2. They conduct school district elections either for voting taxes or school bonds, or for electing members of school boards, except in cities where school elections are held in connection with municipal elections. 3. They employ teachers, janitors, and other necessary employees and determine their salaries. 4. They make rules for the management of the schools. Teachers, parents, and pupils must obey these rules. They have power to dismiss teachers, or to suspend or expel pupils, for cause. 183. Teachers. - Statistics for the year 1912 show that 12,986 teachers were employed in the public elementary and high schools of California at that time and 262 teachers in public kindergartens. Almost all of our teachers are specially trained for their work, as most grammar grade teachers are graduates of the state normal schools, and most high school teachers are university graduates. 184. Pupils. In 1912, 404,365 boys and girls attended the public elementary and high schools of California, and 9708 attended the public kindergartens. The pupils are the most important part of the school system. In fact, the entire system exists for them. Our taxpayers know that an educated man or woman has a much better chance in the world than one who is uneducated. Education means ability to do something well. The men who occupy prominent positions in business, politics, literature, or in any of the professions, as well as those who are making the greatest success on the farm, are educated men. The women who are doing the most good in the world are educated women. It is of course true that school is not the only place in which one can receive an education. Many persons acquire ability through experience, but the same persons would in all probability have acquired a higher degree of efficiency if they had had a thorough training in school while young. Our lawmakers know that if a boy or girl misses the advantages which our schools have to give, he or she is preparing to enter upon life's work badly handicapped; and they have written in the laws of California that every child in the state between the ages of eight and fifteen, who is healthy in mind and body, must attend school unless excused, for reasons mentioned in the law, by the school board of the district in which he or she lives. This law is not as strictly enforced as it should be, and in most parts of the state the responsibility of seeing that children go to school rests with their parents. 185. High Schools.1 - Any incorporated city or town, or any school district which had during the preceding school year an average daily attendance at school of one hundred pupils, becomes a high school district if a majority of the votes cast at an election called to determine the question are favorable. Such an election must be called by the county superintendent on petition of a majority of the voters or a majority of the heads of families living in the town or district. The law provides a method whereby a union high school district may be formed from any number of adjacent school districts in the same county; and also a method whereby a joint union high school district may be formed from adjacent districts partly in one county and partly in another.3 2 Each high school district is governed by a high school board. In every case where the district coincides with an incorporated city or town, or with a single school district, 1 Statutes of 1911, page 917 seq. 2 In 1912 there were III such districts in the state. CIVIL GOV. IN CAL. - 18 the common school board acts as the high school board. The board of a union or joint union high school district consists of five members, elected by the district at large, for three years, one or two members being elected each year. Each high school district may maintain one or more high schools; or any county may maintain one or more county high schools on the approval of the voters at an election called to determine the question. In 1912 there were 229 high school districts in the state. Twenty of these were county districts organized for the purpose of maintaining county high schools. High schools are supported mostly by local taxes, but the state each year contributes to their support to the extent of $15 for each pupil on the basis of average daily attendance. 186. The County Superintendent of Schools.1 — A county superintendent, as stated in Chapter V, is elected in each county, by the voters at large, for four years. His most important duties are as follows: 1. To superintend the schools of his county; that is, to see that all the schools are conducted according to law, that they use the proper textbooks, that teachers and school trustees do their duty, that school money is not wasted, etc. 2. To apportion the money raised by the county for school purposes, as well as the money received from the state, among the various school districts of the county. 3. To authorize the expenditure of school money. The money belonging to each school district in the county is kept in the county treasury. The trustees of a district pay expenses by drawing warrants on the superintendent. Every warrant must state the purpose for which the money is to be spent. When a warrant is presented to the superintendent, he must satisfy himself that the money may be 1 Political Code, § 1543 seq. lawfully spent for the purpose stated. He then draws an order on the auditor, who in turn draws on the treasurer. 4. To visit every school in his county at least once a year. 5. To approve plans for new school buildings outside of incorporated cities. No board of trustees of a rural district may put up a building without such approval. 6. To make an annual report to the superintendent of public instruction concerning the schools of his county. 7. To fill vacancies, until the next election, in any board of school trustees. 8. To call and preside over teachers' institutes. 187. The County Board of Education. Each county board of education consists of the county superintendent, who is its secretary, and four other members appointed each for two years by the board of supervisors. Two members are appointed each year. Their most important duties are as follows: I. To grant teachers' certificates as follows: a. High school certificates, on credentials authorized by law or by the state board. b. Grammar grade certificates, on proper credentials or on examination. c. Special high school or grammar grade certificates, authorizing the holders to teach certain subjects, on examination. d. Kindergarten-primary certificates, on credentials. Diplomas from the kindergarten department of any California state normal school, or from any other institution approved by the state board, are proper credentials. 1 Political Code, § 1768 seq. 2. To revoke for cause any certificate granted by them. 3. To perform the following duties for all parts of the county outside of cities having boards of education: adopt a county course of study for elementary schools, grant diplomas to pupils who have completed the course of study in elementary schools, and approve courses of study which have been adopted for high schools by high school boards. City boards of education have charge of these matters in their respective jurisdictions. 4. To serve as a high school board in case one or more county high schools are maintained. 188. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction.1— The superintendent of public instruction is at the head of the state school system. He is elected at the general state election every four years and has his office in the capitol. His official duties, however, require him to spend a large part of his time in traveling about the state. His most important duties are as follows: 1. He must see that the state laws relating to the public schools are enforced; and must compile and print all such laws in pamphlet form, and "supply school officers and school libraries with one copy each." 2. He must apportion the state school fund among the various counties, and must furnish an abstract of his apportionment to each county auditor, treasurer, and superintendent of schools, as well as to the financial officers of the state. He must draw his warrant on the state controller in favor of each county treasurer covering the amount apportioned to the county. 3. Every even-numbered year, on or before the 15th of September, he must report to the governor the condition 1 Political Code, §§ 1532, 1533. |