according to the provisions of chapter sixty-eight, so far as the same may be applicable, and may hold real and personal estate to an amount not exceeding five thousand dollars in addition to the value of their books. SECT. 11. Upon application of five or more of such proprietors, a Warning meetjustice of the peace may issue his warrant to one of them, directing him ing, choice of officers, &c. to call a meeting of the proprietors, at the time and place and for the R. S. 41, §§ 1, 2. purposes expressed in the warrant. The meeting shall be called by posting up the substance of the warrant in some public place in the town where the library is kept, seven days at least before the time of the meeting; at which, if not less than seven of the proprietors meet, they may choose a president, a clerk who shall be sworn, a librarian, collector, treasurer, and such other officers as they may deem necessary; and may determine upon the mode of calling future meetings. SECT. 12. The treasurer shall give bond with sufficient sureties, to Treasurer to the satisfaction of the proprietors, for the faithful discharge of his duties. . . 41, 4. R. S. §4. SECT. 13. Such proprietors may, by assessments on the several shares, Assessments. raise such money as they judge necessary for the purposes of preserving, R. S. 41, § 5. enlarging, and using, the library. CHAPTER 39.- Of School Districts. CHAPTER 40.- Of School Registers and Returns. CHAPTER 41.-Of the Attendance of Children in the Schools. CHAPTER 42.- Of the Employment of Children and Regulations respecting them. stracts of returns, and report, to legisla- may appoint secretary, who shall make ab- Board of educa ganized; term of members; vacancies. SECTION 6. Secretary shall give notice and attend meet- 7. shall send blank forms and reports to 8. Compensation of secretary, and expenses of office. SECTION 9. Board may appoint agents to make inquiry, &c. 10. Expenses of board, how paid. 11. Assistant state librarian may act as clerk. SECTION 1. The board of education shall consist of the governor and tion, how or lieutenant-governor, and eight persons appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the council, each to hold office eight years from the time of his appointment, one retiring each year in the order of appointment; and the governor, with the advice and consent of the council, shall fill all vacancies in the board which may occur from death, resignation, or otherwise. 1837, 241, § 1. may take grants, &c., in frust for educational purposDuty of treas es, &c. urer. 1850, 88. shall pre scribe form of school registers returns, &c. and blanks for 1837, 241, $62, 3. 1838, 105, §§5-7. 1846, 223, § 3. 1849, 209. may appoint shall make abstracts, &c. 1837, 241, § 2. 1847, 183, § 1. 1849, 215, § 1. Secretary shall suggest improvements,&c. 1849, 215, § 1. 1858, 61. SECT. 2. The board may take and hold to it and its successors, in trust for the commonwealth, any grant or devise of lands, and any donation or bequest of money or other personal property, made to it for educational purposes; and shall forth with pay over to the treasurer of the commonwealth, for safe keeping and investment, all money and other personal property so received. The treasurer shall from time to time invest all such money in the name of the commonwealth, and shall pay to the board, on the warrant of the governor, the income or principal thereof, as it shall from time to time require; but no disposition shall be made of any devise, donation, or bequest, inconsistent with the conditions or terms thereof. For the faithful management of all prop erty so received by the treasurer he shall be responsible upon his bond to the commonwealth, as for other funds received by him in his official capacity. SECT. 3. The board shall prescribe the form of registers to be kept in the schools, and the form of the blanks and inquiries for the returns to be made by school committees; shall annually on or before the third Wednesday of January lay before the legislature an annual report containing a printed abstract of said returns, and a detailed report of all the doings of the board, with such observations upon the condition and efficiency of the system of popular education, and such suggestions as to the most practicable means of improving and extending it, as the experience and reflection of the board dictate. SECT. 4. The board may appoint its own secretary, who, under its secretary, who direction, shall make the abstract of school returns required by section three; collect information respecting the condition and efficiency of the public schools and other means of popular education; and diffuse as widely as possible throughout the commonwealth information of the best system of studies and method of instruction for the young, that the best education which public schools can be made to impart may be secured to all children who depend upon them for instruction. ŠECT. 5. The secretary shall suggest to the board and to the legis lature, improvements in