USA > Indiana > Lake County > East Chicago > East Chicago, A Historical Description (1947) > Part 6
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There are several women's groups which have earned a place in.this record. Probably the first of these was the Tuesday Reading Club which was mentioned in connection with the founding of the public library, This club affiliated with the Indiana Federation of Women's Clubs about 1908, the first local organization to do so. In 1911 it combined with the newer Music Club to form the East Chicago Women's Club, Later a Woman's Club was formed in Indiana Harbor, More re- centry Junior Woman's Clubs have been organized in the two larger sections of the city, Andther organization, the Twin City Federation of: Colored Woman's Clubs, coordinates the activities of four groups. The oldest of the four, . the Noman's: Improvement Club, was organized in 1921. It gave Its fifteenth one-hundred dollar. scholarship to a member of the '46 graduating class. The Calumet Art and Welfare Club, formed in 1923, : is chiefly: engaged in welfare. altho it gave scholarship in 1948. While: the names of the other two, Adies Excelsior Art Club and Progressive Art and Literary lub; suggest. their major.interests, ' they, too, ' contribute
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scholarships. Another group of women is the Girl Reserve Council which was organized to secure from the Y. W. C. A. a charter for the Roosevelt Girl Reserves, The Council took the lead in planning "teen-age" parties for East Chicago youth.The Woman's Welfare League, composed of school people'and welfare workers, has been meeting monthly since 1945 for luncheons after which ways of improving cooperation between the different agencies which are interested in the welfare of youth are discussed,
The: final woman's group to be included in this account ris( the League of Women . Voters which was organized in the autumn of 1938 when a group of woman, who felt that good citizens had obligations as well as rights in a democracy, met to study the ways in which they might participate more effectively and at the same time urge all citizens: to take an active interest in government. Affiliation with the League of Women Voters of the United States, with headquar- ters in Washington, D. C. , followed.
The League supports no political party, and neither en- dorses' nor opposes a candidate for public office, but does have' a platform which represents conclusions and principles reached as a whole in fields to which it has given sustained attention. Members are urged to support the political party of their choice. In general, the League of Women Voters works for the following: equal educational and employment opportunities for all people; ; the protection of all citizens in their right/to vote; a government which is responsive to (the will of the people; mutual; responsibility of government, (business, agriculture and labor for solving economic prob- lems in the public interest; and the cooperative method of solving international problems.
Individual Leagues also have programs for their local communities. In East Chicago): the League performs a service to the public at election time by compiling information on the candidates' 'qualifications for office. The information
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is purely factual, and the voter may draw his own conclu- sions about the candidates. The League is working for the Merit System of employing city personnel, and for the City Manager: form of government. For the past two years the League of Women Voters has been comparing costs and services received in East Chicago with those of Kalamazoo, Michigan, a model city in many respects, and with nearly equal popula- tion and tax funds. A report of the findings will be pub- lished early: in 1947. and should be of great interest to the citizens of East Chicago.
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Chapter VIII
THE SCHOOLS OF EAST CHICAGO
In a printed report to the patrons of the East Chicago public schools in 1925, Mr. Edwin No Canine, who was leaving after twenty-one years of service as principal and .as superintendent, said: -
Growth has been rapid and fairly uniform School officials have found: it' a difficult matter, with available funds, to provide buildings fast enough to accommodate the increasing numbers.
This statement summarizes the physical aspect of the history of the schools of East Chicago up to the decade of 1980 to 1940 .when the enrollment was. greatest. The peak was reached in 1930 when the combined public- ' and parochial-school ienrollment :was 13, 235. In that year the largest classes were! inithe elementary schools, Nine years later ; these pupils had reached the senior high schools which were then at:their largest. |Table Vicontains : enrollment figures at five-year intervals and illustrates! this variation.
The first school to be identified with East Chicago : was built) ati the corner of 145th Street and Northcote Avente in 1888 by a land company, apparently the Standard Steel and Iren Company. In 1800 the town, not being able to support the' school, "turned the two+room building over. to the tom- ship. As the town was growing. rapidly, the township tinsted, Mr. | Merrill, . started: the : construction: of a'font- room: South: Side School: in 1891. | In: the | meantime ! additional classes | were held| first: in: the: old' Tod Opera House and later in| a| Methodist: church' at 148 thi and Magoun. : Some: time after the new building was occupied: in 1892| the old; building was |moved to!the city hall site where it was: used as a city building. Stillilater, after: the construction of: the city .hall, : the! former : school was moved to: the south aide and
converted into a residence. Eventually it became necessary to double the size of the South Side building at which time the name was changed to Mckinley. This building was burned in 1905.
