OF FREE SCHOOLS. Certain tricts Nos. CHAPTER 63. OF FREE SCHOOLS. AN ACT to incorporate and enlarge School District Number go in the Town of Bridgeville, Sussex county, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met (two-thirds of each branch of the Legislature concurring herein): SECTION I. That all of School District Number 90 in lands in Dis- the town of Bridgeville, Sussex county, and all that part or 143 and 166 portion of School Districts Numbers 143 and 166 which lies District 9o. and is included within the corporate limits of the town of added to Bridgeville, and all that part or portion of School District Number 143 which includes the lands of William Gray on which he now resides, and the lands in said School District Number 143 which were purchased by the said William Gray and Philip L. Cannon, respectively, at the sale of the real estate of Loxley R. Jacobs, deceased, be and they are hereby declared incorporated into one new school district, to be known as School District Number 90, to be governed and managed by a board of public education consisting of six education. members, to be elected as hereinafter provided. Board of Board of education. Style. Purposes. Who compose the board. Powers. SECTION 2. That from and after the passage of this act there shall be established in and for School District Number 90 in the town of Bridgeville, Sussex county, a board of education, to be styled The Board of Public Education for School District No. 90 in the town of Bridgeville, Sussex county, whose design and purpose shall be the direction, management and superintendence of the public education of children, in said District Number 90, between the ages of six and twenty-one years. SECTION 3. That the following named citizens of the said district, viz: Richard W. Cannon, Mitchel Layton, David D. Palmer, Philip L. Cannon, Silas B. Hazzard and W. C. Rust, and their successors, as hereinafter provided, shall constitute the said board, and under the name and style aforesaid shall be and they are hereby created a body politic and corporate for the purpose aforesaid, and as such shall have full power and authority to devise, establish and modify, from time to time, a plan and system of education for children between the OF FREE SCHOOLS. ages aforesaid in said District Number 90 in the town of Bridgeville, Sussex county, and to superintend the same; to appoint, suspend and remove teachers, and provide school houses; to make by-laws, rules and regulations for their own By-Laws. government and for the government of the teachers and schools under their superintendence; to designate and elect Officers. officers of the said board, and to fill vacancies in any manner Vacancies. whatever caused until the next election for members of the board, and to take and acquire, receive, hold and enjoy, for Acquire the purposes aforesaid, moneys and real and personal estate property. by bargain and sale, gift, grant, contract, devise or bequest; and by the name aforesaid may sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded in the courts of this State or elsewhere; may have a common seal, with power to alter the same, and otherwise Seal. generally shall be clothed with the rights, powers and privileges incident to corporations and necessary for carrying out the purposes of their creation. The members of the board No compenshall receive no compensation for their services. sation. office of cor When and SECTION 4. That the persons named as corporators in Term of this act shall constitute the board of public education until porators. the first Saturday in April, A. D. eighteen hundred and eighty-four, or until their successors are duly elected and qualified. The board shall meet on the first Saturday of Meeting. April of the present year, at the school house in School District Number 90 in said town of Bridgeville, and annually thereafter at the same place on the Monday following the election, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, and organize the board by the election of a president, secretary, and treasurer, Organizawho shall be members of the board. where. tion. SECTION 5. The first election for the members of the First elecboard of public education shall take place on the first Satur- tion of board day of April, A. D. eighteen hundred and eighty-four, at which election two persons shall be elected to serve for the Terms of term of one year, two other persons to serve for the term of office, two years, and two other persons to serve for the term of three years; and on the first Saturday of April annually thereafter to fill vacancies caused by the limitations of terms of office Vacancies. prescribed or in any manner whatever. The members of the board shall be elected by ballot, and by a plurality vote, Board, How and shall hold their offices for the terms for which they are elected, and until their successors are duly chosen and qualified. The election shall be held in the afternoon; the polls Election. shall be open at one o'clock, or within thirty minutes there- ducted. elected. How con Notice. whom ad Duties of clerks of election. OF FREE SCHOOLS. after, and close at four o'clock; the election shall be held at the school house in said School District No. 90; the board shall give ten days notice of said election, and of the day, hour and place of holding the same, and of the inspectors appointed by them to hold the same, and of the number of members of the board to be elected thereat, by written or printed handbills, under the signature of the secretary of the board, posted in five of the most public places in the said School District No. 90. The board shall appoint, at least ten Inspector days before the holding of said election, an inspector and an assistant inspector, who shall preside thereat. The inspectors shall not be members of the board of education, and shall, before opening the polls, each take an oath or affirmation. Oath. By The oath may be administered by the inspector, assistant ministered. inspector, a justice of the peace, or notary public. The inspectors shall appoint two clerks; one to be appointed by the inspector, and the other by his assistant, who shall keep true and correct lists of the persons voting at said election. The inspectors shall, as soon as the polls have closed, proceed to count the votes, and ascertain the result, and shall immediately, upon ascertaining the result of said election, Certificates, make out and sign certificates thereof, and shall deliver, withTo whom out delay, one of said certificates to the secretary of the board of education, one to each of the persons elected, and one other to the Clerk of the Peace of Sussex County, to be Qualifica kept as a public record. Every person residing within the tion of voters said School District No. 90 in the town of Bridgeville, Sussex