who shall take the constitutional oath of office which shall be filed with the secretary of state. Said deputy shall assist Duty. the superintendent in the performance of his duties and he may execute the duties of the office of superintendent in case of a vacancy or in the absence of the superintendent. The Salary. salary of the deputy superintendent shall be two thousand dollars per annum. The salary of the deputy superintendent How paid. shall be paid from the general fund, upon a warrant of the auditor general, in the same manner that the salaries of other state officers are paid. The superintendent of public instruction may revoke the appointment of the deputy superintendent in his discretion. There is hereby appropriated out of the general fund in the state treasury a sufficient amount to carry out the provisions of this act. The auditor general shall add to and incorporate in the state tax for the year nineteen hundred nine and every year thereafter a sufficient amount to reimburse the general fund for the amounts appropriated by this act. Am. 1909, Act 9. Tax levy. rules for of libraries. (22) § 4641. SEC. 3. The superintendent of public in- May prepare struction may prepare and have printed general rules and management regulations for the management of township and district libraries, a general course of study for the schools of the state, and he shall transmit all these documents to the several school officers entrusted with the care and management of the public schools. Am. 1905, Act 72. ment of (23) § 4642. SEC. 4. He shall semi-annually, on receiv- Apportioning notice from the auditor general of the amounts thereof, primary school fund, etc. and between the first and tenth days of May and November, apportion the primary school interest fund among the several townships and cities of the state, in proportion to the number of children in each between the ages of five and twenty years, as the same shall appear by the reports of the several boards of school inspectors made to him for the school year closing prior to the May apportionment and shall prepare a statement of the amount in the aggregate payable to each county, and shall deliver the same to the auditor general, who shall thereupon draw his warrant upon the state treasurer in favor Warrant for, of the treasurer of each county for the amount payable to each county. He shall also send written notices to the clerks Notice to of the several counties of the amount in the aggregate to be disbursed in their respective counties, and the amount payable to the townships and cities therein respectively. Moiles v. Watson, 60 / 417. how drawn. county clerks. Proceedings (24) § 4643. SEC. 5. Whenever the returns from any in case of county, township, city, or district, upon which a statement of defective the amount to be disbursed or paid to any such county, town returns. When deficiency may be apportioned ship, city, or district shall be so far defective as to render it impracticable to ascertain the share of primary school interest fund which ought to be disbursed or paid to such county, township, city, or district, he shall ascertain by the best evidence in his power the facts upon which the ratio of such apportionment shall depend, and shall make the apportionment accordingly. (25) § 4644. SEC. 6. Whenever any county, township, city, or district, through failure or error in making the the next year. proper report, shall fail to receive its share of the primary school interest fund, the superintendent of public instruction, upon satisfactory proof that said county, township, city, or district was justly entitled to the same, shall apportion such deficiency in his next apportionment; and whenever it shall appear to the satisfaction of said superintendent that any district has had three months' school, but failed to have the full time of school required by law, through no fault or negligence of the district or its officers, he may include such district in his apportionment of the primary school interest fund in his discretion. Other duties of superintendent. Moiles v. Watson, 60 / 417. (26) § 4645. SEC. 7. The superintendent of public instruction shall perform such other duties as are or shall be required of him by law, and at the expiration of his term of office deliver to his successor all property, books, documents, maps, records, reports, and all other papers belonging to his office, or which may have been received by him for the use of his office. Township board, in division of school districts. CHAPTER II. FORMATION, ALTERATION, MEETINGS AND POWERS OF DISTRICTS. (27) 4646. SECTION 1. The township board of each authority of, township shall have authority to divide the township into such number of school districts as may from time to time be necessary, which districts it shall number, and it may regulate and alter the boundaries of the same as circumstances shall render proper; and each district shall be composed of contiguous territory and be in as compact a form as may be. Districts heretofore organized shall remain and have the same boundaries as at the time of the passage of this act, subject to change hereafter in the discretion of the township board. Districts heretofore organized. Am. 1901, Act 37; 1909, Act 31. On the subject of primary schools, see chapter 116, C. L. 1897. PRIMARY SCHOOL SYSTEM: The whole primary school system was confided by the constitution to the legislature and it cannot be said that the officers of school districts chosen pursuant to the system adopted by the legislature, are constitutional officers.