Allowed at polls. Board of Trustees may deem necessary to inform the voter SEC. 15. No person, other than the Board of Election or a police officer in the discharge of his duty, shall be allowed within one hundred feet of the polls, except when actually engaged in voting or in going to or from the polls for the purpose of voting or of challenging the vote of another, and excepting all persons in attendance upon any school which may be in session in the building. No person shall show his ballot to another while marking it or after marking it so as to disclose for whom he has voted, but he shall as soon as possible after marking it, fold it so that the marking will be on the inside and return it to the Board of Election to be counted. Willful violation of any of the provisions of this Misdemeanor section shall constitute a misdemeanor, punishable by fine not exceeding fifty dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding twenty-five days, or by both such fine and imprisonment. allowed. SEC. 16. No person shall receive assistance in marking Assistance his ballot unless physically unable to mark it and then only by permission of the Board of Election. A voter spoiling his ballot may procure another by delivering the spoiled ballot to the Board of Election. SEC. 17. Any registered person offering to vote may be Challenges. challenged by any elector of the district, and the Judges of Election must thereupon administer to the person challenged an oath in substance as follows: You do swear that you are a citizen of the United States; that you are twenty-one years of age; that you have resided in this State six months, and in this school district thirty days next preceding this election, and that you have not voted before this day. If he takes the oath prescribed in this section his vote shall be received, otherwise his vote must be rejected. Illegally voting under the provisions of this Act shall be punished the same as the law now provides for punishing offenses of this character. Penalty. Candidates to file their names with County Clerk. Duty of Board of Election upon completion of count. SEC. 18. In school districts having a voting population of one hundred (100) or over, candidates for the office of School Trustees shall, not later than five days before the day of election, have their names filed with the County Clerk of said county, with designation of the term of office for which they are candidates, and no names shall be placed upon the ballots unless filed within the time herein provided. [As amended Stats. 1901, p. 54.] SEC. 19. The Board of Election shall keep a poll list. and tally sheet, which, together with the registry list and all ballots cast, shall be delivered to the County Clerk upon the count being completed, and such returns shall be kept as the law now provides for keeping returns of general elections. ARTICLE VI. BOARDS OF TRUSTEES OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS. SECTION 1. It shall be the duty of the Trustees, a majority To appo of whom shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of a Clerk. business, to meet as soon as practicable after taking the oath of office, at such place as may be most convenient in the district, and to organize by appointing one of their number Clerk of the Board, who shall preside at the official meetings of the Trustees, and record their proceedings in a book to be provided for the purpose; and all such proceedings, when so recorded, shall be signed by said Clerk. Said book shall at all times be subject to the inspection of any taxpayer in the district; and said Clerk shall cause full minutes of the proceedings of each session of the Board to be published in some newspaper having general circulation in the district; provided, that such publication can be had without expense to the district. In districts having a school population of three hundred or more the Clerk of the Board of Trustees may Clerk allowed receive such salary as said Board may allow; provided, that salary. such salary shall not exceed ten dollars per month. SEC. 2. Each Board of Public School Trustees shall con- Duties stitute a body corporate, and shall have care and custody of defined. all school property within their district. They shall have power to convey by deed all the estate or interest of their district in any school house or site directed to be sold by vote of the district. It shall be their duty, directed by a vote of their district, to build, purchase or hire school houses for the use of the district, and also, without such vote, to cause any needed repairs of the same, when the expense of such repairs will not exceed five hundred dollars, and to supply school houses with necessary furniture, fixtures and fuel; provided, that no public school house shall be erected in any school district in the State until the plan of the same has been submitted to and approved by the County Superintendent of Public Schools. County Superintendents may refuse to draw their warrants in payment of expenses incurred in disregard of this provision. Trustees shall cause to be erected such outhouses as decency requires, and in case of failure or neglect in this particular, it shall be the duty of the County Superintendent to cause the work to be done, and to pay for the same out of the funds belonging to the delinquent district. All conveyances of real estate made to the Board of School Trustees shall be in their name corporate and to their successors in office. SEC. 3. No Trustee shall be pecuniarily interested in any contract made by the Board of Trustees of which he is a member; provided, that [in] any school district in this State which, at the last school census taken in the year 1894 by the School Census Marshal in said district, had an enumeration of not less than one hundred and fifty school census Board of purchase supplies. children, and not exceeding four hundred resident within such district, or any district which may in the future have an enumeration of not less than one hundred and fifty school census children, and not exceeding four hundred, the Board of Trustees for such district may purchase supplies for such Trustees may district not exceeding in the aggregate the sum of thirty dollars in any one month from one of their number, when, in the judgment of said Board of Trustees, it would be an inconvenience not to do so, but the member from whom said supplies are purchased shall not vote upon the allowance of any bill for the same, and any contract made in violation of this section shall be null and void. [As amended Stats. 