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 1929 > Part 25
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For Women MRS. FRANK C. RYDER, MRS. ROBERT E. FOY, MRS. GEORGE W. ABELE
*Deceased.
379
REPORT OF SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
OFFICE STAFF
Secretary MARION NILSEN, 33 Nilsen Avenue, Quincy
Bookkeeper HELEN M. CANTY 5 Pierce Street, North Quincy
Clerks ANNIE M. OHMAN, 71 Bennington Street, Quincy
THERESA V. KROESSER, 18 Thornton Street, Wollaston
Office: School Committee Rooms, Senior High School Building, Coddington Street.
Office Hours: 8 A. M. to 12 M. and 1.30 to 5 P. M .; Saturday, 8 A. M. to 12 M.
Supervisor of Attendance CHARLES H. JOHNSON, 24 Upland Road, Quincy Office: School Committee Rooms
Office Hours: 8 to 9.30 A. M., 1.30 to 2 P. M., and 4 to 5 P. M., Saturday, 8 to 9.30 A. M. and 11.30 A. M. to 12 M.
380
CITY OF QUINCY
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE
To the Citizens of Quincy :
The School Committee submits, herewith, its annual report for the year 1929.
Your Committee is very glad to be able to report that the short- age of school accommodations, with which Quincy has been faced for several years, is now very largely relieved. The completion of two 10-room grade buildings-one in the Merrymount section and the other in the Adams Shore section-has taken care of the needs of the school children in those localities not only for the present but, we hope, for several years to come.
The additions now being made to the Montclair School and the Atherton Hough School, which we are glad to state are nearly completed, will relieve the congestion in the parts of our city served by those two schools and when these are completed and some re-arrangement of pupils is put in force, there will be very few pupils in portable buildings.
Your Committee has recently requested the City Council to build an addition to the North Junior High School to relieve the over- crowded condition of that school and also to care for some of the students of Senior High School grade in the northerly section of the city, thus relieving the crowded condition in our present Senior High School.
We have also asked the City Council to appropriate money for an addition to the Gridley Bryant School, which is at present over- crowded. When that addition, which we expect the Council will grant, is completed, we hope that every one of the pupils will be housed in permanent buildings.
Looking forward to the future needs of other sections of the city, we feel that land should be taken for school purposes in the Germantown section; also on or near Furnace Brook Parkway between Adams street and Newport avenue, as these sections will undoubtedly be calling for school buildings before many years and suitable lots are now available at reasonable prices. The City Council has been requested to purchase these lots. We have also requested our Mayor to hold the so-called playground on Birch street in the North Quincy section for future school use.
Quite an extensive repair program was carried on during the last summer vacation. We feel that the buildings, as a whole, are in excellent condition.
The Committee is now considering future extension of the school system. One of the first steps should be an addition to the Trade School, which is at present housed in the rear of the Senior High School building.
During the present year we have placed considerable stress on physical education and endeavored to intensify the physical educa- tion program by co-ordinating it with mass athletics for the entire Junior and Senior High schools.
On August 30 the Committee employed a graduate student of Harvard University, Mr. Ernest A. Zelliot, as co-ordinate worker in the Commercial Department a half year. As his work is near- ing completion, the Committee feels justified in the selection of Mr. Zelliot. A great deal of specific and definite information has been
381
REPORT OF SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
given to the Superintendent for the future benefit of the school. His work began in September and will be completed January 31, at which time a complete report will be given to the School Commit- tee.
The Committee is gratified that there have been comparatively few changes in the personnel of the teaching staff during the year, and we are glad to be able to say that we have a very good per- centage of Quincy people now in our teaching force.
The Committee regrets to record the death of one of our teach- ers, Miss Ethel Mckeown, who passed away January 21, 1929, after service of about one year.
We note with much appreciation that, through the generosity of one of our citizens, Mr. Henry M. Faxon, tennis courts have been added to the Faxon Field, directly opposite the High School. This has been a very great advantage and benefit to the students of the schools, as well as to many of our citizens. The football grounds on Faxon Field have also been enlarged and are being used to a great extent by our soccer and football teams.
