice of the Peace, and shall be proceeded in as other actions within the jurisdiction of such Justice are, and the remedy hereby provided shall have a retroactive effect ; and may sue for and recover in an action of debt any stun or sums of money due to the district, and may bring such action against any member of a late school committee of the district, or any other person whomsoever who may have an money belonging to the district in his possession, or who may in any other manner be indebted to the district, and the remedy hereby given shall have a retroactive effect. A school district shall not possess any other corporate power or franchise.
SECTION 13. Every male person residing in the district, and having right to vote for Representatives in the General Assembly, and having paid his school tax for the preceding year ; and every female person above the age of twenty-one years, residing as aforesaid, and having paid a school tax in the district where she resides, for the preceding year, shall be entitled and qualified to vote at all school elections in such district ; and from and after the passage of this act, every female person of the age aforesaid, residing in an incorporated district, and having paid a tax as aforesaid, shall be entitled and qualified to vote at all school elections in such incorporated districts. Provided, however, that no white person shall have a right to vote at any meeting of colored school voters in any district, and no colored person shall have a right to vote at any meeting of white school voters in any district. If any person, not being so qualified, shall vote at any school meeting or election, such person shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be fined fifteen dollars by any Justice of the Peace in the proper county.
SECTION 14. A stated meeting of the school voters of each school district shall be held on the last Saturday in June except in New Castle county, where such meetings, exclusive of those held in incorporated cities and towns, shall be on the first Saturday in June of each year, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon except District No. 8 in New Castle county, where such meeting shall be held from half past four to six in the afternoon. The place for such meeting shall be the school house of the district, or, if there be none, at some place appointed by the County School Commission of the proper county. Such meeting shall be kept open for at least one hour. Any number of voters present shall proceed to business, and their acts shall be valid.
The order of business for such stated meeting shall be:
1. The appointment of a chairman and secretary.
2. The report of the old committee of the district, and the appointment of a special committee to audit the accounts.
3. The election by ballot, by a majority of the votes cast, of one member of the school committee to serve for the term of three years as a successor to the member whose term shall at the time expire; provided, that at the first stated meeting of any school district formed, laid out, or created after the passage of the act, there shall be elected in the manner aforesaid, a clerk to serve for the term of three years thereafter, and two commissioners, one for the term of two years, and another for the term of one year, or, in each case, until a successor be chosen ; and the election in like manner to fill all vacancies, or unexpired terms, occasioned by death, or otherwise, of any member of said committee.
4. To resolve whether any sum above that required to be raised by law, shall be raised for the ensuing year ; and, if it shall be resolved to raise such an additional amount, to determine by ballot, by a majority of the votes cast, whether such amount shall be raised by tax, or by subscription.
A stated meeting may, after the appointment of a chairman, and secretary, be adjourned ; and the proceedings of the adjourned meeting shall be of the same nature and force, except as to a tax, as if had at the original meeting. If the annual stated meeting shall not be held in any district, or if the school committee shall not then be elected, the district shall not thereby lose the power to proceed, but meetings, adjourned, occasional, or stated, may be held.
Occasional meetings of the school voters of a district may be called by the school committee, by advertisement stating the business of the meeting, and posted as required for stated meetings. They must be held at the place where stated meetings are held. At such meeting, any number of voters present may transact any business mentioned in the advertisement, but no other. The secretary shall make a note of the business mentioned in the advertisement, and where and when they were posted ; these entries shall be conclusive, unless proved fraudulent ; and the making of fraudulent entries shall be a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine, not exceeding one hundred dollars.
It shall be the duty of the clerk of the district to give notice of stated and occasional meetings, by advertisements, under hand, of the day, hour and place thereof, posted in five or more public places of the district, at least five days before the meeting ; and if he neglects this duty he shall forfeit and pay to the district tell dollars ; but the want of such notice shall not make the acts of the meeting void. If there be no clerk, the commissioner or commissioners shall give notice, under the same penalty ; and if there be no member of the committee to give such notice, it shall be given by the Clerk of the Peace, on application of five or more of the school voters of the district. No vote respecting a tax shall be taken at any other time than the stated annual meeting, or the substitute therefor, Three certificates of the proceedings of every meeting of school voters shall be made and signed by the chairman and secretary; one shall be delivered to the clerk of the district, one to the Auditor of Accounts, and one to the Clerk of the Peace of the county, to be kept as a public record.
If the chairman or secretary shall neglect his duty in this respect for the space of one month, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and fined fifty dollars.
If the certificates be not so delivered within one month, the proceedings of the meeting shall be void, and the school committee in office, next before such meeting-, shall continue in office, so far as to call another meeting, and shall proceed to do so by advertisements posted as required for stated meetings. A statement that the proceedings of the last meeting have not been dully returned, shall be sufficient statement of the business; and at a meeting so called, the school voters shall have the power to do an act which they could do at the preceding meeting; and the meeting shall be regulated by the law applicable to the preceding meeting, and shall be a substitute therefor.
Immediately upon the election of commissioners in single or united election districts, or members of the Board of Education, in incorporated districts, the Secretary or Clerk of the commissioners or Board of Education, as the case may be, shall transmit to the Clerk of the Peace of the proper county, the names and addresses of the commissioners or members of the Board of Education elected for the ensuing year, which names and addresses shall be furnished the Superintendent of public schools for the proper county, the State Auditor and Trustee of the School Fund, by said Clerk of the Peace.