1895, p. 27.] To cause census to be taken. teachers. SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of the Trustees of each district to take, or cause to be taken, by a School Census Marshal, annually, in the month of May, an enumeration of all the children between the ages of six and eighteen years, resident within such district, and return a certified copy thereof, under oath, to the County Superintendent, on or before the first day of July next following. The Trustees shall also report the number of schools, specifying the different grades, the number of teachers, male and female; the number of children, male and female, who have attended school within the past year; the average attendance; the length of the term of the school; the compensation of teachers, male and female; the number and condition of school houses and furniture, and the estimated value thereof; the number of books in public school libraries; the text books used in schools; the value and kind of school apparatus; the amount of money raised by rate bills, district taxation and subscription for school purposes; the amount expended in erecting and furnishing school houses, and such other statistics as the Superintendent of Public Instruction may require. SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of the School Trustees to To employ employ teachers and certify to the amount due them for services to the County Superintendent, who shall draw his order on the County Auditor for a warrant on the County Treasurer for the amount; provided, that salaries of teachers shall be determined by the character of the service required, and that in no district shall there be discrimination in the matter of salary as against female teachers. Trustees may dismiss any teacher, at any time, for such reasons as they deem sufficient. They shall visit the school or schools under their charge at least once in each term, by one or more of their number, with such other persons as they may choose to invite. Duties of SEC. 6. The School Trustees shall have power, and it shall be their duty: First-To provide school houses with maps, blackboards, furniture and other necessary appendages, including library and cabinet cases, if deemed expedient, and pay for the same out of the county school moneys belonging to their district. Second-To provide books for the indigent children, and record books for the district, and to pay for the same out of the county school moneys belonging to their district. Trustees. Third-To divide the public schools within their district Duties of into infant, taught by the Froebel system, primary, grammar and high school departments, and to employ competent and legally qualified teachers for the instruction of the different departments whenever they shall deem such division into departments advisable; provided, there shall be such means for all such departments, and, if not, then in the order in which they are herein named, excepting the infant department, which shall not be considered as taking precedence of any other department; provided, also, that the infant department shall not be established in a school district having a school population of less than three hundred children. Fourth-To suspend or expel from any public school within their district, with the advice of the teachers, any pupil who will not submit to the reasonable and ordinary rules of order and discipline therein, and to exclude from school children under six years of age, when the interest of the school requires it to be done. Fifth-To apportion the School Fund among the several schools within their district in proportion to the average number of pupils attending such schools. Sixth-At the close of their official term to deliver over their books of record, and all papers, books, blanks, documents, money and all other property in their hands as such Trustees, to their successors in office, and take their receipt for the same, which receipt shall be filed with the County Superintendent. schools. SEC. 7. The School Trustees shall also have power: First-To unite two contiguous school districts in the same consolicounty or in adjoining counties, and to establish a union school dation of to be supported out of the funds belonging to their respective districts, and a school thus established shall be governed by a joint board composed of the Trustees of the combining districts. certain Second-To make arrangements with the Trustees of any adjoining district for the attendance of such children in the school of either district as may be best accommodated therein, and to transfer the school moneys due by apportionment to such children to the district in which they may attend school. The School Trustees of any district shall transfer to an Apply to adjoining district any child, together with all school moneys Counties. due by apportionment to such child, whenever the parent or guardian shall present a written request, accompanied by a written permit from the Board of School Trustees of the adjoining district. The provisions of this Act shall only apply to counties polling not less than twenty-five hundred votes at the last preceding general election. [As amended Stats. 1891, p. 99.] This may be void on account of the proviso. To keep school open six months. County school money SEC. 8. When the State and county money to which any district is entitled is not sufficient to keep a school open in such district for at least six months in each year, it is hereby made the duty of the Trustees of each district to levy, and they shall levy, a district tax upon the taxable property of such district, sufficient to raise an amount which, together with the State and county money to which such district is entitled, will keep a school open six months in each year; and such tax shall be assessed, equalized and collected in the manner prescribed for assessing, equalizing and collecting taxes voted for furnishing additional school facilities, in sections ten and eleven of this Act. The taxes so levied shall include a sum sufficient to pay the cost of assessing and collecting. SEC. 9. The Board of Trustees, or Board of Education, of each city, town and district, may use the moneys from the may be used. county school funds to purchase sites, build or rent school houses, to purchase libraries, and to pay teachers or contingent expenses, as they may deem proper. Election called on tax. Election Judges to be appointed. Tax, when payable. SEC. 10. The Board of Trustees of any school district may, when in their judgment it is advisable, call an election and submit to the qualified electors of the district the question whether a tax shall be raised to furnish additional school facilities for said district, or to keep any school or schools in such district open for a longer period than the ordinary funds will allow, or for building an additional school house or houses, or for any two or all of these purposes. Such election shall be called by posting notices in three of the most public places in the district for twenty days, and also if there be a newspaper in the county, by advertisement therein once a week for three weeks. Said notice shall contain time and place of holding the election, the amount of money proposed to be raised and the purpose or purposes for which it is intended to be used. The Trustees shall appoint three judges to conduct the election, and it shall be held in all other respects as nearly as practicable in conformity with the general election law. At such election the ballot shall contain the words, "Tax-Yes," or "Tax-No." If a majority of the votes cast are "Tax-Yes," the officers of the election shall certify the fact to the County Commissioners, together with a statement of the amount of money proposed to be raised, who shall ascertain the necessary percentage on the property of said district as shown by the last assessment made thereof after equalization, to raise the amount of money voted, and shall add it to the next county tax to be collected on the property aforesaid; and the same shall be paid into the county treasury as a special deposit in favor of said school district, to be drawn in the same manner as other school moneys; provided, if in any school district the School Trustees shall certify to the County Commissioners that the State and county money to which any district is entitled is |