New York Laws
Article 31 - School Districts
1522 - Notice of Meeting for Establishment of Union Free School District.

§ 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.