SECTION 15. The supervision and control of the free public schools in each district in this State, now established or hereafter to be established under the provisions of this act, (subject to the general powers hereinbefore vested in the State Board of Education and the several County School Commissions) shall be vested in a school committee for each district; which shall be composed of a clerk and two commissioners, who shall serve for three years from the time of their respective elections, or until their successors are duly qualified. The members of the said school committee shall be chosen or elected as provided in Section 14 of this act. Before entering upon the duties of their office, each member of said committee shall be sworn or affirmed to perform the said duties of his office with fidelity. Any member of the new, or of a late committee may administer such oath or affirmation. The powers and duties of the school committee shall be: To determine the site, lease or purchase the necessary ground, and build or procure a suitable school house for the district, which shall be as near the center of the district as practicable, and which when built or procured, shall not be removed nor another built or procured without the direction of the school voters of the district at a stated meeting ; to keep the school house in good repair and insure it against loss by fire, and to supply it with necessary furniture and fuel, and to bring action for any injury to it ; to keep the school open for at least one hundred and forty days in each school year ; to visit it at least once in each quarter of said school year ; to employ a teacher or teachers who shall be well qualified mentally and morally for the position, provided, that no teacher shall be so employed who does not hold the certificate of the County Superintendent for the proper county for the year in which such teacher is employed, except where such teacher is employed for specialist work merely as set forth in Section 16 of this act; to dismiss a teacher for cause; to make regulations for the government of the schools in which the expulsion of a scholar for obstinate misbehavior may be provided; to collect and receive the money required by this act to be raised by the districts in Sections 18 and 19 and to receive and collect all money belonging to, appropriated, or resolved to be raised by the district, and to apply and expend the same justly ; to pay over to the successor in office any balance remaining at the expiration of the term of office to make up the assessment list of the district and to provide for the collection of all school taxes, as set forth in Sections 18, 19 and 20 of this act; to perform the several duties required of its members by Section 22 of this act concerning free text books; to settle the accounts of the district with the Auditor and post copies of the same, as provided in this act; to present the account so settled as aforesaid, and make general report as to the conditions of the school and the like and stating when and for what length of time the school was visited by its members, to the school voter of the district at their annual stated meeting; to give the required notices of all meetings of the school voters of the district as provided in Section 14 of this act; to institute any and all actions as provided in Section 12 of this act which may accrue to the district; to perform the further and other duties set forth in Section 16 of this act; and generally do all acts and things requisite for affecting the premises.
The acts of a majority of the members of a school committee shall in all cases be as valid and effectual as if done by all.
Vacancies in the committee shall be filled by the school voters of the district as provided in Section 14 of this act.
The special duties of the clerk of each school committee shall be to give notice of meetings of the school district as required by Section 14 of this act ; to perform the several duties enjoined upon him by Section 22 of this act; concerning free text books ; to keep a record book of the district, in which he shall enter its bounds and description, and any changes therein, a copy of the certificate of the proceedings of every meeting of the school voters, the proceedings of the school committee, and the names of the scholars attending the school, a list of whom shall be furnished by the teacher, which book shall he evidence ; and shall also keep all papers belonging to the district, or to the committee.
If any commissioner or clerk of any school district shall misappropriate any funds in his hands belonging to the school district in which he is such commissioner or clerk, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, by indictment, shall be fined not less than twenty dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, together with the costs of prosecution, and upon failure to pay such fine and costs, he shall be imprisoned not less than three months nor more than two years. Thus provision shall be deemed and taken to be accumulative, and shall not affect or impair the individual liability of any such commissioner or clerk in any civil suit which may be brought against him.
The members of each school committee shall pay to their successors in office all money due from them, and if they neglect to do so for ten days, thy or any one of them, shall forfeit and pay twenty-five percent. on the sum clue in addition to the amount so due as aforesaid.
The members of the school committee shall receive no salary or emolument emolument, but for attendance before the auditor, as provided in Section 26 of this act, they shall be allowed, in their account, one dollar each per day, and three cents each per mile of necessary travel.
SECTION 16. Each school committee and each Board of Education of every incorporated district, immediately upon the selection of a teacher or teachers for any school or schools under its supervision, shall notify the county superintendent for the proper county of such selection, stating the name, addresses and salaries of such teacher or teachers.
It shall be the duty of each school committee and of each Board of Education of incorporated districts to see that a flag of the United States, not less than eight feet long and six feet wide, is displayed on a suitable flag staff with proper appliances upon each school building, or near the same, in the district, during school hours.
It shall be the further duty of each of the said committees and of said Boards of Education to see that at least one proper and correct map of the United States, not less than four feet long and three feet wide, and at least one proper and correct map of the State of Delaware, not less than three feet by two feet, are exposed to view in some public and convenient place in each school house in the districts.
It shall be the further duty of each of said committees and Boards of Education to see that all the pupils in all the free schools in the district are instructed in Physiology and Hygiene with special reference to the effects of alcoholic drinks, stimulants and narcotics upon the human system, and to see that all the said schools are sufficiently supplied with such text books relating to such subjects as are furnished the district in the distribution of free text books hereinafter provided. Any teacher in any of the free schools of the State, failing to so instruct all the pupils under his governance, shall, unless ordered to the contrary by a school officer having authority over him, be liable to a fine of. twenty-five dollars, to be recovered before any Justice of the Peace of the proper county by any informer, and any school officer ordering a teacher under him not to instruct the pupils as aforesaid shall be liable to like fine, recoverable as aforesaid by any informer.
