Aycliffe. The Aycliffe on the east side of the main road leading from Darlington to Durham, and delineated in the map drawn in the margin of the deed, together with the school buildings erected thereon, subject to a right-of-way as therein mentioned, for the purposes of the said Diamond School Sites Acts, and to be applied as a site for a school and as a school for persons Jubilee of and in the parish of Aycliffe and the parishes adjacent thereto, to be known as The SchoolAycliffe Diamond Jubilee School, and for no other purposes whatsoever, such school continued. to be under the management and control (subject to the declarations thereinafter contained) of a committee of managers to be elected or appointed as thereinafter provided: And it was thereby declared as follows: 1. In conformity with section 1 of the School Sites Acts, 1844, the said school shall be at all times open to the inspection by the inspectors of schools for the time being appointed by Her Majesty and Her Successors, and shall be conducted as a public elementary school under section 7 of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, or any statutory modifications thereof, and according to the requirements for the time being of the Committee of Her Majesty's Privy Council on Education or other the body or bodies in which the control of public elementary schools may from time to time be vested. 2. No religious qualification of any kind or description shall be required from any teacher in the said school or from any member of the committee of management, and no clerk in holy crders, clergyman or minister, preacher, reader or deacon of any religious denomination, body or sect shall be qualified to be a trustee of the said site and school buildings or a member of the committee of managers of the said school, 3. The trustees may from time to time permit the said school buildings or any buildings to be erected on the said piece of land to be used for the purposes of entertainments, lectures, meetings, and for other objects for the instruction, recreation or well-being of the inhabitants of the said parish of Aycliffe and the adjacent parishes, or for the holding of Sunday school anniversary services free from restriction in respect of creed. Provided that the said school buildings shall not be used for any sectarian purpose nor for any purpose at or any time that may interfere with the use thereof for the purposes of a school as aforesaid And the trustees may from time to time make regulations as to the manner in which and the persons or person by whom permission to use the said school buildings shall be granted. 4. The committee of managers, which shall have the control and management of the said school, shall consist of eight persons, as follows:-The president and the secretary for the time being of the Darlington Association of the National Union of Teachers or other association of the said union which shall from time to time include within its district the parish of Aycliffe, who shall be ex-officio managers; six persons (hereinafter called ratepayers' representatives), of whom three shall be elected by the inhabitant ratepayers of the township of Great Aycliffe, one by the inhabitant ratepayers of the township of Brafferton, one by the inhabitant ratepayers of the townships of Preston-le-Skerne, and one by the inhabitant ratepayers of the township of Woodham; two persons (hereinafter called parents' representatives), who shall be elected by the parents (as defined by section 3 of the Elementary Education Act, 1870) of any child or children who shall have made at least 50 attendances at the school during the last completed school year immediately preceding the election, and one person (hereinafter referred to as the subscribers' representatives) who shall be elected by subscribers to the funds of the said school who shall at the date of the election have paid their subscriptions for the then current. year 5. For the purpose of this deed the school year shall be deemed to commence on the day fixed for that purpose by the Committee of Her Majesty's Privy Council on Education or other body or bodies in which the control of public elementary schools may from time to time be vested. On occasions when the date of commencement of the school year shall be altered by the last-mentioned committee or body or bodies, the period between the close of the last completed school year and the date appointed for the commencement of the next school year, whether quarter or less than 12 calendar months, shall, for the purposes of this deed, be deemed to be a completed school year. 6. Each manager other than an ex-officio manager shall pay a subscription to the school funds of at least two shillings and sixpence per annum during the time he holds office, and no person shall be qualified to be elected a manager unless he shall previous to the date of election have paid his subscription for the school year current at the date of election. 7. Each ratepayers' representative shall hold office for three years, i.e., until the annual election of managers to be held in the third year after his election. But of the first six ratepayers' representatives two shall retire at the annual election of managers in one thousand nine hundred and one, and two at the annual election of managers in one thousand nine hundred and two. The ratepayers' representatives to retire as aforesaid in the years one thousand nine hundred and one and one thousand nine hundred and two shall be determined by lot between the first six ratepayers' representatives. 