Education/Schools - Historical Notes

The acts listed below affected the county school system prior to the establishment of the Metropolitan Government.

1. Private Acts of 1923, Chapter 516, authorized the Board of Education of Davidson County to provide group life insurance for public school teachers.  The face amount of coverage per person could not exceed $250.  The Board was empowered to require each teacher to furnish once each scholastic year a certificate from the County Health Officer declaring that the teacher was physically able to discharge the duties required and was not affected by a communicable disease.  The act set forth a pension plan to be put into effect by the Board for the benefit of its employees.  Employees, sixty-five years old with forty years of service, were eligible for retirement benefits.  The payments would equal one-half of the salary payable to a beginning teacher as of the date of retirement of the eligible employee.  The Quarterly County Court was authorized to levy a tax to create and keep solvent a pension fund.  A pension Board, consisting of the Chairman and the Secretary of the County Board of Education, the County Superintendent of Schools, and two teachers was established to administer the fund.
2. Private Acts of 1929, Chapter 817, created a "Teacher's Retirement Fund" in Davidson County which would be maintained by the contributions of two percent of the teacher's monthly or annual salaries of and matched by a like sum from the Board of Education.  The County Trustee would be custodian of the fund to be deposited as savings in some bank at an interest yield of not less than four percent.  The Board of Education and the County Superintendent of Schools would designate the teacher and the amount to be paid to the teacher from the funds based upon information obtained from the records of the Board. 
3. Private Acts of 1931, Chapter 367, amended Private Acts of 1929, Chapter 817, above, by changing the amount of the payment for a disability pension from $40 a month to an annual amount equal to the amount of total  contributions made by the employee.  A new Section was added which allowed any teacher who desired to retire from the teaching profession, who was discharged, or who died in the service, to withdraw from the Teacher's Retirement Fund, with interest, all the money paid in by the teacher. 
4. Private Acts of 1933, Chapter 496, authorized the Board of Education in Davidson County to contract with any life insurance company authorized to do business in the State of Tennessee for the payment of pensions or annuities to teachers employed in the County Public School System.  For this purpose, principals and supervisors were classed as teachers.  Teachers would contribute two percent of their salaries and the Board would contribute a matching sum.  Participation would be optional for teachers.  Authority was granted for the funds collected pursuant to a Retirement Fund created under Private Acts of 1929, Chapter 817, above, with  the teacher's knowledge and consent to be transferred to the insurance company chosen to fund an annuity contract.
5. Private Acts of 1933, Chapter 497, repealed Private Acts of 1929, Chapter 817, above, which established a Teacher's Retirement Fund in Davidson County.  The fund which had been set up pursuant to the act was authorized to be liquidated.
6. Private Acts of 1941, Chapter 503, created a retirement and pension system for all employees of Davidson County Board of Education.  An employee who reached age sixty-five could petition for retirement if the employee had worked for five years immediately preceding retirement and had an aggregate of twenty-four years within the preceding thirty years.  Benefits were payable monthly in an annual amount equal to one-half the average annual salary dividing the five years immediately preceding retirement, but in no event, more than $60 per month.  No benefits would be paid to one who had held a lucrative employment with federal, state, or municipal government.  All benefits were payable from school funds and were required to be approved by the Quarterly County Court as a part of the school budget.
7. Private Acts of 1943, Chapter 108, amended Private Acts of 1941, Chapter 503, above, and declared that in calculating teacher's pension benefits, the first five years of service could consist of teaching at any public school, even those outside Davidson County.  Any teacher who became disabled after twenty years service but before retirement age could be retired by the Board with full pension benefits.
8. Private Acts of 1945, Chapter 494, amended Private Acts of 1941, Chapter 503, above, by providing that an employee of the Board of Education could draw disability benefits if totally disabled and unable to engage in any gainful employment.  The limitations were that such employee would receive fifty percent of regular retirement benefits if he had ten years employment; seventy-five percent of benefits wit fifteen years; and one hundred percent benefits after twenty years of employment.
9. Private Acts of 1947, Chapter 250, amended Private Acts of 1941, Chapter 503, above, by reducing the retirement age for employees of the Board of Education from sixty-five years of age to sixty years of age.  Retirement at age sixty-five was compulsory unless the Board decided to extend employment, but in no event could one work past age seventy.  The act removed the limitation of $60 per month for monthly benefits in cases where the employee would have received the higher amount.  Persons employed by the Board upon entrance into military service during World War II were allowed to count their military years in establishing length of employment with the Board. 
