New York Laws
Part 1 - General Provisions
2021 - Powers of Voters.

§ 2021. Powers of voters. The inhabitants entitled to vote, when duly
assembled in any district meeting, shall have power, by a majority of
the votes of those present and voting:

1. In common school districts, to appoint a chairman.

2. To appoint a clerk for the time if the district clerk is absent.

3. To adjourn from time to time as occasion may require, except that
where a special district meeting shall have been called by a board of
education for the purpose of voting upon an appropriation and the hours
of voting shall have been fixed by the board as provided in subdivision
three of section four hundred sixteen of this chapter, the meeting shall
not be adjourned until after the vote shall have been taken and
canvassed upon the proposition submitted.

4. To elect one or three trustees as provided in section sixteen
hundred two and a district collector, and in any district which shall so
determine, as hereinafter provided, to elect a treasurer, at their first
meeting, and so often as such offices or any of them become vacated,
except as hereinafter provided.

5. To adopt by a vote of a majority of such voters present and voting
at the first meeting, or at any subsequent annual meeting, or at any
special meeting duly called for that purpose, such vote to be
ascertained by taking and recording the ayes and noes, a resolution to
elect a treasurer of said district. If such resolution shall be adopted,
such voters shall thereupon elect by ballot a treasurer for said
district. Any person elected treasurer at any meeting other than an
annual meeting, shall hold office until the next annual meeting after
such election, and until his successor shall be elected or appointed,
and thereafter a treasurer shall be elected at each annual meeting for
the term of one year.

6. To fix the amount in which the collector and treasurer shall give
bonds for the due and faithful performance of the duties of their
offices.

7. To designate a site for a schoolhouse, or for grounds to be used
for playgrounds, or for agricultural, athletic center and social center
purposes, or, with the consent of the district superintendent of schools
within whose district the school district lies, to designate sites for
two or more schoolhouses for the district. Such designation of a site
for a schoolhouse, or for such grounds, can be made only at a special
meeting of the district, duly called for such purpose by a written
resolution in which the proposed site shall be described by metes and
bounds, and which resolution must receive the assent of a majority of
the qualified voters present and voting, to be ascertained by taking and
recording the ayes and noes, or by ballot.

8. To vote a tax upon the taxable property of the district, to
purchase, lease and improve such sites or an addition to such sites and
grounds for the purposes specified in the preceding subdivision, to hire
or purchase rooms or buildings for school rooms or schoolhouses, or to
build schoolhouses; to keep in repair and furnish the same with
necessary fuel, furniture and appurtenances, and to purchase such
implements, apparatus and supplies as may be necessary to provide
instruction in agriculture and other subjects, and for the organization
and conduct of athletic, playground and other social center work.

9. To designate any former schoolhouse and appurtenances, or any part
thereof, the title to which is vested in the board, as a public library
building, and to vote a tax on the taxable property of the district,
pursuant to section two hundred fifty-five of this chapter, to pay the
cost of necessary alterations and equipment to convert such schoolhouse
or part thereof to library use.

10. To vote a tax, not exceeding twenty-five dollars in any one year,
for the purchase of maps, globes, reproductions of standard works of
art, blackboards and other school apparatus, and for the purchase of
text-books and other school necessaries for the use of needy pupils of
the district.

11. To vote a tax for the establishment of a school library and the
maintenance thereof, or for the support of any school library already
owned by said district, and for the purchase of books therefor, and such
sum as they may deem necessary for the purchase of a bookcase or
bookcases.

12. To vote a tax to supply a deficiency in any former tax arising
from such tax being, in whole or in part, uncollectible.

13. To authorize the trustees to cause the schoolhouses, and their
furniture, appurtenances and school apparatus to be insured by any
insurance company created by or under the laws of this state, or any
other insurance company authorized by law to transact business in this
state.

14. To alter, repeal and modify their proceedings, from time to time,
as occasion may require.

15. To vote a tax for the purchase of a book for the purpose of
recording their proceedings.

16. To vote a tax to replace moneys of the district, lost or embezzled
by district officers; and to pay the reasonable expenses incurred by
district officers in defending suits or appeals brought against them for
their official acts, or in prosecuting suits or appeals by direction of
the district against other parties.

17. To vote a tax to pay whatever deficiency there may be in teachers'
salaries after the public money apportioned to the district shall have
been applied thereto.

18. To vote a tax to pay and satisfy of record any judgments of a
competent court which may have been or shall hereafter be obtained in an
action against the trustees of the district for unpaid teachers'
salaries, where the time to appeal from said judgments shall have
lapsed, or there shall be no intent to appeal on the part of such
district, or the said judgments are or shall be of the court of last
resort.

19. To provide, by tax or otherwise, for the conveyance of pupils
residing in a school district, (a) to the elementary or high schools, or
both, maintained in such district and/or (b) to the elementary or high
schools, or both, in any city or district with which an education
contract shall have been made, and/or (c) to the elementary or high
schools, or both, other than public, situated within the district or an
adjacent district or city, whenever such district shall have contracted
with the school authorities of any city, or with another school
district, for the education therein of the pupils residing in such
school district, or whenever in any school district pupils of school age
shall reside so remote from the schoolhouse therein or the elementary or
high school they legally attend, within or without the district, that
they are practically deprived of school advantages during any portion of
the school year.

20. To authorize the trustees or board of education, with the consent
of the commissioner of transportation, to furnish lighting facilities
and janitorial care for any highway underpass located within their
distrct and supervision thereof during the time the same is used by
pupils in arriving at or leaving the school premises, whenever such
highway underpass has been constructed by the state and the use thereof
is essential for the safety of pupils.

21. To vote a tax to provide funds which may be utilized to meet
expenses during the first one hundred twenty days of the fiscal year
following the fiscal year in which such tax is collected.