The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1900-09-26
EDITOR OF ADVERTISER, SIR

| want to ask few questions through
| your paper, which l think will be of
Importance to the public. We all want
| to be law-abiding citizens, so we must
| know the law by which to abide.
lst Have the Trustees of a school
District the power to elect teacher
over the patrons OF said District, re-
gardless OF the patrons choice?
End: Does not the law require that
| When trustees are elected or appointed
that they shall meet and elect one of
their number Chairman and one Sec
| retary-in other words go into regu-
| lar organization?
ID: Does not the law require that
when they want q teacher that the
Trustees shall call meeting of the
'atrons OF their district and elect
Geacher; also that the Trustees cot as
managers Of said election?
l would like to see the most impor-
tant part OF the school law relative to
patrons and trustees Please give us
as much light on the above questions
as you will and oblige subscriber.
My reasons for asking the above
questions are as follows: The Trustees
of our School District called meeting
| OF portion Of the patrons of our
school District and one patron and
two trustees met. They did not hold
an election that day, but sent word to
a lew more OF the patrons that they,
| the trustees, were going to have
meeting the 4th day OF September for
the purpose OF electing a teacher and
that II the patrons did not come out
and elect teacher, that they, the
trustees, were going to elect teacher.
SO few moro patrons aud all the
trustees were out. 1 went also and
asked that the election for teacher be
put OFT on the ground that we had but
two applications before us and that
both of them were ladies. Several of
the patrone objected to q lady teacher,
but one OF tho trustees read from his
record a little law, which he said was
one OF the last Acts OF the Legislature.
He read that the trustees had full
elect and employ teacher, and that IL
the patrons did not elect q teacher
now, that they, the trustees. were go
Ing to elect at once. I still objected
to gong into an election that dav. |
then asked the question when they
wanted to open school. The under
standing was about the first OF Novem-
Der. | then asked to put Off the elec-
tion for short time and to advertise
for a male teacher, and then II we
could not get male teacher, that /,
ees to elect and employ one OF these
young ladies, but one OF the trustees
would not hear to putting 1t of He said
that they intended to do what they did
that evening. SO it was left to a vote,
whether to go into an election that
evening or not. was left in the min.
ority. I said 1 objected to it, but II
the majority wanted II, L would 90 with
the majority, So one OF the trustees
said his daughter being an applicant
be would not vote; Il think in such
case he would have to resign. y that he
would leave it with the patrons IL they
wanted his daughter to teach they could
say 80 by their votes. SO he appointed
two OF the patrons as managers.
think there should have been three.
The voting was done by ballots. The
two managers took up the ballots, went
out OF doors and counted the votes,
| came back and declared one OF the
young, ladies elected They, the mana
gers then told how the vote stood; that
one OF the young ladies received five
votes and the other received four votes.
There was nothing said before the bal.
lotlng was done as to how many votes
one or the other should receive before
they could be elected. was In hurry
TO get back home. / started home and
| was called to by man, saying that one
OF the men had forgotten, or the one
who said he would not vote had con-
| cluded after the election had been de.
clared to cast his vote which made It a
tie. l thought at the time it was
joke, but to my surprise they had the
election over after I left and elected
the other young lady.
Now am In fix and want light /
want to know who our teacher is. Can
the Board go back on an election after
1t has been declared, or does 1t not
stand after 1t has been declared IL
there Is no fraud practiced?
JOHN T. DANIEL.
Mt Gallaphor