It shall be unlawful for any school committee of a district, or any Board of Education of an incorporated district, to employ as a teacher, or permit to continue to teach, any person who does not hold an unexpired certificate from the County Superintendent for the proper county, except such teacher be employed for specialist work merely, such as drawing, music and the like, under penalty of having withheld from the district in which such person is employed or permitted to teach its share of the State appropriation for the year of such employment or teaching.
It shall be the further duty of each school committee and Board of Education in this State to see that the pupils in any class or classes in the school who are instructed in United States history by the teacher employed in the school shall also be instructed by the said teacher in the general principles of the Constitution of the United States and that of this State.
The respective school committees of adjoining districts shall have power to make such arrangements for the establishment of a school or schools for the joint benefit of the children of such adjoining districts as they may deem proper and advisable.
Every school committee and every Board of Education in this State shall have power, and it shall be their duty, to make any and all such rules and regulations governing the pupils of the districts as they shall deem proper or necessary to the health of such pupils, and the prevention of the spread of contagious or infectious diseases, and to this end may, if they deem advisable, provide for the free vaccination of such pupils.
The Board of Education of each incorporated school district in this State may, and, unless the needs of the pupils residing in such incorporated district shall render it unadvisable, shall, upon application, admit to the higher departments of such incorporated schools advanced pupils from other districts, upon such terms as the said Board of Education shall deem proper and reasonable; and the school committee of the district where the children so admitted reside, may, in its discretion, allow the amount or amounts prescribed by any such Board of Education for the admission of such pupils as aforesaid.
SECTION 17. In case the school commissioners of any school district shall not be able to procure by agreement with the owner a lot of land suitable and proper for the erection of a school house for the use of the district, it shall and may be lawful for the said school commissioners to apply to the Levy Court of their county, who shall thereupon appoint three judicious and impartial freeholders of said county, residing without the limits of said school district, to select a site put for such school house and appurtenances, not to exceed half an acre in any case. The said commissioners shall, as soon as conveniently possible after the said appointment, notify the said freeholders and fix a day when they shall meet in said district to select such site, and shall also give notice to the inhabitants of said district of the time so fixed, by notices posted in five of the most public places in said district at least ten days before the clay of meeting. The said freeholders shall, on the day so fixed, proceed to the said district taking with them a surveyor, if necessary, and shall select such site as they may deem most suitable for the purposes aforesaid, and shall cause a plot and a description of the same to be made out and delivered to the commissioners, who shall, within thirty days after such delivery, lodge the same in the Recorder's office of the proper county, to be recorded. The said freeholders shall also, at the time of selecting and locating the site, assess the damages of the owner or owners, taking into consideration all circumstances of convenience or injury, but in making such assessment, they shall allow at least the cash value of the land taken, and shall certify their award to both parties, owners and commissioners, whereupon, on payment of the damages, so assessed, the said land so taken shall become and be the property of the said school district for the purpose aforesaid. In case any such owner or owners be a minor, non-resident, or from any cause incapable of receiving, or unwilling, or neglecting to receive said damages, the said school commissioners may deposit the same to the credit of to such owner or owners, in the Farmers' Bank of the State of Delaware, or any branch thereof, and such deposit shall operate as payment.
In case the said freeholders should fail to meet on the day fixed, the commissioners may call them out again upon like notice to the district, as above provided. The said freeholders shall have power to adjourn from time to time. The decision of the majority shall be as valid as that of the whole.
The fees of the freeholders shall be one dollar per day. All the expenses shall be borne by the district.
SECTION 18. It shall be the duty of the school committees of the several school districts for white children in the State, to make assessment lists for their respective districts. Such lists shall, consist of the rates of persons of all the white male inhabitants of the district over twenty-one years old ; of the rates of the personal property of all the white inhabitants of the district; and of the clear rental value of all the assessable real estate within the district owned by white persons. The personal property of all white persons now subject to tax for school purposes in the school district shall be liable to assessment and tax for school purposes in 'the school district, only in which it is actually located; and it shall be the duty of the school committee of the several districts for white children as aforesaid within the limits of this State, making the assessment lists for their respective districts, to place thereon the rates of the personal property now subject to tax for school purposes in the school district in which.4 has an actual location, irrespective of the residence of the owner thereof. The school committees of. the several school districts within this State shall not take the rates of personal property from the assessment lists of the hundred in which it stands assessed at the time, but shall fix the rates of personal property for their respective school districts upon personal view thereof, other sufficient information of the owners or persons having control of the same. The assessment list of each school district as aforesaid, shall only include the personal property actually located therein; provided, that no property shall be assessed for school purposes under the provisions of this act, which is exempted from taxation for county purposes.
They shall assess the clear rental value beyond reprises of all the assessable real estate in the district, and make out a list of the names of persons assessed, in alphabetical order, the rates of persons, and of personal property, number of acres, or other description of real estate, and the clear rental value thereof. When the fine between two districts crosses the lands of person occupied in one body, the whole of such lands shall be assessed in the district where the dwelling house is, and no part in the other ; provided, that any tenant residing on such lands in an adjoining district, shall, at his election, communicated in writing to the school committee of such adjoining district, at any time prior to the completing of the assessment list, be only assessed, and have school privileges in the district in which such tenant resides.
