A Meeting in New Section to be called within Twenty Days. 8. The person so appointed shall, within twenty days after receiving such notice, prepare a notice in writing, describing such section, and appointing a time and place for the first school section meeting, and shall cause copies of such notice to be posted in at least three public places in the school section, at least six days before the time of holding the meeting.* Chairman and Secretary to be appointed at Meeting. 9. The [resident or non-resident assessed] freeholders and householders of such school section then present, shall elect one of their own number to preside over the proceedings of such meeting, and shall also appoint a secretary, who shall record all the proceedings of the meeting. Duties of Chairmant-His Casting Vote. 10. The chairman of such meeting shall decide all questions of order, subject to an appeal to the meeting; and in case of an equality of votes, shall give the casting vote-but he shall have no vote except as chairman. *Form of notice for a first school section meeting: NEW SCHOOL SECTION NOTICE. The municipal council of this township having formed a part of the township into a school section, and designated it School Section No. - its boundaries and limits are as follows: [Here insert a full description of the section.] The undersigned having been authorized and required by the municipal council to appoint the time and place of holding the first meeting for the election of trus tees for the school section above described, hereby notifies the assessed freeholders and householders of said school section, that a public meeting will be held at on, the of, at the hour of ten o'clock in the forenoon, for the pur pose of electing three fit and proper persons, from among the resident assessed freeholders or householders, as school trustees of the said seetion, as required by the eighth section of the Upper Canada Consolidated Common School Act. Given under my hand, this day of 186-. [Name.] REMARKS-Should the person authorized and appointed by the municipal council to call the first school section meeting, refuse or neglect to do so, he subjects him. self, by the twenty-first section of this Act, page 16, to a penalty of five dollars, recoverable for the purposes of such school section; and then, any two assessed freeholders or householders are authorized, within twenty days, on giving six days' notice, to call a meeting for the election of trustees. See the twenty-second section, page 17. The local superintendent may also call this meeting. See second clause of the twenty-fifth section of this Act, on page 19. The usual form of proceedings at school meetings, compiled from the Rules of the Legislative Assembly of Canada, and from other sources, is as follows: 1. The chairman shall preserve order and decorum, and shall decide questions of order, subject to an appeal to the meeting. 2. Every elector, previous to speaking, shall rise and address himself to the chairman. 3. When two or more electors rise at once, the chairman shall name the elector who shall speak first, and the other or others may appeal to the meeting, if dissatisfied with the chairman's decision. 4. Each elector may require the question or motion in discussion to be read for Mode of Recording Votes at School Meeting. 11. The chairman shall* take the votes in the manner desired by a majority of the electors present, but he shall,* at the request of any two electors, grant a poll for recording the names of the voters by the secretary. Three Trustees to be Elected at First School Meeting. 12. At such first school section meeting, the electors present shall, by a majority of votes, elect from the [resident assessed] freeholders or householders in such section, three trustees. Trustees must be resident assessed Ratepayers. [124. The School Law Amendment Act of 1860 further enacts:-11. No person shall be eligible to be elected or to serve as school trustee, who is not a resident assessed freeholder or householder in the school section for which he is elected.] Term of Office of each Trustee. 13. The trustees so elected shall respectively continue in office as follows: (1) The first person elected shall continue in office for two years, to be reckoned from the annual school meeting next after his election, and thence until his successor has been elected; (2) The second person elected shall continue in office one year, to be reckoned from the same period, and until his successor has been elected; his information at any time, but not so as to interrupt an elector who may be speaking. 5. No elector shall speak more than twice on the same question or amendment without leave of the meeting, except in explanation of something which may have been misunderstood, or until every one choosing to speak shall have spoken. 6. The names of those who vote for, and of those who vote against the question, shall be entered upon the minutes if two electors require it. 7. A motion to adjourn an annual school meeting is unlawful, and cannot be entertained; but a motion to adjourn a special school meeting shall always be in order: Provided no second motion to the same effect shall be made until after some intermediate proceedings shall have been had. 8. A motion may be debated, but cannot be put from the chair, unless the same be in writing and seconded. 