year, two for the term of two years, and two for a term of three years, and annually thereafter a successor or successors to the trustee or trustees whose term of office shall expire: Provided, also, In all districts organized prior to the year Proviso. eighteen hundred and eighty-three there shall be one trustee elected at the annual meeting for the year eighteen hundred and eighty-three, and thereafter there shall be elected a trustee or trustees in the manner aforesaid, whose term of office shall be three years, and until his or their successor or successors shall have been elected and filed his or their acceptance: Provided, also, That in the election of trustees, and all other Proviso. school officers, the person receiving a majority of all the votes shall be declared elected.

How. 5132.-Am. 1883, p. 20; App. Apr. 18; Act 28.-Am. 1885, p. 14; App. Mar. 13; Act 18.

Simpkins v. Ward, 45 / 562.

GRADED SCHOOL DISTRICTS: The wisdom of the graded-school-district act was vindicated in Stuart v. Sch. Dist., 30/69, and its validity determined. -Keweenaw Ass'n v. Sch. Dist., 98 / 439. It is competent under the constitution to provide by taxation for free instruction in the higher departments of education, in union and high schools.-Stuart v. Sch. Dist., 30/69. Union and graded schools, whether organized under the general law or created by special enactment are subject to the general primary school law, except as otherwise provided in the law creating them.-People v. Detroit Board of Education, 18/411; Keweenaw Ass'n v. Sch. Dist., 98 / 442.

ALL OTHER OFFICERS: The term "all other school officers" includes the director, moderator and assessor of primary school districts, there being no others to whom it could rerer, as the trustees are the only officers to be elected in graded school districts.-Cleveland v. Amy, 88 / 377.

LEGISLATIVE PROVISIONS: The constitution does not require an absolute uniformity in school districts throughout the state and the legislature has not so construed the constitutional provisions. Uniformity has not been kept up; graded schools have been established; boundaries of districts changed and fixed by the legislature; and the qualifications of electors at school meetings have been fixed, limiting the_classes__entitled to vote and providing exceptional methods of electing officers. The mayor of Grand Rapids is made a trustee and ex officio a member of the board of education; and being a trustee he is eligible to the office of president of the board. The president of the board has the veto power. The mayor of Alpena is president of the board and the trustees elected constitute the board, and exercise all the powers and perform the duties of trustees. The mayor of Detroit, as ex officio member of the board of education, has the veto power, and this provision is constitutional.-Pingree v. Board of Education, 99 / 407-9. It is no new thing for the legislature to fix the boundaries of school districts. It is done by the charter of nearly every city or village in the state, and some of them go so far as to provide exceptional methods of electing officers and limiting the classes entitled to vote (citing Mudge v. Jones, 59 / 165).-Keweenaw Ass'n v. Sch. Dist., 98 / 441. And in Perrizo v. Kesler, 93 / 280, an act providing for the organization of school districts from entire townships was held valid.-Id. 442.

Acceptance

elected by

(4747) SEC. 2. Within ten days after their election such trustees shall file with the director acceptances of the offices offices to be to which they have been elected, and shall annually elect from filed. their own number a moderator, a director, and assessor, and Officers to be for cause may remove the same, and may appoint others of trustees. their own number in their places, who shall perform the duties prescribed by law for such officers in other school districts in this state, except as hereinafter provided. The trustees shall have power to fill any vacancy that may occur in their number Vacancy in till the next annual meeting. Whenever, in any case, the filled." trustees shall fail, through disagreement or neglect, to elect the officers named in this section, within twenty days next

board, how

When inspectors

shall appoint officers.

Duty of trustees.

To classify pupils.

To establish high school, etc.

Proviso as to tuition.

To audit and pay directors' accounts.

To employ teachers.

To employ officers, etc.

Other duties.

after the annual meeting, the school inspectors of the township or city to which such district makes its annual report shall appoint the said officers from the number of said trustees.

How. 5133.

(4748) SEC. 3. It shall be the duty of the board of trustees in any graded school district:

First, To classify and grade the pupils attending schools in such district and cause them to be taught in such schools or departments as they may deem expedient;

Second, To establish in such district a high school when ordered by a vote of the district at an annual meeting, and to determine the qualifications for admission to such school, and the fees to be paid for tuition in any branch taught therein: Provided, That when non-resident pupils, their parents or guardians, shall pay a school tax in said district, the same shall be credited on their tuition a sum not to exceed the amount of such tuition and they shall only be required to pay tuition for the difference between the amount of the tax and the amount charged for tuition;

Third, To audit and order the payment of all [of] the accounts of the director for incidental or other expenses incurred by him in the discharge of his duties; but no more than fifty dollars shall be expended by the director in one year for repairs of the buildings or appurtenances of the district property without the authority of the board of trustees;

Fourth, To employ all qualified teachers necessary for the several schools, and to determine the amount of their compensation and to require the director and moderator to make contracts with the same on behalf of the district, in accordance with the provisions of law concerning contracts with teachers; Fifth, To employ such officers and servants as may be necessary for the management of the schools and school property, and prescribe their duties and fix their compensation;

Sixth, To perform such other duties as are required of district boards in other school districts.

