Chap. 87.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Chapter 377 of the Acts of the General
Assembly of 1938, approved March 31, 1938, providing for the support and
maintenance of public free schools by appropriations out of the State treasury
and by local school taxes, so as to change the basis on which State funds are
allotted to counties and cities, and the basis on which average annual salaries of
teachers are fixed. [S.B 78]

Approved March 2, 1942 | .

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That chap-
ter three hundred and seventy-seven of the Acts of the General Assembly
of nineteen hundred and thirty-eight, approved March thirty-first, nine-
teen hundred and thirty-eight, be amended and re-enacted, as follows:

Section 1. The school board of each and every county and city
in the State is hereby empowered and required to maintain the public
free schools of such county and city for a period of at least nine months
or one hundred and eighty teaching days in each school year. In order
that each county and city may have the funds necessary to enable the
local school board to maintain the elementary and high schools thereof
for such minimum terms, it is hereby provided that when any county
or city has legally complied with the existing laws with reference to local
school levies or cash appropriations there shall be allotted to such coun-
ties and cities the sum of money appropriated by the State for instruc-
tion, provided in the appropriation for this purpose, so that an equal
amount of money shall be provided for the employment of a certified
teacher for’ each group of twenty-five to forty pupils in average daily
attendance, depending upon the density of school population, to be ap-
portioned under such rules and regulations as may be set up by said
State Board of Education; provided, further, that the average annual
salary of teachers shall not be less than the amount provided from State
funds for each teacher group; provided, further, that with the consent
of the State Board of Education the length of the term of any school
may be reduced to not less than eight months, in which case the amount
paid by the State for each teacher group in such school shall be reduced in
the same proportion as the length of the term has been reduced from
nine months.

Section 2. That in addition the counties and cities shall provide,
from local school taxes, as provided in section one hundred and thirty-
six of the Constitution of Virginia, for the supplementing of their 1n-
structional programs such amounts as will insure the services of properly
prepared and effective teaching personnel, and to the degree that financial
ability and community interest in education will permit; provided, fur-
ther, that the counties and cities shall provide, in keeping with the laws
already existing, such funds as @fay be necessary for debt service, capital
outlay, transportation, general operation and maintenance.

Section 3. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are
hereby repealed to the extent of such inconsistency.