Opinion No. 16-1715
January 22, 1916
TO: Hon. H. B. Hamilton, District Attorney, Carrizozo, New Mexico.
School districts can pay expenses of a teacher while attending meeting of the New Mexico Educational Association.
OPINION
{*288} I am in receipt of your letter of the 13th instant, enclosing one from the County School Superintendent of Lincoln County addressed to you, in which the question is raised as to whether school districts are justified in paying the expenses of a teacher while attending the meeting of the New Mexico Educational Association, held at Albuquerque in November last.
The opinion of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, with which this office agrees, is that if there are funds of a school district available, after paying all of the regular expenses for the school year, they may be devoted to the payment of the expenses of a teacher while in attendance at the meeting held in Albuquerque. This opinion is based upon the concluding language in Section 3 of Chapter 79 of the Laws of 1915, which authorizes school directors "to defray all other expenses connected with the proper conduct of the public or common schools." If, by paying the expenses of a teacher, the school fund should be crippled, of course the payment should not be made.
I return herewith the letter of the County School Superintendent.