1511. Request for meeting to consolidate districts; notices of meeting. 1. Whenever two-thirds of the qualified electors of each of two or more districts in which there shall be less than fifteen qualified electors, or if there be fifteen or more qualified electors in any of such districts whenever ten or more of such electors, shall sign a request for a meeting to be held for the purpose of determining whether such districts shall be consolidated as a common school district or as a union free school district, as the case may be, and submit the same to the trustees or board of education of each of such districts, it shall be the duty of such trustees or board of education 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 board of education to give public notice that a meeting of the qualified electors of such districts will be held at some convenient place within such districts, as centrally located as may be, to vote upon the question of consolidating such districts. Such notice shall specify the day and hour when such meeting shall be held, not less than twenty nor more than thirty days after the posting, service or publication of such notice. If the trustees or board of education shall refuse or neglect to give such notice within twenty days after such request is approved by the commissioner of education, the commissioner of education may authorize and direct any qualified elector of the district to give such notice.
2. If any part of any of such districts is situated wholly or partly within an incorporated village in which one or more newspapers are published, such notice shall be published once in each week for three consecutive weeks before such meeting in all the newspapers published in such village, and shall also be posted at least twenty days prior to such meeting, in at least five conspicuous places in each district. In all other districts such notice shall be published once in each week for three consecutive weeks before such meeting, in a newspaper circulated in said districts, and in the event no newspaper is circulated in said districts, such notice may be given by publication thereof in a newspaper circularized and generally distributed through the district or districts involved, and it shall be also posted at least twenty days prior to such meeting in at least five conspicuous places in each district. In districts which by the latest census are shown to have a population of two hundred or less, the trustees or board of education of said districts may dispense with publication and posting as hereinabove required, and in the event that such publication and posting are dispensed with, said trustees or board of education of each of said districts shall authorize and direct a qualified elector thereof to notify each qualified elector of such district of said 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.
3. The reasonable expense of the publication and service of such notice shall be chargeable upon the districts, if the vote be in favor of consolidation, and if not, shall be paid by the persons signing the request for such meeting as provided by section fifteen hundred twenty-two.
Last modified: February 3, 2019