It shall be the duty of the school commissioners in each of the districts aforesaid, annually, in the month of July, to assess and levy without regard to any vote thereon, in each of their respective districts, that is to say ; in each of the school districts in New Castle county the sum of one hundred dollars; in each of the school districts in Kent county the sum of one hundred dollars, and in each of the school districts in Sussex county, the sum of sixty dollars, to be applied to the support of the schools of their districts respectively.
A copy of the assessment list shall be posted in some public and suitable place of the district for inspection; and the committee shall, by advertisement in at least five public places in the district, give notice that said list is posted, and where; and of the day, hour and place (not less than five days thereafter), of their sittings to hear objections to it. Upon such hearing, the said committee shall make all such just corrections, and add anything omitted. The committee may adjourn if necessary.
The list, when settled, shall be conclusive, and shall stand until the next assessment in the district when a new list shall be made for each school district. And every year the committee shall make proper additions and alterations in case of other persons or property becoming assessable, or omitted, or in case of death or removal.
The proceedings of the committee shall not be questioned except for fraud or corruption.
The several school committees selected shall, annually, on oath or affirmation, revise and adjust the assessments of rental values in their respective districts so as to make them bear a due proportion to each other, having regard to their productiveness to their several owners.
As soon as said assessments have been so adjusted, it shall be the duty of the clerks of the several districts to direct a letter to the address of each non-resident whose rental valuation has been assessed in any district, stating the amount of his or her rental valuation in any of said districts, and the day and hour when the school committee will sit as a Court of Appeal to hear any objections that may be made to said assessments.
SECTION 19 . All the provisions of Section 18 of this act concerning the making of assessment list, shall apply to the several school committees to be elected in the several districts for colored schools, to be laid out and created under the provisions of this act, except that the word "colored" shall, in regard to said committees for said colored schools, be deemed and taken to be inserted in the place and stead of the word "white," where the latter word appears in said Section 18; and except further, that the sum to be raised by said committee for said districts for colored schools by levy and assessment in each of said districts without regard to any vote thereon, shall be the sum of fifty dollars for each district situated and being in either of the counties of New Castle and Kent, and the sum of thirty dollars for each district situated and being in the county of Sussex instead of the several stuns or amounts specified in said Section.
SECTION 20. Upon the completion of the assessment and levy of the school tax in the school districts in this State by the respective school committees, as provided in Sections 18 and 19, each school committee shall determine the rate on every hundred dollars of the amount of the assessment list required to raise the stun levied with ten per centum added thereto for delinquencies and costs of collection. After determining the rate as aforesaid, it shall and may be lawful for each of said school committees to accept and receive the tax of each and every person liable to pay the same, who shall tender the payment thereof before the tenth day of August in the year in which said tax shall be levied, and the committee shall allow to every person so paying his tax within said time, an abatement of eight per cent. upon said tax.
It shall be the duty of each of said school committees, on the tenth day of August in each year, or as soon thereafter as practicable, to execute and deliver its warrant with duplicate of the uncollected assessment list to a collector specially appointed by the school committee or to the collector of county taxes for the hundred or districts in which said school districts may be situated and the said collector shall be, and he is hereby required to accept the same and collect the taxes thereon assessed.
To execute said warrant, the said collector shall proceed in the manner, and have all the powers of a collector of county taxes ; and it shall be and may be lawful for any school tax collector, after demand made by him for the payment of the tax assessed against any inhabitant of the school district for which he is collector, and the failure of said taxable to pay the same on said demand, to give written notice to any person residing in the county wherein said district is located, whom he may suppose to have in his possession any goods, or chattels, rights or credits, moneys or wages belonging or owing to said taxable, stating the amount of taxes due from said delinquent taxable; and if the person so served with notice shall fail to deliver such goods and chattels, or to pay so much money or wages in his possession as shall satisfy said school tax due from said delinquent said collector may proceed by suit in the name of the school district before any Justice of the Peace in said county, against any person so notified as aforesaid, and recover against him a judgment for the amount of said tax of said delinquent with costs, or for so much thereof as may be equal to the value of the goods and chattels, rights and credits, moneys and wages in his hands at the time of service of said notice or any time between then and the rendition of said judgment.
The warrant aforesaid may be in the following form:
"School district No. ……………… in ………………. County, ………………… County, ss.
The State of Delaware : To the collector of ………………………………………………
We command you to collect from the respective persons named in the annexed duplicate, the rate of …………. on every hundred dollars of the amount with which they respectively stand assessed, according to said duplicate; and if any of said persons shall not, in ten days after demand pay the sum which you are required to collect from him, you are authorized to proceed in the manner, and use all the means provided by law for the collection of county rates.
Given under the hands and seals of the subscribers, members of the school committee of the district- aforesaid, the …………... day of ………. , A. D., ……..."
If any collector of a hundred or of a district refuse to receive and execute a warrant directed to him as aforesaid, he shall forfeit and pay to the school district affected the sum of one hundred dollars.
The executor, or administrator, of a collector, may execute to the warrant, and shall have all his powers.
The oath of the collector, or of his executor or administrator, shall be competent evidence of the demand; and no demand shall be necessary in case of a non-resident of the district.