The foregoing report was prepared by a special committee of Col. Warren E. Sweetser and Sturgis H. Hunt and was adopted as the annual report of the Committee for the year 1929.
382
CITY OF QUINCY
IN MEMORIAM
ETHEL MCKEOWN Died January 21, 1929
Teacher in the South Junior High School 1927-1929
383
REPORT OF SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS
To the School Committee of Quincy:
In accordance with the established custom, I submit herewith the annual report of the Quincy Public Schools for the year 1929.
There is a wealth of information in the different reports and the statistical tabulations submitted. A careful review of these reports and an examination of their contents, together with the statistical tabulations here submitted, should serve to increase our interest in the school system.
In order to relieve the Principals in the Junior and Senior High Schools from many of the details of routine office work and permit them to be of larger service to the school system, five clerks were elected by the School Committee-one assigned to each of the Junior High Schools and one to the Senior High School.
There was a change in the hours of the Superintendent's office. It is now open from 8.00 A. M. to 5.00 P. M. continuously. The change has supplied a long-felt need because there are five schools, with an enrolment of five thousand children, open during the noon hour-four Junior High Schools and one Senior High School. With the change of hours, the teachers and principals are able to get in touch with the central office during the noon hour whenever it is necessary. Heretofore it has been impossible. The new plan has been very satisfactory.
On April 30, 1929, the Superintendent brought to the attention of the School Committee and of all the schools in the district the new ruling by the State Department to increase in years the length of the courses in the various Massachusetts Normal Schools. It reads as follows:
"Beginning in September, 1929, admission to the two- year course in the State Normal Schools at Bridgewater, Salem and Worcester will be discontinued. Hereafter the minimum course in the above schools will be three years in length, except for students who have already begun the shorter courses. The two-year course will be continued for the present in the State Normal Schools at Fitchburg, Framingham, Hyannis and North Adams."
New School Buildings
Two modern elementary schools were dedicated during the year -the Merrymount School, on Wednesday evening, October 9, and the Adams Shore School, on Wednesday evening, October 16. These schools are identical in structure-ten classrooms, a beautiful li- brary room, a well-equipped teachers' room, principal's office, stor- age rooms and spacious rooms on the ground floor. The two large rooms on the second floor have a folding partition that the rooms may be thrown together and used for assembly purposes. This as- sembly room may be used for various activities in the school itself and for social center purposes outside of the school life, such as Improvement Associations and Parent-Teacher Associations. These buildings are so built that they may, at any future time, be con- verted into a junior high school.
384
CITY OF QUINCY
An unusual interest was shown at the dedication of both these buildings. There were present that evening His Honor, Mayor Thomas J. McGrath, and his staff, the City Council, the School Committee, the Principal of the school, and the parents and teach- ers. A social hour, prepared and given by the parents of the re- spective school districts, was enjoyed after the dedicatory program. It showed a splendid community spirit, all interested in the same objectives-the best interest of the child.
The opening of these two schools has made it possible to trans- fer a great many pupils who were housed in the Coddington School building and those who were housed in the three portable school rooms at Adams Shore. The enrolment of these two schools at the present time is: Merrymount, 194, and Adams Shore, 258. Ap- proximately 300 pupils were transferred from the Coddington School to the Merrymount and Adams Shore Schools. This trans- fer permitted a change in the High School classroom program pro- cedure. The High School, at the present time, is using the entire auditorium of the Coddington School and four of the regular class- rooms.
During the past three years the School Committee has steadily gone forward with a splendid building program. While much has been done, much remains to be done. During the last three years the city has spent, in buildings and equipment, $2,294,714.39. Dur- ing this period the North Junior High School, the South Junior High School, the Quincy Point Junior High School, the Merry- mount Elementary School and the Adams Shore Elementary School have been dedicated. We anticipate that the new unit at the Atherton Hough School and the Montclair School will be dedi- cated during the month of February.
The School Committee has recommended an addition of four rooms to the Gridley Bryant School and the remodeling of two rooms on the first floor for an assembly room, and also the com- pletion of the east wing of the North Junior High School as was originally intended by the former School Committee. If it is pos- sible to complete the addition recommended to the Gridley Bryant Elementary School and the addition to the North Junior High school during the year 1930, Quincy shall find itself in an enviable position relative to school accommodations.
