The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-07-27
NAMING THE BOARD MEMBERS important Action is Sgt for August 8. CITIES ASK REPRESENTATION Under the Law County Boards
 Have Power. oity schools, Without Voice, wili Havs to Look to County Boards Unless Concession is Grsnted--su-
 perintendent sends Dat
 Information.
 
CITIES ASK REPRESENTATION

rba state Department of Education. beginning today, will again busy itseh wifh impressing on the local eouea- tionai authorities the extreme import ance of electing county boards or eau- cation August s. Except in the rev counties which operate under specia. laws. the chairmen of the district hoards of trustees are to meet on this date to choose four county trustees ,pho with the county superintendent or education shall constitute the county board. , .,,
 The county boards of education will hold office for four years peSinnins with the date of their election; Inat the selection of these of1ciers. nereto- fore attended with more or less indii- ference, should be done with care ls apparent when one reads the broad ex- tent of their duties.
 They are charged with. rssponsibh- ity for the conduct of all public schools in the respective counties for Wnicn they are elected. They have enLne control of the school systems ID tneif turisdiction and are required to make rules and regulations for the govern 4nent of the schools. elect the teachers for every school. and, what Is not usu- ally known, have the exclusive rignt to apportion among the different dis tricts all the funds appropriated Tor public school purposes.
 This power of apportionment or funds Is regulated somewhat by the qualifi- cation that the money Is to be so dis- tributed throughout the county as to bring about school terms of equal du- ration. With even this restriction, however, there is a movement on loot to get the district trustee chairmensto allow city boards of education repre- sentation in the election Of the county boards.
 A special appeal for this concession on the part of the district chairnen was few days ago issued by Hon. Harry c. Gunnels, State Superinten- dent of Education. He made 1t clear that an injustice might result from snb5ecting the city districts to the power of the county boards In the mat ter of distributing funds of the, State without any city inhabitants whatever having a voice In the election of the county boards. This refers to all cit- les or towns which are incorporated.
 Hewing strictly to the law, the dis trict chairmen are the only persons who have a vote in electing the county board members. It is believed that this sense of justice will, appeal, to the rural district trustees generally as, in- deed, it has already met with favor at the hands of the Montgomery County authorities and a few others.
 The fact that the election Of trus- tees by the qualified electors in the va rious county districts fell this year. on July { kept away hundreds of voters though the occasion was important. Tn this way district trustees were chosen by men who represented probably less than fourth or. fifth of the actual vot- Ing strength of the districts.
 There was some complaint among the voters. after July { thaa the elec- ton should have been held on that date. This feeling still prevails in spite of the repeated declarations of the State Department<that no sanction of the law could be found of setting the date back or up. a day. There was no possibility of change as the code specifically commands the election to be held every fourth year on the first Saturday in July.
 Before sthe end of this month, if the law is obeyed. the enumeration of ali school children within every district will have been completed and before August 15 the records accurately com. piled will have been forwarded to the state Superintendent of Education This work, probably now under way In all the counties. is done under the direction of the district trustee boards cooperating with the county boards The results of their labors will furnish valuable data to the Department am to. the publishers who have recently been awarded contracts for furnishins z textbooks to the public schools of ths State. They will thus form the latesi estimate on the amount of first sales and exchanges.