9. After a motion is read by the chairman, it shall be deemed to be in possession of the meeting; but may be withdrawn at any time before decision or amendment, with consent of the meeting. 10. When a question is under debate, no motion shall be received unless to amend it, or to postpone it, or for adjournment. (See No. 7 above.) 11. All questions shall be put in the order in which they are moved. Amendments shall all be put in the same order before the main, or first, motion. 12. A motion to reconsider a vote may be made by any elector at the same meeting; but no vote of reconsideration shall be taken more than once on the same question at the same meeting. By the General Interpretation Act, the word "shall" in this and in other statutes is declared to be imperative, and the word "may" permissive. See note on page 8. (3) The third, or last person elected, shall continue in office until the next ensuing annual school meeting in such section, and until his successor has been elected. Copy of Proceedings to be sent to the Local Superintendent.* 14. A correct copy of the proceedings of such first and of every annual and of every special school section meeting, signed by the chairman and secretary, shall be forthwith transmitted [by the chairman] to the local superintendent of schools. Penalty on the Chairman for neglect. [14. The School Law Amendment Act of 1860 further enacts, that: [19. Any chairman who neglects to transmit to the local superintendent a copy of the proceedings of an annual or other school section meeting over which he may preside, within ten days after the holding of such meeting, shall be liable, on the complaint of any rate-payer, to a fine of not more than five dollars, to be recovered as provided in the one hundred and fortieth section of the Upper Canada [Consolidated] Common School Act aforesaid.]+ A School Trustee to be annually Elected in each Section. 15. A trustee shall be elected to office at each ensuing annual school meeting, in place of the one whose term of office is about to expire and the same individual, if willing, may be re-elected; but no school trustee shall be re-elected except by his own consent, during the four years next after his going out of office.‡ : * A report in the following form should be sent to the local superintendent : 186—. [————Post Office.] SIR,-We have to inform you, that at a meeting of the [assessed] freeholders and householders of school section No. -, in the township of according to law, on the day of dress of the person or persons elected] said section. held [Here insert the name or names or adchosen school [trustee or trustees] of The other business transacted at the meeting, of which due notice was given, was as follows:-[Here insert it.] We have the honour to be, sir, your obedient servants, To the Local Superintendent of Schools D. E., Chairman of the Meeting assessed freeholders or house- The twenty-fifth section of the Upper Canada Consolidated Common School Act authorizes Local Superintendents to investigate and decide upon school election or other complaints, if made to him within twenty days after the school meeting. See page 18. The omission on the part of the chairman to transmit this notice does not invalidate the proceedings of the meeting itself, but it renders him liable to a fine for neglect of duty. This exemption from re-election does not extend to persons who pay the fine imposed by the twenty-third section, for refusing to serve. See page 17. Mode of Proceeding at Annual Meeting. 16. At every annual school section meeting in any township, as authorized and required to be held by the third section of this Act [page 8], the [resident, or non-resident, assessed] freeholders and householders of such section present at such meeting, or a majority of them— Appointment of Chairman and Secretary. (1) Shall elect a chairman and secretary, who shall perform the duties required of the chairman and secretary, by the tenth and eleventh of sections of this Act [pages 10, 11; and also by the nineteenth section the School Law Amendment Act of 1860, as section 142, on page 12.] Trustees' General Report to be submitted. (2) Shall receive and decide upon the [general, not the financial] report of the trustees, as required by the twenty-first clause of the twenty-seventh section of this Act [page 42.]* Annual Election of School Trustees. (3) Shall elect a [resident assessed] trustee or trustees, to fill up the vacancy or vacancies in the trustee corporation;† and To decide on the manner of supporting the School for the Year. (4) Shall decide upon the manner in which the salaries of the teacher or teachers, and all other expenses connected with the operation of the school or schools shall be provided for‡ [as authorized by the one hundred and twenty-fifth section of this Act.]