VOL. LXXXIII. Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co., tvtt rvrar •v-,-vT»Tr TT ta™ ni , 
S33 W. 30tl» St., New York. Price One Dollar & Year. NEW YORK, JUNE 21, 1924 
Entered as Second-Class Matter, June 26, 1879, at the Post 
Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
NO. 4800 
The School Trustee; His Powers and Duties 
I was elected trustee of my district school at a recent 
meeting. This is my first experience in such a posi¬ 
tion. I have already been filled with well-meant advice 
from my neighbors, who all seem to know just what 
the laws are and what my duties are. As there is so 
much confliction in this advice I have decided to accept 
it all. and ignore it as far as trying to follow any of it. 
I am a newcomer in my district, and was rather sur¬ 
prised to get such an office from persons who barely 
know me. I want to put in as many improvements as 
I can this year, because I expect this will be my only 
opportunity. There seems to be a clique of old per¬ 
sons who have no children of grammar school age whose 
sole idea of a district school is to maintain it in such a 
manner that the taxes will be kept very low. In fact, 
they voted to raise $1,000 to cover teacher’s salary, 
coal, janitor’s wages, and all other items for the com¬ 
ing year. What I want to find out is how much I can 
run over this amount and be upheld by the law. 
There is at present no water of any kind on the 
school property ; for the past few years the teacher has 
sent small children about an eighth of a mile down the 
State road several times a day with a pail to get it 
from a neighbor. Have I the power to get a well dug 
on the school grounds without the vote of the district? 
If so, do the State laws permit it to be located in the 
school cellar, with the pump directly in the schoolroom? 
The other point I wish enlightenment on is the ques¬ 
tion of toilets. The accommodations now consist of 
two dilapidated wooden outhouses about 50 ft. from 
the school building, and on the side of the school 
which has no windows or doors. The fences which are 
supposed to screen the doors of these houses are in such 
a state of repair that they are worthless for that pur¬ 
pose. Have I the power to have a small addition 
placed on the school in which to place inside toilets? I 
am very anxious to know just where I stand on these 
two questions, and how much I can exceed my allow¬ 
ance in providing them. 
Another thing you may be able to advise me about is 
the rights of the Parent-Teachers’ Association to the 
use of the school building for the purpose of holding 
entertainments, suppers and dances for the purpose of 
raising funds to use for the betterment of the school 
grounds and building. 
Last year there was a great amount of trouble caused 
by about the same group, who seem to be the chronic 
objectors in this district. They seem to have a sort of 
“agin it” complex. I am more or less familiar with the 
type, as I have lived in a country district most of my 
life. I want to give these objectors their rights, but I 
don’t want them to get away with anything which it is 
perfectly my right to prevent. D. o. w. 
T shall be the duty of the trustees of a school dis¬ 
trict, and they shall have power: 
To purchase or lease such schoolhouse sites and 
other grounds to be used for playgrounds, or for 
agriculture, athletic center and social center pur¬ 
poses, and to purchase or build such school houses, 
as a district meeting may authorize; to hire tem¬ 
porarily such rooms or buildings as may lie neces¬ 
sary for school purposes; and to purchase such im¬ 
plements, supplies and apparatus as may be neces¬ 
sary to provide instruction in agriculture, and social 
center activities in the district, when authorized by 
a vote of a district meeting. 
To have the custody and safe keeping of the dis¬ 
trict schoolhouses, their sites and appurtenances. 
To insure the school buildings, furniture and 
school apparatus in some company created by or 
under the laws of this State, or in an insurance com¬ 
pany authorized by law to transact business in this 
State, and to comply with the conditions of the pol¬ 
icy, and raise by a district tax the amount required 
to pay the premiums thereon. 
To contract with and employ as man# legally 
Just loolcmg ahead a few months to the apple harvest. There is a big crop coming and only the best of the fruit will sell at paying prices. 
