USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Quincy > Inaugural address of the mayor, with the annual report of the officers of the city of Quincy for the year 1915 > Part 17
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Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen:
I have the pleasure of submitting my seventh annual report as Superintendent of Schools, which is the forty-first in the series of such reports issued from this office and accompanies the sixty-fifth annual report of the School Committee.
Finances
The financial part of this report, which is given as an appendix while of little general interest of itself, is of considerable significance when used as a basis of comparison. When viewed in that way, entirely aside from the fact that it indicates most economical expendi- tures of our recources, it also goes to show either that this community is expending too little upon its schools or that other communities are expending too much. Undoubtedly the former is the case. If we consider further the table printed in the report of the School Com- mittee on a preceding page and if we go more widely into comparisons so as to include all the cities of the State, by making a comparative analysis of detailed expenditures, certain inferences appear which are of interest and worthy of record.
The overhead cost of administering the schools of this city, which includes all the expenses of the Committee and of the Superintendent's office, while it is very low, has been indicative of good business man- agement rather than need of more funds. The growth of the city's school business will compel the School Committee during the present year to remove its offices to more commodious quarters, which with an increase of clerical force will cause a slight rise in administrative expense.
Approaching the next and the largest item of the school budget, instruction, it would appear that the per capita cost for that purpose is lower by a wide margin than in other cities. This is due to two causes, a lower salary scale, and, more especially, a larger number of pupils per teacher. Both conditions are unfortunate; both are in process of being remedied. The School Committee has already raised the maximum salary of its elementary school teachers. The com- pletion of our two new school buildings, already authorized by the city, will enable us to make headway in caring for the other condition mentioned. Another consideration leading to the low per capita cost for instruction is the fact that Quincy is, as yet, doing little in the way of specialized or differentiated work. It is true we have some excellent prevocation classes but we are doing nothing for atypical children or for those whose physical condition calls for instruc- tion in surroundings different from those of the ordinary schoolroom. Neither is the city doing anything in the way of public kindergartens, though with our new school buildings it may soon be possible to make a beginning.
In the expenditures for books, stationery and other school supplies, our showing is not unsatisfactory nor niggardly. Our schoolrooms
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are well provided with the material for instruction without that expensive profusion that is apt to tend to waste. Possibly the criti- cism might be made with justness that books occasionally remain in use beyond that period when a close adherence to the rigid rules of hygiene would call for their disappearance. However, we are annually doing better and better in this respect and there would appear little cause for complaint.
As to our expenditures for the operation of the school plant, the per capita costs of this city rank very low for several reasons. In the first place, because of a fortunate building policy which Quincy has pursued for many years, it finds itself possessed of fewer but large: buildings than other cities of its size. There are cities with about the same school population as Quincy that have twice as many build- ings, many of them small, many constructed of wood, all of which causes a greatly increased expenditure for jani ors' salaries and fuel. Our city has no school building of less than eight rooms and will hardly build one as small as that again except it be planned for future enlargement. The fact that our buildings are of brick means lower cost both for operation and maintenance. The same condition, too, which operates in the reducing, of cost of instruction operates here, namely, the large average number of pupils per room.
The annual per capita cost for maintenance, which includes repairs, replacements and general upkeep, is very low, much lower than it would be were the School Committee in control of these costs. It would seem good business policy to keep the school buildings painted sufficiently often to resist the weather and to remove, at intervals, the interior marks of wear and tear. Now that the Boy's Industrial School is well established, it is able, if given the opportunity, to take care of all electrical, steampipe and carpentry repairs at the mere cost of materials.
Our expenditures for the promotion of health have been so low as to be practically negligible, inasmuch as the city, through its Board of Health, has limited the scope of this work to the employ- ment of school physicians at a compensation insufficient to pay for any constructive effort. The School Department will hereafter em- ploy a school nurse and should have several. An efficient and ade- quate system of medical inspection by school physicians properly compensated is urgently needed.
For the general miscellaneous expenses of administering the schools, this city is able to show a low cost because of careful manage- ment, since, aside from the payments for transportation, there are few expenditures which cannot be itemized under other headings.
In general, from the foregoing analysis it may be said that from a financial standpoint the greatest needs of the schools are additional schoolrooms, which will allow more careful and effective teaching, and for a greater expenditure by the School Department for the promotion of health. Can Quincy afford to neglect either need?