8 Each parents' representative and subscribers' representative shall hold office for one year, ie., until the annual election of managers in the year next following his election. Aycliffe. 9. An election or elections for the filling up of all vacancies in the committee of managers, however caused, shall be held in the month of March in every year on such day and at such hour and place as The Aycliffe the committee may from time to time prescribe. Diamond Jubilee continued. 10. Fourteen days' notice at least of any meeting for the election of managers shall be given by posting the same on the door of the school, and by delivering or sending the same by post to each subscriber of not less than five shillings to the funds of the school for the then current year, and in such other manner as the committee of managers may from time to time prescribe. 11. At every election votes may be given personally or by any paper sent on or before the day of the election to the chairman thereof, such paper being signed by the person claiming to vote and na ning the person or persons whom such voter shall desire to elect. 12. At each meeting to elect ratepayers' representatives or parents' representatives, each ratepayer or parent, within the meaning of section 3 of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, as the case may be, shall have one vote, and at each meeting to elect subscribers' representatives each subscriber shall be entitled to one vote for each five shillings contributed by him up to six votes, but no subscriber shall have more than six votes. 13. The chairman of any meeting for the election of managers shall have full power to decide as to the qualification of any candidate for the office of manager or of any person claiming to vote. 14. The committee of managers may make and from time to time repeal or alter byelaws or regulations relating to the conduct of the elections, but no byelaws or regulations shall be valid unless confirmed by the trustees. 15. The committee of managers shall meet at least four times in every year at intervals of not less than three calendar months, but no meeting shall be held in the summer vacation of the school. One meeting at least shall be held in the month of April in every year after the annual election of managers. 16. At any meeting of the committee of managers five managers present shall form a quorum, and all matters which shall be brought before any meeting shall be decided in accordance with the votes of the majority of the inanagers present and voting on the question. 17. At the close of the annual election the names of the elected managers shall be sent by the chairman to the trustees, who shall forthwith appoint one of the managers to be chairman for the ensuing year, i.e., until the close of the next annual election following his appointment. The chairman shall be entitled to preside at all meetings of the committee of managers and at all meetings for the clection of ratepayers', parents', or subscribers' representatives. 18. If at any meeting the chairman be not present at the time for which the meeting is called, the managers, ratepayers, parents or subscribers, as the case may be, shall choose some other manager, if there be one present, or if not, then some other fit and proper person to he chairman of the meeting. 19. In the event of there being an equality of votes on any question at any meeting, whether of managers, ratepayers, parents or subscribers, the chairman shall have a casting vote in addition to any vote or votes to which he may be otherwise entitled. 20. At their first meeting after the annual election the committee of managers shall appoint a competent person, whether one of their number or not, to be secretary or correspondent of the school and committee until the close of the next annual election of managers. The secretary or correspondent shall keep minutes of the proceedings of the committee of managers in a book provided for the purpose, and shall call meetings of the committee as and when occasion may require, and in particular when required so to do by notice in writing, signed by two managers, and, shall give notice of all meetings to all the managers. 21. The office of manager shall be vacated if the manager become bankrupt or incapable of performing his duties or fail to attend a meeting of the committee of managers for six consecutive calendar months without the consent of a resolution of the committee, or be convicted and imprisoned for any crime or resign in writing, or in the case of a ratepayers' representative, fail to pay his subscription within two calendar months after the commencement of each school year during the period for which he was elected. 22. The committee may from time to time by resolution remove a manager from office if they consider it in the interest of the school so to do, but no such resolution shall be valid or have any operation unless it is supported by two-thirds at least of the members of the committee for the time being in office, and be subsequently confirmed by the trustees. 