10. Private Acts of 1965, Chapter 243, allowed retired, Davidson County teachers with more than twenty years service who were receiving benefits under the Board of Education retirement plan to receive additional state funds each month.

The acts referenced below once affected the office of superintendent of education in Davidson County, but are no longer operative.

1. Acts of 1895, Chapter 155, prohibited the Superintendent of Public Instruction from teaching in any public school either as principal or assistant, during his term of office.  The Superintendent was further prohibited from making any contract to build or repair school property or to become the owner of any school warrant, other than those warrants allowed for his services as Superintendent.  This act applied to all counties having 30,000 inhabitants or more.  Any violation of the act was punishable by fines from $25 to $50, the money to be paid into the school fund.
2. Private Acts of 1911, Chapter 656, amended Private Acts of 1907, Chapter 447, by making the County Superintendent of Public Instruction an ex officio member of the Board of Education without the right to vote.  The Superintendent of Public Instruction was granted the authority to hold and convey title to real property then and in the future, when authorized by the Board of Education and approved by the Quarterly County Court.  The Act permitted the County Board of Education to allow county pupils to attend high schools in the city.  The Chairman of the Board of Education would be paid $5.00 per day up to 52 days a year.
3. Private Acts of 1921, Chapter 309, amended Acts of 1873, Chapter 125, by adding a provision that, in Davidson County, the County Superintendent of Schools shall be elected by the County Court biennially in July and shall hold office for two years, or until his successor is elected and qualified.
4. Private Acts of 1925, Chapter 594, authorized and directed the Davidson County Superintendent of Schools, in certifying to the County Trustee the average daily attendance of the pupils in the elementary schools within and without the corporate limits of Nashville for the scholastic year 1924-25, to add to the average daily attendance within the city and to subtract from the number out of the city, one-half of the average daily attendance of those pupils attending the elementary schools out of the city who resided in the territory annexed to Nashville by the Legislature at its 1925 session.

The following acts constitute part of the administrative and political heritage of the educational structure of Davidson County but are no longer operative since they have either been superseded or repealed.

1. Acts of 1785, Chapter 29, Acts of North Carolina, incorporated Reverend Thomas Craighead, Hugh Williamson, Daniel Smith, William Polk, Anthony Bledsoe, James Robertson, Lardner Clark, Ephraim McClaine, and Robert Hays, as a body corporate and politic, to be known as the Trustees for Davidson Academy, with all the rights and privileges which were incidental to corporate institutions of learning.  The Trustees could elect a President, a Secretary, and a Treasurer, and employ all the necessary personnel to operate the school, as well promulgate rules for the internal discipline and management of the institution.  All the lands and properties of the school were declared to be exempt from taxes for the next ninety-nine years.  Two hundred forty acres of land, reserved for the use and benefit of the State, being that part of the land most remote from the salt springs of Nashville is hereby vested in the Trustees.
2. Acts of 1796, Chapter 4, enacted in the same year Tennessee became a State, appointed Thomas Johnson, William Fort, James Ford, Thomas Donald, Edward Douglas, Moses Sisk, Seth Lewis, Joel Lewis, James Hoggatt, and John Gordon as Trustees of Davidson Academy.  The building of the Academy was to be erected on the most convenient situation on the hill immediately above Nashville near the road leading to Buchanan's Mill.  The Trustees, whose accounts would be audited annually, would proceed to erect the buildings and employ the tutors needed as soon as the available funds permitted.
3. Acts of 1803, Chapter 72, stated that the General Assembly had been asked to appoint Trustees for a college proposed to be built on a tract of land given to the Institution by the State of North Carolina and located just outside of Nashville.  This Act appointed Reverend Thomas B. Craighead, James Robertson, Daniel Smith, Andrew Jackson, James Winchester, David Shelby, Robert Hays, Samuel P. Black, Joel Lewis, Henry Bradford, Moses Sisk, Joseph Hays, Morgan Brown, Abraham Maury, Thomas Stewart, Joseph Phillips, William Montgomery, and John Baker, as Trustees of Davidson College, with all corporate powers and privileges.