If a person, liable to pay a rate, removes from the district, or dies without payment, it shall be deemed a debt due the collector, and may be recovered by suit before a Justice of the Peace. Any collector appointed as aforesaid, or to whom a warrant has been directed as aforesaid shall within thirty days after receiving the warrant, pay to the school committee the amount which he is required to collect, deducting delinquencies to be allowed by them, and his fees, at the rate of ten per cent. on the sum collected when it does not exceed fifty dollars, and eight per cent, when it exceeds that sum and every collector of a hundred or district, and his sureties, by virtue of his official bond, shall be liable thereof for every failure of duty and default in the premises; which bond shall be proceeded on at the instance of the school committee of the district aforesaid. If any collector shall neglect to pay a school committee the money collected by him on the warrant of its members, and due, such a committee may, if the amount does not exceed two hundred dollars, sue him in the name of the district before a Justice of the Peace, and recover the same.
SECTION 21. All public school grounds and all public school buildings and appurtenances, maintained at public expense, within this State, shall be exempt from county, town, municipal, water, street, sewer, and all other taxes.
SECTION 22. The schools in the districts for white schools shall be free for all the white children of the district and the schools in the districts for colored schools shall be free for all the colored children of the district of six years of age or over; provided, that any district in the State, including those incorporated, and including the City of Wilmington, may establish a kindergarten, which shall or may be free for all the white or colored children as the case may be of the district of the age of four years or over.
No discrimination against any taxable of any district shall be made by the school committee of the district, by a rate, charge, or apportionment, based upon the attendance at the schools of the district of the child or children of such taxable.
SECTION 22 ½: Each school committee of the trustees of each school district or districts in the State, outside the City of Wilmington, shall furnish the necessary text books free to all the pupils, including colored children, enrolled in the free public schools of the State, in the manner following:
The school commissioners or trustees shall order from the publisher or publishers the books which have been adopted by the State Board of Education for use in the free schools of the State, at the net contract prices at which the publishers have agreed to supply the same, as follows
There shall be a blank order book prepared by the State Treasurer for the use of the school commissioners, which shall contain duplicate order blanks, with a printed list of the books which have been adopted by the State Board of Education, and the net contract prices at which the publishers agree to furnish the same.
Duplicate orders shall be filled out and signed by at least two of the school commissioners, or, in case of united or incorporated districts, by the president and secretary of the school board, one of these orders shall be forwarded to the State Treasurer to be forwarded to the publisher or publishers, and the other shall be kept as a stub in the order book as a voucher.
The State Treasurer, on receipt of an order or orders from the school commissioners, shall make an entry of the amount of the order or orders against the district or districts in a book kept for that purpose, and shall forward the order or orders at once to the publisher or publishers, requesting them, on receipt of the order or orders, to ship the books as directed at the contract prices named, and send duplicate invoices or bills for the same, one to the State Treasurer and the other to the clerk of the district to which the books are consigned.
The State Treasurer shall pay the publisher or publishers out of the school fund of the State for books thus supplied, and charge the amounts so paid to the respective districts ordering said books, and deduct the same from the amount to which such district or districts may be entitled as in this provided. The State Treasurer shall pay no bills for at least thirty days from the time any such are rendered, in order that he may be notified by the school commissioners of any error or failure on the part of the publishers to supply the books as ordered and directed, or as billed.
It shall be the duty of the clerk of each school district or districts to distribute the books received, as aforesaid, to the scholars of the district or districts, or their parents, guardians, or other persons as they may desire, upon receipt for the same.
The clerk of the district or districts shall be responsible for the safe keeping of the books furnished him as aforesaid, and also for prices of books sold, as hereinafter provided, to parents, guardians, scholars or other persons. Any money, or the value of the books which such clerk shall fail to account for according to law, may be recovered in the name of the State by the County Superintendent before a Justice of the Peace, as other accounts, when the amount not exceed the sum of two hundred dollars. The said clerk shall, at the expiration of his term of office, turn over to his successor in office, all books on hand, and take a receipt for the same which shall be his voucher in settlement.
It shall be the duty of the school commissioners to provide for the safe keeping and care of the books which shall be returned by the pupils at the close of the annual school term to the clerk of the district, or to such other person as the school commissioners shall designate. They shall also keep a separate account of the amount expended for books, and shall report it under a separate item in the animal settlement required aforesaid.
The school commissioners may furnish books at cost to pupils who wish to replace the books lost or willfully destroyed, or who may wish to own their books ; and shall return the proceeds of all such sales into the school fund of the district, and report the amount at the time of the annual settlement with the State Auditor aforesaid.
It shall be the duty of every teacher in the free public schools of the State, to make out and hand to the commissioners of the district, at the end of each quarter, a report setting forth the whole number of pupils attending the schools during the quarter, designating whether male or female, the number of days each has attended, and an inventory of the books in the school belonging to the district, stating by whom such books are held, their condition, and the number of, and by whom books have been destroyed, until such report shall have been made, it shall not be lawful for the commissioners to pay such teacher his salary. The reports made in pursuance herewith shall be forwarded annually, in the month of April, by the clerks of the several districts to the county superintendent for the proper county.
The State Treasurer shall be allowed five hundred dollars annually for postage, stationery, clerical assistance, and the like to carry out the provisions of this Section, and is authorized to pay out of the general fund of the State, the amount necessary to print order books sufficient to supply one to each district in the State.
SECTION 23. The general superintendance of all the free public schools in each of the counties of this State shall be vested in a superintendent of schools for each county.
