Whenever any of the school buildings and the furnishings thereof in any school district have been or shall have been partially or totally destroyed by fire or other casualty, the insurance moneys received by the board of education by reason thereof, whether payable from a municipal insurance fund or otherwise, may be used by the board for the repair, reconstruction, or rebuilding of the building and the purchase and repair of the furnishings and contents thereof, but the board shall not use the money for the erection of a building on a site other than that occupied by the building destroyed without the authority of the appropriating power. The board of education shall not enter into a contract for the construction of a building to cost more than the amount of insurance moneys received until the additional amount required shall have been authorized for expenditure for such purpose and regularly appropriated.

L.1967, c.271.