The board of school commissioners gets broad powers over Mobile County schools, property, meetings, finances, insurance, investments, and security staff.
The board of school commissioners shall be entitled to receive, levy, assess, and collect all devises, revenues, and taxes to which they were by law entitled at the date of the organization of the Board of Education of the State of Alabama, and they shall have full power to continue in force, revise, modify, and improve, as to them may see fit, the public school system now existing in the County of Mobile, and to make such bylaws, rules, and regulations, not inconsistent with the laws of the state and of the United States, for the government of the board and of the schools, as they may deem expedient or necessary. They shall hold regular meetings of the board at such times as they may fix upon and adjourned or special meetings when necessary. Three members of the board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, but no business involving a change in the system, rules, and regulations or affecting the general interest of the county shall be transacted except at a regular meeting, after due notice given, or when a full board is in attendance. The board shall be a body corporate, may have a common seal, may sue and contract, may, when the board deems such desirable, appoint or employ attorneys and pay to them agreed compensation in such manner or fashion as may to the board seem best, shall have the power to purchase or lease such property for school purposes as in their judgment may be necessary for the proper accommodation and comfort of pupils and teachers, and may fix the compensation and bonds of its officers, agents, and employees, and change the same at pleasure; provided that the sum or sums so expended shall not exceed, in any one year, 20 per centum of the income of the board; and provided further that the 20 percent limitation shall have no application to sums expended for the constructing, furnishing, preserving, restoring, or equipping of school buildings. The board shall also have power to sell or exchange any of the property including, but not limited to, the Barton Academy buildings and property which the board may dispose of, by gift or otherwise. If the value of such property shall not exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000), four of the members of the board shall vote in favor of the sale, and when the value exceeds five thousand dollars ($5,000), the sale, to be valid, shall receive the unanimous vote of the board. The board shall also have power to let any property which it may own in fee simple, and any property of which, though not owned by it, the board shall have the statutory right and power of direction, management, and control, for any term or period that may seem to the board, in the exercise of sound discretion, proper, not exceeding 99 years. If the lease be for a term exceeding 50 years and not exceeding 99 years, and the value of the property shall exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000), the lease to be valid, shall receive the unanimous vote of the board; and provided that the restriction of touching the necessity for unanimous vote of the board shall not apply to any leases that may have been made prior to the first day of June, 1969, nor to any leases that may be made to land in Section 16 in Township 4 South of Range 2 West in Mobile County. The board shall also have the power to effect and take insurance upon its property and against all risks and hazards, whether of loss or damage to its property, or of risks claimed liability as for asserted damage to others, whether of like kind with insurance upon property or not, and including any and every kind, character, and description of insurance that may be affected, taken, or carried by a private person or corporation for protection against risks now coverable by any kind of insurance, or that may hereafter be covered by any kind of insurance under the law and in accordance with the practice of underwriting. In effecting and taking such insurance, the board shall have the power to effect and take insurance and cause itself to be insured in any class, type, or kind of insurance company, including mutual insurance companies, that, in the discretion of the board, may seem to it wise, expedient, or proper; provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall affect, overcome, or supersede Title 28, Sections 217-238, of the Code of Alabama 1940. The board shall have the power also, in the exercise of reasonable prudence, to invest funds derived from the sale of capital outlay warrants and held pending the expenditure thereof for the contemplated capital improvements, and funds from any other source accumulated and held in advance of expenditure by the board in the operation of public schools of the county, in obligation of the United States of America, whether interest bearing obligations or obligations purchased at discount. The board shall have the power also to employ and pay guards, watchmen, security personnel, or other functionaries by whatever name called to preserve the grounds, school buildings, and other structures of any character that belong to or are in the possession and are under the control of the Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County, from trespass, vandalism, theft, fire, or damage of any character, whether or not of like kind with those just stated, with the authority to use such force as may be reasonably necessary in the performance of their duties under and pursuant to their employment under the authority of this section.