elementary education. IV. Designate one of such assistants to act as Super- Supervisor visor of Elementary Education and define his duties, and cause him to devote his entire time during school hours to personal inspection. industrial education. V. Designate one of such assistants to act as Super- Supervisor of visor of Industrial Education, including agriculture, and define his duties, including agriculture, and to cause him to devote his entire time during school hours to personal inspection. VI. Designate one of such assistants to hear all controversies and disputes which may arise under the school laws or the rules and regulations of the State Board of Education or of the Commissioner of Education, subject, however, to a right of appeal to the State Board of Education. Designate assistant to hear controversies. examinations. VII. Prescribe minimum examinations throughout Prescribe the State for graduation from grammar schools and for admission to high schools and high school departments; confine such examinations to arithmetic, writing, spelling, English grammar and composition, history and geography, prepare or cause to be prepared questions for the examinations; prescribe the times and places for holding them and the rules governing them; designate the persons to conduct them, and if admissible, direct superintendents, principals and teachers of one district to conduct them in any other. Such examinations shall be open to all children of the State whether they attend public or private schools. VIII. Prescribe a minimum course of study for the elementary schools and for the high schools or for either, if in his opinion it is advisable so to do. IX. Prescribe such method as to him may seem best for use in ascertaining what children are three years or more below the normal. X. Hold meetings of city and county superintendents at least once in each year for the discussion of school affairs and ways and means of promoting a thorough and efficient system of education. Prescribe elementary course for schools. Meetings of county and city super intendents. Withhold school moneys. Report. Trustee of school fund. Ibid. Administer oaths. Ibid. Definition of Ibid. XI. Direct the County Collector to withhold funds received by him from the State from any district that refuses or neglects to obey the law or the rules or directions of the State Board of Education or the Commissioner of Education. XII. Report to the State Board of Education once a month and at such other times as it may designate such information as it may prescribe. 8. (6.) The Commissioner of Education shall be one of the Trustees of the School Fund. 9. (7.) The State Board of Education, by its presiding officer, each of its committees, by their chairmen, the Commissioner of Education and each of his assistants shall have authority to administer oaths and to examine under oath, in any part of the State, witnesses in regard to any matter pertaining to the schools and to cause the examination to be reduced to writing. Any person, who, having been sworn or affirmed by the presiding officer of the State board, or by the chairman of any of its committees, or by the commissioner, or by any one of his assistants to tell the truth, and who willfully gives false testimony shall be guilty of perjury. 10. (8.) Whenever in the act to which this is a supof Education. plement, or in any act amendatory thereof or supplemental thereto, or in any other act of the Legislature the words "State Superintendent of Public Instruction" are used the same shall be taken to be and to mean "Commissioner of Education." Appeals to Office. P. L. 1903, special session. 11. (9.) All appeals to the State Board of Education shall be taken within thirty days after the Commissioner of Education has filed his decision, and in such manner as the said board may prescribe. 12. (6.) A suitable office, to be known as the Department of Public Instruction, shall be provided for him in the State House at Trenton. The necessary expenses incurred in the Department of Public Instruction shall be paid in the manner provided by law. assistance. 13. (8.) The Commissioner of Education may em- Clerical ploy such clerks as he may deem necessary and fix their Ibid. compensation, which compensation shall be payable monthly on the certificate of the Commissioner of Education; provided, that the compensation of said clerks Proviso. shall not exceed in the aggregate the sum annually appropriated therefor by the Legislature. Secretary of State Board of Education and member examiners. of boards of Ibid. 14. (9.) The Commissioner of Education shall be the Secretary of the State Board of Education, and a member, ex-officio, of all boards of examiners. He shall enforce all rules and regulations prescribed by the State Board of Education. He shall have supervision of all Supervision the schools of the state receiving any part of the state appropriation. He shall, from time to time, instruct County and City Superintendents as to their duties and as to the best manner of conducting schools, constructing schoolhouses and furnishing the same. 15. (10.) The Commissioner of Education shall decide, subject to appeal to the State Board of Education and without cost to the parties, all controversies and disputes that shall arise under the school laws, or under the rules and regulations of the State Board of Education. The facts involved in any controversy or dispute shall, if he shall so require, be made known to him by written statements by the parties thereto, verified by oath or affirmation, and accompanied by certified copies of all documents necessary to a full understanding of the question in dispute, and his decision shall be binding until, upon appeal, a decision thereon shall be given by the State Board of Education. (a) (a) 1. The State Superintendent having been given authority to hear and determine certain matters, his determination thereupon has the conclusive quality of a judgment pronounced in a legally created court of limited jurisdiction acting within the bounds of its authority. Thompson v. Board of Education, 28 Vr. 628. 