Chap. 292.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 1433, 1437 and 1438 of the
Code of Virginia, as amended by an act approved December 28, 1903, as
amended by an act approved March 11, 1904, and by an act approved March
15, 1906, in relation to the duties of the State board of education and of
division superintendents of schools, to the composition of school divisions
and the salaries of division superintendents.

Approved March 14, 1908.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sections
fourteen hundred and thirty-three, fourteen hundred and thirty-seven
and fourteen hundred and thirty-eight of the Code of Virginia, as
amended by the act approved March eleventh, nineteen hundred and four,
and by the act approved March fifteenth, nineteen hundred and six, be
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§1433- Duties of the State board of education—The powers and duties
of the board shall be as follows:

First. To divide the State into appropriate school divisions, in the
discretion of said board, comprising not less than one county or city
each, but no county or city shall be divided in the formation of such
divisions, and in the establishment of such school divisions the said
State board of education shall so make up the same as to insure to each
division superintendent a salary of not less than nine hundred dollars
per annum; provided that in any case where the aggregate population
of two adjacent counties, or of a city and the county in which it is lo-
cated, is now less than fourteen thousand people, and where in the judg-
ment and discretion of the State board of education, it is not practicable
to attach such counties or city to some adjoining county or city so as to
make up a division that will provide a salary of not less than nine hundred
dollars per annum for the division superintendent thereof, then in such
case the State board of education may in its discretion put said counties,
or county and city, into a division, the superintendent of which shall not
receive less than seven hundred dollars per annum.

It shall, subject to the confirmation of the senate, appoint for each
of such divisions one superintendent of schools, who shall hold office for
four years and who, during his said incumbency of this office, shall be
required to devote himself exclusively to the discharge of its duties; pro-
vided that the State board of education may in its discretion make an
exception to this rule of exclusive employment when in the judgment of
said board such exceptions will enure to the benefit of the public school
system in the division of such superintendent thus excepted.

And provided further, that in the case of any border county, touching
another State than Virginia, and having a population of less than four-
teen thousand people, where the State board of education, in its discre-
tion, may think that making an exception of such county from the re-
quirements of this act will enure to the best interests of the public school
system therein, the said State board of education may waive the require-
ments of this act as to the salary of the division superintendent of schools
for said county.

And provided further, that when, on account of geographical or other
conditions, the grouping of two or more counties, or the grouping of a
county or counties and a city, will not be to the benefit of said divisions,
the State board of education, may, in its discretion modify the rule as
to said grouping and as to the minimum salary herein provided for.

The board shall also prescribe the duties of such division superin-
tendent, and may remove him for cause and upon notice. When a
vacancy occurs during the recess of the general assembly, it shall be
filled by appointment of the board for the unexpired term, and the
appointee shall continue in office until the expiration of thirty days
after the first meeting of the general assembly; but it shall not be lawful
when the general assembly is not in session for the said board to appoint
as division superintendent any person whose nomination has been pre-
viously rejected by the senate.

Second. To prescribe the duties of the superintendent of public
instruction.

Third. To approve the appointment of a first and second clerk, and
such other employees as may be necessary for the office of the superin-
tendent of public instruction, upon the nomination of that officer, and
to fix their salaries. The first clerk, who is hereby required to serve
also as secretary of the State board of education, may be allowed for
these extra services such reasonable compensation as the board may deem
just and proper.

Fourth. To adopt by-laws for its own government and to make all
needful rules and regulations for the management and conduct of the
schools. Such rules and regulations, when published and distributed,
shall have the force and effect of law until revised, amended, or repealed
by the general assembly.

Fifth. To provide for the examination of teachers by a State board
of examiners, and the inspection of schools by inspectors to be chosen
by the State board of education, or by the adoption of such other plans
as the board may, in its discretion, deem wise and expedient. The
duties, compensation, and expenses of such examiners and inspectors
shall be fixed by the State board of education, and paid as other expenses
of said board are paid.

Sixth. To select text-books and educational appliances for use in the
public schools of the State of Virginia, exercising such discretion as
it may see fit in the selection of books suitable for the schools in the
cities and counties, respectively, subject to the conditions and restric-
tions hereinafter set forth; but no text-books which may hereafter be
adopted for use in any public free school in the State of Virginia shall
be changed or substituted until the same shall have been used for a
period of not less than four years.

