Report of the city of Somerville 1903, Part 11

Author: Somerville (Mass.)
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Somerville, Mass.
Number of Pages: 492


USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1903 > Part 11


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34


WARD FIVE.


86 Central street. 1904


183 Central street, 1905


WARD SIX.


44 Cherry street. 1904


CHARLES H. HOOD,


2 Benton road. 1905


WARD SEVEN.


GEORGE A. MILES,


249 Elm street. 1904


HENRIETTA B. H. ATTWOOD,


18 Herbert street. 1905


The committee holds its regular meetings on the last Monday even- ing of each month, except July, August, and December, at 8.15 o'clock. The last meeting of the year is held on the Friday next preceding the first Monday of January.


Superintendent of Schools. GORDON A. SOUTHWORTH.


Office: City Hall Annex, Highland avenue.


Residence: 40 Greenville street.


The Superintendent's office will be open from 8 to 12, and from 1.30 to 5; Saturdays, 8 to 10. His office hours are from 4 to 5 on school days and 8 to 9 on Saturdays.


Office telephone, 314; house telephone, 12.


Cora S. Fitch, Superintendent's clerk, 69 Walnut street.


GEORGE E. WHITAKER,


GEORGE W. W. WHITING,


QUINCY E. DICKERMAN, J. WALTER SANBORN,


FREDERICK A. P. FISKE,


STANDING COMMITTEES, 1903.


High Schools .- Whiting, Cutler, Flynn, Bennett, Sanborn, Fiske, Miles. LATIN, ENGLISH.


District (or Ward) I .- Cutler, Poole.


PRESCOTT, HANSCOM, DAVIS, BENNETT.


District (or Ward) II .- O'Neil, Flynn.


KNAPP, PERRY, BAXTER.


District (or Ward) III .- Whitaker, Bennett. POPE, BELL, CUMMINGS.


District (or Ward) IV .- Whiting, Jones.


EDGERLY, GLINES.


District (or Ward) V .- Dickerman, Sanborn. FORSTER, BINGHAM.


District (or Ward) VI .- Fiske, Hood.


CARR, MORSE, DURELL, BURNS, BROWN.


District (or Ward) VII .- Miles, Mrs. Attwood. HIGHLAND, HODGKINS, LINCOLN, LOWE.


Additional School Accommodations .- Miles, Poole, O'Neil, Bennett, Jones, Dickerman, Hood.


Evening Schools .- Dickerman, Bennett, Fiske.


Finance .- Bennett, Sanborn, Hood.


Industrial Education .- O'Neil, Whitaker, Mrs. Attwood.


Music .- Whitaker, Poole, Mrs. Attwood.


Private Schools .- Hood, Flynn, Whiting.


Repairs of School Buildings .- Jones, O'Neil, Hood.


Rules and Regulations .- Cutler, O'Neil, Jones.


Salaries .- Poole, Whiting, Sanborn.


Supplies .- Sanborn, Poole, Miles.


Text-Books and Courses of Study .- Fiske, Cutler, Flynn, Whitaker, Jones, Dickerman, Mrs. Attwood. Vacation Schools .- Mrs. Attwood, O'Neil, Dickerman.


Note-The member first named is chairman.


MARTHA PERRY LOWE SCHOOL.


REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS.


To the School Committee of Somerville :---


The record of the thirty-second year of the school life of our city is herewith respectfully submitted.


In considering this record, attention is first invited to the following


Summary of Statistics


arranged for ready reference and comparison with that of 1902 :-


1 .- POPULATION OF SOMERVILLE.


United States census, 1890


.40,117


State census, 1895.


.52,200


United States census, 1900


.61,643


Estimated population, 1903, on the basis of assessed polls. . 66,574 Estimated population, 1903, on the basis of school mem- bership in December .67,500


Children between five and fifteen, census returns, 1902. 11,203


66


66


1903 11,422


Increase


219


2 .- SCHOOL BUILDINGS.


1902.


1903.


Increase.


Number of school buildings


24


25


1


Number of classrooms.


232


240


8


Valuation of school property


$1,237,496 $1,288,496


$51,000


3 .- TEACHERS.


1902.


1903.


Increase.


In high schools


45


46


1


In grammar schools


143


147


4


In primary schools


89


98


9


In kindergartens


8


8


0


Total in elementary schools.


240


253


13


Special


7


7


0


Total


292


306


14


4 .- ATTENDANCE FOR YEAR.


1902.


1903.


Increase.


Entire enrollment for the year


13,116


13,475


359


Average number belonging


10,402


10,719


317


Average number attending.


9,733


10,056


323


Per cent. of daily attendance


93.5


93.9


0.4


High school graduates.