the present system of public schools; visit, as often as his other duties will permit, different parts of the commonwealth for the purpose of arousing and guiding public sentiment in relation to the practical interests of education; collect in his office such school-books, apparatus, maps, and charts, as can be obtained without expense to the commonwealth; receive and arrange in his office the reports and returns of the school committees; and receive, preserve, or distribute, the state documents in relation to the public school system. SECT. 6. He shall, under the direction of the board, give sufficient notice and attend tice of, and attend such meetings of teachers of public schools, members of the school committees of the several towns, and friends of education generally in any county, as may voluntarily assemble at the time and place designated by the board; and shall at such meetings devote himself to the object of collecting information of the condition of the shall give no meetings, &c. 1838, 159, § 1. 1812, 42. public schools of such county, of the fulfilment of the duties of their office by members of the school committees of all the towns and cities, and of the circumstances of the several school districts in regard to teachers, pupils, books, apparatus, and methods of education, to enable him to furnish all information desired for the report of the board required in section three. Secretary shall send forms and clerks, &c. reports to town 1850, 41. of secretary, SECT. 7. He shall send the blank forms of inquiry, the school registers, the annual report of the board, and his own annual report, to the clerks of the several towns and cities as soon as may be after they are ready for distribution. SECT. 8. He shall receive from the treasury, in quarterly payments Compensation an annual salary of two thousand dollars, and his necessary travelling and expenses expenses incurred in the performance of his official duties after they of office. have been audited and approved by the board; and all postages and 1853, 49. other necessary expenses arising in his office, shall be paid out of the treasury in the same manner as those of the different departments of the government. make inquiry, SECT. 9. The board may appoint one or more suitable agents to visit Board may apthe several towns and cities for the purpose of inquiring into the condi- point agents to tion of the schools, conferring with teachers and committees, lecturing &c. upon subjects connected with education, and in general of giving and 22. receiving information upon subjects connected with education, in the same manner as the secretary might do if he were present. paid. SECT. 10. The incidental expenses of the board, and the expenses of Expenses of the members thereof incurred in the discharge of their official duties, board, how shall be paid out of the treasury, their accounts being first audited and 1838, 55. allowed. SECT. 11. The assistant librarian of the state library shall act when Clerk. necessary as clerk of the board. 1849, 155, § 1 SECTION 1. When the board of education is satisfied that fifty Teachers' institeachers of public schools desire to unite in forming a teachers' institute, tutes, meetings it shall, by a committee of its body, or by its secretary, or in case of his 1846, 99, § 1. inability by such person as it may delegate, appoint and give notice of 1848, 12. a time and place for such meeting, and make suitable arrangements therefor. SECT. 2. To defray the necessary expenses and charges, and procure teachers and lecturers for such institutes, the governor may draw his warrant upon the treasurer for a sum not exceeding three thousand dollars per annum, to be taken from that portion of the income of the school fund not apportioned for distribution to the several cities and towns for the support of public schools. SECT. 3. The board may determine the length of time during which a teachers' institute shall remain in session, and what portion, not exceeding three hundred and fifty dollars, of the sum provided for in the preceding section shall be appropriated to meet the expenses of any 1849, 62. expenses of, how, paid 1846, 99, §§ 2, 3. length of, and 1846, 99, § 2. 1849, 62. expense. 1852, 216. When meetings sociations to re such institute; and the board, its secretary, or any person by it duly appointed, may draw upon the treasurer therefor. SECT. 4. When a county association of teachers and others holds held, county as- semi-annual meetings, of not less than two days each, for the express ceive $50 a year. purpose of promoting the interests of public schools, it shall receive fifty dollars a year from the commonwealth. 