The said State board of education shall be empowered, and it is hereby
made their duty to enter into contract for a term of years not to exceed
seven, with the publisher or publishers of school books adopted for the
use of the pupils of the public schools of Virginia, upon the terms and
conditions herein set forth, that the price to be paid for said books by
the pupils of the public schools of Virginia shall not exceed the lowest
retail price at which such books are sold to the pupils or patrons of the
public schools of any other State, county, township, or school district,
or to any individual in the United States where similar conditions pre-
vail; provided, that if after four years of use any text-book or school
appliance should prove unsatisfactory it may, by a vote of six members
of the State board of education, be changed. The publisher or publishers
to make a sworn affidavit of this fact, which said sworn statement shall
be put on file in the office of the superintendent of public instruction,
Richmond, Virginia; and, provided further, that said publisher or pub-
lishers of said school books shall make a written guarantee to said State
board of education, that any further reduction in the price of said books
during the life of said contract, made anywhere to any one, shall also
be made to said State board of education, and if the publisher or pub-
lishers of any school books adopted for the use of the pupils of the
public schools of Virginia, fails to make the retail prices of said school
books as low to the pupils of the public schools of Virginia as the same
books are supplied to the pupils of the public schools of any other State,
corporation or person, at any time during the continuance of this con-
tract, then it shall be the duty of the State board of education of Vir-
ginia to declare the contract with such publisher or publishers to be
null and void.

Before any publisher or publishers of school books adopted by the
State board of education shall be permitted to enter into any contract
with the State board of education, under the provisions of this act, he or
they shall file with the State superintendent of public instruction, to be
approved by the said State board of education, a good arf sufficient
bond for the faithful performance of the conditions of such contract
and the observance of the requirements of this act.

Seventh. To guard by regulations against such a multiplication of
schools in proportion to the funds provided as will tend to cause a low
grade of instruction in the schools or in any other way impair their
efficiency.
Eighth. To approve or amend the plans of the superintendent of
public instruction for the organization and conduct of the summer
normal schools, to audit the accounts for the expenses of such schools,
and issue warrants for the payment thereof as other warrants are issued
by the said board.

Ninth. To decide appeals from the decisions of the superintendent of
public instruction; provided, that all the facts and arguments in each
case shall be presented in writing, and in such form as the board may
prescribe.

Tenth. To order the sense of voters to be taken in counties or dis-
tricts on all matters which may be properly so referred under the pro-
visions of the school law whenever deemed proper by the board.

Eleventh. To invest the capital and unappropriated income of the
literary fund in bonds of this State, or of the United States, or in
bonds of railroad companies secured by first mortgage whose market
value for six months preceding the investment has not been less than
ninety cents on the dollar, or in bonds made by the district school
boards of the different school districts in this State, constituting a lien
on the district funds in the different districts, secured by deed of trust
on the school property in said districts in which said bonds are invested.
The said board may call in any such investment, or any heretofore made,
and reinvest the same as aforesaid whenever deemed proper for the
preservation, security, or improvement of the said fund. Whenever, in
accordance with this section, the board shall invest as aforesaid in bonds
of this State no premium shall be required or paid on such investment.
All securities for money belonging to the literary fund shall be deposited
with the second auditor for safe-keeping, who shall return with his
annual report a list thereof with a statement of their value.

Twelfth. To audit all claims which are to be paid out of the literary
fund, and to allow so much thereof as shall appear to be due; provided,
that not more than ten years shall have elapsed when by law such
claim might have been presented for payment. For any claims so al-
lowed, certified by the secretary and presiding officer of the board, the
second auditor shall issue his warrant on the treasurer, signed by the
second auditor and attested bv one of his clerks. All money belonging
to the literary fund shall also be received into the treasury on the war-
rant of the second auditor, who shall also be the accountant of the said
fund.

Thirteenth. To approve or amend the schemes prepared by the super-
intendent of public instruction for apportioning the money appropriated
by the State for public free school purposes among the several counties
and cities of the State.

