AN ACT RESPECTING PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
(R. S. O., 1887, Cap. 225.)

CONTENTS.

PRELIMINARY.

1. This Act may be cited as "The Public Schools Act," 48 V. c. 49, s. 1.

NOTE. In referring to any part of the Act, cite the sub-section, section and title of the Act.

2. Where the words following occur in this Act, they shall be construed in the manner hereinafter mentioned, unless a contrary intention appears:

(1) "Teacher" shall include female as well as male teachers.

(2) "County" shall include a union of counties.

(3) "Township" shall include unions of townships made for municipal purposes.

(4) School site" shall mean such area of land as may be necessary for the school building, teacher's residence, offices and play-grounds connected therewith.

(5) "Owner" shall include a mortgagee, lessee or tenant, or other person entitled to a limited interest, and whose claims may be dealt with by arbitration as herein provided.

(6) "Resident" shall include such persons who, though not actually resident in a school section or division, pay a school rate at least equal to the average school rate paid by the actual residents of such section or division.

(7) "Ratepayer" shall mean an assessed householder, owner or tenant, or any person entered on the assessment roll as a farmer's son, or any person assessed for income. 48 V. c. 49, s. 2.

See note to section 13.

3. Nothing in this Act authorizing the levying or collecting of rates on taxable property for public school purposes shall apply to the supporters of Roman Catholic separate schools. 48 V. c. 49, s. 3.

NOTE. See sec. No. 271-"Nothing in this Act shall affect Roman Catholic separate schools, unless where such schools are expressly referred to."

4. All public school sections or other public school divisions, together with all elections and appointments to office, all agreements, contracts, assessments, and rate-bills, heretofore duly made in relation to public schools, and existing when this Act comes into force, shall be subject to the provisions of this Act. 48 V. c. 49, s. 4.

5. The term for which each school trustee holds office at the time this Act takes effect, shall continue as if such term had been created by virtue of an election under this Act. 48 V. c. 49, s. 5.

6. All public schools shall be free schools, and every person between the age of five and twenty-one years shall have the right to attend some school. 48 V. c. 49, s. 6.

NOTE. What about compulsory education?

7. No person shall require any pupil in any public school to read or study in or from any religious book, or to join any exercise of devotion or religion, objected to by his or her parents or guardians. 48 V. c. 49, s. 7.

8. Pupils shall be allowed to receive such religious instructions as their parents or guardians desire, according to any general regulations provided for the organization, government and discipline of public schools. 48 V. c. 49, s. 8.

NOTE. Such regulations should be furnished to parents

that they may be enabled to give an expression of opinion.

9. The municipal council of each township shall form portions of the township, where no schools have been established, into school sections, each section to be distinguished by a number; provided that no section so formed shall include any territory more than three miles in a direct line from the site of the school-house. This section shall not apply to townships in which there is a township board. 48 V. c. 49, s. 9.

NOTE. In all cases where a hardship exists an application will lie to the Superintendent of Education.

10. No section shall be formed which contains less than fifty actual resident children, between the ages of five and twenty-one years, unless the area of the section contains more than four square miles. 48 V. c. 49, s. 10.

11. It shall be the duty of every township clerk to prepare, in duplicate, a school map of the township, showing the divisions of the township into school sections and parts of union school sections, to furnish one copy of such map to the county clerk, for the use of the county council, and retain the other in the township clerk's office, for the use of the township corporation. 48 V. c. 49, s. 11.

NOTE. Difficulties have arisen in many municipalities by the placing of ratepayers in a wrong school section by accident, which have given rise to grievances not easily adjusted by the council. To remedy this, a condensed plan of the school section in a township municipality might be prepared and supplied to ratepayers, which would enable them to check the assessor when making an assessment and thus prevent the possibility of a mistake.

12. For each rural school section there shall be three trustees, each of whom, after the first election of trustees, shall hold office for three years, and until his successor has been elected. 48 V. c. 49, s. 12.

13. The persons qualified to be elected trustees shall be such persons as are actual resident ratepayers within the school section, and of the full age of twenty-one years, and are not disqualified under this Act. 48 V. c. 49, s. 13.

NOTE. See sub-section 6 of section 2 of this Act, from which it would appear that a non-resident who pays a school rate equal to the average school rate paid by the actual residents of the section or division, shall be considered qualified to be elected as a trustee. Said sub-section 6 does not state that the candidate, being a non-resident shall pay a school tax at least equal to the average school tax paid by the actual residents of such section; and the school rate being the same in all cases, it would appear that a nonresident not otherwise disqualified is qualified to be a school trustee in the school section within which his property is situate.

14. Every ratepayer of the full age of twenty-one years, who is a public school supporter within the section for which he is such ratepayer, shall be entitled to vote at any election for school trustee, or on any school question whatsoever, at any annual or special meeting in the said section. 48 V. c. 49, s. 14.

NOTE.-Under sub-section 6 of section 2 of this Act, a non-resident has a right to vote subject to section 21 of this Act.

15. A meeting of the ratepayers of every section shall be held annually on the last Wednesday of December, or if such Wednesday be a holiday, then on the next day following, commencing at the hour of ten o'clock in the forenoon, for the purpose (among other things) of electing a school trustee or trustees. 48 V. c. 49, s. 15.

16. In case, from the want of proper notice or other cause, any first or annual school section meeting, required to be held for the election of trustees, was not held at the proper time, the inspector, or any two ratepayers in the section may call a school meeting, by giving six days' notice, to be posted in at least three of the most public places in the school section; and the meeting thus called shall possess all the powers and perform all the duties of the meeting in the place of which it is called. 48 V. c. 49, s. 16.

17. (1) The electors of such school section present at such meeting shall elect one of their own number to preside over its proceedings, and shall also appoint a secretary, who shall record the proceedings of the meeting, and perform such other duties as may be required of him by this Act. (2) The business of such meeting may be conducted in the following order:

(a) Receiving the annual report of the trustees, and disposing of the same;

(b) Receiving the annual report of the auditor or auditors, and disposing of the same;

(c) Electing an auditor for the current year;

(d) Miscellaneous business;

(e) Electing a trustee or trustees to fill any vacancy or vacancies. 48 V. c. 49, s. 17.

NOTE. The order of business is not imperative, but it is important that the chairman should be a person well versed in school election matters.

18. The chairman shall preside and submit all motions to the meeting in the manner desired by the majority. In case of an equality of votes, he shall give the casting vote but no other vote. He shall decide all questions of order, subject to an appeal to the meeting. 48 V. c. 49, s. 18.

NOTE. The chairman cannot exercise his franchise at a school election, but becomes as it were an umpire between the parties, having only a casting vote.