Section 195-A:1 - Definitions The terms used in this chapter shall be construed as follows, unless a different meaning is clearly apparent from the language or context:
I. "School district" shall mean a town school district, a special school district, a cooperative school district, an incorporated school district operating within a city, and a city operating a dependent school department.II. "Elementary school" shall mean a program comprising all grades from the kindergarten or grade one through grade 6, or kindergarten or grade one through grade 8.III. "Secondary school" shall mean a program comprising all grades from grade 7 through grade 12, or grade 9 through grade 12 and may include a junior high school program comprising grades 7 and 8 or 7, 8 and 9 as well as a high school program. IV. "Area school" shall mean an authorized regional enrollment area school, which may be elementary or secondary, and which when approved as hereinafter provided, shall be the assigned school for all the resident elementary or secondary pupils of the school districts or portions thereof within the region which it is established to serve.V. "Sending district" shall mean any school district or portion thereof which sends its resident pupils to an area school located in a receiving district, paying tuition therefor to the receiving district.VI. "Receiving district" shall mean a school district in which an area school is located.VII. "School board" shall mean the school board, board of education or school committee of each school district. IX. "Tuition" shall mean the sum of money which each sending district is obligated to pay to the receiving district to defray the cost of education of each of its resident pupils, for a school year, at the area school in the receiving district to which such pupils are assigned and it may be subdivided into elementary school tuition, junior high school tuition, high school tuition, or any other reasonable combination of grades, and shall be fixed as provided in RSA 195-A:3. Tuition may include an annual rental charge per pupil. The obligation of a sending district to pay tuition to a receiving school shall not be deemed indebtedness of such district for the purpose of determining its borrowing capacity under RSA 33.X. "Annual rental charge per pupil" shall mean that additional payment included in tuition as defined in paragraph IX which represents a fair charge for building occupancy. It may also include a fair charge for any debt service and reduction of principal, which may become due between date of bond issue and date of building occupancy.XI. "Date of operating responsibility" shall mean the date on which the area school shall officially open and shall relieve the schools of the sending districts, serving the corresponding grades, of their obligation to operate.XII. "Meeting of a receiving district" may include any regular or special session of its legislative body in the case of a city with a dependent school department, or of its school board in the case of any separately incorporated school district within a city in which district meetings have been abolished.1963, 277:1. 1965, 112:1, 2; 311:1. 1967, 152:1. 1969, 104:7. 1986, 41:29, VIII, eff. April 3, 1988.