Table V
SEPTEMBER ENROLLMENT BY GRADE LEVELS AT FIVE-YEAR INTERVALS, EAST CHICAGO SCHOOLS
Year
Public Schools
Kgn.
Elem. **
Junior **
Senior **
Total
Parochial Schools
1900
846
56
902
***
1910
247
1811
.97
1172
***
19 15
274
2574
365
245
3458
1275
1925
539
5330
1652
466
7977
3635
1935
531
4630
2482
2027
9670
2855
1945
608
3518
1658
1555
7355
2305
-
5066
2381- @
1930
631
4995
2383
1198
9083
3999
1940
678
3950
2260
2249
9137
2288
1905
*
1075
118
2175
***
-1920
456
3669
:565.
376
*-- Enrollment figures are not available for 1905 altho the kindergarten was established in 1901. **-- Following the type of organization, enrollment figures for various years differ as follows: - 1900-19.13 Elementary 1-8, High School 9-12 1914-1924 Elementary 1-6, J. H. S. 7-83 S. H. S. 9-12 1925- Elementary 1-6; J. H. S. 7-9, S. H. S. 10-12 ***-- No report.
In 1896, the expanding village having been incorpo- rated, the South Side School was taken over from the town- ship by the new Board of Education as was a one-room school at Berry Lake, north of what is now Marktown. The Board organized a high school in 1898 housing it in the Tod Opera House. A building for it, first called the North Side School, and later the Harrison School, was completed and occupied in February, 1900. Other schools were built as new settlements were made: the Steiglitz school at the northwest corner of the city in a section now part of Whiting (1901) and a two room Wallace School at Melville and 148th Street (1902) .When the Indiana Harbor section began with the
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establishment of the Inland Steel Company, a building was rented on Watling Street and a school opened in 1902. By 1903 the Lincoln School had been completed and other schools followed the Eugene Field School containing four rooms on Commonwealth (1900), and the Washington Elementary School (1908).
As the city continued to grow, additions were made to the existing buildings and new buildings were built. Most of this information is summarized in Table VI but two expla- nations are necessary. The original Field School was sold to the New York Central Railroad Company in 1908. The Field School shown in the table is on a new site: Garfield School is located across the street from the site of the Lew Wallace School, mentioned in the preceding paragraph.
As the table shows, by 1944 the average age of the school buildings in East Chicago was between 20 and 25 years. Repairs had been limited by the depression of the thirties and by World War II. Accordingly, the Board of Trustees authorized a building and site survey by the committee on Field Services of the Department of Education, University of Chicago. The report, published in 1945, proposed a "long-term program of plant development. " It contains a complete critical description of school buildings at that time.
Parallel with the development of the public schools came the establishment of parochial schools. Naturally, the first wors started in the East Chicago section; St. Stanis- 'laus in 1899 (in a remodeled private home) and St. Mary in 1901. In Indiana Harbor the first were St. Patrick in 1903 and St. John Cantius in 1905Eight were in operation by July, 1925, and two more, St. Francis and St. Michael, were started that September. The St. Michael school ceased operating after a few years and most of the children from that parish now (1946) attend the Mckinley public school making a total of twelve church schools in the city includ
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ing Roman Catholic St. Jude for Negroes, and Lutheran St. Paul.
Table VI
DATA ON PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDINGS
School
Date of Erection
Rooms
Cost*
Pupils#
Columbus
Original, 1930
6
128,410
180
Field
Original, 1905
8
314
Franklin
Original, 1928
20
196,051
504
Garfield
Original, 1912
26
54,484
634
Ist addition, 1914
13,958
2nd addition, 1919
75,575
Harrison
Original, 1898
15
19, 740
383
Remodeled, 1923
24,972
Addition, 1930
123, 350
Lincoln
Original, 1903
23
16, 795
664
Mark
Original, 1921
2
7,446
43
Mckinley
Original, 1891
18
46,893
485
Restored, 1905
20,553
1st addition, 1910
59,645
Riley
Original, 1912
29
54,944
836
Addition, 1913
44,361
Roosevelt
Original, 1924:
47
346,988
1037
1st addition, 1929
212, 881
Athletic Field, 1929
35,842
Aud, & Gym. , 1936
443,774
Washington Elementary, 1908
23
64, 342
:545
East Half (H. S ), 1918
66
222, 153
1730
West Half, 1920
254,778
Ist shop, 1820
: 31, 251
Aud, & Gyms 1924
448,830
Mew wing & remodeled, 1940
546,364
*-- Because of higher prices today, the replacement value of the older building would be higher than the original cost. # Enrollment in September, 1845.
