§ 7-39. Public schools and school property

The exclusive management and control of the public schools and all school property is vested in a board of five school trustees. Said trustees shall be bona fide residents of the City and qualified voters for school officers. The three incumbents constituting the present Board shall continue in office until their respective terms expire. At the annual meeting each year thereafter, one trustee shall be elected for a term of three years and until his or her successor is elected and qualified. The remaining two members of the Board shall be appointed in the first instance by the City Council, one for a term of one year, and one for a term of two years; and thereafter the successor of each shall be elected and hold office for a term of three years and until his or her successor is elected and qualified. The Board of School Trustees shall make an annual report of their doing and expenditures to the City Council on or before the first day of February in each year for the last preceding fiscal school year, and in this report they shall make estimates of the necessary expenditures for the support of schools for the ensuing fiscal year, the amount of school income to be derived from sources other than taxation and the amount of money to be raised by taxation for the support of said schools, which report shall be published with the report of the City officials, as herein provided. Said Board of School Trustees shall annually recommend to the City Council, on or before the first day of April, the amount of money which they require for school purposes, to be raised by taxation, and the City Council shall include such tax in their annual rate bill. On or before the first day of each July hereafter the City Council shall appropriate for the use of schools such sum as will be raised by taxation in that year for the support of schools, and shall also then appropriate the amount of school income to be derived from sources other than taxation in such year, all of which shall constitute the school fund of said City which the City Treasurer shall pay out from time to time on warrants signed by a majority of the Board of School Trustees which said warrant shall not require the approval of the City Council. All money and property formerly owned by the Newport Academy and Graded School District shall belong to said City and all debts and liabilities of said District shall be paid and discharged by said City, and all lawful contracts of said District on March 1, 1918, shall be carried out by said City. The act incorporating the Newport Academy and Graded School District, and all acts, amendatory thereof, are hereby repealed. The school trustees shall give such bond to the City, at the expense of the City, as the City Council shall demand and approve for the faithful discharge of their duties.