N.Y. Education Law § 2021: Powers of voters

§ 2021. Powers of voters. The inhabitants entitled to vote, when duly

assembled in any district meeting, shall have power, by a majority of

the votes of those present and voting:

1. In common school districts, to appoint a chairman.

2. To appoint a clerk for the time if the district clerk is absent.

3. To adjourn from time to time as occasion may require, except that

where a special district meeting shall have been called by a board of

education for the purpose of voting upon an appropriation and the hours

of voting shall have been fixed by the board as provided in subdivision

three of section four hundred sixteen of this chapter, the meeting shall

not be adjourned until after the vote shall have been taken and

canvassed upon the proposition submitted.

4. To elect one or three trustees as provided in section sixteen

hundred two and a district collector, and in any district which shall so

determine, as hereinafter provided, to elect a treasurer, at their first

meeting, and so often as such offices or any of them become vacated,

except as hereinafter provided.

5. To adopt by a vote of a majority of such voters present and voting

at the first meeting, or at any subsequent annual meeting, or at any

special meeting duly called for that purpose, such vote to be

ascertained by taking and recording the ayes and noes, a resolution to

elect a treasurer of said district. If such resolution shall be adopted,

such voters shall thereupon elect by ballot a treasurer for said

district. Any person elected treasurer at any meeting other than an

annual meeting, shall hold office until the next annual meeting after

such election, and until his successor shall be elected or appointed,

and thereafter a treasurer shall be elected at each annual meeting for

the term of one year.

6. To fix the amount in which the collector and treasurer shall give

bonds for the due and faithful performance of the duties of their

offices.

7. To designate a site for a schoolhouse, or for grounds to be used

for playgrounds, or for agricultural, athletic center and social center

purposes, or, with the consent of the district superintendent of schools

within whose district the school district lies, to designate sites for

two or more schoolhouses for the district. Such designation of a site

for a schoolhouse, or for such grounds, can be made only at a special

meeting of the district, duly called for such purpose by a written

resolution in which the proposed site shall be described by metes and

bounds, and which resolution must receive the assent of a majority of

the qualified voters present and voting, to be ascertained by taking and

recording the ayes and noes, or by ballot.

8. To vote a tax upon the taxable property of the district, to

purchase, lease and improve such sites or an addition to such sites and

grounds for the purposes specified in the preceding subdivision, to hire

or purchase rooms or buildings for school rooms or schoolhouses, or to

build schoolhouses; to keep in repair and furnish the same with

necessary fuel, furniture and appurtenances, and to purchase such

implements, apparatus and supplies as may be necessary to provide

instruction in agriculture and other subjects, and for the organization

and conduct of athletic, playground and other social center work.

9. To designate any former schoolhouse and appurtenances, or any part

thereof, the title to which is vested in the board, as a public library

building, and to vote a tax on the taxable property of the district,

pursuant to section two hundred fifty-five of this chapter, to pay the

cost of necessary alterations and equipment to convert such schoolhouse

or part thereof to library use.

10. To vote a tax, not exceeding twenty-five dollars in any one year,

for the purchase of maps, globes, reproductions of standard works of

art, blackboards and other school apparatus, and for the purchase of

text-books and other school necessaries for the use of needy pupils of

the district.

11. To vote a tax for the establishment of a school library and the

maintenance thereof, or for the support of any school library already

owned by said district, and for the purchase of books therefor, and such

sum as they may deem necessary for the purchase of a bookcase or

bookcases.

12. To vote a tax to supply a deficiency in any former tax arising

from such tax being, in whole or in part, uncollectible.

13. To authorize the trustees to cause the schoolhouses, and their

furniture, appurtenances and school apparatus to be insured by any

insurance company created by or under the laws of this state, or any

other insurance company authorized by law to transact business in this

state.

14. To alter, repeal and modify their proceedings, from time to time,

as occasion may require.

15. To vote a tax for the purchase of a book for the purpose of

recording their proceedings.

16. To vote a tax to replace moneys of the district, lost or embezzled

by district officers; and to pay the reasonable expenses incurred by

district officers in defending suits or appeals brought against them for

their official acts, or in prosecuting suits or appeals by direction of

the district against other parties.

17. To vote a tax to pay whatever deficiency there may be in teachers'

salaries after the public money apportioned to the district shall have

been applied thereto.

18. To vote a tax to pay and satisfy of record any judgments of a

competent court which may have been or shall hereafter be obtained in an

action against the trustees of the district for unpaid teachers'

salaries, where the time to appeal from said judgments shall have

lapsed, or there shall be no intent to appeal on the part of such

district, or the said judgments are or shall be of the court of last

resort.

19. To provide, by tax or otherwise, for the conveyance of pupils

residing in a school district, (a) to the elementary or high schools, or

both, maintained in such district and/or (b) to the elementary or high

schools, or both, in any city or district with which an education

contract shall have been made, and/or (c) to the elementary or high

schools, or both, other than public, situated within the district or an

adjacent district or city, whenever such district shall have contracted

with the school authorities of any city, or with another school

district, for the education therein of the pupils residing in such

school district, or whenever in any school district pupils of school age

shall reside so remote from the schoolhouse therein or the elementary or

high school they legally attend, within or without the district, that

they are practically deprived of school advantages during any portion of

the school year.

20. To authorize the trustees or board of education, with the consent

of the commissioner of transportation, to furnish lighting facilities

and janitorial care for any highway underpass located within their

distrct and supervision thereof during the time the same is used by

pupils in arriving at or leaving the school premises, whenever such

highway underpass has been constructed by the state and the use thereof

is essential for the safety of pupils.

21. To vote a tax to provide funds which may be utilized to meet

expenses during the first one hundred twenty days of the fiscal year

following the fiscal year in which such tax is collected.