On the second Tuesday in July, A. D., 1898, the Governor shall appoint one suitable person to be Superintendent of Schools for Kent county, and one suitable person to be- superintendent of Schools for Sussex county, whose terms of office shall expire on the second Tuesday in February, A. D., 1899, the Governor shall appoint a suitable person to be Superintendent of Schools for each of the counties of the State, whose term of office shall be for two years, or until his successor is duly qualified, and such appointment be made biennially thereafter and whose duties shall begin on the second Tuesday of July following his appointment. He shall be entitled to a salary of one thousand dollars, payable quarterly, for each year that he continues to hold said office.
He shall be a person of good moral character and well qualified mentally and morally to perform the duties of his office. He must have had at least twenty months' experience as a teacher ; must at the time of his appointment hold a certificate of graduation from sonic reputable college, or normal school, or an unexpired certificate of the highest grade granted to teachers in this State ; and must become a resident of the county for which he is appointed, after such appointment, and must continue a resident therein during his term of office.
He shall not, during his term of office, engage in any other profession or vocation ; nor shall he have the right to constitute deputy or deputies to perform any of the duties, herein assigned to him.
It shall be the duty of each of the said superintendents to advise with the teachers in all the free schools under his supervision, and to strive to assist them in their tasks ; to see that unproved methods of instruction and discipline are introduced in the schools, and to create a general interest in, and give a clearer knowledge to the people of his county, of schools and school systems. To this end, he shall visit each school in his county at least once in every year, each visit to be of at least two hours' duration ; to attend at each stated meeting of the County School Commission of his county, and at each stated meeting. of the State Board of Education, and make such report concerning his work and the condition of the schools as the said commission or State Board shall require. He shall execute all such reasonable orders as the State Board of Education shall give him ; shall make the collection of and report concerning school statistics in his county, a special part of his work ; and generally, shall do all matters and things proper and necessary for the interest and advancement of education in the free public schools of his county.
Each of said superintendents shall have power to suspend and withdraw any teacher's certificate upon his refusal to comply with the reasonable directions made to such teacher by the said superintendent, subject to the right of appeals as hereinbefore provided. He shall note in a book, to be kept for that purpose, the number of scholars, the condition of the school buildings, grounds and appurtenances, the qualifications of the teachers, the conduct and the standing of the scholars, the methods of instruction, and the discipline and government of each school ; such book must be delivered by him at least once in every year to the County School Commission of his county, at one of its stated meetings, and to the State Board of Education at one of its stated meetings, for inspection and reference, and may be called for by either of said bodies at any time.
Each of said superintendents shall frame a set or sets of examination papers lien and as often as he shall be directed so to do by the State Board of Education ; and shall compile a list of text books when so directed by said State Board. He shall conduct the examinations of all teachers in his county ; the time and place for such examination or examinations to be fixed by him in conformity with the directions of the State Board of Education, or, if no such directions be given, to be determined by said superintendent, having due regard to the convenience of the teachers and the schools; such examination to be free to all, provided, that separate examinations for applicants to teach in schools for colored children shall be maintained. He shall make and sign a certificate of each person passing such examination as hereinafter provided, and he may countersign the certificate of a teacher made and signed by a County Superintendent in one of the counties of the State other than his own, which certificate so countersigned, shall entitle the holder to teach in his county; and shall hold and attend the Teachers’ Institute in his county once in every year as hereinafter provided.
SECTION 24. Every person who is of good moral character, and who shall answer, at the examination given by the Superintendent for free schools as hereinbefore provided, ninety per centum of the questions asked in orthography, reading, writing, mental arithmetic, written arithmetic, geography, physiology and hygiene, with special reference to the effects of alcoholic stimulants and narcotics upon the human system, history of the United States, the Federal and State Constitutions, pedagogy, and English grammar ; and seventy-five per centum of the questions asked in algebra, geometry, physics, natural philosophy and elements of rhetoric, and seventy-five per centum of the questions asked upon such other branches and subjects as the State Board of Education shall direct to be included in such examinations ; shall receive from tie superintendent a professional certificate, which shall be good for years, unless sooner revoked as hereinbefore provided.
Every person who is of good moral character, and who shall in examination, answer ninety per centum of the questions asked in orthography, reading, writing, mental arithmetic, written arithmetic, geography, physiology and hygiene, with special reference to the effects of alcoholic stimulants and narcotics, upon the human system, history of the United States, the Federal and the State Constitutions, pedagogy and English grammar, and seventy-five per cent of all the questions asked on such other subjects or branches as the State Board of Education shall direct to be included in the examination ; shall receive from the superintendent a first grade certificate, which shall be good for years unless revoked as aforesaid.
If any person shall fail to answer ninety per centum of the questions asked in the branches specified for first grade certificates, but shall answer at least seventy-five per centum thereof, and shall also answer seventy-five per centum of all the questions upon the other subjects or branches directed by the State Board as aforesaid, he shall receive from the superintendent a second grade certificate, which shall be good for one year, unless revoked as aforesaid.
Any person who shall fail to answer seventy-five per cent of all the questions upon all the branches or subjects necessary for second grade certificates, but shall answer at least sixty per cent thereof, shall receive from the superintendent a provisional certificate which shall be good for one year, unless revoked as aforesaid; provided, however, that not more than one such provisional certificate shall ever be issued to any one applicant or person.
Every teacher in the free public schools in the State, including those employed in incorporated districts, shall attend at each day's session of the Teachers' Institute held in the county in which he is employed, unless excused from so doing by the committee or I3oard of Education employing him, and no such excuse shall or may be given except for sufficient cause. No committee or Board of Education shall make any reduction or deduction in the salary of a teacher on account of absence from school while attending such institute.