4. Acts of 1805, Chapter 17, declared that the General Assembly had been advised that the citizens of the Mero District had built and kept up an academy for the District, located near Nashville, and called Valodolid Academy, which has a good and spacious building on it at that time.  The act constituted Joel Lewis, Robert C. Foster, Robert White, Benjamin D. Wills, Thomas A. Claiborne, Robert Searcy, and George M. Deadrick, as a body corporate and politic by the name of the Trustees of Valadolid.
5. Acts of 1805, Chapter 51, authorized the Treasurer of Davidson Academy to call upon the former treasurer of the school for an account of all funds in his hands and to institute suit against him through the Attorney General of the State if funds belonging to the Academy were not paid over forthwith.  In the future all people who were appointed as treasurer of the school would be required to make bond of $5,000.
6. Acts of 1806, Chapter 7, merged Davidson Academy with the college authorized by Congress to be established in west Tennessee, and named the new college Cumberland College.  Thomas B. Craighead, James Winchester, Samuel P. Black, Moses Sisk, Robert C. Foster, David McGavock, Robert White, Joseph Coleman, Robert Searcy, William Dickson, David Hume, John Dickison Joel Lewis, Abraham Maury, Sr., William P. Anderson, Duncan Stuart, Thomas Johnson, John K. Wynne, and Nicholas T. Perkins, were all incorporated as Trustees of Cumberland College and were granted certain specific and general powers.
7. Acts of 1806, Chapter 8, established academies in most of the counties existing in the State at the time and appointed Trustees for them.  Thomas A. Claiborne, Joel Lewis, Robert Weakley, Joseph Phillips, and Robert C. Foster were incorporated in Davidson County as the Trustees of Robertson Academy.
8. Acts of 1809, Chapter 32, appointed John McNairy and John Beck, as Trustees, to fill vacancies on the Board of Cumberland College.  The act added Willie Blount, John Haywood, Felix Grundy, Parry W. Humphreys, Felix Robertson, Robert Weakley, and John Childress, to the Board of Trustees.  It was made the duty of these Trustees and those of East Tennessee College to present a full and complete report to the General Assembly on the affairs of both these corporate institutions.  The act prohibited any religious preference at Cumberland College.
9. Acts of 1811, Chapter 29, appointed additional Trustees for several of the academies scattered throughout the State.  William Williams, William Donelson, John Harden, and John Anderson were named for Robertson Academy in Davidson County.
10. Acts of 1811, Chapter 52, named Thomas Childress, Thomas Crutcher, Michael Campbell, Andrew Hynes, Thomas Masterson, John Anderson,  and William Tait, as the  Trustees of a lottery which would raise up to $30,000 for Cumberland College.  The lottery would be managed and operated under the rules set forth in the act.  The act also confirmed the appointment of George Michael Deadrick and Elihu S. Hall as Trustees of the College.
11. Acts of 1812, Chapter 76, authorized the President of the Board of Trustees of Cumberland College, when ordered by the Board, to make and execute deeds to such lots of land as may be sold by the College which deeds would be attested by the Secretary, and executed by the President.  Notices of meetings of the Board were required to be placed in a newspaper at least twenty days prior to the meeting.
12. Acts of 1813, Chapter 118, appointed James Trimble, Jesse Wharton, Wilkes Tannehill, and Thomas Claiborne, as additional Trustees for Cumberland College.
13. Acts of 1817, Chapter 44, purported to clear the title to 616 acres of land which was first granted to the Mero District for the benefit of Davidson Academy and later sold by its Trustees to George M. Deadrick and then conveyed by him to William Donelson.  No record of the grant from the State of North Carolina to the Trustees of the School existed.
14. Acts of 1817, Chapter 93, provided that all meetings of the Trustees of Cumberland College would be held on the College grounds near Nashville.  Changes in the Trustees included naming Edward Ward as Trustee for Joel Lewis, deceased; Nicholas Perkins for Wilkes Tannehill, who had resigned; Adam Goodlett for Willie Blount, who had resigned; Henry Crabb for Robert Weakley, resigned; and Jenkins Whiteside for George M. Deadrick, deceased.  The Trustees were given the authority to select another site for the Academy to be within three miles of the old site.  They were then to sell the facilities on the old site, and apply the proceeds to the development of the new site.
15. Private Acts of 1823, Chapter 194, appointed Nathan Ewing, James Roane, Alfred Balch, Andrew Hays, Francis B. Fogg, Ephraim H. Foster, John Bell, and Charles L. Love, as Trustees of Cumberland College.