School Buildings and Accommodations
Every city which is undergoing a rapid increase in population and is changing to the "large city" type has a constant problem to provide the necessary school accommodations. As fast as one point of congestion is eased another presents itself, and there is the con- stant necessity of providing not only for present needs but so far as
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it may be forseen for future growth. The city of Quincy is not only growing at a rapid rate but the degree of rapidity is steadily increasing. All through the past year there have been cases of overcrowding in several parts of the city, notably at the north end and the Quincy Point sections.
In providing for these sections appropriations have been made for two sixteen-room buildings. As these buildings are to be located in sections which are central in each instance to two or three other districts which are rapidly increasing in population, the wisdom of constructing buildings of that size ought to be apparent. It is far better policy to build with an eye to the two or three years that are ahead than to construct buildings which just fit immediate needs and have no margin for the future; not only better, but cheaper. In both cases where buildings will be constructed the present year the plans have been prepared with an eye to later enlargement. Neither of these buildings will be ready for occupancy much before January 1, 1917, so that we may look forward next year to much overcrowding. Probably it will be necessary to use both the Coddington and the Wollaston assem ly halls for ordinary schoolroom purposes, which can be done very satisfactorily; the Washington School building will be occupied in every nook and corner and the Massachusetts Fields School may be obliged to send one of its upper grades to the Wol- laston School hall temporarily, in order to provide for the smaller children of the district. At the High School, where the enrollment the past year has been between 1000 and 1100, a considerable increase is expected in September and it will probably be necessary to use the assembly hall as a study room for about one hundred pupils. It may be possible later, with the opening of new school buildings, to relieve the situation by the application of the Junior High School plan, which will retain pupils in some courses in the buildings of their own districts until the sophomore year of High School work. This plan of school administration is making quite rapid gains, and has some marked merits as well as possible failings. It is the purpose of the Superintendent to investigate the proposition thoroughly during the present year for the purpose of finding out whether and to what extent it may be efficiently and economically adapted to our needs ..
Wards 3 and 4 are at the present time showing a marked gain in school population; the latter ward after a long period of decreasing population turning about sharply in the other direction. The new buildings which are being constructed this year can have no effect on these two wards, and as there is now but one unoccupied school- room among the school-houses of these wards, it is probable that their needs will come up very shortly after the problem has been solved for the rest of the city.
The purchase of a school lot at Squantum provides a central location for a building when the growth of the city in that section shall have reached a point where its construction shall be justified. The purchase of the lot at this time shows excellent planning. When it shall seem wise to construct a building, the same judgment would call for a building which should be just one unit of the large building which this section of the city will some time in the future demand. Just at present and contrary to expectation, the growth in school population in Squantum is at a standstill.
The opening of the addition to the Atherton Hough School came at a time when the conditions were becoming almost unbearable.
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While the needs of that part of the city are now amply met, its rapid growth makes it plain that in a comparatively short time more rooms will be needed.
Safe School Conditions
The fundamental consideration in school administration is the safety of school children, and that includes safety from any harm- ful influence that may affect them while in the public charge.
A distressing fire disaster this past year has caused a general and close scrutiny of schoolhouse conditions throughout the country with reference to fire hazards. This has been true of our own city, where every effort has been made both now and in the past to make conditions as safe as might possibly be.
None of our school buildings are fireproof; on the other hand none could in the slightest degree be called fire traps. In all cases means of egress are ample and unblocked; stairways are regularly and closely inspected to prevent the storage or accumulation of inflammable material beneath them; the janitors are required by the rules of the Committee to remain on the premises all the time and boiler rooms are well set off from the stairways.
I would suggest, however, that the proper authorities having charge of the repair and upkeep of our school buildings examine them with reference to the recommendations recently issued by the Metropolitan Fire Commissioner. For a comparatively small amount of money, the changes recommended might be made in all buildings where indicated and the city might have the feeling that there was nothing left undone which could contribute to the safety of the school children in our present buildings.
One practice concerning which there may be question is the com- mon and long standing one of treating the floors with dust layer to reduce the amount of dust in the schoolrooms. Unquestionably this renders floors more inflammable; on the other hand the condition of the air in the school building is greatly improved.
Fire drills are held in every building at least once each month and generally oftener. These are so conducted that crowding and haste may be eliminated and every detail is planned with this end in view.
It has been the practice in this city in conducting fire drills, not to pass through the coat rooms at time of fire drill nor to take the wraps as the children pass out. Objection has been raised to this, but it is worthy of note that the New York Fire Department's recom- mendations support the position of this department, that at times when the fire alarm is sounded pupils should leave by the most direct way, not passing through coat rooms or having their hands encumbered with their outer wraps. The Boston School Committee has recently taken the same stand. It is needless to say that fire drills are con- ducted only on days when the weather is suitable for the purpose.