How. 5134.-Am. 1891, p. 20; App. Apr. 2; Eff. Oct. 2; Act 21.

FIRST: To classify and grade.-People v. Detroit Bd. of Ed., 18 / 412. Under our system it is common and convenient to have the various grades in one building and there is nothing illegal in it.-Hathaway v. New Baltimore, 48 / 255. The authority to classify and grade the pupils and prescribe the course of studies confers the power to provide for teaching music and to purchase a piano for such purpose.-Knabe v. Board of Education, 67 / 262. FOURTH: A contract with a qualified teacher, made pursuant to a resolution adopted by a majority of the trustees and signed by the moderator and assessor and one of the trustees, is valid though not signed by the director.-Farrel v. Sch. Dist., 98 / 43 (citing Crane v. Sch. Dist., 61 / 299). The board has power to employ a qualified teacher for the ensuing year prior to the annual school meeting.-Id., (citing Tappan v. Sch. Dist., 44 / 500; Cleveland v. Amy, 88 / 374). The power to employ teachers conferred upon the district boards of primary schools is co-extensive with that conferred upon the boards of trustees of graded schools.-Cleveland v. Amy, 88 / 376. Teachers in graded schools are required to have certificates in the same manner as teachers in primary schools; but a person employed by the board to superintend and manage the schools need not be a teacher nor have a teacher's certificate.-Davis v. Sch. Dist., 81 / 214. The trustees are empowered to em. ploy all teachers necessary, and what teachers are necessary is left to be decided by their sound discretion.-Tappan v. Sch. Dist., 44 / 502.

FIFTH: The power to appoint a superintendent of schools is incident to the full control which by law the board has over the schools.-Stuart v. Sch. Dist., 30/85. And the person employed as superintendent is not required to be a teacher or to have a teacher's certificate.-Davis v. Sch. Dist., 81 / 219-20.

trustees neces

of district.

(4749) SEC. 4. No alterations shall be made in the boundaries of any graded school district, without the consent of a Consent of majority of the trustees of said district, which consent shall sary to change be spread upon the records of the district, and placed on file in boundaries in the office of the clerk of the board of school inspectors of the township or city to which the reports of said district are made; and graded school districts shall not be restricted to Such districts nine sections of land.

not restricted in size.

Provided, however, That any three or more tax paying electors hav- Proviso. ing children between the ages of five and twelve years, residing one and one-half miles or more from a school house in such district, feeling themselves aggrieved by any action, order, or decision of the board of trustees with reference to the alteration of said school district, affecting their interests, may, at any time within sixty days from the time of such action on the part of said board of trustees, appeal from such action, order or decision of such board of school trustees, to the judge of probate of the county in which such school house is situated, in the same manner, as nearly as may be, as appeals from the action of inspectors, as provided by chapter nine of this act. Said appellants shall file a bond Appellants to with said judge of probate, with sufficient sureties, to be approved by said judge of probate, in the penal sum of two hundred dollars, indemnifying said school district of any and all costs made on such appeal in case the appellants shall not prevail therein. Whereupon said judge of probate shall be empowered to entertain such appeal, and review, confirm or set aside or amend the action of the board of trusiees appealed from.

NOTE.-The italicized paragraph is the amendment made by Act No. 258, Public Acts of 1899.

How. 5135.

file bond.

NO ALTERATION: This provision is not intended to take from the board Alteration of of supervisors their constitutional power to erect townships, but the prohi- boundaries. bition applies only to the inspectors.-People v. Ryan, 19 / 207. Township school inspectors cannot enlarge a graded school district by adding unorganized territory, though they may, with the consent of the trustees, transfer to its jurisdiction territory previously organized into primary districts.Simpkins v. Ward, 45 / 559. The action of the board of inspectors in detaching territory from a graded school district is void, unless the inspectors have before them legal evidence of a consent of a majority of the trustees of the graded school district.-Burnett v. Inspectors, 97 / 103. Addition of territory by legislative action.-Keweenaw Ass'n v. Sch. Dist., 98 / 439-41. NINE SECTIONS: Keweenaw Ass'n v. Sch. Dist., 98 / 439, 440.

contiguous

school district.