164


181


17


Grammar school graduates


497


484


. -13


152


ANNUAL REPORTS.


5 .- ATTENDANCE IN DECEMBER.


1902.


1903.


Increase.


Whole number attending.


12,648


13,065


417


In private schools.


1,679


1,708


29


In public schools


10,969


11,357


388


In high schools.


1,148


1,157


9


In elementary schools


9,264


10,000


736


In kindergarten


197


200


3


In first grade.


1,585


1,651


66


In second grade


1,266


1,349


83


In third grade.


1,232


1,270


38


In fourth grade


1,205


1,182


-23


In fifth grade.


1,183


1,155


-28


In sixth grade.


1,021


1,134


113


In seventh grade.


932


964


32


In eighth grade.


687


751


64


In ninth grade.


513


544


31


6 .- COST OF SCHOOL MAINTENANCE.


Salaries of teachers


1902. $229,410.00


1903. $238,163.61


Increase. $8,753.61 0.00


Salaries of officers


4,800.00


4,800.00


Cost of books and supplies


19,386.00


20,872.70


1,486.70


Cost of light ..


1,803.00


2,015.30


212.30


Cost of'janitors' services


20,859.00


21,041.74


182.74


Cost of fuel.


10,489.00


18,052.46


7,563.46


Total cost of day and evening schools


286,747.00


304,945.81


18,198.81


Per capita cost.


27.57


28.46


0.89


Cost of high school instruc-


tion


50,078.00


52,432.91


2,354.91


Per capita cost


46.63


47.28


0.65


7 .- MISCELLANEOUS.


1902.


1903.


Increase.


Paid


for new school


buildings


$56,501.00


$59,822.15


$3,321.15


Repairs and permanent improvements


13,079.00


12,260.90


-818.10


Total school expendi-


tures


356,327.00


377,028.86


20,701.86


· Valuation of city ..


55,485,370.00


56,981.360.00


1,495,990.00


Per cent. of valuation


spent to maintain


schools


0.517


0.535


0.018


Per cent. of valuation


spent for all school


0.642


0.661


0.019


purposes


·


School Buildings. During the last ten years eight small, primitive, wooden schoolhouses have been abandoned, eleven commodious, modern, brick buildings have been erected, and four houses have been enlarged. The following shows the ex- penditure for increased accommodations for the decade :-


153


SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.


1894.


Durell .


4 rooms,


$19,383


1895.


English


15


147,725


1896.


Hodgkins


12


60,764


1897.


Hanscom


6


66


42,032


1898.


Carr


15


66


62,125


1899.


Perry


6


66


37,612


1899.


Forster Annex


6


66


35,638


1901.


Baxter


6


66


32,309


1901.


Brown


6


36,868


1902.


Bennett


12


48,755


1903.


Lowe


8


66


50,343


1894.


Bingham


4


added,


14,917


1894.


Knapp


4


66


66


16,857


1896.


Glines


5


66


66


19,681


Total·


113


$651,619


This is certainly a splendid record for ten years. It shows not only the rapid growth and continued prosperity of the city, but also the public spirit, the generosity, the loyalty and devo- tion of the people of Somerville to the educational welfare of their children. Besides, during this time an expenditure of $2,385,394 has been made for the maintenance of schools.


The contribution of 1903 to our school accommodations is an eight-room building on Morrison avenue, near Grove street. While its location is not ideal, the structure itself is modern, substantial, and admirably adapted to school purposes. The cost, exclusive of grading, walks, fences, etc., is as follows :-


Land, 21,650 feet.


$3,500.00


Building and furnishings


46,843.16


Total


$50,343.16


Elevation and floor plans are given elsewhere.


At the request of the school committee, the board of alder- men named the new school after Mrs. Martha Perry Lowe, a citizen long conspicuous for her interest and activity in every work having in view the improvement and uplifting of the com- munity. The following sketch has been kindly furnished by a life-long friend :--


-


Mrs. Martha Perry Lowe was born in Keene, N. H., November 21, 1829, and died in Somerville, Mass., May 6, 1902. Her parents were General Justus Perry and Hannah Wood. She was a descendant of William Wood, the supposed author of "New England's Prospects,".who left England and settled in Concord in 1638.


At the age of fifteen she was sent to the noted school of Mrs. Sedg- wick, in Lenox, Mass. After her graduation she spent a winter in the West Indies, and the following year was passed in Madrid with her brother, who was a member of the Spanish legation.


In 1857 Miss Perry became the wife of the Rev. Charles Lowe. Mr. Lowe died in 1874, and at the time of his death was a member of the Somerville school committee.


