§ 1522. Notice of meeting for establishment of union free school district. 1. Whenever fifteen persons entitled to vote at any meeting of the inhabitants of any common school district in this state, shall sign a request for a meeting, to be held for the purpose of determining whether a union free school district shall be established therein in conformity with the provisions of this article, it shall be the duty of the trustees of such district, within ten days after such request shall have been presented to them, to give public notice that a meeting of the inhabitants of such district entitled to vote thereat will be held for such purpose as aforesaid, at the schoolhouse, or other more suitable place in such district, on a day and at an hour to be specified in such notice not less than twenty nor more than thirty days after the publication of such notice.

2. If the trustees shall refuse to give such notice, or shall neglect to give the same for twenty days, the commissioner of education may authorize and direct any inhabitant of such district to give the same.

3. Whenever such district shall correspond wholly or in part with an incorporated village, in which there shall be published a daily or weekly newspaper, the notice required in this section shall be given by posting the same in five conspicuous places in said district, at least twenty days prior to such meeting, and by causing the same to be published once a week for three consecutive weeks before such meeting, in all the newspapers published in said district.

4. In other such districts the said notice shall be given by posting the same as aforesaid, and in addition thereto, the trustees of such district shall authorize and require any taxable inhabitant thereof to notify every other qualified voter in such district of such 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.

5. Whenever fifteen persons, entitled as aforesaid, from each of two or more adjoining districts, shall unite in a request for a meeting of the inhabitants of such districts, to determine whether such districts shall be consolidated by the establishment of a union free school district therein, it shall be the duty of the trustees of such districts, or a majority of them, 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 a majority of them, to give public notice of such meeting, at some convenient place within such districts, and as central as may be, within the time and to be published and served in the manner set forth in this section, in each of such districts and to provide for the use of absentee ballots as provided under section two thousand eighteen-a or two thousand eighteen-b of this chapter, whichever shall apply.

6. The commissioner of education may order such meeting under the conditions and in the manner prescribed in this section.

7. The reasonable expense of the publication and service of such notice shall be chargeable upon the district, in case a union free school district is established by the meeting so convened, to be levied and collected by the trustees, as in case of taxes levied for school purposes; but in the event that such union free school district shall not be established, then the said expense shall be chargeable upon the inhabitants signing the request, jointly and severally, to be sued for, if necessary, in any court having jurisdiction of the same.