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Amending school law

Qualifica

tions of state

superintendent

Duties and powers of

intendent of public instruction

[Assembly Bill No. 284-Committee on Education]

CHAP. 208-An Act to amend sections 5, 6, 12, 19, 25, 32, 38,
53, 59, 75, 149, 158, 160, 161, 170, 171, and 178 of an act
entitled "An act concerning public schools, and repealing
certain acts relating thereto," approved March 20, 1911,
and all acts amendatory thereof.

[Approved March 22, 1921]

The People of the State of Nevada, represented in Senate and
Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. Section 5 of the above-entitled act is hereby
amended so as to read as follows:

Section 5. The superintendent of public instruction shall be elected quadrennially by the qualified electors of the state at the same time and in the same manner as the governor is elected, and shall hold office for the term of four years from the first Monday in January next after the election, and until his successor is elected and qualified. He shall be a graduate of a standard college or university, shall hold a Nevada teacher's certificate of the high-school grade, and shall have had at the time of his election not less than forty-five months of successful teaching experience, at least twenty months of which shall have been in the State of Nevada.

SEC. 2. Section 6 of the above-entitled act is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

Section 6. The superintendent of public instruction shall have power and it shall be his duty:

1. To visit each county in the state at least once each year for the purpose of conducting institutes, visiting schools, constate super sulting with school officers, and addressing public assemblies on subjects pertaining to the schools; and the necessary traveling expenses incurred by the superintendent in performance of such duties, such traveling expenses to include the cost of transportation and board while absent from his place of residence, shall be allowed, audited, and paid out of the general fund, in the same manner as claims upon said fund are now allowed, audited, and paid; provided, that the sum so expended in any one year shall not exceed one thousand dollars;

2. To apportion the state distributive school fund;

3. To apportion the county school fund of each county among its various districts;

4. To report to the governor biennially, on or before the first day of December of the years preceding the regular session of the legislature. The governor shall transmit said report to the legislature; and whenever it is ordered published the state printer shall deliver a sufficient number of copies to the superintendent who shall distribute the same among school officers of the state and of the United States. Said report shall contain a full statement of the condition of public

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powers of

intendent of

instruction in the state; a statement of the condition and Duties and amount of all funds and property appropriated to the pur- state superpose of education; the number and grade of schools in each public county; the number of children in each county between the instruction ages of six and eighteen years of age; the number of such attending public schools; the number attending private schools; the number attending no schools; the number under six years of age; the number between eighteen and twenty-one years of age; the amount of public-school moneys apportioned to each county; the amount of money raised by county taxation, district tax, subscription or otherwise, by any city, town, district, or county, for the support of schools therein; the amount of money raised for building schoolhouses; a statement of plans for the management and improvement of public schools; and such other information relative to the educational interests of the state as he may think of importance;

5. To prescribe suitable rules and regulations for making all reports and conducting all necessary proceedings under this act and to furnish suitable blank forms for the same; to cause the same, with such instructions as he shall deem necessary and proper for the organization and government of schools, to be transmitted to the local school officers, who shall be governed in accordance therewith. He shall prepare a convenient form of school register for the purpose of securing accurate returns from the teachers of public schools, and shall furnish each school district in the state with such registers. He shall prepare pamphlet copies of the school law and all amendments thereto, and shall transmit a copy thereof to each school trustee, school-census marshal, and school teacher in the state;

6. To convene a state teachers' institute biennially in the even-numbered years in such place and at such time as he may deem advisable. It shall be his further duty to convene five district teachers' institutes in the various sections of the state biennially in the odd-numbered years in such places and at such times as he may deem advisable. He shall engage such institute lecturers and teachers as he shall deem advisable, and shall preside over and regulate the exercises of all state and district institutes. No institute shall continue less than four nor more than ten days. The expenses incurred in holding such institutes shall be paid out of the state distributive school fund; provided, that the amount for the state institute shall not exceed five hundred dollars nor the amount of any one district institute two hundred and fifty dollars, and the state controller is hereby authorized and directed to draw his warrants for the same upon the order of the superintendent of public instruction. All teachers shall be required to attend the district institutes held in the supervision districts in which they may be teaching respectively, unless they shall be excused for good cause by the superin

Duties and powers of superintendent of public instruction

Duties and powers of

intendents

tendent of public instruction, and without loss of salary for the time thus employed;

7. To call, with the approval of the board of county commissioners, a county teachers' institute in any county at such time and place as in his judgment will best subserve the educational interests of the county, and preside over and regulate the exercises of the same. The expenses of such institute shall be paid out of the county general fund of the county in which such institute is held; provided, that the board of county commissioners shall authorize such institute upon the application of the superintendent of public instruction; and provided, that such expenses shall not exceed the sum of one hundred dollars. All teachers shall be required to attend any county institute held in the counties in which they shall be teaching respectively, unless excused for good cause by the superintendent of public instruction, and without loss of salary for the time thus employed;

8. To call meetings of the state board of education in January and June of each year, and at such other times as be shall deem proper, or when two members of said board shall request a meeting;

9. To perform such other duties relative to the public. schools as may be prescribed by law;

10. To have done at the state printing office any printing required in the performance of his duties;

11. To require a written report from each deputy superintendent on the first day of October, the first day of January, the first day of April, and the first day of July of each school year. Such reports shall contain any information or facts that the superintendent of public instruction may require;

12. To arrange blank forms, including school registers, for teachers' contracts, and supply the same to school trustees and teachers;

13. The superintendent of public instruction shall, at the expiration of his term of office, deliver to his successor all property and effects belonging to his office, and take a receipt for same.

