2023 New York Laws › EDN - Education › Title 2 - School District Organization › Article 31 - School Districts › 1511 - Request for Meeting to Consolidate Districts; Notices of Meeting.

§ 1511. Request  for  meeting  to  consolidate  districts;  notices of
  meeting.  1. Whenever two-thirds of the qualified electors  of  each  of
  two  or  more  districts  in  which  there  shall  be  less than fifteen
  qualified electors, or if there be fifteen or more qualified electors in
  any of such districts whenever ten or more of such electors, shall  sign
  a  request  for  a  meeting  to  be  held for the purpose of determining
  whether such districts shall be consolidated as a common school district
  or as a union free school district, as the case may be, and  submit  the
  same to the trustees or board of education of each of such districts, it
  shall  be the duty of such trustees or board of education to submit such
  proposed consolidation to the commissioner of education for approval. If
  the commissioner approve such proposed consolidation, it  shall  be  the
  duty of such trustees or board of education to give public notice that a
  meeting of the qualified electors of such districts will be held at some
  convenient  place within such districts, as centrally located as may be,
  to vote upon the question of consolidating such districts.  Such  notice
  shall specify the day and hour when such meeting shall be held, not less
  than  twenty  nor  more  than  thirty days after the posting, service or
  publication of such notice. If the trustees or board of education  shall
  refuse  or  neglect  to  give  such notice within twenty days after such
  request is approved by the commissioner of education,  the  commissioner
  of  education  may  authorize  and  direct  any qualified elector of the
  district to give such notice.
2. If any part of any of such districts is situated wholly  or  partly
  within  an  incorporated  village  in  which  one or more newspapers are
  published, such notice shall be published once in each  week  for  three
  consecutive weeks before such meeting in all the newspapers published in
  such  village,  and  shall  also be posted at least twenty days prior to
  such meeting, in at least five conspicuous places in each  district.  In
  all other districts such notice shall be published once in each week for
  three  consecutive  weeks before such meeting, in a newspaper circulated
  in said districts, and in the event no newspaper is circulated  in  said
  districts,  such  notice  may  be  given  by  publication  thereof  in a
  newspaper circularized and generally distributed through the district or
  districts involved, and it shall be also posted  at  least  twenty  days
  prior  to  such  meeting  in  at  least  five conspicuous places in each
  district. In districts which by the latest census are shown  to  have  a
  population of two hundred or less, the trustees or board of education of
  said  districts may dispense with publication and posting as hereinabove
  required, and in  the  event  that  such  publication  and  posting  are
  dispensed  with,  said  trustees  or  board of education of each of said
  districts shall authorize and direct  a  qualified  elector  thereof  to
  notify  each  qualified  elector  of  such  district  of said meeting by
  delivering to him a copy of such notice, or in case of his absence  from
  home,  by  leaving  a copy thereof, or so much thereof as relates to the
  time, place and object of the meeting, at the place  of  his  abode,  at
  least twenty days prior to the time of such meeting.
3.  The  reasonable  expense  of  the  publication and service of such
  notice shall be chargeable upon the districts, if the vote be  in  favor
  of  consolidation,  and if not, shall be paid by the persons signing the
  request  for  such  meeting  as  provided  by  section  fifteen  hundred
  twenty-two.