Chapter
419
2006 -- S 3166
Enacted 07/06/06
A N A C T
IN
AMENDMENT OF AND IN ADDITION TO CHAPTER 286 OF THE PUBLIC LAWS, 1986, ENTITLED
"AN ACT IN AMENDMENT OF AND IN ADDITION TO CHAPTER 55 OF THE PUBLIC LAWS,
1958, ENTITLED 'AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE TOWNS OF CHARLESTOWN, RICHMOND AND
HOPKINTON, TO JOIN A REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT, INCORPORATING SAID REGIONAL
SCHOOL DISTRICT, AND PROVIDING FOR THE ISSUANCE OF BONDS, CONSTRUCTION AND
OPERATION OF A REGIONAL SCHOOL SYSTEM FOR THE JOINT USE OF THE PARTICIPATING
TOWNS, WITHIN SAID REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT ESTABLISHED BY THIS ACT,' AS
AMENDED"
Introduced
By: Senator Kevin A. Breene
Date
Introduced: June 13, 2006
It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:
SECTION 1.
Sections 9 and 10 of Chapter 286 of the 1986 Public Laws entitled "AN
ACT IN AMENDMENT OF CHAPTER 286 OF THE PUBLIC
LAWS, 1986, ENTITLED 'AN
ACT IN AMENDMENT OF AND IN ADDITION TO CHAPTER
55 OF THE PUBLIC LAWS,
1958, ENTITLED 'AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE TOWNS OF
CHARLESTOWN,
RICHMOND AND HOPKINTON, TO JOIN A REGIONAL HIGH
SCHOOL DISTRICT,
INCORPORATING SAID REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
DISTRICT, AND PROVIDING FOR
THE ISSUANCE OF BONDS, CONSTRUCTION AND
OPERATION OF A REGIONAL
HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE JOINT USE OF THE
PARTICIPATING TOWNS, WITHIN SAID
REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT ESTABLISHED BY
THIS ACT,'" AS AMENDED"
is hereby further amended to read as follows:
Sec. 9. (1) The
annual regional district meeting shall be held on the first Tuesday in
March of each year at 7:30 P.M. beginning with
the first Tuesday in March A.D. 1988, at the
regional high school or at such other place as
the regional school district committee may publicly
designate in advance. Special meetings may be
called by the regional school district committee in
accordance with conditions governing the calling
of town meetings generally as prescribed by the
laws of this state or by a petition signed by
two hundred (200) qualified voters of said district
qualified to vote on the question of the
imposition of a tax for the expenditure of money in their
respective towns when such petition contains the
purpose or purposes for which such special
meeting is to be called and when such purpose
and petition, duly certified by the town clerks of
the member towns as to the qualification to vote
of the persons signing the petition has been
delivered to the clerk of the regional school
district committee. All voters qualified in their
respective towns to vote at the financial town
meeting next preceding the annual or special
district meeting shall be eligible to attend and
vote at said annual or special regional school
district meeting and also all voters qualified
to vote in their respective towns and any proposition
for the imposition of a tax or for the
expenditure of money shall be eligible to attend and vote at
any regular or special regional school district
meeting, even though such voter was not qualified
to vote in the financial meeting next preceding
the annual or special district meeting, providing
such voter shall be certified as meeting such
qualifications by the chairperson of the board of
canvassers and registration of the town of which
such voter claims he has the said right to vote
and for which such latter purpose the
chairperson of the board of canvassers and registration or
the majority of the board of canvassers and
registration of the said member towns shall be present
at all meetings of the Chariho district to
consider the application of such voters demanding the
right to vote at any meeting of the Chariho
Regional School District.
(2) The regional
school district meeting shall determine the annual regional school
budgets as to overall amount.
(3) The moderator
of the regional school district meeting beginning with the annual
meeting of said district held in the year 1971,
shall be duty elected or appointed moderator of one
of the member towns, alternating each year
beginning with the moderator from the town of
Charlestown and the next year the moderator from
the town of Hopkinton and the next year from
the town of Richmond, and so on consecutively
alternating in that order and manner, and in case
of special meetings of said district the
moderator for the annual meeting of the year in which the
special meeting shall be held, shall be the same
moderator as the moderator who presided at the
annual meeting of that year of said district
meeting; and in the event that the moderator who
should preside at any regular or special meeting
of said district is absent from said meeting, a
moderator shall be elected by a majority vote of
said meeting, and in such absence of the
moderator the meeting shall be called to order
by the chairperson of the said regional school
district committee; and in no event shall the
chairperson of said regional school district committee
or any member thereof be elected as moderator;
and the clerk of the meeting shall be the clerk of
the said committee.
(4) A majority
vote of all the voters present at the regional school district meeting and
qualified to vote shall be required for the
adoption of the annual regional school budget.
