USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1910 > Part 18
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Amendments Concerning the Employment of Cadet Teachers ADOPTED DECEMBER, 1906.
SECTION 170. Before the opening of the schools in Sep- tember of each year the Committee on Text-Books and Courses of Study shall nominate for election by the Board not more than twelve women who shall be designated as cadet teachers, to serve for one year following their appointment, at a salary not to exceed $200 per year each.
To be eligible for the position of cadet teacher, the candi- date must be a graduate of one of the Somerville high schools, and also a graduate either of some state normal school or of some college having pedagogical courses, one or more of which courses the candidate must have taken.
SECT. 171. The cadet teachers shall be assigned by the Superintendent to an equal. number of elementary schools, and the assignments shall be changed at the end of each term of thirteen weeks, so that by the close of the school year each cadet teacher will have practiced under the direction and ob- servation of three different principals in three different school buildings.
Cadet teachers shall receive guidance, instruction, and
238
ANNUAL REPORTS.
criticism from the principals of the schools in which they serve, render assistance to class teachers or to individual pupils, and whenever possible act as substitutes in the absence of regular teachers. They shall receive no increase of pay when acting as substitutes.
SECT. 172. Such of these cadet teachers as secure the rec- ommendation of three out of four of the following officials : the three principals under whom they have served during their cadet year and the Superintendent of Schools, shall be eligible as grade teachers.
The following Amendments to the Rules were adopted December, 1906.
On page 6, insert as the twenty-first standing committee "(21) On Medical Inspection."
On page 12, add as Section 32b the following :-
SECTION 32b. The Committee on Medical Inspection of the schools shall advise and co-operate with the Board of Health in all matters pertaining to the medical inspection of the schools. They shall see that all orders and requests of said Board are properly executed by teachers. The annual test of the sight and hearing of pupils required by Statute shall be made by teachers under direction of this committee.
The following sentence was added to Section 80 of the Rules :---
They shall see that fire-drills are practiced in their re- spective buildings at least once in every two weeks, provided that the weather conditions are suitable.
SECTION 44 of the Rules was amended by making the first sentence of the second paragraph read as follows. Adopted April, 1907 :-
He shall annually publish and send to each member of the Board a complete list of all books, charts, maps, and globes with the number of each kind belonging to the city.
Section 2 of the Rules was amended by changing "nomi- nated" in the second line to "appointed," and striking out the second sentence, so that the section reads as follows :-
SECTION 2. The Standing Committees of the Board shall be appointed by a committee consisting of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman, and a third member of the Board to be se- lected by them.
Adopted March, 1908.
239
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
Amendments Concerning Salaries of Teachers ADOPTED SEPTEMBER, 1908. Salaries of Teachers.
SECTION 56. The salaries paid to teachers and other em- ployees of the Board shall be as follows :----
High Schools. Teachers in the high schools are designated as head masters, masters, sub-masters, junior sub-masters, and first, second, third, and fourth assistants, who shall be paid in accordance with the following schedule :-
1st yr.
2nd yr.
3rd yr.
4th yr
5th yr.' 6th yr.
7th yr.
8th yr.
Head Master
$2,300
$2,400
$2,500
$2,600
$2,700
$2,800
$2,900
$3,000
Master
1,800
1.850
1,900
1,950
2,000
Sub-Masters
1,000
1,100
1,200
1,300
1,400
1,500
1,600
1,700
Junior Sub-Masters.
1,000
1,050
1,100
1,150
1,200
1,250
1,300
First Assistants
1,000
1,050
1,100
1,150
1,200
....
Second Assistants
900
950
1,000
Third Assistants
650
700
750
800
850
900
. .
Fourth Assistants
As may be determined
by vote
Fourth assistants in the high schools may be appointed by the Board at such salary as it may determine, on recommen- dation of the standing committee of the high schools.
SECTION 57. Grammar and Primary Schools. Teachers in grammar and primary schools shall be paid annual salaries ac- cording to the following schedule :-
· 1st year
2d year
3rd . year
4th year
5th year
6th year
7th year
8th year
9th year
Masters .