§ The public school meeting has no legal authority to discuss the financial items in the trustees's report, unless the auditors cannot agree upon them. That duty, and the entire audit of these items, belongs exclusively to the two school anditors. The auditors should read their report to the school meeting, but only for its information. In case of a difference of opinion between the auditors, in regard to the lawfulness of any expenditure, they should proceed as pointed out in the eighth section of the School Law Amendment Act of 1860, page 44. + See eighteenth section of the School Law Amendment Act of 1860, as [234], and the twenty-fourth section of the Consolidated Common School Act, both on page 18. Special Meetings may determine how the School shall be supported.-Resolu tions passed at the Annual School Meeting may be rescinded at a Special Meeting. -The Court of Common Pleas has decided that power is given to assemble a special meeting of the assessed freeholders and householders of any school section, for the purpose of maintaining a common school within their section.Held, also, that any resolution passed at the general annual meeting, deciding on any one mode for maintaining the school for the year, may be rescinded by a special meeting properly convened for that purpose-Wilson v. Thompson, 9 C. P. R. 364. See also the tenth clause of the twenty-seventh section of the Act, on page 34. § It belongs to the office of Trustees to estimate and determine the amount of the teacher's salary, and all expenses connected with the school; but it appertains to the majority of the assessed freeholders and householders of each school section, at a public meeting called for the purpose, to decide, (as authorized by the one hundred and twenty-fifth section of this Act,) as to the manner in which Auditors' Report to be received. [(5) The eighth section of the School Law Amendment Act of 1860, provides that the annual meeting shall receive the report of the auditors of school section accounts of the previous year, and dispose of the same. See page 43.] School Section Auditor to be appointed. [(6) The same section of the Act of 1860, also provides that the annual meeting shall appoint an auditor of the school accounts of the section for the current year. See page 42.] [The seventeenth section of the Consolidated School Act has been superseded by the third section of the School Law Amendment Act of 1860, as follows:] [Who are legal Voters at School Meetings.* [17. The seventeenth section of the Upper Canada Common School Act, sixty-fourth chapter of the Consolidated Statutes for Upper Canada, shall be amended so as to read as follows: No person shall be entitled to vote in any school section for the election of trustee, or on any school question whatsoever, unless he shall have been assessed, and shall have paid school-rates as a freeholder or householder in such section and in case an objection be made to the right of any person to vote in a school section, the chairman or presiding officer at the meeting shall, at the request of any ratepayer, require the person whose right of voting is objected to, to make the following declaration : [Form of Declaration required from School Electors. : "I do declare and affirm that I have been rated on the assessment "roll of this school section as a freeholder (or householder, as the case may be) and that I have paid a public school tax due by me in "this school section imposed within the last twelve months, and that "I am legally qualified to vote at this meeting." [Penalty for making a False Declaration, [Whereupon the person making such declaration shall be permitted to vote on all questions proposed at such meeting; but if any person such expenses shall be provided for, whether (1) by voluntary subscription; (2) rate bill, in advance, of twenty-five cents (or less) per calendar month, on each pupil attending the school; (3) rate on property. But as the trustees alone, as authorized by the fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, and twelfth clauses of the twentyseventh section, pages 28-31, and 36, determine the amount required for the support of the school, which they are required to keep open at least six months of the year, they are authorized by the tenth clause of the same section, page 34, to provide the balance, including all deficiencies, by a rate upon the property of the section, should the vote of the annual meeting not cover all the expenses of the school (over and above the cheques for the school fund), or should the annual meeting omit or refuse to provide a sufficient sum. But for all the moneys received and expended by them, the trustees must account annually to the school section auditors, as prescribed in the eighth section of the School Law Amendment Act of 1860, page 43. The nineteenth section of the Consolidated School Act, page 15, and the twentyfifth section of the Roman Catholic Separate School Act of 1863, exclude supporters of the separate schools from the right of voting at common school meetings. This word "shall" is construed as imperative. See note on page 11. i.e., Either by the county or township council, or by the school trustees. |