Examination of the enrollment in parochial schools in Table V shows that it has followed the same trend of growth and decline as the enrollment of the public schools except that the decline has been proportionately greater. The Building and Site Report suggests that a declining birth- rates especially among the relatively numerous Polish-
9:01
209,920
Addition & remodeled in 1923
2nd addition, 1914
--
New Building, 1927
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Americans is a major factor in the decrease. Year-by-year comparison of the enrollment in parochial schools suggests that in depression years many families were forced to shift their children from the parochial schools to the public" schools. War-time prosperity may be one explanation of the increase in 1945 over 1940 of church-school attendancesshown in Table: V.
Just as its physical properties were expanded to keep pace with the growth of the community, the services offered by: the school system were broadened when new needs arose. Mention has already been made of the organization of a high school in 1898 and of a kindergarten in 1901. Manual train- ing, also started in 1901, was the forerunner of the large industrial-arts classes of today. Special classes were organized in 1908 for "children who must learn the English language, for colored children who have had very little Schooling, and for those unable to work efficiently in the :regular classes. " The needs of adults also were recognized in 1908 with the inauguration of night school. In 1909 the first summer-school was operated "to help backward children to strengthen work and to enable strong children to make additional credits. " The following year the first domestic science classes were started. Few school systems in the nation in 1910 were offering a greater variety of services to their communities.
Probably the outstanding educational change in East Chicago during the decade from 1910 to 1920 was the organi- zation of junior high schools in 1914. A six-year junior- senior high school was located at the Washington School' in Indiana Harbor, a three-year junior high school was added to Mckinley School, and some junior-high-school work was offered at Garfield School. In 1915 the Board adopted a sumi+departmentalized system whereby pupils in intermediate classes met with one teacher for half of the day and with / speciali teachers for the remainder of the day. Later in the · decade, plans were worked out which enabled pupils to com-
'plete: one year of junior-college work intthe!local high school. These changes in organization like the addition of new services during the previous decade were! for the purpose of: improving the quality ofeducation in: Basti Chicago.
fHetMar attempts atiimprovements were made during the ich's. In 1900washop building was added to Washington Highschool, |vocational:classes Were: organized, ! andithe following year Mr. O. H. Day was appointed director of the new: department. Two new: departments: Visual Education directed: by R. W. |Ballardo and Teststand Measurements directed: by A. C. Senour, | were established: in 1922. Int that :or: the following year:Mr. Cecil ! Austin, | then ' at' Mckinley School, organized one of the: first'scheolipatrolsiin: the Chicago area altho :a city-wide patrol.system was:not organized until 1930. In 1924 Mr. : Ballard' was: transferred from: the Visual Education department: to the newly organized Department of Community Recreation: This: activity: was afterwards taken over by: the Park Board. A new high school for: the west side of town, Roosevelt, was begun in 1924 and used: for Junior high school| classes: in 1925, | the first class graduating in 1929. : High-school;credit : was granted:for evening+school (work for: the: first: time: in 1925. Dr. Bugh A. Vore: was employed in 1926 as full+time physician, to replace the two part-time physicians who had been serving for several years previously. The appointment in January, 1997,
of Mildred Curtis instituted:visiting+teacher service;to help: mal adjusted youth. Psychiatriciservice wasjestab lished in / Lichia.br. Levy: serving as part-time psychi atrist., Tho vongi onati depat thant ( wie expanded in zus7 by
of apprentice. the firstigroup|starting! training! in Jamgary of 1988 Daring. the| last | part: efi this! decade while' Mr. J. W. Asbury vos superintendent, | Mt. | Senour has made: général supervisor and, al kindergarten-primary superviser was ! added to the central office staff.