In the new buildings which are to be constructed this year, the Committee has insisted that the heating apparatus be placed entirely outside the main building instead of in the school basement. I have a feeling that the future will see a large increase in the number of fireproof buildings as well as buildings of the one-story type. The latter building takes up much more room, of course, but it has an
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absolute safety and an economy of construction which has already commended it to several large cities.
Given safety from fire, the next problem is to secure good ventila- tion. Just at present the ventilation situation is in an unsatisfactory condition, not locally especially, but throughout the country. £
It is agreed that the ideal schoolroom should provide air as near as possi- ble like the conditions of the outdoors. It is also agreed that none of our present schoolhouses are meeting the need.
The difficulty seems to lie in the fact that wherever the air supply is ample in amount it is so superheated as to be devitalized and robbed of those properties which make for health. Furthermore, there is a large proportion of investigators who are firmly convinced that the plan of exhausting air from the schoolrooms at a point near the floor is fundamentally wrong.
It may be stated with some degree of assurance that, more and more, the schoolhouses of the future will take their fresh air direct from out- doors instead of through the basement. Certain experiments based upon this belief were investigated by the School Department, which hoped that they might be adapted to the buildings now in prospect. Although the State law apparently does not yet approve any but the stereotyped form of ventilation, it is worth noting that there is a rapid turning away from the old methods and that the State itself has taken up this better type of ventilation in the construction of some of its own buildings.
The good that might be accomplished for our school children through the agency of a school nurse was discussed in the report of last year with the announcement that one would be provided for the year 1915 through the generosity of the Quincy Women's Club.
The year's work of Miss Marion J. Jackson, who was appointed in this capacity, has amply borne out what was prophesied in the way of good to come from it and the School Committee has now taken over the future expense of this work. Just to illustrate the amount of good which has already been accomplished, practically all of which would otherwise have remained undone, the following extracts are quoted from the summary of the work of the year which Miss Jackson has compiled as her report.
Report of School Nurse from February 1, 1915, to December 31, 1915
6188 children examined for various causes.
1018 cases referred to the School Physician.
767 home visits made.
100 children taken to the Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston.
66 cases of corrected vision through the office of the School Nurse.
23 operations for tonsils and adenoids through the office of the School Nurse.
150 children taken to the dental infirmary.
48 visits made by district nurses for surgical dressings or visits that the School Nurse was unable to make.
8 children and two mothers taken to the T. B. Dispensary, Quincy. 11 children taken to the Boston Dispensary Skin Clinic.
11 children taken to Boston Dispensary Medical Clinic.
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The Associated Charities supplied glasses for two children, shoes for two children, one set of underclothes for two children, and summer outings for three children.
The Catholic Club supplied glasses for two children, shoes for two children, rubbers for four children and two prescriptions for medicine.
Kathryn Crane Club supplied one pair of glasses, one pair of shoes, and paid car fare to the dental clinic for needy children.
St. Mary's Guild supplied a pair of glasses for one child.
Overseers of the Poor supplied a pair of glasses for one child.
Obtained services of the City Physician for four children and hospital treatment for one child. One Quincy dentist gave free treat- ment for three children needing immediate dental attention.
With the assistance and co-operation of the Associated Charities, a family of four children, being brought up under bad home conditions, were placed in the care of the State.
Four hundred and forty-four notices were sent to parents of chil- dren with defective teeth.
Tooth brushes and powder are being supplied to the children in the schools at actual cost.
Three volunteers assisted during the summer in taking ten chil- dren once a week in to the Forsyth Dental Infirmary, although no provision was made for any summer work.
Since October 1, one volunteer has been assisting in taking the children to the Dental Infirmary.
Names of thirty-four families were given to different charitable agencies for Christmas dinners and toys for children. Thirty-one families were taken care of from this list.
The volume of work such as the foregoing statements indicate is surprising in its amount and comprehensiveness and when it is considered that without the office of a school nurse all this work would have remained undone, it puts to silence at once any who might be so in considerate as to question the propriety of this work as a function of the School Department. The establishment of this work is a mon- u ment to which the Quincy Women's Club may well point with pride as one worthy of the sacrifice and effort which it cost.
