Chap. 511.—An ACT to amend and reenact Sections 779, 783, and 786, as amended
of the Code of Virginia relating to division superintendents and clerks of school
boards, and to the receipt, custody and disbursement of State funds apportioned
and designed for public schools in cities and towns. {S 253]

Approved April 5, 1948

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

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

Section 779. Who ineligible as division superintendent or clerk of
school board.—No mayor, member of council, or treasurer, his deputy,
or other officer of a city, town or county shall be eligible to the office of
division superintendent of schools of such city, town or county, or the
clerk, or deputy clerk of a school board of such city, town, or county;
but, nothing herein contained shall apply to towns of less than orfe
thousand inhabitants.

Section 783. Apportionment of State funds ; how and by whom kept
and disbursed.—The State school funds shall be apportioned to cities
separately from the counties. All funds designed for the benefit of public
free schools in each city shall be paid to the treasurer or other officer
of the city charged by law with the responsibility for the receipt, custody,
and disbursement of the funds of the city, and shall be kept by the said
treasurer or other such officer in an account or accounts separate and
distinct from all other funds. Such school funds shall be disbursed upon
the order or authority of the school board of the city.

Section 786. Powers and duties of boards of trustees ; qualifications
of trustees, and so forth; a corporation—(a) Every school trustee
shall, at the time of his appointment, be a resident of the school district
for which appointed, and if he shall cease to be a resident thereof, his
office shall be deemed vacant. Before entering upon the discharge of the
duties of his office he shall take and subscribe the oaths prescribed for
officers of the State before the corporation or the circuit court; or, in
vacation, before the judge or clerk of said court, and the clerk of the
said court shall make in his record book a minute of the qualification of
said trustee.

No State officer, except a notary public, no city officer, no member
of council, or any officer thereof, shall during his term of office be
chosen or allowed to act as a school trustee; but this provision shall not
have the effect of prohibiting a referee in chancery or commissioner in
bankruptcy, or member of the board of health, from holding such office.

(b) The city school board of every city shall establish and maintain
therein a general system of public free schools in accordance with the
requirements of the Constitution and the general educational policy of
the Commonwealth for the accomplishment of which purpose it shall have
the following powers and duties:

(1) To explain, enforce, and observe the school laws, and to make
rules for the government of the schools, and for regulating the conduct
of pupils going to and returning therefrom.

( To determine the studies to be pursued, the methods of teach-
ing, the government to be employed in the schools, and the length of the
school term.

(3) To employ teachers on recommendation of the division super-
intendent and to dismiss them when delinquent, inefficient or in anywise
unworthy of the position; provided, that no school board shall employ
or pay any teacher from the public funds unless the teacher shall hold
a certificate in full force, according to the provisions of section six
hundred sixty of the laws relating to the public free schools in counties;
and provided, further, that it shall not be lawful for the school board of
any city or of any town constituting a separate school district to employ
or pay any teacher or other school employee from the public funds if
said teacher or other employee is the father, mother, brother, sister, wife,
son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, or brother-in-
law of the superintendent or of any member of said board; provided,
however, that this provision shall not apply to any such relative employed
by any school board at any time prior to the effective date of this act;
and provided, further, that this provision shall not apply to any person
within such relationship or relationships who has been regularly em-
ployed by any school board prior to the taking of office of any member
of such board or division superintendent of schools; if the school board
violates these provisions, the individual members thereof shall be per-
sonally liable to refund to the local treasury any amounts paid in violation
of this law, and such funds shall be recovered from members by action
or suit in the name of the Commonwealth at the relation of the attorney
for the Commonwealth; such funds, when recovered, shall be paid into
the local treasury for the use of the public schools.

(4) To suspend or expel pupils when the prosperity and efficiency
of the school make it necessary.

(5) To decide what children, wishing to enter the schools of the
city, are entitled by reason of poverty of their parents or guardians to
receive textbooks free of charge, and to provide for supplying them
accordingly.
(6) To establish high and normal schools and such other schools
as may, in its judgment, be necessary to the completeness and efficiency
of the school system.

(7) To see that the census of children required by section six
hundred and ninety-five is taken within the proper time and in the proper
manner.

(8) To hold regular meetings and to prescribe when and how
special meetings may be called.

(9) To call meetings of the people of the city for consultation in
regard to the school interests thereof, at which meetings the chairman or
some other member of the board shall preside if present.