(5) A quorum for
the regional school district meeting, for either regular or special
meetings shall be seventy-five (75) qualified
voters, and such quorums shall consist of not less
than twenty-five (25) qualified voters from each
member town.
(6) No action
shall be taken with respect to the purchase of land, the construction of
buildings and the extension of the scope of
functions of the regional school district except upon a
majority vote of voters of the respective member
towns as set forth in section 1 hereof.
Nothing in the act
shall prohibit a member town from floating bonds for school
construction purposes and leasing those
facilities to the district. The financial responsibility for
retiring these construction bonds will rest with
the individual town performing the construction.
(7) All regional
school district meetings shall be called and warned by written noticed
signed by the clerk and chairperson of the
regional school district committee notifying the
qualified electors of said district of the time
and place of said meeting and the business proposed
to be transacted thereat, which said notices
shall be posted up by the town sergeant, or any
constable of any member town in three (3) or
more public places within said district, at least one
(1) of which must be in each member town, and
published in a newspaper of general circulation
published within the state, all at least seven
(7) days before the date of such meeting.
(8) The regional
school district meeting on the recommendation of the regional school
committee for the said district by a majority
vote of the voters present and qualified to vote may
direct the regional school committee to dispose
of real or personal property having a value of
twenty-thousand dollars ($20,000) or more on such terms or
conditions as the meeting may
determine are in the best interests of the
district.
Sec. 10. (1)(a)
There shall be a regional school committee for said district consisting of
eleven (11) members, each member town shall be
represented on the committee in direct
proportion to its population as determined by
the most recent population census figures. The total
population of the district shall then be divided
by eleven (11) and the resulting quotients thus
obtained shall be used as the basis for
determining the proportionate representation of each said
member town on said committee, and realizing
that the mathematical divisions of said formula
will not obtain absolute evenness, fractions of
.5 or more shall be construed as 1 point and
fractions less than .5 shall be construed as 0.
Subject to limitations aforesaid, the members of said
committee from each of the member towns to be
elected or appointed for terms hereinafter set
forth shall be determined as of the time of each
bi-annual election and each of the said member
towns, based upon the census aforesaid. The
first such regional school committee shall be elected
in the general election in November, 1988. In
the general election 1988 each town electing three
(3) members of the school committee shall elect two
(2) members to serve a term of four (4) years
and one (1) member to serve a term of two (2)
years. A town electing more than three (3)
representatives shall elect three (3) members
for a term of two (2) years and additional members
for a term of four (4) years. Thereafter members
shall be elected for a term of four (4) years. Until
such time as those elected in that election
shall be certified and qualified, the existing Chariho
Regional High School District Committee shall
serve as the Regional School Committee. In the
event of any vacancy by death, resignation or
incapacity to serve of any term of any member of
said regional school district committee, the
town council of the member town in which such
vacancy occurs shall fill such vacancy by election
by a majority vote of the town council of said
town for the unexpired term of the member whose
office is thus vacated.
(1)(b) Since the
United States Census bureau of the census conducts on a decennial basis
and in view of the fact that any of the Chariho
towns may incurs rapid shifts in population which
could effect the composition of the Chariho
school committee, there may be an agreement among
the town councils to provide for a census on a
five (5) year basis beginning in 1995. A census of
the towns taken in 1987 will be used as the
basis for school committee composition until the 1990
United States bureau of census data is provided.
The cost of the 1987 census will be borne by
each town in proportion to its population. Any
town objecting to the use of the United States
census material may require the making of an
actual census in time for the first general election
after 1995. The cost of such a census shall be
borne equally by the three (3) towns and shall not
constitute a reimbursable education expense;
provided further that in the event that such an actual
census does not result in a count materially
different from the numbers contained in material
compiled by the United States bureau of the
census, then the cost of the actual census, shall be
borne by the town or towns objecting to the use
of such bureau of the census material.
(2) Within ten
(10) days after the election and certification of the members of the regional
school district committee, said regional school
district committee shall meet and organize by
selecting one (1) of their number to be
chairperson of said committee. The chairperson chosen at
the first organized meeting shall serve in such
office until the first meeting of said committee
following the qualification of new members
elected to the regional school district committee at
the general election of 1988, At such first
meeting of the said committee following the election
and qualification of new members, the committee
shall elect a chairperson and elect such other
officers and are herein or hereafter authorized
and each two (2) years thereafter at such first
meeting following a general election at which
school committee members are elected, the
regional school district committee shall
organize and elect or appoint such officers. A person may
not succeed himself/herself in the office of
chairperson unless no other member of the committee
is willing to serve as chairperson and at such
organizational meetings the chairmanship shall first
be offered to a committee member from a town
other than the town one of the members of which
last served as chairperson in an order of
rotation to be agreed upon at the first organization
meeting of the said committee which shall
provide that each member town shall have the
opportunity of having one of its members serve
as chairperson in a fixed order of selection. In the
event that no member from one of the member
towns which is entitled to the chairmanship at an
organization meeting is willing to serve as
chairperson, this election shall pass to the next such
member town so entitled under said agreement and
so on until a chairperson is selected who is
going to serve. The said committee shall also
appoint a clerk and a treasurer of said committee
who shall also be a clerk and treasurer of the
said district and the district meetings and the said
clerk and treasurer may be the same individual
and need not be a member of members of said
committee.