16. Private Acts of 1823, Chapter 270, Section 2, nominated John Catron as a Trustee for Cumberland College with the privileges of the other Trustees.
17. Private Acts of 1826, Chapter 32, permitted a lottery to be conducted by the Trustees of Cumberland College for the purpose of raising $200,000 for the use of the College.  A $50,000 bond was required before the lottery scheme could be put into operation.  The trustees could draft regulations under which the lottery would be conducted so long as they did not contravene existing law.
18. Private Acts of 1826, Chapter 47, authorized the Trustees of Cumberland College to erect additional buildings and establish additional schools so that a union of all of the schools and colleges would be known as the University of Nashville.  The Trustees were reincorporated under the new name.  Cumberland College would still exist but only as a part of the University.
19. Private Acts of 1827, Chapter 131, incorporated  William  Hamblin, John Morgan, William Hope, Duke W. Sumner, Edmund Goodrich, Michael Autry, and Matthew P. Walker, as Trustees of Craighead Academy with all the powers and privileges incidental to corporate institutions.
20. Public Acts of 1832, Chapter 15, required the commissioners of the company which operated the Nashville, Murfreesboro, and Shelbyville Turnpike to pay over semi-annually the interest due on funds invested in the company for the benefit of the Common School Fund.
21. Acts of 1837-38, Chapter 148, Section 15, directed that no funds invested in the stock of the Nashville, Murfreesboro, and Shelbyville Turnpike would be considered as part of the common school fund of Davidson County.
22. Acts of 1839-40, Chapter 122, directed the Commissioners of the Nashville, Murfreesboro, and Shelbyville Turnpike Company to pay into the common school fund of the State all the interest which had accrued on the school funds of Davidson, Rutherford, and Bedford Counties which funds had been invested in the stock of the Turnpike Company.
23. Acts of 1853-54, Chapter 149, directed the President and the Directors of the Bank of Tennessee to pay into the hands of the Treasurer of the Davidson County Academy the sum of money in the Bank which belonged to the Academy.
24. Acts of 1853-54, Chapter 205, Section 2, established an institution for learning in village of Goodlettsville, Tennessee, to be called the American High School.  The institution would be a joint stock company whose shares would be valued at $25 each. 
25. Acts of 1855-56, Chapter 56, directed the Trustee of Davidson County to pay over to the City of Nashville any common school funds in his hands belonging to the district included in the City of Nashville upon receipt of a written order from the Treasurer of the City who would in turn credit the funds to the schools of the City.
26. Acts of 1891, Chapter 219, established a new school district out of parts of Davidson and Williamson Counties.  The School District was granted all the emoluments, rights, and privileges allowed other school districts.  A board of three directors would be elected by the people living in the District.
27. Acts of 1903, Chapter 351, authorized the County Court of Davidson County to appropriate from the school funds a sum sufficient to pay the salaries of teachers who taught school in any of the school districts in the County under employment of any school directors whose elections were  contested and declared illegal.  A two-thirds vote of the Justices of the County Court was required for approval of the appropriation.
28. Acts of 1905, Chapter 543, provided that the School District formerly composed of parts of the Nineteenth, Twentieth, and Twenty-Second Districts of the County, known as the Twenty-Sixth School District, would be again established with the same boundaries except for a part of the 19th District which would have a boundary change.
29. Acts of 1907, Chapter 586, allowed the children of lawful school age residing in the Eight Civil District of Davidson County, and within one mile of Seifried School, which was in the city of Nashville, would have the right to attend the school.  A pro rata share of school funds shall be paid to the Treasurer of the City of Nashville by the County Trustee for such children who would attend the school.
30. Acts of 1909, Chapter 20, was an act concerning the cooperation of state, county, and city governmental  entities with the Peabody Education Fund to establish and finance the George Peabody College for Teachers.  The Education Fund would donate $1,000.000 as an endowment, and the State of Tennessee would appropriate $250,000; the County of Davidson, $50,000; and the City of Nashville, $200,000 to finance the founding of the College. 