The salaries of teachers in the free public schools of the State shall be paid quarterly at least.
Every teacher in the free public schools in the State shall, annually, make and send to the State Board of Education, through any of its members, during the month of May in each year, a statement of the number of pupils in attendance in his school, and the number of full days in attendance by each pupil, and the number of children, according to his best estimate, residing in the district, over the age of four years, not attending any school whatever, how many full days the school in which he teaches has been open and ready for the instruction of pupils during the year, and how often, and for what length of time, the school was visited during the year by each member of the committee or Board of Education of the district, and by the county superintendent. Such statement shall be verified by the affidavit of the teacher making it, before any Justice of the Peace of the county ; the fees of the Justice in such matter shall be a debt of the district, and shall be paid accordingly. In the case of graded schools, the principal alone may make the statement.
A copy of said statement shall also be transmitted by every school teacher as aforesaid and at the time aforesaid, to County School Commission of the proper county, through any of its members.
It shall be the duty of the County School Commission, and also the State Board of Education, to report the neglect, omission or failure on the part of any teacher in any district including incorporated districts, to make the statement at the time and in the manner aforesaid, to the proper superintendent, and thereupon the said superintendent shall have the power, and it shall be his duty, to suspend the certificate of such teacher until a complete and correct statement as aforesaid shall have been made by such teacher.
In case any applicant for a certificate shall be refused one by the county superintendent on the ground that the said applicant has failed to answer the per cent of the questions asked in the examination, as hereinbefore in this section provided, such applicant shall, if he desires to appeal to either the State Board of Education or the proper County School Commission, have the right to require that said superintendent shall exhibit a copy of the questions submitted at such examination, together with the answers given by said applicant, when such answers were written ; provided, that the appeal be made at the stated meeting next following said examination.
SECTION 25. It shall be the duty of the superintendent of free schools for each county ill the State, to hold in his county a Teachers' Institute for the teachers in the free public schools for white children under his supervision, at least once in every year, and of at least three days' session.
To defray the expenses of the said institute, the State Treasurer shall, upon the draft of the county superintendent, pay to the said superintendent, out of the general fund of the State, one hundred and fifty dollars to be expended by the said superintendent for the institute in his county, and for no other purpose.
It shall be the duty of the said superintendent to be present at each day's session of the institute in his county, and to do all in his power to inform the teachers under his superintendence, by Ins own advice and suggestions, and by the advice and suggestions of professional educators whose services he can secure, of the most unproved and advanced systems of instruction and discipline.
Each of said superintendents shall, during the year, appear before the State Auditor and make settlement with him of all the moneys so expended by him for the institute in his county, and shall pay over to him all unexpended balances in his hands.
The State Auditor shalt-issue to the County Superintendent for Kent county, in the month of October in every year a warrant for the payment of the sum of one hundred dollars for the support and maintenance of the Delaware Colored Teachers' State Institute.
The State Treasurer shall pay, out of the general fund of the state, to the said superintendent the said sum of one hundred dollars upon the presentation of the warrant of the State Auditor aforesaid.
The said superintendent for Kent county shall, out of the money so in his hands from the State appropriation, pay all accounts of the said institute certified to him as correct by the president and secretary thereof, the same having been first duly audited by the finance committee of the said institute; provided, that the said amount shall not exceed the said sum of one hundred dollars.
As soon as possible after the close of the said institute, the said superintendent shall present his accounts and vouchers to the State Auditor for settlement and pay over any unexpended balance of said appropriation to the State Treasurer.
SECTION 26. The State Auditor shall between the first day of July and the first day of September in each year, settle the accounts of all the school committees of the State. For this purpose, every such committee shall, under penalty of forfeiting to the district twenty-five dollars for neglect, appear with its accounts and vouchers before him when he shall attend in the county for that purpose, whereof he shall give notice.. He may compel them, by attachment, to appear and settle. .The settlement shall show how long school was kept in the district, the compensation of the teacher, and the number of scholars ; the sum raised, the sum drawn, and the sum expended ; all of which shall be stated in the Auditor's report to the General Assembly.
In case any school committee shall have failed or neglected to make proper returns upon the blank forms furnished it by auditor the State Board of Education as provided in this act, or in case the schools in the districts for which the committee acts have not been kept open for the time specified in Section 15 of this act, the Auditor shall refuse to settle the accounts of such committee ; and if, in consequence, settlement of any account shall not be made during his attendance for that purpose, the school committee shall incur the forfeiture by this Section provided, and there shall be the same liabilities and consequences as if it had failed to appear.
If any committee shall fail to appear and settle with the Auditor, or if, on such settlement, it appears that it, or any of its members, has misapplied, or does not account for the money received by it, or with which it is chargeable, the Auditor shall make known the facts by letter, addressed to the chairman and secretary of the last stated meeting.
SECTION 27. The money appropriated by the General Assembly for the benefit of the free public schools, for each year together with the income of the investments of the public school fund it as constituted by law at the time of the passage of this act, shall constitute the school fund for the year.