23. The committee of managers may continue to act, notwithstanding any vacancy in their body, until their number is reduced to less than five. 24. If the office of parents' representative or subscribers' representative shall become vacant the committee of managers may appoint a qualified person to fill the office until the next annual election, and if the office of ratepayers' representative for any of the townships aforesaid shall become vacant within one year of the time when an election for such township would in the ordinary course be held, the committee may appoint a qualified person to fill the office until the time when such election would in the ordinary course be held. In all other cases a special meeting of the elective body shall Aycliffe. be called to fill the vacancy, and the person elected shall hold office until such time as the manager in whose place he is elected would in the ordinary course have gone out of office. The Aycliffe continued. 25. The committee of managers shall, subject to these presents, have the control and management Jubilee of the school and the school premises, and of the funds of the school, and shall have the power of School-, appointing and dismissing teachers. Provided always that no business involving the appointment or dismissal of a teacher, or any payment (except the ordinary periodical payments) or any business which under the Elementary Education Acts requires the consent of the Education Department shall be transacted unless notice in writing of such business has been sent to every manager seven days at least before the meeting. And provided also that any and every certificated teacher whose engagement may be terminated by the committee, whether by summary dismissal or by the usual and customary notice or otherwise, may within fourteen days after the receipt by such teacher of the notice terminating his or her engagement, give to the secretary or correspondent notice of his or her objection to the decision of the committee, and thereupon the notice terminating the teacher's engagement shall be suspended until it shall be decided whether or not there are reasonable grounds for the decision of the committee. Aud such question shall be referred to three persons, one of whom shall be nominated by the committee of managers, another by the teacher, and the third by the two persons nominated as aforesaid, and shall be decided by a majority of such persons, and their decision shall be final, and if such referees, or a majority of them, shall decide that there are no reasonable grounds for the decision of the committee, the notice terminating the teacher's engagement shall be absolutely withdrawn. Provided also that every notice of objection given by a teacher shall name the person nominated by him or her under this clause. 26. The coinmittee may from time to time by resolution alter or vary or revoke the provisions herein contained relating to the election of managers or their continuance in or removal from office, or to the powers and duties of the committee or their mode of carrying on or conducting the business of the school or of their own meetings, and in the case of revocation made by the same or other resolution or resolutions make new provisions relating to the matters aforesaid; but no such resolution shall have any operation unless it is supported by two-thirds at least of the members of the committee for the time being in office, and be subsequently confirmed by the trustees, and no such resolution shall under any circumstances be valid if it purport in any way to alter or vary the provisions of the clauses Nos. 12 and 13 herein-before contained. 27. The trustees shall forthwith summon meetings of the elective bodies for the election of the representative members of the first committee of managers, and may conduct such meetings and carry out such election in such manner as they shall think fit, and until a properly constituted committee of managers shall have been appointed, the trustees, or any committee of not less than seven persons nominated by them, shall be deemed to constitute such committee, and may act as though they had been duly elected or appointed in accordance with the conditions of these presents. 28. The power of appointing new trustees conferred by statute shall for the purposes of these presents be vested in the surviving and continuing trustees for the time being Provided that so often as the number of the trustees shall by death or otherwise be reduced to five or less, or oftener if the surviving and continuing trustees shall think it expedient, so many others shall be appointed trustees as shall make up the whole number of trustees to ten, 29. These presents shall not come into operation and effect unless and until they be subscribed and confirmed by not less than five members of the committee which has been formed with the object of raising money for the building of schools for the purposes aforesaid on the site hereby conveyed, 30. That if the said school shall for the period of 12 months cease to be used and occupied as a public elementary school in accordance with the terms of this deed, the fee simple of and the beneficial interest in the said piece or parcel of land and the buildings thereon shall revert to and again become vested in me the said George Chapman his (sic) heirs and assigns, Appended to the above deed is a memorandum of even date under the hands of six of the above-mentioned trustees confirming the above deed as members of the committee referred to in the 29th clause thereof. 28th November 1900. G. B. M. COORE, |