Chap. 505.—An ACT to amend and reenact Sections 669 and 670 of the Code of
Virginia, as amended, relating to condemnation of land for school purposes, and
the establishment of and powers with respect to operation of joint schools for
counties and for counties and cities. [S 229]

Approved April 5, 1948

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That sections six hundred sixty-nine, and six hundred seventy
of the Code of Virginia, as amended, be amended and reenacted as
follows :

Section 669. Condemnation of land for school purposes—The
school board may condemn for school purposes land or other property,
or any interest or estate therein, including dwellings, yards, gardens or
orchards. If, in the judgment of the school board the public interest
demands that particular land or any interest therein be acquired for
school purposes, the school board shall cause the desired parcel of land
to be surveyed by a county surveyor, city engineer or other competent
surveyor and a plat of the same to be filed, together with a general
statement of the case, with the clerk of the court in which proceedings
to condemn such land will be instituted, and, thereupon, on application
of the school board, the same proceedings shall be had as are prescribed
by the laws relating to the exercise of the right of eminent domain, inso-
far as they are applicable and not inconsistent herewith; but such land
or interest so condemned shall not exceed fifteen acres for any one
school. ,

Section 670. Establishment of and powers with respect to opera-
tion of joint schools for counties, for counties and cities, for counties
and towns operating as separate special districts, how managed and
controlled.—The school boards of counties or of counties and cities, or of
counties and towns operating as separate special school districts, may,
with the consent of the State Board of Education, establish joint schools
for the use of such counties or of such counties and cities, or of counties
and towns operating as separate special school districts, and may pur-
chase, take, hold, lease, convey and condemn, jointly, property, both
real and personal, for such joint schools. Such school boards, acting
jointly, shall have the same power of condemnation as county school
boards except that such land so condemned shall not be in excess of
twenty acres in a county or city for the use of any one joint school.
The title of all such property acquired for such purposes shall vest
jointly in such school boards of the counties or counties and cities in
such respective proportions as such school boards may determine, and
such schools shall be managed and controlled by the boards jointly,
in accordance with such rules and regulations as are promulgated by
the State Board of Education. However, such rules and regulations in
force at the time of the adoption of a plan for the operation of a joint
school shall not be changed for such joint school by the State Board of
Education without the approval of the school boards.

2. An emergency existing, this act shall be in force from its passage.