The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-12-05
BOARD OF EDUCATION
dLONE CONTROL HANDLING OF
 SCHOOL FUNDS

Important Opinion of Corporation
 Counsel Robertson Given to the Board
 of Finnnoe-Remainimg $2GO,OOO of
 City Bonds Cannot be Transferred to
 School District.
 Corporation Counsel Robertson yes terday gave his opinion to the board of finance concerning the validity of the transfer of the $26O, GOO remaining of the city bonds from the city general fund to the school district. The opinion de- cides that the money cannot be trans ferred as was proposed, and is substan- tially as follows:
 There are two questions, it seems to me, involved:
 l. Under whose control or in whose hands is the money received from the sale of the funding and high school bonds, recently issued?
 2 Whether or not there is any power in the board under whose control the mony is to loan the same.
 find that the money is the proceeds derived from the sale of bonds recently sold by the city of New Haven, known as funding and high school bonds, which were issued by authority of an act of the general assembly. By that act the board of education is authorized 10 is sue, and did issue, in pursuance of the authority confere1 by said a1;, the bonds in question.
 The board of educa tion, under section 106 of the charter, has not only the powers conferred upon it by the char ter, but possesses also all the powers and is subject to all the general duties of boards of education, school districts, school committees and school visitors in this state, as far as the same is con- sistent with the charter itself. A school district is not necessarily co-extensive with a town-it is a separate organiza- ton.
 The general statutes of the state pro- vide that each board of education shall be body corporate, and I think we are justified in finding that the board of cd uaction is corporate body within an- other corporate body, that of the mu- nicipality.
 The act authorizes and empo Ners the board of education of the city of New | Haven to issue the bonds, and not the city of New Haven itself. Consequent i ly it follows that the proceeds of the ' bonds must belong to and be under the control of the board of education.
 The board has very properly recog nized this ownership of the proceeds of | the bonds in question by it's resolution | passed November 22, 1900.
 The proceeds of these bonds were nev- CT rightfully in any general fund be- . longing to the city of New Haven, but [ must have been ipso facto in a special . fund, irrespective of any vote transfer ring the same, which in reality was only a matter of detail.
 I am very clearly of the opinion that | these bonds, under the charter under the general laws of the state of Con- necticut and under the special act au- thorizing the issue of the bonds, are now and always have been, since the bonds were sold, under the control of the board of education of the city of New Haven.
 The question also arises whether the board of education has the right to loan these funds either to the city or any one else
 The board of education has only those powers which are conferred upon 1t by the charter of the city of New Haven and such other powers as are conferred by the general statutes of the state of Connecticut.
 Nowhere in the statutes or in the charter can I find any power given, either directly or by implication, to the board of education of the city of New Haven, or in fact, to the board of edu- cation of any town, to loan money which Is raised for a particular purpose by taxation.
 Therefore, irrespective of the special act authorizing the issue of these bonds, I am of the opinion that the board of education has no power to loan any money in their possession either to the or any one else. , But if there was a general power in boards of education to loan money even then I should be of the opinion that that power would not exist as far as the proceeds of these particular bonds are concerned. The first section of the act relating to the issue of these bonds e provides that the proceeds of these bonds shall be used for two purposes only, naming them, thus limiting any general power, if there was any, which the board of education might have By l