1920,camelfrom Gary!where he had been assistant ! superin-
+ 84
tendent. Two ideas characteristic of the Gary schools were adopted. in East Chicago the following year. First, the · semi-departmentalization in the intermediate, grades, ; which had been adopted.in 1915, was superseded by complete departmentalization: so that most teachers taught just one or . two . subjects and pupils had. a different teacher . every period. This type of organization enabled the schools to accommodate the peak enrollment of that period. Accompany- ing. this change was the addition to the central staff of two new full-time supervisors, Miss Geraldine A. Kauffman for mathematics and actance And Mr. R. R. Myer's for social science and commercial. Also, the amount of time for supervision was increased for other department heads who had been teaching most, or all, of their day. Figure 1 shows in diagramatic form the relationships existing in the school system in 1946. The Board of Trustees, acting on the advise of. those officers directly responsible' to them, fix general policys The Superintendent, assisted by a council of principals and supervisors and by special committees of other employees, formulates educational policy and carries out the policies adopted by the Board.
'Two new services were added in 1930: speech-correction, taught by Miss Doris Lampe; and sight-saving, taught by Miss Estelle Hebert. In 1936 the plan of rental of texts instead of purchase, which had been in operation for several years at Riley School, was adopted in modified form for the other elementary schools. During the depression of the 19 90° 82 . classes were operated after school hours in the vocational shops to re-train people who were on relief so they would be employable. Two teachers, Mrs. Nell Woodbury and Miss Martha Ranich, were appointed in 1941 to teach pupils who were unable to attend school because of illness or disabling handicaps. Indiana University Extension, which MM. . Hugh: W. Norman was sent here to direct. in 1932, hadiits 'inception' in 1929. when Mr. Bruce B. Bell, Director of Adult Education, : organized evening-school classes for college credit using instructors: from the extension center in Gary.
Supv. B & G
Principals
Head
Maintenance
Council
Bus. Mgr.
Clerks; Adm
Fin. Sec.
Assto Principais
& Gen. Counselors
Janitors &
Janitresses
Trustees
Superintendent
Voters
Tax Boards
Architect (Part-time)
Special Tchrs ;Physician, Psychiatrist and Attend- ance Officers
Departmental
Chairmen
Attorney (Part-time)
Super/130rs & Coordinators
Teachers and Nurses
Day, Apprentice, and Adult Schools
State Dept. of Edu.
Clerks, Bldg
Pupils
Figure 1. Organization of East Chicago Public Schools in 1946.
85
Custodian
88
By 1939, the Extension was no firmly established that a beautiful ton-classroom, Indiana limestone building was erected in Ted Park.
East Chicago schools, like all schools, perform numer- ous community perrices many of which are hardly educational Teachers and pupils appear on programs for service organize tions and.tthar. noimunity groups. The Junior Red Cross has A long. record of collecting money and clothes, or of making thingn fot dthern. During World War I many war gardens were grown'under the direction of Hias Carrie Gosch, then principal at Garfield School Pupils were released from classes to work on the truck farms along Ridge Road to in- crease the food supply during World War II. On funda provided by the Federal Government, nursery schools and extended-school service mere operated from 1943 to 1945 to care for the children of mothers who were working in war industries When the Office of Civilian Defense began to prepare for possible bombingiraids, members of the school staff were officers in the organization and instructors in the classes. Stamp and bond sales were sponsored in the schools during both wars, $107, 647:85 being collected during the school year .1944-45: Beginning in July of 1941; . classes to train people to work din war plants were operated on federal funds from the time schools were dismissed in the afternoon until they reconvened the next morning Repeated drives to collect scrap paper were held. Unquestionably, this listing has omitted many community services which have been performed by: the schools, But enough have been named to illustrate that East Chicago Schools have extendedi far · beyond the three R' s.
The previous statement raises the question: How well have' the three Ris been taught? How well are; the schools porforming: their primary: function, education? 'Writing'in 1925, Superintendent Canine said:
Public schools are operated to provide an opportunity for all children to receive an
1
88
e ducation. The real measure of the success of their work is the contribution of the boys and girls later, as men and women, to the advancement of society,
On this basis the East Chicago schools would be judged good for their graduates have achieved prominence in every field: authors, actors, musicians, singers, scientists (one on the atomic bomb staff), athletes and coaches, legislators, infantrymen and flyers, industrialists, labor leaders, teachers, physicians, lawyers. Of course, only a few have won fame, but a large part of the immense productivity of East Chicago industries is the result of training received in the local schools.