The State Treasurer shall, by virtue of and during continuance of, his office, be the trustee of the School
and shall annually in the month of September apportion said fund among the several counties of this State, and distribute each county’s share of said apportionment among the school districts of the county; such apportionment and such distribution to be made in the manner and according the same rules as prescribed and provided for the apportionment of the school funded by the laws of this State, which were in force and operation at the time of the passage of this act, except special acts or parts of acts, referring to the distribution of the school fund to particular districts and such laws so far as they affect the apportionment and distribution of the school fund, shall be, and are hereby continued in full force and operation; the amount appropriated by the General Assembly to be apportioned and distributed in the same manner as the fees for licenses, forming a part of the old school fund were apportioned and distributed prior to the passage of this act. Provided, however, that in the distribution of each county’s share of said school fund, among the school districts of the county, no discrimination shall be made between the districts for white schools and the districts for colored schools to be created and laid out under the provisions of this act, but each (of said districts for colored schools shall be deemed and taken by said Trustee of the School fund to be on the same basis and entitled to the same provisions as any district for white schools in the same county. The distribution by the Trustee of the School Fund to several school districts as aforesaid, shall be in the following manner: He shall place the amount due the respective districts to the credit of the said respective districts in the Farmers’ Bank of each of the counties in which the districts are severally situated; he shall then furnish the commissioners or Board of Education of each single, united and incorporated district with blank drafts, numbered consecutively, in the following form:
School District No. ……………………………… County, Delaware.
The Farmers' Bank of the State of Delaware pay to ……………… or order ………….. dollars, being salary due the payee, as teacher, for the ending the day of A. D., 18 …… . Charge same to the amount of School District No. ……….. County.
Commissioners of District No. ………… County . ………………
Clerk of District No. …………… County.
The money thus deposited in the Farmers' Bank of the Drawing State of Delaware to the credit of the respective districts, shall be drawn out only upon the presentation of drafts as aforesaid, made payable to the teacher of the school of the district, signed by a majority of the commissioners or Board of Education, as the case may be, attested by the clerk of the district, and endorsed by the teacher to whose order it is made payable. Such drafts made by the commissioners as aforesaid, shall be for the salary due the teacher, and for no other purpose ; but no teacher employed in any free school in any single district that is not incorporated in this State, shall be paid from the school funds of this State apportioned to the district and deposited as aforesaid, a salary exceeding thirty five dollars per month.
It shall be the duty of the Trustee of the School Fund, in making the apportionment among the school districts as money left hereinbefore provide, in the month of September in every year to ascertain from the settlements of the State Auditor with the several districts of this State, made in the months of July and August receding, as hereinbefore provided, the amount or amounts of money each district may have in hand that has been received from the State, and raised by taxation as required by act, and is unexpended at the end of the school year next preceding. He shall then deduct and retain from the sums or apportionments to which such districts are respectively entitled in the distribution of the school fund of the State, amounts equal to that which, from the State Auditor's settlements aforesaid, appear to be respectively unexpended in the hands of the commissioners or clerks of the districts aforesaid, and place the 'balance of the apportionments or amount to which, the districts are respectively entitled as aforesaid to the credit of the said districts in the manner provided elsewhere in this act. Provided, however, that should any district raise by taxation more money than that district is by this act required to raise in order to he entitled to receive its apportionment of the school fund aforesaid, such amount that is in excess of the amount required by this act to be raised by taxation as aforesaid, shall not be charged against or be deducted from the apportionment for such district, but the amount so in excess as aforesaid, shall be retained by the districts raising the same, to be therein applied. The amounts retained by the trustee of the school fund, and deducted as aforesaid from the apportionment of the districts having in hand money unexpended at the end of the year, in excess of the amounts required to be raised by taxation aforesaid, shall be by said trustee of the school fund placed to the credit of the county in which the districts having moneys unexpended as aforesaid are respectively situated, and be reapportioned among the districts of the county entitled thereto
No school districts in this State shall be entitled to share in the apportionment of the school fund for any year, nor shall the trustee of the school fund deposit any amount during the year to said district's credit as hereinbefore provided, unless it shall appear from the settlement of the school committee of such district with the Auditor then next preceding the fine of such apportionment, that said district has raised by taxation or subscription, the sum of one hundred dollars, if said district is situated in either of the counties of New Castle or Kent, or sixty dollars, if said district is situated in the county of Sussex; in the case of districts for white schools or fifty dollars if said district is situated in either of said counties of New Castle or Kent; or the sum of thirty dollars if said district is situated in said county of Sussex, in the case of districts for colored schools.
SECTION 28. Nothing in this act shall be deemed or taken to prevent the re-appointment or re-election of any school officer mentioned in this act.
SECTION 29. All the provisions of the school laws of this State which were in force and operation at the time of the passage of this act, providing penalties and forfeitures for the non-feasance, misfeasance or malfeasance of any person whomsoever, shall and are hereby continued in full force and operation so far as to apply to any such non-doing, mis-doing, or wrong-doing occurring prior to the passage of this act.
SECTION 30 . All the provisions of this act where not inconsistent with the provisions of the several acts incorporating the respective incorporated districts in this State, shall apply to such incorporated districts in this State, shall apply to such incorporated districts; and where any provision of this act is expressly made applicable to incorporated districts, such provisions shall apply to such districts, whether inconsistent or not.
SECTION 31. None of the provisions of this act shall be deemed or taken to affect or in anywise alter the rights, privileges and immunities belonging, at the time of the passage of this act, to the free schools in the City of Wilmington, including those for colored children in said city.
SECTION 32. All acts and parts of acts vesting in the school committees, trustees or boards of education of certain particular school districts the power to raise and collect, without regard to any vote thereon, amounts in excess of those provided by this act, are hereby continued in full force and operation.
SECTION 33. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed.
Approved May 12, A. D. 1898.