POLICY 1-1.1                AUTHORITY AND TITLE

 

            Authority

 

                Article VIII, § 7 of the Constitution of Virginia places the responsibility for providing an efficient system of free public schools with the General Assembly of Virginia, and further directs the establishment of local school boards to operate, maintain and supervise local schools.  The Montgomery County School Board derives its authority from the Constitution of Virginia, the Code of Virginia, and the regulations of the Virginia Board of Education.  The School Board is the policy-making body for the Montgomery County Public Schools and serves within the framework provided by law, the will of the local citizenry, and the ethics of professional personnel.

 

            The School Board is a body corporate, and in its corporate capacity, is vested with all the powers and charged with all the duties, obligations, and responsibilities imposed upon school boards by law and may sue, be sued, contract, be contracted with, and purchase, take, hold, lease and convey school property, both real and personal.  School Board members are officers of the Commonwealth.  School Board members shall have no authority or duties except such as may be assigned to them by the School Board as a whole.  School Board members shall have authority only when acting as a board regularly in session.  The School Board shall not be bound in any way by any statement or action of any individual School Board member or employee except when such statement or action is pursuant to specific instructions or rules of the School Board.

 

                The wisdom and far-sightedness of the School Board members and the effectiveness and efficiency with which the School Board, as a corporate body, discharges its duties and obligations determine, to a large degree, the educational level of the citizens of Montgomery County.

 

            Title

 

                The School Board is a corporate body whose official title shall be the “County School Board of Montgomery County.”

 

LEGAL REFERENCE: Constitution of Virginia, Article VIII, § 7; Code of Virginia, 1950 as amended, §§ 22.1-1, 22.1-2, 22.1-28, 22.1-31, 22.1-71.

 

Adopted:  April 2004