county, and having right to vote for representatives in the General Assembly (and having paid his school tax for the preceding year) shall be a school voter of said district. And if any person not being so qualified shall vote at any school election voting mis held therein, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be fined twenty-five dollars. If a vote is objected to the inspectors must unite in rejecting it, or the vote shall be accepted. If any person who shall be appointed by the refusing to board either inspector or assistant inspector shall neglect or refuse to serve as such inspector or assistant inspector without rendering an excuse, to be accepted by the board, he shall Forfeiture. forfeit and pay to the said board the sum of five dollars, to be recovered by the board in an action before a justice of the peace. If the board shall fail to appoint an inspector, or assistant inspector, or both, ten days before said election, or if the inspector or assistant inspector, or both, shall be absent from the place of election at the time of opening the same, the school voters then shall proceed forthwith, without ballot, delivered. Illegal demeanor. Penalty. Inspector serve. How recov ered. OF FREE SCHOOLS. choose in certain cases held without to chose, from the voters present, either an inspector or assis-Voters to tant inspector, or both, as the case may be. If the board of spectors in education shall in any year fail to give written or printed Meeting notice of said election, as required herein, the school voters notice. of said district shall, notwithstanding said failure, meet on the day and at the time herein specified and at the school house in said district, and proceed to elect inspectors and members of the board of education as herein provided in case of notice duly given. If an inspector or assistant in- Inspectors spector, or both of them, shall knowingly take the vote of a gal votes person not having the right to vote, or shall neglect or refuse or refusing to make and deliver certificates of the result of any election tificate. as required herein, he or they shall be guilty of a misde- Guilty of meanor, and shall forfeit and pay fifty dollars, to be adjudged meanor. on indictment and conviction, and to be paid to the board of Penalty. education aforesaid for the benefit of the schools under their charge. receiving to give cer misde meetings. of schools. SECTION 6. The board shall hold stated meetings once Monthly every month, and special meetings when required by the president or a majority of the members thereof; and by a committee, or otherwise, shall visit all the schools under their Inspection charge once a week while the schools are in session. A majority of the board shall form a quorum, and any vacancy, Quorum. occasioned by death, resignation, or otherwise, shall be filled Vacancies. by the board by choosing members thereof to serve until the How filled. next election and until their successors be duly elected and qualified; provided, however, that no one shall be a member Proviso. of the board who is not a freeholder and a qualified voter of QualificaDistrict No. 90; and if any one having been elected a mem- bers. ber of the board shall not then be, or shall afterwards cease to be a freeholder and a qualified voter of said district, he shall thereupon cease to be one of the members of the board aforesaid; provided further, however, that this must be Proviso. ascertained and declared by a two-thirds vote of the other members of said board. The members shall be sworn by Oath. each other faithfully and impartially to perform their duties as members of said board of education. tion of mem SECTION 7. The treasurer appointed by the board shall Treasurer to be required to give bond, with good and sufficient surety, for give bond. the faithful performance of his duties, which shall be sufficient to cover the full amount of money which may at any time come into his hands under the provisions of this act. The board shall have the right to draw, upon an order signed OF FREE SCHOOLS. Dividends. by their president and secretary, the amount of the dividends How drawn. from time to time which the school named in section one of this act shall be entitled to out of the State school fund; and Amount to shall annually assess, levy and collect from the taxables of taxation not said School District Number 90 in the town of Bridgeville, be raised by less than $400. Proviso. with dupli- Annual statement. Officers chosen. When. Board of education to raise more than $400. Proviso. Sussex county, a sum not less than $400, in the same manner as school taxes now are or hereafter may by law be assessed, levied and collected, and for that purpose shall possess all the powers that school commissioners now have or may hereafter have; provided that the collector of North-West Fork hundred shall receive the warrant, with the duplicate of assessment list, whenever the board shall offer to deliver them to him. The board shall publish, in a newspaper published in Sussex county, in the last issue of such paper issued in the month of March of every year, a statement of the receipts and expenditures during the year, showing the sources from which the receipts have been obtained, and the objects for which they were expended. They shall also settle with the Auditor as school commissioners do. SECTION 8. The school voters of said School District No. 90 in the town of Bridgeville, Sussex county, may, at their annual meeting on the first Saturday in April, choose a chairman and secretary, and by a majority vote, to be taken by ballot, may authorize and empower the board of education authorized to raise, for school purposes, a certain additional sum over and above the sum of four hundred dollars aforesaid; provided that the two sums do not amount, in the aggregate, to more than the sum of seven hundred dollars. If such additional Certificates sum shall be authorized to be raised, two certificates of the ings proceedings of the meeting shall be made and signed by the chairman and secretary; one shall be immediately delivered to the secretary of the board of education, the other to the Clerk of the Peace of Sussex county, to be kept as a public record. To whom delivered May convey buildings and lot of ground. SECTION 9. That The Board of Public Education of School District No. 90 in the town of Bridgeville, Sussex county, as the same is constituted by the provisions of this act, shall have power, and they, or a majority of them, are hereby authorized, empowered and directed, on and after the first day of April of the present year, to sell and dispose of, either at public or private sale, as may be considered the most advantageous by the said board, for the highest and best price that can be obtained for the same, the present school house, |