Quincy has made tremendous strides in her building program. When the additions are completed and proper adjustments as to transfer of pupils are made, it is hoped that the half-day sessions and portable schools will be eliminated.
The Health Program Pursued During the Year
PHYSICAL EDUCATION: The program of physical education, provided in all the schools, was re-emphasized and intensified. In the continuance of this program we urge that re-emphasis be given to the teaching of the evil habit of narcotics; that a worth-while health program be carried on throughout the entire school system, emphasizing in particular personal hygiene.
Much progress has been noted in the Physical Education Pro- gram throughout the entire city. The purpose and the policy that the School Committee set up some three years ago has been carried on. That is, what the Quincy School Department is trying to do through its physical training teachers is to provide some measure of physical education for all the pupils in all the schools. In the after-school activities "Everybody at Play" is our slogan. This
385
REPORT OF SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
tends to find and promote exceptional players so that they eventu- ally compose teams representative of their schools, while it gives exercise to all pupils.
This has been an unusually successful year in this particular field. We are glad, of course, to have Quincy school teams win games; that is, their due proportion of them. Above any wish for success in such contests is the desire that every boy and every girl in school shall enjoy such a measure of physical training as will balance their mental developments and keep up to the standard of a sound mind and a healthy body.
DENTAL CLINIC WORK: A complete change in the method of procedure of the Dental Clinic work was undertaken during the year. Up to the present year the work of the Dental Clinic has been largely reparative dentistry. A special committee of the School Committtee comprised of Dr. Daniel B. Reardon, Dr. Na- thaniel S. Hunting, together with the Superintendent of Schools, on the recommendation of Dr. Paul H. Karcher, recommended that the reparative dentistry work be changed to a program based upon preventive dentistry. This program was adopted by the School Committee and is now being carried out in the different schools.
The dental nurse, as formerly, is doing prophylactic work in the first six grades. By this preventive program Dr. Karcher is at- tempting to prevent the loss of permanent teeth by carefully exam- ining the children of the first two grades. Dr. Karcher visits the different school buildings. He gives an oral examination to the children and, through the children, sends to the parents the infor- mation that they should have regarding the children's teeth. He makes appointments to take care of them in the Dental Clinic office.
The doctor feels that in so doing he is preventing a great deal of future trouble, such as crooked teeth and premature loss of per- manent teeth, which present most of the dental ills that develop later in life.
In short, Dr. Karcher has applied his efforts in certain sections of the city where there is the greatest need for this type of work and preventive dentistry is now displacing the former reparative dentistry.
ROUTINE HEALTH INSPECTION: This work has been carried on as formerly by the four nurses and Dr. Drew, the School Physi- cian. The Follow-up Work on the School Clinic work which was conducted two years ago is being carried on very effectively. The four school nurses and the School Physician should be encouraged for the effective manner in which the Follow-up Work groups have been organized and handled. More than two hundred pupils have been re-tested, re-X-rayed and re-examined by Dr. Zack of the State Health Department, assisted by the nurses and Dr. Drew, the School Physician. I refer you to Dr. Drew's and Dr. Zack's re- port for more detailed information on the School Clinic Follow-up Work. It is worthy of our attention.
Junior High School Calendar
A calendar was made a project for the 9th grade pupils in all of the Junior High Schools. The work was begun in October.
The pupils gathered material such as postcards and pictures of historic interest. Each pupil of the 9th grade chose the picture that appealed to him or her and made his own individual drawing.
386
CITY OF QUINCY
Several hundred of these drawings were collected and submitted to the Superintendent of Schools and in conjunction with Miss Amy E. Adams, Supervisor of Drawing, 13 of these drawings were chosen to make up the calendar. These were again submitted to the art teachers of the Junior High Schools. Drawings were chosen so that each of the Junior High Schools had equal repre- sentation. The extra picture went to the Central Junior High School.
The art teachers and the Supervisor of Art passed upon all the drawings.
When the 13 drawings were selected, linoleum prints were made of them.
