26 STATION BULLETIN 346 



a town manager, who is subject to their direction, supervision, and 

 removal. The act provides that the manager is to be the adminis- 

 trative head of all departments and is to have general supervision of 

 town property, business affairs, and the expenditure of moneys ap- 

 propriated by it for town purposes. But his authority was not to 

 extend to giving notice of town meetings, making by-laws, borrow- 

 ing money, assessing or collecting taxes, granting licenses, laying out 

 highways, judicial functions, nor to supervision of the offices of town 

 clerk and treasurer. A town was not able to avail itself of the provi- 

 sions of the act without having legally adopted it by a majority vote 

 of its voters, and a precinct could not adopt it unless the town, of 

 which the precinct forms a part, had first adopted it. 



This plan, although sound in principle, is one which rural towns 

 have felt they could not afford. It has not seemed probable that the 

 salary of a full-time manager would, under most circumstances, be 

 offset by savings or economies. Consequently, no town has adopted 

 the act. In one instance, however, the selectmen are authorized by 

 the town to hire (not appoint) an agent or superintendent without 

 contract. His duties are similar to those specified for the town man- 

 ager but are much more limited. 



SCHOOL DISTRICT ORGANIZATION 

 AND ADMINISTRATION 



The school district is a separate administrative unit with its own 

 set of officers, but with its functions limited entirely to those of public 

 education. 



It has been stated previously that there are 241 school districts 

 in the state, which have been combined by the state department into 

 48 supervisory unions, each of which is under the general supervision 

 of a superintendent. In ten cases, a single school district constitutes 

 a supervisory union. Other unions consist of from two to nine dis- 

 tricts. 



There are now four districts which do not maintain a school but 

 transport their children to a neighboring district. In 1940, 55 dis- 

 tricts had only one-room schools. ^^ Thirty of these districts had 

 one or two such schools, 23 had from three to five, one had six, and 

 one had nine, a total of 151. This accounted for 46 percent of the 

 327 one-room schools in the state. There were 108 districts in 1940 

 which had no one-room schools compared with 93 districts in 1938. 

 The number is declining rapidly, particularly in districts which have 

 centralized school facilities. 



Every district is required to provide the equivalent of eight 

 grades of elementary education. Any school district, or two or more 

 districts acting jointly, can establish and maintain a high school. 

 Furthermore, school districts are authorized to make a contract with 

 an academy or high school and appropriate money to carry the con- 

 tract into effect. When such a contract is approved by the State 

 Board, the school with which it is made is deemed a high school 



1" Biennial report of the State Board of Education, 1941. 