Mrs. Lowe was the author of several books of prose and poetry; the most noted ones are "The Olive and the Pine," "Love in Spain," and a "Memoir of Charles Lowe."


66


26,610


1899.


Burns


4


66


66


154


ANNUAL REPORTS.


She was interested in many public and private philanthropies, but her chief interests were in the public schools. She was among the first to advocate the teaching of cooking and sewing, and at her suggestion a sum of money was raised for that purpose, which is still held until needed by the schools.


At the meeting of the Middlesex County Teachers' Association in Somerville she was invited to deliver a poem. She was one of the founders of the Educational Union in Somerville, one of whose duties was a regular visitation of the schools by its members.


She was a member of the Society of American Authors of New York, the Authors' Club of Boston, the Woman's Education Association, the Unitarian Church Temperance Society, an honorary member of the Castilian Club, of the Heptorean Club, of the Teachers' Annuity Guild, honorary president of the Woman Suffrage League, a director of the Massachusetts Suffrage Association, president of the Woman's Alliance of the First Unitarian Church, and a member of the Cambridge Branch of the Indian Association.


One who knew her well writes: Mrs. Lowe has been the most loved and respected of all the women in her home city. It was a promi- nence won, not by the blind serving of social conventions, but by loyally following truth and conscience. So true as friend and adviser, so noble as citizen, so eminent as a moral force was she, that the community in which she lived may well bow its head in gratitude for the blessing of her presence through so many years."


Additional School Accommodations. There are to-day 388 more children in our schools than there were a year ago. There are 641 children of the first grade on half-time in wards one, four, five and six, besides several overcrowded rooms in the latter ward. The completion of the Bingham enlargement March first will fully relieve the situation as far as wards four and five are concerned. There will still be 800 children to be provided for, including a normal increase of 400 in 1904. The call for new schoolhouses in Somerville is becoming monoton- ous, but it is unavoidable so long as our city continues to grow. One of these days the supply will overtake the demand and there will be a respite. Let us consider present requirements some- what in detail.


High Schools. The present membership of the Latin school is 406, an increase of 36 over last year. Two quite acceptable additional recitation rooms have been provided on the lower floor by taking eight feet from the master's room and adding it to teachers' rooms on the westerly side. Two additional teachers have been employed, making the present number thirteen, and giving 31.2 pupils as an average number to each. This number is altogether too large. Facilities should be furnished for at least three more teachers if the standard class unit of twenty-five is to be reached. And even with this increase, the head master would be obliged to curtail his supervisory work to engage in regular class instruction. The relief afforded by the extra rooms is temporary and wholly inadequate. All the arguments so often presented for a new building for this school still have full force. Each year of growth increases the urgency of the demand, and renders the attainment of satisfactory results more and more difficult.


155


SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.


Conditions in the English school are but slightly changed. Seven hundred and fifty-one pupils are at present enrolled as compared with 778 a year ago. The same contracted, unsuitable quarters are in use ; there is the same congestion of various de- partments ; there exists the sante impossibility of the extension of work or even the satisfactory accomplishment of all that is undertaken. It is needless to reiterate what has been so often said regarding the pressing demands for better accommodations. The need is admitted on all sides, the only difference of opinion being as to the best way of securing what is needed. During the year, in the committee and in conferences with the city govern- ment, the whole subject has been discussed in all its phases. As to the necessity of increased accommodations there has been substantial agreement. As to the best way of securing them opinions have differed.


During the many discussions that have been held, four prominent plans of relief have been suggested. I mention them in the order in which they have been made, that all interested may know about them.


1. The addition to the English building of two wings con- nected by an assembly hall.


2. The construction of a new Latin building to be located east of the present structure, which in such an event would be occupied by the English school.


3. A comprehensive plan that provides for a new Latin building east of the present one, and the addition of a wing on the northeasterly corner of the English school, the two new structures to be connected by a building containing an exhibition hall and other rooms to be used by either school as necessary.


4. It has been suggested that the present English building might be occupied by the Latin school, and a new building con- structed with an easterly frontage in which the present Latin building should be incorporated, the new building extending toward the front and rear as might be found necessary.


The financial side of the problem need not be here discussed. Suffice it to say that the future may well be asked to share with the present the expense of an undertaking from which both alike profit.


Ward One. There are still one hundred first-grade chil- dren on half-time in this ward. This is made necessary by the occupation of the needed room by the Hanscom kindergarten. Whatever may be said for or against half-time sessions it is cer- tain that most parents prefer to have their children attend school all day. On the other hand patrons of the kindergarten protest strongly against its suspension.