One thousand calendars were made. This necessitated 13,000 prints. These 13,000 prints were distributed to the Junior High Schools, where all the pupils participated in coloring the prints.
The practical application of the plan was under the direction of Miss Amy Adams, Supervisor of Drawing. The teachers and pupils are deservedly entitled to encouragement. It was a splen- did project well done.
The School Committee, at its meeting on December 10, 1929, took particular cognizance of this fact and expressed their appreciation by sending a letter to those who had charge as well as to those who had anything to do with making the calendar a success.
Several letters of appreciation have been received at the Su- perintendent's office in commendation of this calendar.
This is the sort of thing which helps teachers and pupils to carry on to greater effort.
Pictures Framed by the Trade School
The School Committee, the City Council, and the citizens in gen- eral have done much to give the children the best in school build- ings. The building program has gone forward with great rapidity. Pupils and teachers and workers throughout the schools appreciate the great efforts that are being made to keep Quincy in the fore- ground educationally.
The pupils, stimulated by the teachers, are doing a commendable piece of work in purchasing beautiful pictures. These pictures decorate the libraries and classrooms of the buildings and enrich the lives of the pupils. The following pictures have been pur- chased by the pupils in their respective schools and framed by the pupils in the woodworking department of the Trade School:
Central Junior High
Signing of the Magna Charta-Gift of Miss Dellicker Library Boyhood of Raleigh-Gift of Trading Post Committee S
Westminster at Sunset-Gift of Trading Post Com. Art Room
Autumn Jewels-Gift of Mr. Joseph Grossman Office
North Junior High
Signing of the Magna Charta-Gift of Miss Dellicker Library Boyhood of Raleigh-Gift of Trading Post Com. } Summer Time-Gift of Mr. Joseph Grossman
Art Room
South Junior High
Signing of the Magna Charta-Gift of Miss Dellicker Library Landscape, by Constable-Gift of Trading Post. Com. 1 Quiet Pond with Lilies-Gift of Mr. Jos. Grossman (
Art Room
387
REPORT OF SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
Quincy Point Junior High
Signing of the Magna Charta-Gift of Miss Dellicker Library Boyhood of Raleigh-Gift of Trading Post Com. Art Room
Merchant Man-Gift of Mr. Joseph Grossman
Gridley Bryant
8 Travel Posters
2 Dutch Pictures
Gift of Parent-Teacher Association
Moving Pictures in the Schools
During the year Mr. Abraham Krasker was asked to assume the duties of a co-ordinate worker in the field of visual education. His work has been largely experimental and research up to the present time. Two lanterns and twelve films were purchased for instru- tional purposes. We have now gone through the experimental stage and are in a position to give instruction to Quincy teachers. A first-rate Film Library has been worked out for Quincy and is now at the disposal of teachers and principals in the city schools
Commercial Department
In the summer of 1929 an opportunity came to the School Com- mittee to secure the services of a graduate student of Harvard University, Mr. Ernest A. Zelliot, head of the Commercial Depart- ment of the Roosevelt High School, Des Moines, Iowa.
Mr. Zelliot has spent most of his life in the commercial educa- tional field and is taking his Master's degree under the new plan at Harvard. He has also been retained as an instructor in the commercial field at Harvard University for the summer session of 1930.
A new course of study in the Commercial Department was put into effect in the Quincy schools in the fall of 1928. The Commit- tee felt that it might give the school authorities an opportunity to check up on the new course and, at the same time, Mr. Zelliot could make a survey of the entire department.
Mr. Zelliot's work is now nearing completion. He has already given us a survey of the business office workers of Quincy with many very valuable suggestions and recommendations for the fu- ture betterment of commercial education in Quincy. Mr. Zelliot has done a good piece of work. The Committee and the Superin- tendent feel that they have been justified in bringing such a worker into the field. A complete detailed report of the survey is not fully completed at this writing. It will be made in full to the School Committee in the near future.
The Assistant Superintendent has reported for the state-aided, Academic Evening, Academic Summer Schools, and special classes. Because of the importance attached to these reports, they are given in full. Under separate headings will be found a short report of the Senior High School Principal, Supervisors and School Physi- cian.