-Belles v. Burr, 76/11. The constitution of 1850 left to the legislature, as did the preceding constitution, the establishment of a system of primary schools, restricting the legislature only by pro viding that a school shall be kept, without charge for tuition, at least three QUESTIONING REGULARITY: The regularity of the proceedings for the formation of a district and the existence of it cannot be questioned collaterally, but only in direct proceedings.-Clement v. Everest,_29/19. See Sch. Dist. v. Inspectors, 27/3; Stuart v. Sch. Dist., 30/69; Lord v. Every, 38/405; Bird v. Perkins, 33/30; Stockle v. Silsbee, 41/621; Keweenaw Ass'n v. Sch. Dist., 98/437. The legality of the organization and existence of the district cannot be tested by certiorari.-Jaquith v. Hale, 31 / 430. Certiorari to review the proceedings in organizing a district will not lie after the district is actually organized and has assumed the functions of a corporation; its corporate existence must then be tested by quo warranto.-Sch. Dist. v. Inspectors, 27/3; People v. Gartland, 75 / 143. But there should be some special and extraordinary reason to justify interference by quo warranto with the organization of a school district, as the statutes provide a speedier remedy by an appeal from the district board to the township board.-Lord v. Every, 38/405. And the supreme court will not meddle with the concerns of school districts, on mandamus, except on things of substance.-Sch. Dist v. Riverside Twp., 67/406. The facts in regard to the notices and proof of posting are sufficiently established if set out in the return of the board, though not appearing in the clerk's minutes of the proceedings. The act of detaching territory from two school districts and forming a new district by one and the same motion, after parties interested have had ample opportunity to be heard on both questions, is valid.-Smelzer v. Inspectors Big Prairie Twp., 125 / 666. on formation voters. (28) § 4647. SEC. 2. SEC. 2. Whenever the township board of Notice to any township shall form a school district therein, it shall be inhabitant the duty of the clerk of such board to deliver to a taxable of district. inhabitant of such district a notice in writing of the formation of such district, describing its boundaries and specifying the time and place of the first meeting, which notice, with the fact of such delivery, shall be entered upon record by the clerk. The said notice shall also direct such inhabit- Notice to ant to notify every qualified voter of such district, either qualified personally or by leaving a written notice at his place of residence, of the time and place of said meeting, at least five days before the time appointed therefor; and it shall be the duty of such inhabitant to notify the qualified voters of said district accordingly, and said inhabitant, when he shall have notified the qualified voters as required in such notice, shall endorse thereon a return showing such notification with the Return, date or dates thereof, and deliver such notice and return to the chairman of the meeting, to be by him delivered to the director chosen at such meeting, and by said director recorded at length as a part of the records of such district. Am. 1909, Act 31. what to show. Proceedings in case of failure to organize district. Fractional districts, how formed. Annual reports, where made. When districts deemed duly organized. When presumed legally organized. NOTICE: The board may, under one notice, at one meeting, by separate action, detach lands from separate school districts and attach them to one district.-Doxey V. School Inspectors, 67 / 601. Irregularity in notice.Parman v. Inspectors, 49/63. See Roeser v. Gartland, 75 / 144. RECORDS: Importance of.-Sch. Dist. v. Snell, 24/352. (29) § 4648. SEC. 3. In case the inhabitants of any district shall fail to organize the same in pursuance of such notice as aforesaid, the said clerk shall give a new notice in the manner hereinbefore provided, and the same proceedings shall be had thereon as if no previous notice had been delivered. (30) § 4649. SEC. 4. Whenever it shall be necessary or convenient to form a district from two or more adjoining townships, the township boards, or a majority of them, of each of such adjoining townships, may form such district, to be designated as a fractional district, and direct which township clerk shall make and deliver the notice of the formation of the same to a taxable inhabitant thereof, and may regulate and alter such district as circumstances may render necessary in the same manner that other districts are altered. The annual reports of the director of such district shall be made to the clerk of the township in which the schoolhouse may be situated, and the township board of such township shall number said