$1,500 $1,550
$1,600
$1,650
$1,700
$1,750 $1,800,$1,850 $1,900
Masters' Assistants
700
725
750
775
....
.. . .
First Eight Grades
375
450
525
600
650
700
....
....
Ninth Grade .. .
625
650
675
700
725
Head Kindergartners
300
375
450
525
600
...
Assistants not in charge of room
200
275
350
425
...
Principals, 12-room buildings ...
800
850
900
950
1,000
Principals, 10-room buildings ...
750
800
850
900
950
Principals, 8-room buildings ....
750
800
850
900
...
. .
Principals, 6-room buildings.
725
775
825
. .
...
..
. .
Principals, 4-room buildings.
675
725
775
....
. .
....
..
. .
..
. .
. .
. .
....
. .
. . .
SECTION 58. Supervisors and Special Instructors, and other employees shall be paid annual salaries according to the follow- ing schedule :---
240
ANNUAL REPORTS.
1st year
2d year
3rd year
4th year
5th year
6th year
7th year
8th year
9th year
Teachers of Music in high school and upper grammar grades ...
$1,200 $1,300 $1,400 $1,500 $1,600
$1,700
..
Supervisor of Music in lower grades
700
800
900
1,000
....
Supervisor of Drawing.
700
800
900
1,000
Supervisor of Penmanship.
800
900
1,000
1,100
1,200
1,300 $1,400 $1,500
Sewing Teachers ..
500
550
600
650
700
Manual Training Teachers, for five hours daily*
1,100
....
....
...
....
Permanent Substitutes in grades be- low the ninth.
375
450
525
600
650
700
...
Temporary Substitutes in grades be- low the ninth
1.50
tc
2.50
per
day
....
...
Temporary Substitutes in high schools, ninth grades, or for prin- cipals .. ..
3.00
per
day
....
. .
Substitutes for Masters Masters ..
or Sub-
5.00
per
day
First Truant Officert.
1,000
1,100
1,200
1,300
....
. .
....
. .
Second Truant Officer
50
Superintendent of Schools
2,500
2,600
2,700 700
2,800
2,900
3,000
....
. .. .
Superintendent's Clerk.
600
650
750
....
..
....
...
...
* $1,400 for six hours daily.
+ He to furnish and maintain his own team.
SECTION 61. The salary of any teacher or other employee of the School Committee shall be fixed by the Committee at the time of election. It may be fixed at the minimum, at the maximum, or at any intermediate sum provided for in the forc- going schedules, except that no teacher shall receive the maxi- mum salary who has not had at least five years of teaching ex- perience. Graduation at a normal school shall be considered equivalent to a year of teaching experience.
Increase of salaries shall commence at the monthly period of payment next succeeding the end of each year of service.
Amendments Concerning Vacations and Evening Schools ADOPTED SEPTEMBER, 1908.
SECTION 152. The first term of the evening school shall begin on the first Monday of October and continue ten school weeks. The second term shall begin on the date of the open- ing of the day schools after the Christmas vacation, and shall continue ten school weeks. The term of any school may be shortened by the Evening School Committee. The sessions of the evening schools shall be held on such evenings as may be determined upon by the Evening School Committee.
SECTION 112. The following shall be the holidays and vacations granted to all the schools :-
Holidays .- Every Saturday; Thanksgiving Day, together with the afternoon preceding and the Friday following it ; February 22; Patriots' Day ; Memorial Day ; June 17. When- ever any holiday falls on Sunday, the schools shall be closed on the following day.
..
...
. .
. . . .
..
. .
241
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
Vacations .- The week in which the 25th of December oc- curs ; the two weeks that separate the last twenty-four weeks of the school year into three terms of eight weeks each; from the close of the school year to the time fixed for its beginning.
The Chairman of the School Committee may dismiss all the schools on extraordinary occasions of general interest.