(3) Said regional
school committee shall have all the powers and duties conferred by law
in this state upon school committees of towns,
generally, including but not limited to the
following:
(a) To apply for
and receive, accept and use any town, state or federal funds or assistance,
or both, as may be provided, whether in the form
of a grant or a loan or both, including
specifically such funds or assistance from state
or federal sources as the member towns would
otherwise be entitled to apply for and receive
from such sources in the event that the said regional
school district did not exist but to the use of
which such member towns might be individually
excluded by reason of the existence of said
district.
(b) To publish an
annual report thirty (30) days prior to the annual district meeting
containing a detailed financial statement
showing the total receipts and expenditures of the period
covered by the report together with such
additional material and information relating to the
maintenance and operating of the school or
schools as may be deemed necessary by the regional
school committee.
(c) To receive and
disburse funds for any regional school district purpose.
(d) To engage
legal counsel.
(e) To engage and
employ a superintendent of schools for the regional school district,
who may also be a principal or a regional school
or schools, on a contractual basis for either a
definite or indefinite term as the regional high
school committee shall determine. The person so
employed shall have all the powers and duties
imposed upon a superintendent of schools by law.
(f) Said committee
shall annually cause an audit to be made of the accounts of said
district, and on completion of each audit a
report thereof shall be made to the members of said
committee and a copy thereof shall be submitted
to the next regional school district meeting.
(g) Compensation
for members of the said committee and/or clerk and treasurer thereof
shall be determined at and by the regional
school district meeting as a part of the consideration
and action taken at said meeting in respect to
operating costs and expenses of the said district.
(h) The regional
school district treasurer shall furnish surety bond in an amount to be
determined annually by the said committee. The
expense of said bond shall be chargeable to the
said district.
(i) Said
regional school district committee may dispose of any item (or group of items)
of
personal property with a fair market value (in
the aggregate, if a group of items) of five thousand
dollars ($5,000) or less, on such terms as the
committee deems appropriate in its sole discretion.
Any item, or group of items, of personal
property of the regional school district with a fair market
value of more than five thousand dollars
($5,000), but less than twenty thousand dollars
($20,000) (in the aggregate, if a group of
items), may be disposed of by the said committee on
such terms as the committee deems appropriate in
its sole discretion, by offering such property
for sale by competitive bidding. Any property of
the regional school district with a fair market
value equal to or greater than twenty thousand
dollars ($20,000) may be disposed of only upon a
vote of a regional district meeting as set forth
in Sec. 9(8).
SECTION 2. The
question of the approval of this Act shall be submitted to the electors of
the towns of Charlestown, Richmond and Hopkinton
qualified to vote on any proposition to
impose a tax or for the expenditure of money at
the general election in 2006. The question shall
be submitted in substantially the following
form:
"Shall the
act passed by the general assembly at its January 2006 session entitled
"AN
ACT IN AMENDMENT OF AND IN ADDITION TO CHAPTER
286 OF THE PUBLIC
LAWS, 1986, ENTITLED 'AN ACT IN AMENDMENT OF AND
IN ADDITION TO
CHAPTER 55 OF THE PUBLIC LAWS, 1958, ENTITLED
'AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE
TOWNS OF CHARLESTOWN, RICHMOND AND HOPKINTON, TO
JOIN A REGIONAL
SCHOOL DISTRICT INCORPORATING SAID REGIONAL SCHOOL
DISTRICT, AND
PROVIDING FOR THE ISSUANCE OF BONDS,
CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION OF A
REGIONAL SCHOOL SYSTEM FOR THE JOINT USE OF THE
PARTICIPATING TOWNS,
WITHIN SAID REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT ESTABLISHED
BY THIS ACT,' AS
AMENDED" be approved?"
The warning for
said election shall contain the question to be submitted. From the date
the election is warned until it is held, it
shall be the duty of the town clerks of the respective
towns of Hopkinton, Charlestown and Richmond to
keep a copy of the act available at their
offices for public inspection, but any failure
of any clerk to perform this duty shall not affect the
validity of the election.
SECTION 3. This
section and section 2 of this act shall take effect upon passage of this
act; and the remainder of this act shall take
effect upon the approval of this act by a majority in
each town of those voting on the question at the
election prescribed by section 2 hereof.
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LC03242
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