Since the establishment of a Department of Tests and Measurements' in 1922, : there have been constant checks on the achievements of pupils in local schools .. The same report by Mr. Canine included a report on a survey of arithmetic achievement as children enter 7B which said, "In September, 1924, the work was nearly 95 per cent standard. " A report of an administration of arithmetic tests to a group of pupils entering 7A in February, 1945, showed them slightly above standard. A report on the administration of the iowa Silent Reading Fest to sixth- and tenth-grade pupils in 1943 shows that for the sixth grade the "median standard scores made by our pupils are almost exactly equal to the national norms" while the tenth-grade averages were slightly belo state norms. These reports could be duplicated for mans school subjects. In general, when ability and background for the remainder. The following . figures : show ! where : this are taken into consideration, the East Chicago pupils seet money: comes from: to do as well on standard tests as pupils in other local ities.
0389
Of the marks made by. 145.graduates in 36 institutions, '86 per cent were C (average) or above. Assistant Superintend+ ent Senour in 1944investigated; the scores, on the English screening test: used at Indiana and Purdue Universities of 75 graduates of East Chicago high schools from 1939 to 1941. He found their average score almost identical to the average score of all freshmen. The average. score of 27 of these students on a mathematics . screening. test . at Purdue was definitely higher than. the average score of alli entrants. "A tabulation of 312 marks received from five, colleges approxi- mately fifty graduates ('41. to '44) showed 68 per cent C.er above: Practically all of these marks were for the first semester of the freshman year, the semester when pupils are trying to adjust themselves to a new situation, so it seems evident these pupils had been well prepared for college.
Operating a school system for 7, 355 pupils with the special services which have just been enumerated requires money, $1,366, 200 for 1946. Almost two-thirds of this total or $876,277 was to pay the 264 classroom teachers whose salaries for the ten months they worked ranged from $2, 900 for beginning teachers to $4,000 for experienced teachers with extra responsibilities. Ho'ard members, administrators, clerks, and special teachers, 82 persons in all, were to receive $171.507 or one-eighth of the total, while 65 building:service employeesikererto be paid $110/484 |Fhel, supplies, repairs, etc), wer@| estimatedi toicosti$169;458, ' and $38; 512| foriinterest | and! other: fixed! chargés | accounted
Local Taxes State Funds Miscellaneous
19.23-24. $601,711 63, 642 10, 116
1946 (Esta) $1,000,000 354,900 11: 300
| A different sort of an evaluation of the effectiveness of schools: is' the achievement in college of the graduates o the high schools. The most detailed study of this natusit is interesting to note that in 1933 less than one-tenth for the East Chicago schools was made by former Superintendof the total was furnished by the state compared with more ent R. W. Feik when he was principal of Washington Schoolthan one-fourth in 1946. The local taxes are chiefly prop-
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erty: taxes. The schools' receive less than one-third of ' the local property tax, $1.04 of each $3.14 for 1940.
The relatively high salaries paid to teachers by the School City of East Chicago enables it to secure well- trained teachers, In 1944 a survey of the education i received by 290 Rast Chicago teachers and other licensed employees showed that 80, or 30 per cent, had five or more years of college training and 75 per cent were college graduates. In addition, this statement, made by a teacher's publication. in 1934, would be true for any normal school year:
Last summer East Chicago teachers trav- elled from Canada to Mexico City, through England and across Europe, and around the globe. This winter they are refreshed, and inspired and teeming with interesting information for the children and people of this community.
The schools of East Chicago are being operated by competent people who are endeavoring to prepare children in every way (possible to meet 'the ever-changing problems of modern life ' in an industrial metropolitan suburb.
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IN
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Chapter IX
GOVERNMENT OF EAST CHICAGO
People seldom live close to one another for very long without setting up some form of government. The early set- tlers of East Chicago were no exception to this rule. 0n April 9, 1889, less than two years after the Standard Steel and Iron Company had plotted the first subdivision, the Board of Commissioners of Lake County declared that East Chicago was duly and legally incorporated as a town, The town limits extended from the southwest corner of the pres- ent city to Kennedy on the east and Broadway on the north
Incorporated towns are governed by a body of men known as trustees. As it was necessary to hold an election before the town could be incorporated, an election had been held on March 30 at which time three trustees, John M. Brennell, Redmond D. Walsh, and Martin E. E. Lehmann, were elected. Other first officials were: A. F. Knotts and Wilbur Reading, Town Attorneys; William II. Penman, Town Treasurer; James J. Reynolds, Civil Engineer; Frederick J. Fife, Town Clerk; John W. Frankhouser, Fire Marshal; and Neill Patterson, Marshal. The number of trustees was increased to five in 1890, and William Byrnes was appointed policeman to assist the marshalo
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