(4750) SEC. 5. Whenever two or more contiguous districts, Uniting of having together more than one hundred children between the districts to ages of five and twenty years, after having published in the form graded notices of the annual meetings of each district the intention to take such action, shall severally, by a vote of two-thirds of the qualified voters attending the annual meetings in said districts determine to unite for the purpose of establishing a graded school district under the provisions of this chapter, the school inspectors of the township or townships in which such districts may be situated shall, on being properly notified of such vote, proceed to unite such districts, and shall appoint as soon as practicable, a time and place for a meeting of the new

Election of board of

trustees.

Duty of

trustees in certain cases, etc.

to change, etc.

district, and shall require three notices of the same to be posted in each of the districts so united at least five days before the time of such meeting, and at such meeting the district shall elect a board of trustees, as provided in section one of this chapter, and may do whatever business may be done at any annual meeting.

How. 5135a.-Added 1883, p. 44; App. Apr. 27; Act 53.

(4751) SEC. 6. Whenever the trustees of any organized graded school district shall be presented twenty days before the annual meeting thereof with a petition signed by ten electors of said district, stating that it is the desire of said petitioners that at the annual meeting of said school district there shall be submitted to said annual meeting the proposition to change from a graded school district to one or more primary school districts the said trustees shall, in their notice of such annual meeting, state that the proposition set forth in said petition will be presented to said meeting, and if two-thirds of the In case of vote qualified voters present at said meeting shall vote to change to one or more primary school district such change shall be made, and it shall be the duty of the board of school inspectors of the township or townships in which such district is situated, upon being duly notified of such vote to proceed to change or divide such district as determined by such annual meeting, and they shall provide for the holding of the first meeting in the, or each of the, proposed primary school districts in the same manner as is provided for by law for the organization of primary school districts, and whenever a fractional graded school district shall be so changed, the township boards of school inspectors of the respective townships where such graded school district is situated, shall organize the said district into one or more primary school districts, as provided for by law.

Added 1891, p. 91; App. May 20; Act 84.

Township libraries to be maintained.

Who are enti

tled to privi

CHAPTER XI.-LIBRARIES.

(4752) SECTION 1. A township library shall be maintained in each organized township, which shall be the property of the township, and shall not be subject to sale or alienation from any cause whatever. All actions relating to such library, or for the recovery of any penalties lawfully established in relation thereto, shall be brought in the name of the township.

How. 5136.

(4753) SEC. 2. All persons who are residents of the townleges of library, ship shall be entitled to the privileges of the township library, subject to such rules and regulations as may be lawfully established in relation thereto: Provided, That persons residing within the boundaries of any school district in which a

Proviso.

district library has been established shall be entitled to the privileges of such district library only.

How. 5137.

have charge of

library moneys-

(4754) SEC. 3. The township board of school inspectors shall Inspectors to have charge of the township library, and shall apply for and library and receive from the township treasurer all moneys appropriated for the township library of their township, and shall purchase the books and procure the necessary appendages for such library.

How. 5138.

accountable

of library.

Power of

(4755) SEC. 4. Said board shall be held accountable for the Inspectors proper care and preservation of the township library, and shall for care, etc... have power to provide for the safe keeping of the same, to prescribe the time for taking and returning books, to assess inspectors.. and collect fines and penalties for the loss or injury of said books, and to establish all other needful rules and regulations for the management of the library, as said board shall deem proper, or the superintendent of public instruction may advise.

How. 5139.

(4756) SEC. 5. The board of school inspectors shall cause the township library to be kept at some central or eligible Townshipplace in the township, which it shall determine. Such board library. shall also, within ten days after the annual township meeting, appoint a librarian, for the term of one year, to have the care Librarian, and superintendence of said library, who shall be responsible to the board of school inspectors for the impartial enforcement of all rules and regulations lawfully established in relation to said library.

How. 5140.-Am. 1883, p. 105; App. May 24; Eff. Sept. 8; Act 114.

duties, etc.

library.

(4757) SEC. 6. Any school district, by a two-thirds vote at School district. any annual meeting, may establish a district library, and such may establish district shall be entitled to its just proportion of books from the library of any township in which it is wholly or partly situated, to be added to the district library, and also to its equitable share of any library moneys remaining unexpended Entitled to in any such township or townships at the time of the establish- books and ment of such a district library, or that shall thereafter be raised by tax in such township or townships, or that shall thereafter be apportioned to the township to the inspectors of which the annual report of its director is made.

How. 5141.-Am. 1893, p. 258; App. May 31; Eff. Aug. 28; Act 158.

moneys.

of district

(4758) SEC. 7. The district board of any school district in District board which a district library may be established in accordance with to have charge the provisions of this act, shall have charge of such library; library. and the duties and responsibilities of said district board in relation to the district library, and all moneys raised or ap