Chap. 414.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 672 of the Code of Virginia,
as heretofore amended, in relation to the establishing and maintenance of public
high schools, and the charging of tuition in such schools. [S B 280]

Approved March 30, 1936

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tion six hundred and seventy-two of the Code of Virginia, as here-
tofore amended, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 672. It shall be lawful for any county school board, or
any county school boards of two or more adjoining counties, to estab-
lish and maintain a public high school at such place as may be both
most convenient for the pupils to attend, and most conducive for the
purposes of such school, provided the establishment of such high
school or the teaching of such high school branches shall not be
allowed to interfere with the regular and efficient instruction in the
elementary branches. A high school may be conducted either in a
separate building or in the same building in which elementary grades
are taught. The State Board of Education shall prescribe rules and
regulations governing the conduct of high schools, and shall also
prescribe requirements for admission, and the conditions on which
properly prepared pupils may attend such schools, Any county not
actually conducting a high school, but paying tuition for its high
school pupils in high schools in other counties or cities out of the
public funds, shall be permitted to share in the State high school
fund. The State Board of Education shall provide for the inspection
of high schools by a competent person, or persons, and shall see to
it that the high schools conform to the standards prescribed by such
board. The State Board of Education, under proper regulations, shall
encourage the establishment and maintenance of high schools in the
counties and cities of the State by the use of such State appropria-
tion as may be made for high school purposes provided the elemen-
tary grades of the county or city schools have been maintained for
an average term of at least one hundred and sixty school days or a
term satisfactory to said board of education, based upon good and
sufficient reasons.

No money shall be paid to any locality from State funds for the
maintenance of high schools, however, unless the county school board
or the city school board shall appropriate from local funds for the
maintenance of such high schools an amount equal at least to fifty
per centum of the amount allowed from the State appropriation. No
teacher shall be employed in high school instruction whose qualifica-
tions do not meet the standards set up by the State Board of Educa-
tion. The State board shall appropriate out of the high school fund,
to the standard four year high school, an amount not to exceed one
thousand dollars, and to the two-year high school, organized accord-
ing to plans prepared by the State Board of Education for junior
high schools an amount not to exceed eight hundred dollars, unless
other provision is made therefor by the general appropriation or
budget bill. The State board shall have power to make such rules
and regulations as may be necessary for the proper distribution of
the funds appropriated for high schools, which shall be paid out in
the same manner other funds are paid out of the State treasury.

No tuition shall be charged for pupils attending high school; pro-
vided that county and city school boards may charge, under regula-
tions prescribed by the State Board of Education, tuition for pupils
from one county, or city, attending high school in some other county,
or city, and that the school boards of the cities of Newport News,
Hampton and Portsmouth, Norfolk and Buena Vista, and the town
of Lexington, may charge under regulations prescribed by the State
Board of Education, tuition for pupils attending high schools therein,
and that the school board of a town constituting a separate school
district and operated by a school board may charge, under regulation
prescribed by the State Board of Education, tuition for pupils from
any district of the county or from another county attending high
school in said town, provided such charge shall, in no case, exceed
the actual per capita cost for instruction and maintenance in the high
school department.

With the consent and approval of the State Board of Education
and the division superintendent, in the discretion of the county school
board, high school subjects may be taught in schools having two or
more rooms, when such schools are not less than two miles distant
from a high school operated in said county.