Miscellaneous Amendments.
Section 130 of the Rules was amended to read as fol- lows :-
Kindergartens may be established and maintained by the Board whenever it is deemed wise.
Adopted May 24, 1909.
Section 58 was amended by substituting the sum of $1,350 for the sum of $1,300 as the maximum salary of the truant officer, he to furnish and maintain his own team.
Adopted November 29, 1909.
The following was substituted for Section 116 :-
There shall be twenty-five minutes of recess in the high schools at such time as the head master shall choose.
In elementary schools there shall be a recess of ten min- utes midway of the morning session.
In the first three grades of the elementary schools there shall be a recess of seven minutes midway of the afternoon session. This recess may be allowed in other grades of ele- mentary schools by the principal.
Pupils shall not be required to take an open-air recess in inclement weather.
No pupil shall be deprived of any portion of the regular recess of his class.
Adopted November 29, 1909.
Section 3 was amended by adding after the words "Medi- cal Inspection" the words "and Hygiene," and by adding after the words "different wards" the words "except the Committee on Industrial Education, which shall consist of five members." Adopted February 21, 1910.
Section 110 was amended to read as follows :-
The public schools of Somerville shall be classified as Kindergartens ; Primary Schools, containing the first, second, and third grades; Grammar Schools, containing grades four to eight inclusive; the English and Latin High Schools, con- taining four grades, to be designated as the first, second, third, and fourth classes, the first being the ninth grade, or entering class; Elementary Evening Schools for persons over four- teen years of age; and an Evening High School.
Adopted April 25, 1910.
242
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Section 84 was amended by substituting the following :--
No teacher shall be absent from duty except for personal illness or emergency, unless permission has first been obtained from the Superintendent, and the Superintendent shall be noti- fied of the time when the teacher may be expected to resume his or her duties.
Adopted October 31, 1910.
Section 117, second paragraph, was amended to read as follows :-
Beginners shall be admitted to the first grade during the months of September and February. Any child six years of age, or who will attain that age before the first of October fol- lowing, shall be eligible for admission in September. . Any child six years of age, or who will attain that age before the first of March, shall be eligible for admission in February.
Section 131 was amended to read as follows :-
Children between five and six years of age may be ad- mitted to the kindergarten nearest their homes during the months of September and February.
Section 134 was amended to read as follows :-
Regular class promotions. in the schools shall be made at the end of and in the middle of the school year, according to the judgment of the class teacher, the principal, the Superin- tendent, and the District Committee.
Section 114 was amended by striking out the last three lines and substituting therefor the following :-
The storm signal for the high schools shall be struck at 7.15 or at 11.45 a. m .; for all other schools, forty-five minutes before the opening of the session.
Adopted December 30, 1910.
Trade School for Girls.
[Extracts from the report of an investigation of conditions in Somerville affecting girls who leave school to go to work, made under the direction of the State Board of Education, De- cember, 1910.]
A study of Somerville for the purpose of discovering the need of and opportunity for trade training for girls reveals a unique situation which is, however, characteristic of certain smaller cities located within the range of greater Boston. While Somerville is a political entity, it is distinctly a suburb, "merely a sleeping place for Boston," as is often said. But it is also discovered to be a sleeping place for Cambridge. There- fore, while Somerville is an industrial, economic, and social de- pendence of Boston, it is also an industrial dependence of Cam- bridge, resulting in an exchange of work and worker, and offer- ing opportunity for an interchange of custom and customer.
243
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
Because of its proximity to Boston, high grade skilled work of Somerville, such as dressmaking and millinery, has developed to a small degree because of competition in these lines from Boston. The large stores of Boston, and the factories of both Boston and Cambridge have, likewise, provided an outlet for the capital and the industrial classes of Somerville, and probably explains, to some extent, the small number of industries in Somerville. Somerville is therefore distinctly unique in that it not only sends out its skilled workers to another city such as Boston, but also sends out its unskilled workers to another city such as Cambridge.
