The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1876-03-22
Our Public Schools.

! We arc gratified to learn that Mr.
Trousdale, the State Superintendent of
| Public Instruction, has at last found out
that school matters in Hawkins county
arc all out of joint, and that he intends
to have them looked into and reformed
if possible. A letter from him to a
teacher in this county says:
g regret exceedingly to hear Of the
evil effects of the Encouragement of the
school fund in your county, of which
intimations have reached this office be-
fore. 1t is shame that
such cases should exist, especially in
such county as Hawkins, noted for lis
intelligence and public spirit
If a for ner trustee overpaid directors of
one district and did not pay others their
full share of the funds to which they
were entitled, the present trustee would
not, | think, be justified in correcting
the errors; but the former trustee is liza
BILE on his bond to the districts under
paid, to the amounts to which they were
entitled and were not paid If he over
paid some districts it was at his own
risk, and will not discharge him in law
from the payment to other districts of
the full amount of the sums due them
upon their school population. If you
can make this appear the law provides a
remedy, and makes it the duty of the
district attorney to move against him on
his bond. Every dollar of
money issued by the Comptroller to
! your county for school purposes, with
the exception of the October interest on
the school fund has been paid in full at
the Treasury here. These warrants
have been generally paid in by your
collector in the settlement of his indebt-
edness to the State"
Mr.. Trousdale then furnishes a list of
the warrants sent to Hawkins county
since October, 1873, showing that we
have received 81, 1858 80.
In addition to this the county tax lev
led and collected for school purposes has
been expended. We do not make any
charges of the fraudulent use of this
money. How it has been expended we
do not pretend to know. But we do
know that while many Of the teachers
Of year or two ago are still unpaid, the
whole system in the county is broken
down, and 50 far as we of Hawkins are
concerned we had as we'll have no school
law at all
1t is some consolation to know that
Mr.. Trousdale, the Superintendent, de-
signs visiting this county shortly. We
hope he will straighten out things and
put the schools in operation. In the
meantime our present trustee should be
very cautious how he pays out the
school money. He is bound by the law
and if he pays out money Illegally he
and his securities are responsible. The
taxes levied and collected for the years
'75-6 can only be legally paid out for
schools in operation during those years
Nugent is a clever, honest fellow, and |
will not knowingly do wrong. But as
school matters have got into such an /
ugly shape by the mismanagement of /
somebody, he should be watchfuI and
be sure he is right. before he pays out
any of the school tax money for the /
present year. No district has the right |
TO euploy teacher now and take the
taxes for the next three years to pay
him. Neither has district the right
to take the tax Of this year TO pay for a
school taught two years ago. Such a
payment would be illegal and the trus-
tee would lay himself liable on his bond