1818, 301, § 1. To be paid on eertificate, &c. 1818, 301, § 2. SECT. 5. Upon the certificate under oath of the president and secretary of such association to the governor that two semi-annual meetings have been held in accordance with the provisions of the preceding sec tion, he shall draw his warrant in favor of such association for the sum aforesaid. School fund, how invested. Income only to be used. R. S. 11, §§ 13, 14. SECTION 1. The present school fund of this commonwealth, together with such additions as may be made thereto, shall constitute a permanent fund, to be invested by the treasurer with the approbation of the governor and council, and called the "Massachusetts School Fund;" 1854, 300, §§ 2, 3, the principal of which shall not be diminished, and the income of which, including the interest on notes and bonds taken for sales of Maine lands and belonging to said fund, shall be appropriated as hereinafter provided. 4. Income, how how apportioned for schools. When towns are not entitled to share. R. S. 23, §§ 66, 67. 1846, 223, § 5. SECT. 2. One-half of the annual income of said fund shall be apportioned and distributed for the support of public schools without a specific appropriation. All money appropriated for other educational purposes, unless otherwise provided by the act appropriating the same, shall be paid from the other half of said income so long as it shall be sufficient for that purpose. If insufficient, the excess of such appropriations in any year shall be paid from any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. If the income in any year exceeds such appropriations for the year, the surplus shall be added to the principal of said fund. SECT. 3. The income of the school fund appropriated by the preceding section to the support of public schools, which may have accrued upon the first day of June of each year, shall be apportioned by the secretary and treasurer, and on the tenth day of July be paid over by the treasurer to the treasurers of the several towns and cities for the use of the public schools, according to the number of persons therein 1849, 117, §§ 2, 3. between the ages of five and fifteen years, ascertained and certified as provided in sections three and four of chapter forty. But no such apportionment shall be made to a town or city which has not complied with the provisions of sections five and six of said chapter, or which has not raised by taxation for the support of schools during the school year embraced in the last annual returns, including only wages and board of teachers, fuel for the schools, and care of fires and school-rooms, a sum not less than one dollar and fifty cents for each person between the ages of five and fifteen years belonging to said town or city on the first day of May of said school year. ceived by SECT. 4. The income of the school fund received by the several Income recities and towns shall be applied by the school committees thereof to towns, how apthe support of the public schools therein, but said committees may, if plied. they see fit, appropriate therefrom any sum, not exceeding twenty-five per cent. of the same, to the purchase of books of reference, maps, and apparatus for the use of said schools. Account to be 1838, 154. 35. SECT. 5. On the first day of January annually, there shall be paid Appropriations out of the income of said school fund as follows, viz.: One hundred for Indians. dollars to the treasurer of the Marshpee Indians, to be applied under rendered. his direction to the support of public schools among said Indians; one R. S. 23, § 68. hundred and sixty-five dollars to the selectmen of the district of Marsh- 1853, 186, §§ 1, 2. pee, under the provisions of chapter thirty-five of the Resolves of the Resolves, 1855, year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five; sixty dollars to the trustee of the Gay Head Indians; sixty dollars to the guardian of the Indians of Christiantown and Chippequiddic; and twenty dollars to the treasurer of the Herring Pond Indians; to be applied by them in like manner to the support of public schools among said Indians; and an annual account of the appropriations of said money shall be rendered to the governor and council. INDIAN SCHOOL FUND. plied, &c. 1837, 85, § 7. SECT. 6. The income of the school fund for Indians, derived from Indian school the surplus revenue of the United States, shall be paid annually in the fund, how apmonth of March for public school purposes as follows, viz.: to the treasurer of the district of Marshpee, sixty dollars; to the guardian of the Christiantown and Chippequiddic Indians, seventy-two dollars, onehalf thereof for the benefit of said Christiantown and Chippequiddic Indians, and the other half for the benefit of the Gay Head Indians; and to the treasurer of the Herring Pond Indians, eighteen dollars. TODD NORMAL SCHOOL FUND. 1850, 63, 88. SECT. 7. The income of the Todd fund shall be paid by the treasurer Todd fund, how of the commonwealth on the warrant of the governor to the board of applied. education, to be by them applied to specific objects in connection with the normal schools not provided for by legislative appropriation. established. SECTION 1. To aid in qualifying principal teachers for the high Scholarships schools of the commonwealth, forty-eight state scholarships are estab- 1853, 193, § 1. lished. |