district. Am. 1909, Act 31. Saginaw Twp. v. Sch. Dist., 9/544; Brewer v. Palmer, 13 / 109. (31) § 4650. SEC. 5. Every such school district shall be deemed duly organized when any two of the officers elected at the first meeting shall have filed their acceptances in writing with the director, and the same shall have been recorded in the minutes of such first meeting. Every school district shall in all cases be presumed to have been legally organized when it shall have exercised the franchises and privileges of a district for the term of two years; and such school district and its officers shall be entitled to all the rights, privileges and immunities, and be subject to all the duties and liabiliOrganization, ties conferred upon school districts by law. Any school district shall lose its organization as follows: how lost. Failure to maintain school. Resolution, declaring dissolution. (a) Whenever there are not three or more persons in such district qualified under the law to hold district offices; (b) Whenever such district shall fail to maintain school for the time required by law for a period of two successive years either within its own boundaries or by providing for the education of the children in other districts. Upon the happening of either condition, the township board, or joint board, if such district be fractional, shall declare by resolution such district dissolved and shall immediately attach the territory thereof, in whole or in part, to other districts already organized and make an equitable distribution of the money, property and other material belonging to such district among the districts to which the territory thereof shall be attached, in accordance with the provisions hereinafter stated. Am. Id. PRESUMPTION OF LEGAL ORGANIZATION: When a district has exercised the franchises and privileges of a school district for over two years, it is too late to question the legality of its organization.-Sch. Dist. v. Sch. Dist., 63/56; Sch. Dist. v. Sch. Dist., 81/343. The same rule which recognizes the right of officers de facto recognizes corporations de facto.-Clement v. Everest, 29/23. In public affairs, when the people have organized themselves under color of law into the ordinary municipal bodies, and have gone on year after year raising taxes, making improvements and exercising their usual franchises, their rights are properly regarded as depending quite as much on the acquiescence as on the regularity of their origin, and no ex post facto inquiry can be permitted to undo their corporate existence.-People v. Maynard, 15/470. As to questioning the regularity of organization, etc., see note to section 27. record of evidence. (32) § 4651. SEC. 6. The record of the first meeting Director's made by the director shall be prima facie evidence of the first meeting facts therein set forth and of the legality of all proceedings prima facie in the organization of the district prior to the first district meeting; but nothing in this section contained shall be so construed as to impair the effect of the record kept by the township board as evidence. Am. Id. CORPORATE POWERS OF DISTRICTS. ...... district, corporate. style. (33) § 4652. SEC. 7. Every school district organized in School pursuance of this chapter, or which has been organized and a body continued under any previous law of the state or territory of Michigan, shall be a body corporate, and shall possess the usual powers of a corporation for public purposes, by the name and style of "school district number (such num Name and ber as shall be designated in the formation thereof by the township board), of .... (the name of the township or townships in which the district is situated)," and in that name shall be capable of suing and being sued, of contracting Power of. and being contracted with, and of holding such real and personal estate as is authorized to be purchased by the provisions of law, and of selling the same. Am. Id. CORPORATE POWERS: The school district, under our statutes, is a corporation, and, as such corporation, is represented by three officers; a moderator, director and assessor. The affairs of the district are managed and controlled by them, under certain restrictions.-Sch. Dist. v. Sch. Dist., 63 / 57. A school district can take and hold bequests of money for the maintenance of a public library for the use and benefit of the residents of the districts.Maynard v. Woodward, 36 / 423. School districts, like townships and counties, are subdivisions of the state. This section gives them the capacity to sue and be sued.-Van Wert v. Sch. Dist., 100/333. School districts are municipal corporations.-Seeley v. Board of Ed., 39/486; Sch. Dist. v. Gage, 39/484; Belles v. Burr, 76/1. And cannot be garnisheed even by its own consent, unless the debtor also consents.--Id. They preceded the constitution (Stuart v. Sch. Dist., 30/69), and were recognized by that instrument.-Belles v. Burr, 76/11. ALTERATION OF DISTRICTS. of district (34) § 4653. SEC. 8. Whenever the township board shall Alteration contemplate an alteration of the boundaries of a district, the boundaries township clerk (and for meetings of boards to act in rela- by township board. |