CHAPTER 33 AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR A SIX MONTHS SCHOOL TERM IN EVERY PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT OF THE STATE. The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:
Section 8. Chapter five hundred and eight of the Public Laws of one thousand nine hundred and nine of North Carolina is hereby repealed, and the following is hereby substituted and enacted in lieu thereof: On or before the first Monday in June of each and every year the county board of education of each county shall ascertain the amount of money needed to maintain the public schools of such county for four months during the succeeding school year. The county board of education, using as a basis the receipts for school purposes during the current school year ending June thirtieth thereafter, shall ascertain the amount that will be available for school purposes from the general school tax, from fines, forfeitures, and penalties, and from the annual per capita appropriation to the county from the special state appropriation for public schools under this act. If the amount received and to be received from these sources is less than the amount ascertained to be needed for a full four months school term in every public school district of the county, said county board of education shall submit to the board of county commissioners of said county an itemized statement of the amounts needed for supervision, for administration, for buildings and repairs, for salaries of teachers, and for all other expenses allowed by law. The statement shall also set forth the number of teachers, white and colored, to be employed in each district, and the salary of each teacher in each district. The limitation placed by law on each of these objects shall not be exceeded. It shall thereupon be the duty of the board of county commissioners to levy a special tax on all property, real and personal, and on all taxable polls, subject to the constitutional limitation as to poll tax, in said county sufficient to supply the deficiency needed for the support and maintenance of the public schools of said county for four months in each school district: Provided, that no county shall be compelled to levy a special tax of more than fifteen cents on every hundred dollars value of property, real and personal, and fortytive cents on every taxable poll for said purpose. The said tax shall be levied and collected at the same time and in the same manner as other county taxes are levied and collected, and the funds derived therefrom shall be apportioned and expended by the county board of education for maintaining one or more public schools in each school district for a term of four months in each year. In the event of a disagreement between the county board of education and the board of county commissioners as to the amount of the deficiency to be supplied for a four months school, and as to the rate of tax to be levied therefor, or of the refusal of any board of county commissioners to levy said tax, the county beard of education shall bring an action in the nature of mandamus against the board of county commissioners to compel the levying of such special tax in the manner and form as provided in sections eight hundred and twenty-two and eight hundred and twenty-four of The Revisal of one thousand nine hundred and five of North Carolina, and it shall be the duty of the judge hearing the same to find the facts as to the amount needed and the amount available from the sources herein specified, which finding shall be conclusive, and to give judgment requiring the county commissioners to levy the sum which he shall find necessary to maintain the schools for four months in said county. No county shall receive any part of the State equalizing school fund provided by this act until it shall have levied the special tax herein required of it for a four months school term in every school district. ,