SEC. 3. Section 12 of the above-entitled act is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

Section 12. Within his supervision district each deputy superintendent shall have power, and it shall be his duty:

1. To file with the county auditor of each county a directory of all teachers who shall be entitled to draw salary from deputy super- the state or the county funds, and to advise the county auditor from time to time of any changes or additions to such directory, and to file with the county auditor a directory of all qualified school trustees of each county. The county auditor shall not draw any warrant in favor of any teacher until he shall be officially informed by the deputy superintendent that such teacher is legally entitled to receive salary from the state or county school funds;

deputy super

2. To investigate any claim against any school fund when- Duties and ever written protest against the drawing of a warrant in powers of payment of said claim against any school fund shall be filed intendents with the county auditor. If, upon investigation, the deputy superintendent of public instruction shall find that any claim against any school fund is illegal or unreasonably excessive, he shall notify the county auditor and the clerk of the board of trustees who drew the order for such illegal claim, stating the reasons in writing why such order is illegal or excessive, and the county auditor, if so notified, shall not draw his warrant in payment of such claim. If the deputy superintendent of public instruction shall find that any protested claim is legal and actually due the claimant, he shall authorize the county auditor to draw his warrant for such claim, and the county auditor shall immediately draw his warrant in payment of the claim;

3. To suspend the certificate of any teacher for a time not to exceed one year, who fails to attend any district or county institute unless excused for nonattendance by the superintendent of public instruction;

4. To suspend the certificate of any teacher for any of the causes for which a certificate may be revoked by the state board of education;

5. To inspect the record books and accounts of boards of trustees, and to authorize and enforce an efficient method of keeping the financial records and accounts of the school district;

6. To inspect the school fund accounts of the county auditors of the several counties, and report the condition of the funds of any school district to the trustees thereof;

7. To grade the schools in his supervision district, in the month of July of each year, designating which schools are high schools, and which are elementary schools, and to keep record of such gradation in his office;

8. To appoint school trustees in all districts in which the qualified voters failed to elect.

SEC. 4. Section 19 of the above-entitled act is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

exami

Section 19. All examinations for teachers' certificates Teachers' shall be conducted by deputy examiners, who shall act under nations the authority of the state board of education. It shall be the duty of the deputy examiners to send all examination papers to the superintendent of public instruction without grading them. The deputy superintendents of public instruction shall act as deputy examiners in such counties in their respective districts as shall be designated by the superintendent of public instruction, and the deputy superintendent of public instruction shall appoint in addition a sufficient number of deputy examiners to provide for all the counties of the Deputy state; provided, that there shall not be more than two such deputy examiners in any one county. Deputy examiners

examiners

school certificates

other than the deputy superintendents of public instruction
shall receive a compensation of five dollars a day, to be paid
as other claims out of the state distributive school fund. The
state board of education shall prescribe such rules and regu-
lations governing examinations as may be needful to secure
uniformity and justice.

SEC. 5. Section 25 of the above-entitled act is hereby
amended so as to read as follows:

Section 25. The elementary-school certificate, first grade, Elementary shall be valid for three years from the date of issuance, and shall be issued upon examination in the following subjects: Spelling, reading, writing, English grammar, mental arithmetic, written arithmetic, physiology and hygiene, history of the United States, geography, general history, drawing, music, business forms, civics, current events, and theory and methods of teaching, and the rudiments of Nevada school law; provided, that such certificate shall not be issued on examination to any person whose general average is less than eighty-five per cent or whose grade is less than sixtyfive per cent in any one subject. The elementary certificate, first grade, shall not be issued to any person under twenty years of age nor to any person who has had less than sixteen months of successful experience in teaching. Such certificate may be renewed by the state board of education according to such rules and regulations as the board may prescribe. Any person who shall at any regular examination make a grade of eighty-five per cent or more in any subject or subjects shall receive credit for such subject or subjects toward a first-grade elementary certificate; provided, that such holdover grade of eighty-five per cent or more shall not be valid for more than three years from the date of such examinations. The state board of education may allow credits for satisfactory work done by applicants for certificates on examination, in a standard summer school, normal school, or college, in determining their per cent standing in any subject.

Grading of examination papers

SEC. 6. Section 32 of the above-entitled act is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

Section 32. All examination papers for teachers' certificates shall be examined and graded under the authority of the state board of education by the board of educational examiners, which shall consist of at least one member of the state board of education, the deputy superintendents of public instruction, and such other persons, not to exceed three in number, as may be appointed by the superintendent of public instruction. The board of educational examiners shall certify the grade of each applicant in each subject to the state board of education. Persons appointed by the superintendent of public instruction as members of the board of educational examiners shall receive compensation at the rate of five dollars a day for the time actually employed in such

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