(10) To provide suitable schoolhouses, with proper furniture and
appliances, and to care for, manage, and control the school property of
the city. For these purposes it may lease, purchase, or build such houses
according to the exigencies of the city and the means at its disposal.
No schoolhouse shall be contracted for or erected until the plans therefor
shall have been submitted to and approved in writing by the division
superintendent of schools, and no public school shall be allowed in any
building which is not in such condition and provided with such con-
veniences as are required by a due regard to decency and health; and
when a schoolhouse appears to the division superintendent of schools
to be unfit for occupancy, it shall be his duty to condemn the same, and
immediately to give notice thereof, in writing, to the chairman of the
school board, and thenceforth no public school shall be held therein, nor
shall any part of the State or city fund be applied to support any school
in such house until the division superintendent shall certify, in writing, to
the city school board that he is satisfied with the condition of such build-
ing, and with the appliances pertaining thereto.

(11) To visit the public free schools within the city, from time to
time, and to take care that they are conducted according to law, and with
the utmost efficiency.

(12) To manage and control the school funds of the city, to provide
for the pay of teachers and of the clerk of the board, for the cost of
providing schoolhouses and the appurtenances thereto and the repairs
thereof, for school furniture and appliances, for necessary textbooks for
indigent children attending the public free schools, and for any other
expenses attending the administration of the public free school system,
so far as the same is under the control or at the charge of the school
officers.

(13) To examine all claims against the school board, and when
approved, to order or authorize the payment thereof. A record of such
approval, order or authorization shall be made in the proceedings of the
board. Payment of each claim shall be ordered or authorized by a
warrant drawn on the treasurer or other officer of the city charged by
law with the responsibility for the receipt, custody and disbursement
of the funds of such city. The warrant shall be signed by the chairman
or vice-chairman of the board and countersigned by the clerk or deputy
clerk thereof, payable to the person or persons, firm or corporation
entitled to receive such payment, There shall be stated on the face of the
warrant the purpose or service for which such payment is drawn and
also that such warrant is drawn pursuant to an order entered or authority
granted by the board on the ............ day ............. The warrant may be
converted into a negotiable check when the name of the bank upon which
the funds stated in the warrant are drawn or by which the check is to
be paid is designated upon its face and is signed by the treasurer, deputy
treasurer or other officer of the city charged by law with the responsibility
for the receipt, custody and disbursement of the funds of the city.

The board may, in its discretion, appoint an agent and a deputy agent
to act for the agent in his absence or inability to perform this duty by
resolution spread upon the record of its proceedings to examine and
approve such claims and, when approved by him or his deputy to order
or authorize the payment thereof. A record of such approval, order or
authorization shall be made and kept with the records of the board.
Payment of each such claim so examined and approved by such agent
or his deputy shall be ordered or authorized by a warrant drawn on the
treasurer or other officer of the city charged by law with the respon-
sibility for the receipt, custody, and disbursement of the funds of the city.
The warrant shall be signed by such agent or his deputy and counter-
signed by the clerk or deputy clerk of the board, payable to the person
or persons, firm or corporation entitled to receive such payments ; pro-
vided, however, that when the agent appointed by the board is the
division superintendent of schools and the division superintendent and
clerk is one and the same person, all such warrants shall be countersigned
by the chairman or vice-chairman of the board; provided further that
when the deputy agent and deputy clerk is one and the same person the
warrant shall be countersigned by either the clerk or the agent of said
board. There shall be stated on the face of the warrant the purpose or
service for which such payment is made and also that such warrant is
drawn pursuant to authority delegated to such agent or his deputy by
the board on the ............ day of ............. The warrant may be converted
into a negotiable check in the same manner as is prescribed herein for
warrants ordered or authorized to be drawn by the school board. The
board shall require such agent and his deputy to furnish the city a cor-
porate surety bond conditioned upon the faithful performance and dis-
charge of the duties herein assigned to each such official. The board shall
fix the amount of such bond or bonds and the premium therefor shall be
paid out of the school funds of such city.

(14) 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 council, in
writing, a classified report of all expenditures and 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
provisions by appropriation or levy, for the same.

(15) To perform such other duties as shall be prescribed by the
State Board of Education or are imposed by other parts of this chapter.

(c) City school boards shall, in general, have the same power in
relation to condemnation or purchase of land and to the vesting of title
thereof, and also in relation to the title to and management of
property of any kind applicable to school purposes, whether heretofore
or hereafter set apart therefor, and however set apart, whether by gift,
grant, devise, or any other conveyance and from whatever source, as
county school boards have in the counties, and in addition thereto,
they shall have the further right and power to condemn not in excess of
fifteen acres of land for any one school when necessary for school pur-
poses except that when dwellings or yards are invaded no more than
five acres may be condemned for any one school. They shall also have
a clerk and, in the discretion of the school board, a deputy clerk, who
may or may not be members of the board and who shall be charged with
same duties as the clerk and deputy clerk of a county school board, and
whose salary shall be fixed by the board. The board shall require the
clerk and his deputy to furnish the city a corporate surety bond condi-
tioned upon the faithful performance and discharge of the duties herein
assigned to each such official. The board shall fix the amount of such
bond or bonds and the premium therefor shall be paid out of the school
funds of such city.