ART. 27. ] PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.

251

19. The board of county school commissioners is hereby declared
to be a body politic and corporate, by the name and style of the
board of county school commissioners of —— county, and by that
name shall have perpetual succession, and shall be capable to sue
and be sued, to have and use a common seal, and the same at their
pleasure to alter or break, and to exercise all the powers and privileges
hereby granted to or vested in them, and every county school com-
missioner shall have power to take affidavits and administer oaths
in all matters pertaining to public schools, but without charge or fee.

Id s 2
Board of county
school commis-
sioners

20. All the property, estates, effects, money, funds, claims, and
State donations vested by law in the public school authorities of any
county, for the use and benefit of public, primary, free, or high
schools, are hereby transferred to and vested in the board of county
school commissioners and their successors in office.

Id s 3
Property held
for school pur-
poses vested in
board
35 Md 201.

21. The board of county school commissioners shall have the
general supervision and control of all schools in their respective
counties; they shall build, repair, and furnish schoolhouses; they
shall fix the salaries of teachers; they shall purchase and distribute
textbooks, and shall perform such other duties as may be necessary
to secure an efficient administration of the public school system,
subject to the provisions of this law.

Id s 4.
Duties of board
of county school
commissioners

22. The State school tax and free school fund are primarily in-
tended, under this act, to pay the salaries of the teachers of the
several counties, and to provide schoollbooks and stationery for the
children of the State. If, however, in apportioning the said State
school tax among the different counties and the city of Baltimore,
the share of any county should prove inadequate for the purposes
aforesaid, then the county commissioners of such county are hereby
authorized, empowered, directed, and required to levy and collect

Id s 5
Appropriation
of State school
tax

such a tax upon the assessable property of such county as the board
of county school commissioners shall designate as sufficient to make
good the deficiency; provided said tax shall not exceed ten cents in
the hundred dollars, unless the county commissioners shall approve
and sanction an additional tax. The taxes so levied and collected
shall be paid quarterly, on the day fixed for the payment of the State
school tax, to the several counties; but the proceeds from special
taxes may be paid oftener, upon the order of the board of county
school commissioners to the treasurer of the said board of county
school commissioners, in order that the schools of said counties may
be kept open for the time herein set forth, and said tax shall be
levied and collected as other taxes. Any sums of money which may
have been specially collected or levied on any election or school Louse
district, for educational purposes connected with these districts,
shall be collected for and applied to the purposes so intended origi-
nally, and shall be used for no other purpose; and if said funds have
been used otherwise, they shall be returned and applied as aforesaid

Tax in counties.

23, In all cases where the county has not been properly divided
into school districts, and full records of the boundaries thereof have

Id s 6
Committee in
school districts.