Education/Schools - Historical Notes

Superintendent or Director of Schools

The act referenced below once affected the office of superintendent of education in Hamblen County, but is no longer operative.

1. Private acts of 1986, Chapter 158, provided for the election of the county superintendent of public instruction by the qualified voters of Hamblen County for a term of 4 years after the August 31, 1992 general election.  The qualifications, compensation, powers, duties and liabilities of the superintendent of public instruction was prescribed by general law. 

General Reference

The following acts constitute part of the administrative and political heritage of the educational structure of Hamblen County but are no longer operative since they have either been superseded, repealed, or failed to receive local approval.  Also referenced below are acts which repeal prior law without providing new substantive provisions.

1. Acts of 1909, Chapter 494, was a compulsory attendance law for Hamblen County.  It required the parents and/or legal guardians of children between the ages of eight and fourteen to see that their children attended school for four months or eighty consecutive days of each school year.  The children could be excused from attendance if a physician certified that they were mentally or physically incompetent to attend.  If they received private instruction, they could demonstrate through examination their competence in the subjects taught in public schools.  Private Acts of 1911, Chapter 221 and Chapter 306 amended this act.  Later, Public Acts of 1978, Chapter 716, repealed this act.
2. Private Acts of 1911, Chapter 378, was the next compulsory attendance law for Hamblen County.  It applied to children between the ages of eight and sixteen, and required that they attend public or private schools.  Children were exempted from this law only if a physician certified them incapable of attending school, if their parents were unable due to poverty to properly clothe the child for school, or if there was no school for their race within 2½ miles from their home.  Parents/legal guardians who did not see that their child attended under the provisions of this law were guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to a fine.
3. Private Acts of 1925, Chapter 814, gave the Hamblen County Board of Education the right of eminent domain to secure land and property for school buildings and grounds and set the procedure to be followed in condemnation proceedings.
4. Private Acts of 1937, Chapter 584, created a Board of Education for Hamblen County, consisting of three members, but in the next section of this Act, the Quarterly County Court was authorized to appoint five members to the Board of Education, from the county-at-large, with no more than three members belonging to the same political party.  This was repealed by Private Acts of 1949, Chapter 676, found in this volume, which created the current Board of Education for Hamblen County.
5. Private Acts of 1941, Chapter 425, created the "Hamblen County Special School District" of all the lands of the county lying outside the corporate limits of Morristown.  This Act also authorized a bond issue for $100,000 the proceeds of which were to be used to improve the school buildings at Russellville, Witt, Whitesburg, Fairview, Springvale and Lowland.  This has been superseded by the provisions of the current Board of Education law, found in Private Acts of 1949, Chapter 676.