School

An institution of learning of a lower grade than a college or a university. A place of primary instruction. Webster, Diet. As used in the American reports, the term generally refers to the common or public schools existing under the laws of each state and maintained at the expense of the ' public. Public school is synonymous with common school; but the term is not limited to a school of the lowest grade; it includes all schools from those lower than grammar schools to high schools, but not one founded by a charitable bequest which vests the order and superintendence of it in a board of trustees; Jenkins v. Andover, 103 Mass. 97. A common school is one which is common to children of proper age and capacity, free and under the control of the qualified voters of the district.

School Dist. No. 20, Spokane Co., v. Bryan, 51 Wash. 498, 99 Pac. 28, 20