Evening Schools
We are making steady progress in developing our system of evening instruction. The European war is restricting the number of immi- grants has reduced very materially the number of illiterate minors now in the city for whom evening school instruction is compulsory. This has, of course, decreased for the present winter the attendance at the schools for non-English-speaking people. On the other hand, the number of illiterates who are now in attendance because of a desire for a knowledge of our language and our citizenship is steadily on the increase. The School Department has opened this winter a new school in the Washington building attended wholly by Syrians, and a teacher has also been supplied for an earnest group, meeting in the Syrian-American Club Room. Both these schools were opened in answer to petitions from the men themselves, and a petition from the Willard Evening School has led to the extension of term at that
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school from forty to sixty nights. There are probably more seekers for citizenship among evening school pupils than at any other time in the history of the city, and all these schools might well be called Citizenship Schools.
At the High School, as usual, elementary commercial classes, civil ser- vice classes, and drawing classes have been maintained with an attend- ance larger than in any previous year and with more teachers employed. The time is not far distant when by law the city will be obliged to maintain a regularly organized evening high school. This school will naturally grow out of the classes already organized. So far, there has been a remarkably small amount of inquiry for work of that nature. If the demand, which certainly must exist, could evidence itself to the School Department, it would be possible to develop our present school gradually to meet that demand. Most of the elementary com- mercial work and civil service preparation which is now given is not work of a high school grade nor is it sought for by persons who expect to make it a function immediately in their life work as in the case of the industrial evening classes. For that reason it falls farther below the level toward which we aspire than our other evening school work.
The drawing classes, on the other hand, are very successful and effective, their membership being made up of persons who know what their needs are and who take the direct path to satisfy them. A large part of the membership would join trade classes if there were sufficient pupils to warrant a class in their particular trades. So far as possible the effort is made to adopt the instruction to each individual pupil his own occupation.
High School
The High School has had another year of efficiency and growth. The statistical tables on later pages of this report show how rapidly it is increasing in numbers. It has already passed beyond the seating capacity of its classrooms and its assembly hall has been called into use for study purposes. The same thing will be done next year to an increased extent. The housing problem is the greatest one before the school at the present time. It is possible to handle the situation in two ways: either by extending the hours during which the building is in use to include the afternoon hours, or by an application of the Junior High School plan in such a way as to retain in the home neigh- borhood freshman classes or portions of them. The latter plan pre- supposes plenty of available classrooms in the other schools, which at present at least are not available.
Aside from the fact that this plan would retain inany of the first year pupils in their home districts until the second high school year, it offers opportunity for early differentiation of work which should prove of considerable value.
To the plan which would open the school building throughout the day for regular school work there can be but little serious objection. In fact, the sudden and remarkable growth of our New England high schools during the past decade has brought many communities to the point where they are now doing just this thing. At any rate, the administrative difficulties of our High School do not need to be con- sidered critical for two or three years at least. That the school is doing very efficient work on all sides there can now be but little ques- tion. The college preparatory courses are sound and successful, the
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commercial courses are in a position to supply excellently trained clerical assistants and the other departments are all live and progressive With the opening of the Home-Making School in September, it may be advisable to reduce to a considerable degree the amount of work along this line that the High School now offers. The two schools should not parallel each other. The same may be said of the manual training courses offered to boys, and the Industrial School. That will be a matter for future observation and adjustment.
It may not be generally known that the Quincy High School is being conducted with a smaller corps of teachers than most high schools of its size or even smaller. It is essential that we should increase gradually the number of teachers so that the recitation groups may be made smaller in all departments, especially the freshman classes where there is the greatest need of individual attention.
In this connection should be mentioned a recent ruling of the State Board of Education, declining after the present year to grant the certificate privilege for entrance to its Normal Schools on the same terms as heretofore, namely, the possession of the same privilege from the College Certificate Board but imposing new and arbitrary condi- tions over and above those required by the colleges. These conditions, while they do not add to the amount of work or the excellence of work done by the candidate for admission to Normal School, make certain restrictions as to size of classes and number of pupils instructed by one teacher which may cause a material addition to the number of teachers employed. If the possession of this certificate privilege is considered of any value to the school it will be necessary to meet these demands.
The report of the Head Master, Mr. Collins, is appended herewith. MR. A. L. BARBOUR,
Superintendent of Schools:
I have the honour to submit herewith my fourth annual report as Head Master of the High School.
The membership of the school has shown a considerable increase during the past year and this, of course, has seriously affected the overcrowded condition which previously existed. It will be necessary another year to resort to some strenuous measures, such as double sessions or making the assembly hall into classrooms, to accommodate the pupils who will be attending the school. Below is given a com- parative statement of present membership with that of previous years.
1915
1914
1913
Whole number enrolled,
1055
987
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