2. There is no distinction in point of conclusiveness between the decisions of special tribunals and the judgments of courts of record. The difference is solely in the presumption of jurisdiction. Ibid. 3. The court may, in the exercise of its discretion, refuse to interpose by mandamus in a controversy cognizable by the special tribunals created by the school laws of this State, where an appeal to such tribunals has not been of schools. Decide conarising under Ibid. troversies school laws. Keep record of decisions. Ibid. Seal. Appoint county superintendent to fill vacancy. Ibid. Withhold salary from county superintendent. Ibid. State school 16. (11.) The Commissioner of Education shall keep a record of all his official acts and shall preserve copies. of all decisions made by him, and shall adopt and provide an official seal. Copies of all acts, orders and decisions made by him, and of all papers deposited or filed in the Department of Public Instruction may be authenticated under said seal, and, when so authenticated, shall be evidence equally with and in like manner as the originals. 17. (12.) Whenever there shall be a vacancy in the office of County Superintendent of Schools, the Commissioner of Education shall appoint, subject to the approval of the President of the State Board of Education, a suitable person to fill such vacancy, and the person so appointed shall hold office until his successor shall be appointed by the State Board of Education. 18. (13.) In case a County Superintendent of Schools shall neglect or refuse to perform any duty imposed upon him by this act or by the rules and regulations of the State Board of Education, the Commissioner of Education shall, subject to appeal to the State Board of Education, withhold from such County Superintendent of Schools the order for his salary until he shall have fully complied with the provisions of this act and with the rules and regulations of the State Board of Education relating to his duties. 19. (14.) In case a board of education, or any officer thereof, or the legal voters of any school district, or any board or officer of the municipality in which any such school district shall be situate shall neglect or refuse to made. Jefferson v. Board of Education, 35 Vr. 59. See Buren v. Albertson, 25 Vr. 72; Stockton v. Board of Education, 43 Vr. 80. 4. Special tribunals created by the statute have exclusive jurisdiction over all controversies arising under such statute, and an action at law cannot be maintained by a public school teacher for the purpose of contesting the legality of the action of a local school board in dismissing him before the term of service provided in his contract of employment has expired. Draper v. Commissioners of Public Instruction, 37 Vr. 54. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction is authorized by law to decide disputes and controversies as to the election of members of the Board of Education of certain municipalities. Du Four v. State Superintendent, 43 Vr. 371. Certiorari is not the appropriate proceeding to determine the title to an office. Ibid. See foot-notes to sections 82, 118 and 140. perform any duty imposed upon such board, officer or legal voters by this act or by the rules and regulations of the State Board of Education, the custodian of the school moneys of such school district shall, upon notice from the County Superintendent of Schools, approved by the Commissioner of Education, withhold all moneys received by him from the County Collector and then remaining in his hands to the credit of such district, until he shall receive notice from said County Superintendent of Schools that said board, officer or legal voters have fully complied with the provisions of this act and with the rules and regulations of the State Board of Education. 20. (15.) In case a teacher shall neglect or refuse to perform any duty imposed upon him or her by this act or by the rules and regulations of the State Board of Education, the Commissioner of Education shall direct the custodian of the school moneys of the school district in which such teacher shall be employed, to withhold from such teacher all salary due to him or her until he receives notice from said Commissioner of Education that such teacher has fully complied with the provisions of this act and the rules and regulations of the State Board of Education relating to his or her duties. ment of school moneys. Ibid. 21. (16.) The Commissioner of Education shall Apportionequitably apportion to the several counties the amount appropriated for the support of public schools from the State School Fund on the basis of the aggregate number of days attendance of all pupils attending the public schools during the year preceding that for which said apportionment shall be made, and shall furnish to the State Comptroller and to the several County Superintendents of Schools and County Collectors an abstract of such apportionment, and of the apportionment of the moneys due to the several counties from the State school tax and from the reserve fund, and shall draw his orders on the State Comptroller and in favor of the |