Chap. 422.—An ACT to amend the Code of Virginia by adding thereto — new
sections numbered 653-a 1, 653-a 2, 653-a 3, and 653-a 4, to provide for ot
appointment of school trustee electoral boards and county school boards;
provide for compensation of the members of said boards; to provide for levine
certain district school taxes; to make certain provisions as to special school
districts and town school districts ; to provide for the payment of certain portions
of county school funds to certain town school districts, and to provide for the
appointment of county school boards in counties operating under the county
manager form of government; and to repeal Sections 653 and 653-a, of the

_ Code of Virginia, and to include cities, of certain ranges in population, within
certain provisions hereof. . [H B 281]

Approved April 6, 1942

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the
Code of Virginia be amended by adding thereto four new sections num-
bered six hundred and fifty-three-a one,.six hundred and and fifty-three-a
two, six hundred and fifty-three-a three, and six hundred and hity-three-a
four, as follows:

‘Section 653-a 1. In each county there shall be a board, to be known
as the school trustee electoral board, which shall be composed of three
resident qualified voters, who are not county or State officers, to be
appointed by the circuit court of each county, or the judge thereof in
vacation, within thirty days after the first day of July, nineteen hundred
and thirty, and every four years thereafter. The said members of the
trustee electoral board shall each receive a per diem of two dollars for
each day actually employed, to be paid out of the county school fund. Any
vacancy occurring within the term of the said appointees shall be filled by
the circuit court, or by the judge thereof in vacation, within thirty days
thereafter. The county school board shall consist of one member ap-
pointed from each school district in the county by the school trustee
electoral board, provided in towns constituting separate school districts
and operated by a school board of three members, one of the said mem-
bers shall be designated annually by the town board as a member of the
county school board. The members of the county school board from the
several districts shall have no organization and duties except such as may
be assigned to them by the school board as a whole. Before any appoint-
ment is made by the electoral board it shall give notice, by publication
for two successive weeks, in a newspaper having general circulation in
such county of the time and place of any meeting for the purpose of ap-
pointing the members of the county school board.

The members so appointed shall constitute the county school board,
and every such board is hereby declared a body corporate, under the style
of the county school board of .................... county, and may, in its cor-
porate capacity, sue or be sued, contract or be contracted with and, in
general, is vested with all the powers, and charged with all the duties,
obligations and responsibilities imposed upon such board as such by law.
The members of the county school board shall be appointed within sixty
days prior to July first, nineteen hundred and forty-four, such appoint-
ments shall be for terms as follows: if there be three members, one shall
be appointed for a term of two years, one for a term of three years, and
one for a term of four years; if there be four members, one shall be ap-
pointed for a term of one year, one for a term of two years, one for a
term of three years, and one for a term of four years; if there be more than
four members, one shall be appointed for a term of one year, one for a
term. of two years, one for a term of three years, and one for a term of
four years, and the remaining members shall be appointed for the longest
terms possible, not exceeding four years, which will result in having the
terms of the least possible number of members expire in any one year.
Within sixty days prior to the first day of July in each and every year
thereafter, the school trustee electoral board of each county, shall appoint
for terms of four years beginning the first day of July next following their
appointment, successors to the members of the county school boards of
their respective counties, whose terms of office expire on the thirtieth
day of June in each such year. Vacancies occurring in the membership
of the county school board of any county shall be filled for the unexpired
term, by the school trustee electoral board of such county. The present
trustee electoral boards and county school boards now in office, shall
continue to hold office until their successors have been appointed and
qualified. All of such school trustees shall qualify before the county clerk,
by taking the oath prescribed for State officers. The county school board
may in its discretion provide for a per diem not exceeding five dollars
per day and mileage not to exceed five cents per mile for each mile of
travel on each day of such attendance by most direct route in going to
and returning from the place of meeting for each member for each day he
is in attendance upon meetings of the board, not to exceed thirty days in
any one year, such per diem to be paid as other school expenses are paid.

Provided that in counties adjacent to cities having, according to the
last preceding United States census, a population of one hundred thou-
sand or more, and in counties having a density of population of more than
five hundred per square mile, the county school board may pay each of
its members an annual salary of three hundred dollars, payable in equal
monthly installments, and in each county having a population in excess
of forty thousand and having eight or more magisterial districts, the
county school board may pay each of its members a maximum annual
salary of three hundred dollars in equal monthly installments; and pro-
vided further, that in cities having a population of not less than eighteen
thousand nor more than twenty-three thousand, and in cities having a
population of not less than thirty thousand nor more than thirty-five
thousand, in each case according to the United States census latest pre-
ceding, the school board may provide and pay a per diem not exceeding:
ten dollars to each member for each day he is in attendance upon meetings
of the board, not to exceed twenty-four days in any one year.