Fourteenth. To determine the necessary contingent expenses of the
office of the superintendent of public instruction, including stationery.
postage, printing, furniture, and other charges; to examine the accounts
thereof; and, when approved, to issue warrants on the second auditor
for the payment of the same, said warrants to he signed by the secretary
and the presiding officer of the board.

Fifteenth. To punish division superintendents of schools for neglect
of duty, or for any official misconduct, by reasonable fines, to he de-
ducted from their pay; by suspension from office and pay for a limited
period, or by removal from office. °

Sixteenth. To appoint a board of directors, consisting of five mem-
bers, to serve without compensation, which shall have the management
of the State library (except the law library), and the appointment of a
librarian and other employees thereof subject to such rules and regula-
tions as the General Assembly shall prescribe.

Seventeenth. To observe the operations of the public free school sys-
tem, to regulate such matters as may arise in the practical administra-
tion thereof not otherwise provided for, and to suggest to the general
assembly any improvements deemed advisable therein, and for which
the said board has no power to provide.

Eighteenth. To make a report to the general assembly at each regular
session, covering the annual report of the superintendent of public
instruction, giving an account of the operations of the board for the two
school years immediately preceding the session of the general assembly.
Nineteenth. To perform such other duties as may be prescribed by
law.

Twentieth. Such reasonable expenses as the members of board, except
the governor, the attorney general, and the superintendent of public
instruction, may incur in attending the meetings of the board, or any
committee thereof, shall be paid from the funds at the command of the
board by warrant on the second auditor as other expenses of the board
are paid.

§1437. Division superintendent; appointment; term of office; va-
cancies; his qualification—Within sixty days before July first, nine-
teen hundred and five, and every four years thereafter, the State board
of education shall, subject to the confirmation of the Senate, appoint
one division superintendent of schools for each school division that the
said board may, in its discretion, establish according to law; provided,
that no federal officer, except a fourth-class postmaster, and no super-
visor or county or State officer, except a notary public, or any deputy
of said officers, shall be chosen or allowed to act as division superin-
tendent of schools.

The term of office of the said division superintendent shall be four
years from the first day of July following his appointment; provided,
that the superintendents for counties and cities now in office, or their
successors, shall continue in office until July first, nineteen hundred and
nine (1909).

The office of any division superintendent shall be deemed vacant upon
the refusal of the Senate to confirm his nomination, his removal from
the division for which he was appointed, his engaging in any other
business or employment during his term of office as such superintendent,
unless such superintendent shall have been excepted under the pro-
visions of sub-section first of section fourteen hundred and thirty-three
of the Code of Virginia, as amended, his resignation or his removal
from office by the State board of education. Every division superin-
tendent, before entering upon the discharge of the duties of his office,
shall take and subscribe the oath prescribed for all officers of the State,
which oath shall be made and subscribed before a circuit or corporation
court having jurisdiction in his division, or before the judge or clerk
thereof in vacation. As soon as the oaths shall have been taken, sub-
scribed, and certified, a minute of the fact shall be entered in the
records of the said court, and a certificate of the clerk, setting forth
the qualification and its record, shall be furnished the superintendent of
public instruction for record in his office.

§1438. His salary.—The said superintendent shall receive, to be paid
in monthly installments out of the State school fund, on the warrant
of the State board of education drawn upon the second auditor, forty
dollars for every thousand of population under lis jurisdiction for the
first ten thousand; twenty-five dollars for every thousand in excess of
ten up to and including thirty thousand; and fifteen dollars for the
every thousand in excess of thirty thousand, rejecting in each case frac-
‘tions less than five hundred; and provided further, that when a school
division is composed of more than one county, or of a city and one or
more counties, the salary of the superintendent of such division, may,
in the discretion of the State board of education, be the aggregate of
the amounts found by estimating what such salary would be in each of
said counties and city if each of the same composed a separate school
division.

The board of supervisors of any county, or the council of any city
may out of any surplus of any funds in the treasury of such county or
city, or the county or citv school board may out of the local school fund
supplement the salary of the superintendent of schools for the division
in which said county or city may be located; provided, that the salary
of any such division superintendent shall not be increased or diminished
by any such said city council or county board of supervisors during his
term of office.