The Hanscom schoolhouse was planned with the definite ex- pectation of its enlargement by the addition of two rooms. This could be done with the minimum of expense, and would meet


156


ANNUAL REPORTS.


the imperative needs of this section of the city. Such enlarge- ment is strongly recommended.


The twelfth room in the Bennett school will probably be oc- cupied in September next, thus justifying the construction of a twelve-room building in that section.


Wards Two and Three. There has been a small increase in the school population of these wards during 1903 according to the school census, but the six existing school buildings afford ample accommodation at present for all who wish to attend the public schools.


Wards Four and Five. The original recommendation of the board for a six-room addition to the Bingham schoolhouse was subsequently modified by a request for an eight-room enlarge- ment with a view to housing pupils living in the Murdock-street district, and now attending the schools of ward six. This re- quest was honored by the city government, and eight additional rooms will be ready for occupancy probably by the first of March next. Of the sixteen rooms then found in the Bingham plant, ten will be occupied by the children already there. Four others will be filled by classes now in the Forster, which were organized in September with this transfer in mind. Of the two rooms re- maining, one will be used in September for kindergarten pur- poses, and the other will be crowded with new first-grade chil- dren. This with transfers from ward six schools will fill every available seat in the building. It is doubtful, however, whether these accommodations will long suffice, for no building can graduate forty at the top and receive one hundred at the bottom each year without soon overflowing.


Two of the four rooms vacated by transfers at the Forster are in the basement of the annex. They were designed for in- dustrial-education purposes, are unsuitable for classrooms, and should remain unused unless occupied as originally planned. The third room of the four will at once be used by a first grade now on half-time, while the remaining room will remain vacant until September, when the transfer into it of a class from the Glines will relieve the half-time conditions in that school.


Ward Six. This is the largest ward in the city. Its schools contain more pupils and more teachers than those of wards two and four combined. Its schools are more urgently in need of relief from overcrowding than those of any other ward. They receive pupils from wards two, three, and five. In this respect they are not exceptional. Many of our schools are located on the border lines between wards, and of necessity receive pupils without reference to ward lines. A conspicuous example of this is the Brown school. This school was established three years ago in response to an urgent call from ward seven for additional school accommodations. It was wisely placed in the centre of a rapidly growing district. It was built on the ward six side rather than on the ward seven side of Willow


1


157


SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.


avenue because land free from rocky ledge could be had there at less price. The territory that it accommodates lies half in one ward and half in the other, and its pupils must of necessity come from both wards.


In the Carr, Morse, and Burns, three hundred first-grade pupils are on half time, and in the Durell and Morse, three extra teachers are employed in overcrowded classes. Some relief must be at once afforded.


The recommendation of last year that a six-room build- ing be constructed on the Standpipe lot on Spring Hill is here renewed. The location is in the centre of the district to be ac- commodated. It would relieve the three crowded schools and allow room for future growth. The lot on Hudson street in the rear of the Armory is not as favorable a location for two reasons. First, it is situated in ward five rather than in the ward that needs relief. Secondly, it would naturally draw pupils from the Forster school, which will be relieved of any danger of over- crowding by the opening of the Bingham enlargement.


Ward Seven. The Martha Perry Lowe school was opened and filled at the beginning of the current school year in Septem- ber. To it were sent all primary pupils from the Highland and Hodgkins with the exception of fifty first-grade pupils left in the latter school. All pupils of the Brown school living in ward seven were removed and sent either to the Lowe or the High- land, leaving in the Brown children from one-half of its natural district. This concentration of primary pupils instead of dis- tributing them in buildings more conveniently located is a re- versal of the general plan.


This new building affords but temporary relief to the ward. The Lincoln school is even now so large as to demand the ser- vices of an extra assistant. In September the Lowe school will graduate one class and will receive three classes, one second- grade class from the Hodgkins, and two first-grade classes of beginners. The Highland school will graduate two classes and receive three classes from its natural feeders. This makes three surplus classes to be accommodated in September next within or without the ward. The Brown school is easily accessible for this overflow. The building is not, however, large enough to accommodate all pupils who would naturally be sent to it even after it has made its contribution to the Bingham enlargement. This building was planned with especial reference to a four-room addition. This can easily be made at a minimum of expense, and will furnish ten rooms, and give us an additional grammar-school centre with nine grades in a locality which will very soon im- peratively demand it. I recommend that the Brown school be at once enlarged by the addition of four rooms.


To recapitulate our needs in the order of their urgency :-


1. A new building for high school purposes.


158


ANNUAL REPORTS.