Section 653-a 2. For the purpose of representation each magisterial
district shall, except where otherwise provided by law, constitute a
separate school district, but for all other school purposes, taxation, man-
agement, control, and operation, the county shall be the unit, and the
school affairs of such county managed as if the county constituted but
one school district; provided, however, nothing in this section shall be
construed to prohibit the levying of a district tax to provide interest and
sinking fund for a district bond issue as provided in section six hundred.
and seventy-three, or for the levying of a district tax on recommendation
of the county school board to pay existing district indebtedness. All spe-
cial school districts and special town school districts except the special
school district for the town of Leesburg of Loudoun county and of Lex-
ington of Rockbridge county and the town of Bedford of Bedford county
which are hereby preserved, are hereby expressly abolished, except the
special town school district of Galax of Carroll county and Grayson
county, which last mentioned district is hereby expressly retained as it
exists at the present time; provided, however, that the town of Herndon
and the town of Falls Church, of Fairfax county, and the town of Colonial
Beach, of Westmoreland county, and incorporated towns having a popula-
tion of not less than one thousand inhabitants, according to the last United
States census, may, by ordinance of the town council and by and with the
approval of the State Board of Education, be constituted separate school
districts either for the purpose of representation on the county school
board, or for the purpose of being operated as a separate school district
under a town school board of three members, appointed by the town
council. In the event that such a town district be set up, to be operated
by a board of three members, the members of such board shall be ap-
pointed in accordance with section seven hundred and eighty of the
Code, providing for the appointment of trustees in cities and of such
members, one shall be designated by the town school board as a member
of the county school board and entitled to: serve as a member of the said
county board. _ ois s

Nothing in this section, however, shall be construed to prohibit the
board of supervisors in the county of Sussex from continuing to levy a
district.tax for the operation of the schools.. |

Section 653-a 3. . For the use and benefit of each town school district
operated by a school board of three members, the county school board
shall require the county treasurer to pay over to the town treasurer if and
when properly bonded, from the amount derived from the county levy or
any appropriation for school purposes a sum equal to the pro rata amount
from such levy or appropriation derived from such town; and the county
treasurer shall also pay over to the town treasurer a proportionate amount
of all school funds determined by the ratio of the average daily attendance
for the preceding school year in the town district and in the county.

‘Where a special town school district is located partly in each of two
adjoining counties and operated by a town school board created or con-
stituted by the charter of such town, it shall be the duty of the county
treasurer of each of said counties to set up and keep separate books and
accounts showing the amount of county school taxes levied upon property
located in such parts of their respective counties as lie within the corporate
limits of said town, and showing also their collections on such levies, and
the said county: treasurers shall periodically pay the amounts of said
levies so collected by them, respectively, into the treasury of said town,
if and when the town treasurer shall be properly bonded; and the said
county treasurers shall also promptly pay into the town treasury the
proper proportionate amount of all State school funds except special
State school funds, received by them, respectively, for their said counties,
in the proportion that the average daily attendance at the schools in said
town school district, by pupils living in that part of such town school
district which lies within said counties, respectively, bears to the average
daily attendance in the entire counties, respectively, including the at-
tendance at such town district schools by pupils living in that part of said
town school district which lies in said counties, respectively, during the
preceding school year. It shall be the duty of the county school board of
said counties, respectively, to issue their vouchers in favor of the treas-
urer of said town, for the moneys hereinabove directed to be paid into
the town treasury. -

None of the provisions of this section or either of the two preceding
sections shall be construed to amend or repeal the provisions of sections
twenty-seven hundred and seventy-three-n fifteen and twenty-seven hun-
dred and seventy-three-n forty-one of the Code of Virginia.

Section 653-a 4. In each county of the State having a county man-
ager form of county organization and government adopted under and
pursuant to the provisions of sections twenty-seven hundred and seventy-
three-a to twenty-seven hundred and seventy-three-n, both inclusive, of:
the Code of Virginia, and in which county magisterial districts have been
abolished, the school board of such county shall on and after July first,
nineteen hundred and forty, be composed of five members who shall be
appointed from the county at large by the school trustee electoral board
of such county in accordance with other applicable provisions of general
law. All acts and proceedings of the school board of each such county
taken or had prior to July first, nineteen hundred and forty, are hereby
ratified and validated. : te lg a

2. Be it further enacted, That sections six hundred and fifty-three,
and ‘six hundred and fifty-three-a, of the Code of Virginia, are repealed.
cH. 423] , ACTS OF ASSEMBLY 683