1905 private laws – Ch. 82 Sec. 86

The aldermen of the city shall provide for the establishment and support of a system of graded schools under the following conditions, to-wit: First, no interest-bearing debt of the corporation shall be created for this purpose; second, the schools shall be open to all bona fide residents of the city of all ages between the ages of six and twenty-one, but the white and colored schools shall be distinct and separate buildings and departments, and the schools shall have separate apartments for the higher classes of males and females; third, the funds raised by ad valorem taxation shall be used only for the payment of the salaries of teachers; fourth, persons living beyond the limits of the corporation may attend the schools from their homes, or as boarders, on the payment of tuition fees, to be fixed by the school commissioners; fifth, the aldermen of the city, at their first regular meeting in September, one thousand nine hundred. and five, and annually thereafter, shall appropriate a sufficient sum of money out of the general fund for the support of the graded schools, to be known as The Graded School Fund, the sum to be appropriated for this purpose to be determined by the graded school commissioners and approved by the board of aldermen.