31. Private Acts of 1911, Chapter 506, authorized the Board of Trustees for Robertson Academy in Davidson County to acquire the necessary ground, either by gift, or purchase, and to erect thereon such building, or buildings, that may be suitable for the uses of a public school, and to use the surplus of funds on the operation and maintenance of the school.  The new school was required to be located outside the City of Nashville and at some point on or near the Franklin Turnpike.  The Board could make contracts or arrangements of any kind with the Davidson County Board of Education.  It was recognized that the current property of the School was conveyed to it by deed from William Hartsfield, dated April 2, 1842, and that the Board of Trustees was composed of P. A. Smith, Melville Williams, Thomas Wilkerson, R. G. Clark, Sep W. Abbay, Charles R. Wilkerson, Joseph H. Thompson, John Thompson, May Overton, W. L. Jordan, W. D. Shute, and Jesse M. Overton.
32. Private Acts of 1913, Chapter 176, empowered the Boards of Education in Davidson County to appropriate annually so much money as might be necessary for securing library aid for the county public schools in the circulation of supplementary reading books and other literature from established public libraries in the county seat.
33. Private Acts of 1913, Chapter 177, allowed the Davidson County Quarterly Court, in quarterly session, to levy a tax for free school purposes of not less than twenty-five cents nor more than forty cents on each one hundred dollars' worth of taxable property in the County.
34. Private Acts of 1913, Chapter 329, allowed the Davidson County Quarterly Court to make such provision as the Court saw fit for the employment of a competent person with professional medical training to make an examination into the health of the pupils attending the public schools of the County, the compensation of such a person to be determined by the Board and appropriated from the general county funds.
35. Private Acts of 1929, Chapter 168, authorized and directed the Davidson County Board of Education to operate the public schools located in the area annexed to the City of Nashville by the General Assembly at its 1929 session for the balance of the 1928-1929 school term.
36. Private Acts of 1935, Chapter 426, allowed the Davidson County Board of Education to contract with the Board of Education of the City of Nashville for the payment of tuition for the attendance of high school students who were residents of the Districts of Davidson County outside Nashville to attend city schools.  Such attendance was to be permitted only in cases where the County did not maintain a high school in the District where the student resided, and when the student could be more economically and conveniently served by paying such tuition to the City.
37. Private Acts of 1949, Chapter 822, stated that in Davidson County all school funds collected, or received by the County authorities whether from State apportionment or from the Federal Government, for general school purposes, would be divided between the County Board of Education and any Boards of Education of cities, towns, or special taxing districts, upon a per capita basis for each and every child in average daily attendance in elementary and high schools.  All other school funds, except monies raised by special tax rates or appropriations from the County Court, or appropriations made by the State for public school transportation, would be divided on the same basis.  The act was held unconstitutional on the grounds that it was contrary to general law and lacked a reasonable basis for its discriminatory provisions.  Davidson County v. City of Nashville, 190 Tenn. 137, 228 SW2d 89 (1950).
38. Private Acts of 1951, Chapter 221, permitted the County and City Boards of Education in Davidson County to form a contract for the joint operation of school facilities coming under their respective jurisdictions and to make available each to the other their respective school facilities on a contractual basis for the benefit of the school children of both the City and the County.  Any contract was required to be approved by the Quarterly Court and the Mayor and City Council.
39. Private Acts of 1951, Chapter 548, stated that all persons employed by the Davidson County Board of Education who were teachers, principals, or who were engaged in an instructional capacity were to receive monthly increases in pay as follows:  $10 per month for all those who have taught five years or less; $17.50 a month for those who have taught from six to ten years, and $25 per month for all those who had taught for ten years or longer.
40. Private Acts of 1953, Chapter 530, stated that all custodian engineers and janitors employed by the Davidson County Board of Education shall be afforded twelve months of work each calendar year and would receive twelve months full pay according to his or her regular salary scale.
41. Private Acts of 1955, Chapter 291, amended Private Acts of 1943, Chapter 273, the Davidson County Civil Service Act, by placing all teachers and other persons employed by the Board of Education in the category of unclassified along with elected officials and their deputies, and members of boards and commissions.
42. Private Acts of 1955, Chapter 299, stated that non-teaching employees of the Board of Education of Davidson County not otherwise protected under the Public Acts of 1951, Chapter 76, would be subject to discharge for inefficiency, incompetency, neglect of duty, immorality, conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude, and several other specific acts, provided the employee was given ten days notice.  The employee could appeal within five days of receipt of notice to the Board of Education for a hearing and the decision of the Board was subject to judicial review.