Three definite lines of attack have been followed in making the study of the need of and opportunity for trade training for girls. First, it seemed necessary to take a general view of all kinds of industries employing women. Second, to intensify on those trades which seemed to offer to women workers the great- est opportunity for self-development and advancement. Third, to follow up the girls to their homes and to some of the fac- tories in which they worked, whether in Somerville, Cambridge, or Boston.
The jewelry factories of Somerville, the confectionery and rubber factories and the book binderies of Cambridge are the largest factorized women-employing industries of the two cities. Visits were made to the four jewelry factories of Somerville, employing about 280 women exclusive of homeworkers, the one confectionery factory of Somerville, and three in Cambridge employing about 500 women, two rubber factories in Cam- bridge and Watertown, employing more than 1,700 women, and five book binderies and presses in Cambridge, employing more than 1,000 women. A more comprehensive study of the trades offering higher grade of work was attempted and visits were made to the two clothing factories of Somerville, thirteen milli- ners and some ten dressmakers representing all of those who employed girls and a number of independent workers. How- ever, these better industries show very little development in Somerville, and draw almost no young girls just out of school.
The factorized industries of Somerville and Cambridge and the mercantile establishments of Boston draw the majority of the young girls of fourteen or sixteen from the schools.
Two hundred fifty-one girls under sixteen left the public schools of Somerville to go to work during the past year. Four years ago, one hundred eighty-seven girls applied for em- ployment certificates, an increase of thirty-four per cent.
The significance of this fact becomes apparent when it is discovered that there was an increase of only thirteen per cent. in the population in the past five years. A similar situation was discovered in Worcester where an increase of forty per cent. in the number of girls leaving school was discovered as compared with an increase of only ten per cent. in the population.
244
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Is this exodus of physically and mentally immature work- ers an economic necessity? Is it an ultimate benefit to the child? Is it an economic advantage to the employer? In fact, what is the cause of the increase in the number of girl workers who leave school as soon as the law allows? Such are the questions which these facts force us to meet ..
These facts concern us all the more when we discover that sixty per cent. of the girls who left school to go to work in the past year were only fourteen years of age ; that there seems to be a marked increase in the number of fourteen-year-old girls leaving school in proportion to the total number of girls of that age. The public school records for 1906 and 1910 show a prac- tically static condition in the number of fourteen-year-old girls in school. Yet there was an increase of thirty-four per cent. in the number of fourteen-year-old girls going to work in 1910 over 1906.
Let us stop for a moment to see what this annual outgo of more than 251 girls under sixteen means to the community as well as to the girls. Are they prepared to take their place in the labor world, and what sort of preparation should they have had?
Nine per cent. of these girls have gone beyond the gram- mar grades, while seven per cent. left school before reaching the sixth grade. Almost two-fifths dropped out in the sixth and seventh grades alone, and almost seven-tenths left before reaching the ninth grade. Thirteen per cent. graduated from the grammar school and then went to work, while seven per cent. took out age and school certificates, but later returned to school. Somerville, therefore, shows a larger proportion of girls dropping out before the ninth grade than a manufacturing city like Worcester, where more than one-half of the girls leav- ing in the past year had not reached the ninth grade.
Personal visits to 146 homes showed that fifty per cent. of the girls might have gone on or did go back to school, sixty- three per cent. came from intelligent families, while fully fifty per cent. of these girls came from really comfortable homes, a higher proportion again than was discovered in Worcester. Thirty-five per cent. of those going to work without real neces- sity were fourteen years of age, as compared with forty-seven per cent. in Worcester. Ten per cent. had not reached the seventh grade and thirty-six per cent. the ninth grade.
The mothers of these girls' showed an almost universal in- terest in and appreciation of the advantages of more schooling, but felt that the present school system did not prepare the girls for the situation which they must meet,-ability to contribute to their support within a year or two.
