Chap. 308.—An ACT to Provide a System of Public Free Schools in the
Cities of the Commonwealth, and to Repeal Section 66 of‘an Act Enti
tled an Act to Establish and Maintain a Uniform System of Public Free
Schools, Approved July 11, 1870.

Approved March 31, 1871.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly, That public free
schools shall be established in all the cities and towns of the
commonwealth, which are not embraced in whole or in part
witbin the bounds of a township; and the provisions of an act
entitled an act to establish and maintain a uniform system o
public free schools, approved July eleventh, eighteen hundrec
and seventy, save as hereinafter provided, shall be applicabl
to such cities and towns in like manner as to the counties o
the commonwealth.

2. Cities and towns, such as are described in section one o
this act, which have a population of ten thousand and upwards
shall, for school purposes, be known as cities of the first class
whilst cities and towns, such as are described in said sectior
one, and which have less than ten thousand, shall be known as
cities of the second class; but the provisions of the law con
cerning cities shall be applicable to both classes alike, unles:
the one or the other class be specifically referred to.

3. The school boards of the respective cities shall have
power, subject to the approval of the common councils, to pre
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scribe the number and boundaries of the school districts, and
the number of trustees (not exceeding three from each dis-
trict); but until such provision is made, every such city which
is not divided into wards, shall constitute a single school dis-
trict, and in every city which is divided into wards, each ward
shall be a school district. ‘The number and boundaries of dis-
tricts shall be duly reported to the superintendent of public
instruction, and recorded in his office, and also in that of the
clerk of the corporation court.

4. All the school trustees in a city or town shall constitute
a single corporation, under the style of The School Board of
the City (or town) of , which shall have the same
officers, powers, and duties as ordinary boards of district school
trustees, except as otherwise provided; and the trustees of
the several districts shall have no organization or duties ex-
cept such as may be assigned to them by the consolidated
body.

5. ‘The official care and authority of the school board shall
cover all the territory included in the corporate limits of the
city; a majority of its members shall constitute a quorum. It
may, at discretion, appoint a clerk, who need not be a mem-
ber of the board; it may add to,the pay of the clerk from any
funds at its disposal other than those of the state, and may
make by-laws and regulations for its own government and for
the management of its official business, so far as they do not
conflict with the provisions of this act.

6. No mayor, member of council, or treasurer of a city shall
be allowed to act as superintendent of schools therein, nor
shall the number of members of the council in the school board
of any city or town exceed one-third of the entire number of
the school board. |

7. School trustees, already in office in cities by appointment
of the board of education, and members of any city board of
education, created by the municipal authorities thereof, shall
constitute the city school board, so far as the number and lo-
cality of these offices respectively meet the condition prescribed
in this act; and any deficiencies which may exist in the begin-
ning, and all vacancies which may afterward occur in the school
board, may be supplied at any time within sixty days after
their occurrence, by appointment made by the city council :
provided, however, that as soon as may be after the passage
of this act, the city council of such cities shall designate which
of the trustees then in office, shall go out of office at the end
of one year, which at the end of two, and which at the end of
three years. Should the city council in any case fail to act
within the time prescribed, it shall be the duty of the board
of education to fill the vacancy or vacancies without further
delay.

8. The municipal authorities of any such town or city as de-
scribed in section one, may in their discretion raise from time
to time, by tax on property, as by law provided, for the de-
fraying of the expenses of the municipal government, such sum
or sums as they may deem requisite for the support of the
public schools therein: provided, that no tax thus levied on
property for school purposes shall exceed three mills on a dol-
lar in any one year, and that no annual capitation tax shall ex-
ceed fifty cents for all purposes: and still further provided,
that no municipal or school authorities shall have power to
raise or appropriate funds for the benefit of any school which
does not form an integral part of the public free school sys-
tem of either the city or the state as by law established. |

9. It shall be the duty of the school board of every city,
once in each year, and oftener, if deemed necessary, to submit
to the city or town council in writing, a classified estimate of
what funds will be needed for the proper maintenance and
growth of the public schools of the city, and to request the
council to make appropriations accordingly.

10. The state school funds shall be apportioned (separately
from their counties) to such cities as are contemplated by sec-
tions one and two of this act; and all funds designed for the
benefit of public free schools therein, shall be deposited with
the treasurer of such cities, (for the safety of which due security
shall be given), and shall be kept by such treasurers in separate
accounts, and shall be disbursed only on orders from the city
school boards respectively.

11. There shall be a city superintendent of schools in cities
of the first class, and whenever the population of any county,
in which a city of the second class, or the greater part thereof
is located, exceeds fifteen thousand, without including the
population of said city, such city may have a superintendent of
schools separate from so much of the said county as lies with-
out the city limits: provided, the public school interests in the
city and county would, in the opinion of the board of educa-
tion, be promoted thereby; and such separate city superin-
tendent of schools shall be appointed by the board of education.

12. A city superintendent shall receive pay from the state
in like proportion as county superintendents of schools; but
nothing in this act contained shall be construed to limit the
amount of additional remuneration which he may receive from
the council of the city within which he acts.

13. A city superintendent may teach in a public school, ex-
officio, when requested to do so by the city school boards.

14. A city superintendent may suspend or dismiss pupils
from the public schools: provided, that the city school board
shall have power to reverse his action in the premises.

15. A city superintendent shall have the privilege of being
present at all meetings of the school boards, of making mo-
tions, and participating in discussions therein, but not of voting.

16. City school boards and superintendents shall be required
to perform the same duties, and shall be subject to the same
rules and limitations as the district boards and county superin-
tendents, respectively, except so far as may by this act be
otherwise provided.

17. City superintendents of schools shall be appointed and
removed by the board of education, subject to confirmation
by the senate.

18. The school board of trustees in every city of the first
class, shall have power, and it shall be its duty, to establish and
maintain therein a general system of public free schools, in ae-
cordance with the requirements of the constitution and the
general educational policy of the commonwealth; and it is
empowered specially to make and carry out regulations for the
management of public school property and funds in the city,
the location, renting, enlarging, repairing, erection, and furnish-
ing of school houses, and the proper care of the same, the at-
tendance of pupils upon the schools, the providing of indigent
children with text books, the determining of studies, the me-
thods of teaching and government employed in the schools,
the employment, remuneration, and dismissal of teachers, and
the length of the school terms. It shall also have power to
establish high and normal schools, as well as those of lower
rade.

19. The text books for use in the schools of the city shall
be prescribed by the city school board of a city of either class,
except that for the primary schools, they shall be chosen from
lists prescribed for the state at large by the board of education.
But the board of education may, for reasons satisfactory to
themselves, allow other text books for primary schools in the
cities of Richmond, Petersburg, and Norfolk, in which public
schools have already been established.

20. It shall be the duty of the city council of every city of
the first class, to provide in due time, and it shall have no power
to withhold the sum or sums reported by the city school boards,
and declared to be necessary for the proper maintenance and
growth of the public schools of the city: provided, that the
council shall not be required to appropriate a sum greater than
double the amount received from the school funds of the state
during the same scholastic year, but the council may, in its
discretion, appropriate a larger sum; but it shall not have
power to impose a tax on property for school purposes exceed-
ing three mills on a dollar in any one year.

21. This act shall be in force from and after its passage; and
section sixty-six of an act entitled an act to establish and main-
tain a uniform system of public free schools, approved July
eleventh, eighteen hundred and seventy, is hereby repealed.