The Day Trade School
In the fall of 1929, by action of the School Committee, the name of the Quincy Industrial School was changed to Quincy Trade School. It was felt by all concerned that the new name would be
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CITY OF QUINCY
less confusing and would indicate more clearly the nature and pur- pose of the school.
State Aided Day Vocational Education in Massachusetts began at Northampton in the fall of 1908, and became of age this past fall. The State Department of Education has called attention to the remarkable growth of such education in a special report on "State Aided and Part Time Education in Massachusetts." This report, which should be read by all interested in education, makes it possible to compare the Quincy school with other similar schools in the State for the school year ending August, 1928.
There are twenty State Aided Industrial Schools in the State, the median size, based on average membership, being 108.6, with Quincy 190.6. There are six schools larger and thirteen schools smaller than the Quincy Trade School. The average per cent of attendance in 1928 was for the State 91.6 per cent, Quincy 94.3 per cent, with seven having a better per cent of attendance than Quincy and twelve having a lower per cent than Quincy. Exclud- ing charges for new buildings or new equipment, the median per capita net maintenance cost was in the State $110.32 and for Quincy $101.67. In eleven communities it cost more to educate each boy and in eight communities it cost less than in Quincy. The median productivity for each boy was in the state $101.10. In Quincy it was $137.70, with six communities having a higher pro- ductivity and thirteen with a lower productivity.
In other words, it is costing Quincy less to educate each boy than in the median community, while each boy is producing more than in the median, which is incidentally more than it costs the city to educate him. It is only fair to state, however, that most of what is produced is used within the school department, and if the de- partment were obliged to pay cash for some of the things made by the boys, the schools would probably do without the product. The following will illustrate the point. At the present writing the Trade School is making one hundred forty tables for use in the primary rooms of the city. The net cost to the city for material used is less than $300, which is charged to supplies for instruc- tion, for the boys must have productive jobs upon which to work for practical educative purposes. The tables are easily worth ten dollars each. It is doubtful if the school department would have purchased the tables had it been necessary to pay $1,400 for them, and yet the city has the use of products worth $1,400 at a cost of less than $300.
Elsewhere in the annual report it is shown that the per capita maintenance charge is very low compared with the State as a whole. Some credit for this should go to the Trade School as the boys do many of the electrical and plumbing repair jobs with no or little cost to the city.
The State supervisor of trade training has announced that vo- cational schools of the State graduate only about ten per cent of the boys who enroll, with the exception of Quincy, which graduates about twenty-five per cent.
All the foregoing facts seem to indicate that the Quincy Trade School is performing its functions in a very satisfactory manner, for which much credit is due to the Director, Mr. Barrows, and his corps of teachers.
The historical review of vocational education in the State re- port makes it interesting to recall that the Quincy Trade School had its beginnings in 1912 as a Co-operative School, with two de- partments in the old high school building. In 1914 the full-time
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REPORT OF SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
day school was established in the old Adams School building on Phipps street and in 1924 the school was moved to its present home.
The following table shows the courses offered, the boys enrolled at various dates, and the growth of the school since its birth-an increase of over 600 per cent.
1912- '13
1914- '15
1923- '24
1924- '25
1927- '28
1928- '29
Auto Mechanics
...
...
....
17
41
43
Electrical
....
18
39
40
38
35
Machine
....
....
33
42
40
40
Plumbing
....
....
18
42
36
36
Sheet Metal
....
....
20
16
21
20
Woodworking
....
18
75
70
80
76
Co-operative
41
48
....
....
....
....
Part time
....
10
....
....
....
....
Special
....
....
....
....
1
....
Total
41
94
185
22"
257
250
The above table shows that the enrolment has reached its peak, not because more boys would not like a trade education but because we have no room to accommodate them. In the annual report of 1928 a statement was made in regard to the possibilities and needs of increased facilities for trade teaching. These needs are even greater this year and will become more so as the school enrolment of the city increases.
For the year ending August, 1929, the expenses of the Trade School increased by $1,352.62 to $52,135.32, due largely to auto- matic salary increases. This cost was reduced by the following amounts paid to the City Treasurer because of the school:
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