The largest number of girls cluster about the beginning wage of $3 or $4, and show a slight increase during the year, the majority ranging between the $3-$5 weekly wage. In the
245
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
·
unskilled trades, however, many reach their maximum wage within the first year or two, leaving little to look forward to in the future.
Thirty-eight per cent. of the girls who had left school with- out special necessity were Americans and twenty-three per cent. Irish. These nationalities, together with the Swedes, were also the predominating social elements leaving the schools of Worcester at an early age. This fact seems to indicate a lack of appreciation of the value of the present school training rather than a lack of ambition.
Many of the parents and girls visited were ambitious and favorable toward further education, but it must be of such a na- ture as to fit the majority for immediate or early economic inde- pendence, or at least, partial independence. The evening schools are therefore patronized by such ambitious girls, many of whom are not receiving there the kind of training best suited to their needs, but which at present seems to be the only avenue to something higher than life in the factory.
One great need of the educational and industrial world, therefore, stands out prominently, a trade training school which can take the fourteen-fifteen-year-old girls who will not go to the regular schools, and who must go to work in a year or two. If this trade training school can give such equipment that the girls may be enabled to enter a trade which offers some oppor- tunity for development and advancement, many will be enabled to enter the better trades who otherwise would have no other prospect than the factory or the store.
The foregoing discussion seems, therefore, to indicate that there are four trades for which training of one type or another might well be offered in Somerville. The most desirable of these trades are dressmaking and millinery, both from the point of view of the opportunity for advancement to the skilled worker with adequate compensation, and the reflex influence upon the worker in preparing her for right living and right spending.
The opportunity as to numbers is such that there is little danger of oversupplying the market, if care is taken to train only those girls who show a fitness for the trade.
While only a small number are employed in these indus- tries in Somerville, there is an opportunity for the more mature worker to return to her home town for employment if she con- tinues to be economically self-dependent. On the whole, there- fore, these conditions do not differ from conditions in Boston, and our investigation leads us to believe that training for these industries may be offered on practically the same basis as is now being given in the Boston Trade School for Girls, namely, a one-year or a two-year course in dressmaking and in millinery.
PUBLIC LIBRARY.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND OFFICERS
OF THE SOMERVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY, YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 1910.
Trustees.
THOMAS M. DURELL, M. D. JOHN B. VIALL. J. FRANK WELLINGTON. FREDERICK W. PARKER.
WILLIAM L. BARBER. CHARLES L. NOYES, D. D. FREDERICK W. HAMILTON, D. D. WILLIAM B. BURGESS.
CHARLES M. AMBROSE.
Officers.
THOMAS M. DURELL, M. D.
President
SAM WALTER FOSS .
. Secretary
Committees.
Buildings and Grounds - Viall, Noyes, and Ambrose.
Administration - Wellington, Parker, and Burgess.
Books and Catalogues -- Noyes, Barber, Wellington, Hamilton, and Ambrose. Finance - Barber, Parker, and Burgess.
Librarian. SAM WALTER FOSS.
Assistant Librarian. NELLIE M. WHIPPLE.
Librarian's Secretary. BESSIE L. DUDDY.
Cataloguer. ESTHER M. MAYHEW.
Assistant Cataloguer.
EDITH B. HAYES.
Children's Librarian,
ANNA L. STONE.
School Librarian. MARY S. WOODMAN,
Reference and Art Librarian.
MABEL E, BUNKER,
PUBLIC LIBRARY. 247
A. MYRTLE MERRILL. RUBY G. WHITE. A. LISETTE PARKER.
EDGAR L. KAULA. HARRY B. BENSON.
Assistants.
HELEN SPEAR. MYRTLE NICHOLSON. ZOE E. NELSON.
Attendants.
RICHARD BARLOW. OSCAR CEDERLUND.
Janitor. CHARLES A. SOUTHWICK.
WEST SOMERVILLE BRANCH.
Branch Librarian. ALICE W. SEARS.
Assistants. ETHEL M. NUTE.
BESSIE S. COBB. RUTH FALES. ANNIE M. CURRIE.
