Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. Chapter 162 of the acts of 1899 is hereby amended by striking out section 32, as amended by section 1 of chapter 163 of the acts of 1984, and inserting in place thereof the following section:-

Section 32. The management and control of the public schools of the city of Melrose shall be vested in a school committee consisting of seven persons, six of whom shall be elected by the city at large for a term of four years and the mayor who shall be a voting member. Three members of said school committee shall be elected at each regular city election. The school committee shall serve without pay and shall exercise the powers and discharge the duties imposed by law upon school committees. The school committee shall at its first meeting in each municipal year, or as soon thereafter as may be feasible, choose a chairperson from among its members by ballot and the votes of a majority of all of the members of the board shall be required in order to so elect.

The committee shall make rules for its proceedings. A majority of all members shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, but a smaller number may adjourn from time to time. No member of the school committee, other than the mayor of the city, shall hold any other office in or under the city government or act as counsel in any matter before the board of aldermen or any committee thereof.

SECTION 2. The voters of the city of Melrose, at the biennial city election to be held in the year nineteen hundred and ninety-five, shall vote for six school committee members; provided, however, that notwithstanding the provisions of section one of this act, the three persons receiving the highest number of votes at said election shall each be elected for a term of four years and the persons receiving the fourth, fifth and sixth highest number of votes shall each be elected for a term of two years; and, provided further, that said terms shall commence on the first Monday in January, nineteen hundred and ninety-six.

SECTION 3. The state secretary shall cause the following question to be placed on the official ballot to be used in the city of Melrose at the biennial state election to be held in the year nineteen hundred and ninety-four: "Shall an act passed by the General Court in the year nineteen hundred and ninety-four, entitled 'An Act providing that the mayor of the city of Melrose be a voting member of the school committee, the school committee be reduced from nine to seven, and that each of the other six members be elected for four years on a staggered basis, three members every two years', be accepted " If a majority of the votes cast in answer to said question is in the affirmative, then this act shall take full effect in regard to elections for school committee commencing with the election to be held in the year nineteen hundred and ninety-five, and school committee membership commencing on the first Monday in January, nineteen hundred and ninety-six, but not otherwise.

SECTION 4. This act shall take effect upon its passage.