2. A six-room building on the old Standpipe lot in ward six.


3. An addition of four rooms to the Brown school on Willow avenue.


4. The addition of two rooms to the Hanscom school in ward one.


School Census. In conformity with the laws of the state, enumerators were employed between September 1 and No- vember 15 to ascertain the number of children between five and fifteen years of age resident in the city on the first day of October, 1903, and to record the full name, the date of birth, the age, the place of residence, the name of father or guardian, the school attended or reasons for non-attendance, and the number of illiterate minors. It may be well by the way to correct a wrong impression that the legal school age is between five and fifteen, and that the city is obliged to provide school accommodatons for all such children. The fact that years ago the income of the state school fund was distributed among towns in proportion to the number of children between these ages resident in each town may have given rise to the impression. There is no statute affecting the age at which children may attend school. This matter is left optional with school committees. The only abso- lute requirement is that all children between the ages of seven and fourteen must attend school during the entire time that the schools are in session. An inexcusable absence of five days within any six months subjects the parent or guardian to prose- cution and fine. Illiterate minors over fourteen years of age who are at work are required to attend evening schools under penalty laid upon such employers as neither insist upon such attendance nor discharge the delinquent employees. Minors between the ages of fourteen and sixteen must either attend school or be at work. Otherwise they are "habitual absentees" and may be pro- ceeded against as if truants.


It is difficult to take a census of school children with absolute accuracy. Absence from home, the difficulty of communicating with non-English-speaking foreigners, changes in residence while the census is being taken, and a disposition on the part of some suspicious persons to withhold information are obstacles in the way. All possible care, however, is exercised by the enumera- tors. The following are the returns :-


1903.


1902.


Change.


Ward 1


1,780


1,701.


+79


66


3


947


936


+11


60


4


1,006


1,037


-31


66


5


1,881


1,880


+ 1


6


1,875


1,829


+46


66


7


1,400


1,384


+16


Total


11,422


11,203


+219


66


2


2,533


2,436


+-97


159


SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.


These returns as compared with those of 1902 show a loss of 31 in ward four and an increase in all the other wards, ag- gregating a net gain throughout the city of 219 children. On the first of October perfectly reliable returns from the schools showed an increase of 302 children as compared with the corre- sponding date last year. This difference of 83 is attributable to causes indicated above.


The most reliable basis for comparison to show the growth of the schools is their membership in December, the month of high water mark. In December, 1902, the schools contained 10,969 children : in 1903, the membership was 11,357. This in- dicates a gain during the year of 388 children. The increase in the membership of the schools for the last ten years is shown below :-


Year.


Membership.


Increase.


1894


7,649


1895


8,191


532


1896


8,705


514


1897


9,078


373


1898


9,637


559


1899


10,075


438


1900


10,365


290


1901


10,642


277


1902


10,969


327


1903


11,357


388


Total increase.


3,708


Average increase


412


Length of School Year. The statutes provide that the city shall maintain elementary schools for at least thirty-two weeks in the year, and a high school for forty weeks. For many years school vacations have been so arranged as to give all our schools a theoretical year of forty weeks. There have always been interruptions and losses from legal holidays, stormy weather, the extension of vacations by the board at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and at the end of the school year, by teachers' con- ventions, and the dismissal of schools on special occasions. The table below shows what the losses have been from these various causes during the last six years :-


160


ANNUAL REPORTS.


1898.


1899.


1900.


1901


1902.


Average 5 years.


1903.


No. of sessions in the theoretical school year


400


400


400


400


400 10


400


400


Lost - legal holidays


10


10


14


14


11.6


10


stormy weather


11


8


4


10


6


7.8


9


extension of vacations .


11


10


11


11


12


11.0


22


66


Teachers' Association


2


2


2


2


2


2.0


2


66


special occasions .


1


0


0


2


0


0.6


2


Total


35


30


31


39


30


33.0


45


Actual school sessions


365


370


369


361


370


367


355


It will be seen that the average loss for the five years preced- ing 1903 has been thirty-three sessions, or three weeks one and one-half days. This year, owing to the fact that the second Mon- day of September comes at the latest possible date, an extra week has been lost, the schools having kept but thirty-five and one- half weeks. This average loss of eight per cent. of the year be- comes a serious matter unless it is inevitable and without remedy or compensation. By general admission much more is required of the schools now than formerly, and yet there has been a loss rather than an increase of the time available for its accomplish- ment. There is, perhaps, no avoidance of loss of time from legal holidays. It may be an open question, however, whether the schools might not profitably keep on Washington's Birthday and on Patriots' day. There are no local celebrations to distract at- tention. School exercises in commemoration of the Father of his Country and of the heroism of the patriots, now held on other days, might be relegated to the holidays with a gain both in time and in the impressiveness of the lessons taught.




Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.