Attendants. RONALD MOORE. HAROLD CURRIE.
Janitor. THOMAS O'DAY.
PUBLIC LIBRARY ACCOUNT.
Receipts and Expenditures for 1910.
CREDIT.
Ì
Appropriation
.
.
.
$17,000 00
Dog tax
4,085 76
School contingent fund
19 29
Fines, etc.
827 03
Total
DEBIT.
Books and periodicals
$7,841 44
Binding
2,293 85
Cards
115 43
Printing
572 04
Stationery
89 17
Salaries
9,550 83
Agencies
339 26
Express
215 80
Postage
20 00
Telephone
57 84
Supplies
138 82
Binders
21 10
A. L. A. membership
5 00
Repairs
1 45
Insurance
135 00
Disbursements
87 61
Labor .
50 76
Furniture
162 00
Bookcase
40 00
Cabinets
59 00
Dictionary stands
10 00
Typewriter
77 00
Stamp
2 50
Stereographs
33 68
Photograph
2 50
Ice
10 00
Total
$21,932 08
West Somerville Branch.
CREDIT.
1
Appropriation
$4,000 00
Special fund for books
1,000 00
Fines, etc. .
381 47
Total
$5,381 47
Books and periodicals
$3,095 97
Binding
420 31
Cards .
8 00
Printing
.
41 10
Amount carried forward
$3,565 38
.
.
.
.
.
$21,932 08
1
.
.
DEBIT.
249
PUBLIC LIBRARY.
Amount brought forward
$3,565 38
Stationery
13 13
Salaries
1,628 94
Express
44 70
Telephone
29 60
Postage
1 00
Supplies
23 53
Binders
12 30
Cabinet
48 50
Dictionary stand
5 00
Ice
9 20
$5,381 28
Balance
19
Total
.
$5,381 47
Isaac Pitman Art Fund.
CREDIT.
Balance from 1909
$127 27
Interest July 1, American Telephone & Telegraph Co.
80 00
Interest December 31, American Telephone & Telegraph Co.
80 00
Interest accruing on deposits July 1
5 02
Total
$292 20
DEBIT.
Books and pictures purchased in 1910 .
$119 77
Balance carried to 1911 .
172 52
Total
$292 29
Isaac Pitman Poetry Fund.
CREDIT.
Balance carried from 1909
$34 26
Interest July 1, American Telephone & Telegraph Co.
20 00
Interest December 31, American Telephone & Telegraph Co.
20 00
Interest accruing on deposits July 1 .
1 26
Total
$75 52
Books purchased in 1910
$35 80
Balance carried to 1911
39 72
Total
$75 52
DEBIT.
Frances A. Wilder Fund.
Interest accruing on deposit of $100 $6 15
REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES.
To the Honorable, the Mayor, and the Board of Aldermen of the City of Somerville :-
Gentlemen,-The thirty-eighth annual report of the trus- tees of the public library is herewith respectfully submitted.
The report of the librarian is grouped with this more gen- eral cursory report, and to the former your honorable body is referred for a detailed and statistical statement of the operation of the library for the year.
The affairs of the library, while they are now in a healthy condition, have been very much upset during the past year. At the very outset we suffered a severe loss by the retirement of our president, Dr. Edward C. Booth, whose invaluable ser- vices the library had enjoyed for so many years. Our next misfortune was the long and severe illness of our librarian, Sam Walter Foss. Almost coincident with this came a severe outbreak of scarlet fever, which necessitated the closing of both libraries. Together with this came the illness of the assistant librarian, Miss Florence D. Hurter, and her resignation. All of these misfortunes made the work of the library very difficult ; the prompt assistance of one of our own board, William L. Barber, did much to lighten the burden. Permanent relief came with the transfer of Miss Nellie M. Whipple from the branch to the main library. It was with great regret that Miss Whipple's valuable work at the branch was interrupted-still her splendid success at the main library has more than demon- strated the wisdom of the change.
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