USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1917 > Part 5
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232,500 00
Trust Funds :-
School, S. Newton Cutler
$128 39
Library :-
Martha R. Hunt, art
15 00
Martha R. Hunt, books
1,003 83
Isaac Pitman, art
218 09
Isaac Pitman, poetry 41 74
S. Newton Cutler .
129 07
Wilder, children's de- partment 14 95
1,551 07
Temporary loans .
1,390,000 00
Court judgments .
199 00
Tellers' shorts and overs
62 21
3,815,450 70
Non-Revenue.
Outlay appropriations .
$305,440 37
Carried forward .
$305,440 37
$3,815,450 70
TREASURER AND COLLECTOR OF TAXES.
79
Brought forward .
$305,440 37
$3,815,450 70
Redemption of tax liens
3,615 80
309,056 17
$4,124,506 87
Cash in office
$10,783 07
Deposits in banks
226,463 16
237,246 23
$4,361,753 10
Revenue Cash.
General Expenses
$115,871 96
Trust Funds (public) 967 21
Premium on bonds
1,070 40
Accrued interest on bonds
1,310 94
Sundry persons .
127 11
$119,347 62
Non-Revenue.
Outlay appropriations . $117,898 61
$237,246 23
The assessors' warrant for the tax levy, assessed upon polls and property, April 1, 1917, including non-resi- dent bank shares, amounted to and the tax rate established was $22.00 on each $1,000 of the valuation, as follows :-
$1,827,930 75
Real estate .
$71,165,900 00
Personal estate
7,689,000 00
Resident bank shares .
66,572 00
Total valuation
$78,921,472 00
At a rate of $22.00
$1,736,272 38 51,034 00
Polls, 25,517 at $2.00
Non-resident bank shares to be paid to state (valuation $120,428.00)
2,649 42
$1,789,955 80
Street sprinkling .
36,714 45 1,260 50
$1,827,930 75
Additional assessments :-
Personal estate, valuation $13,900 at $22.00 . . .
$305 80
Polls, 47 at $2.00 . .
94 00
.
.
399 80
Total commitments by assessors ·
$1,828,330 55
Suppression moths
80
ANNUAL REPORTS.
BALANCES.
Credit.
Cash on hand and in banks .
Cash advances, C. C. Folsom, agent
2,700 00
Taxes, 1915 .
8 68
Taxes, 1916
2,911 32
Taxes, 1917 .
359,205 97 7 05
Street Sprinkling, 1916
Street Sprinkling, 1917
8,771 15 316 75
Moth assessments, 1917
$3,118 57
Overlay and abatement, 1915
2,437 19
Overlay and abatement, 1916 .
13,046 45
Overlay and abatement, 1917
1,113 34
Reserve supplementary assessments, 1917
954 65
Highway betterment assessments, 1917
8,726 09
Sidewalk assessments, 1916 .
1,587 77
Sidewalk assessments, 1917 .
5,904 92
Sewer assessments, 1916
1,414 07
Sewer assessments, 1917
3,172 20
Metered water charges
29,148 71
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. (ad- vances, Soldiers' benefits)
30,080 66
Grade Crossings (advances)
377 30
Real estate liens
104 27
Temporary loans .
·
510,000 00 1,757,500 00
Net funded debt (balancing account)
1,757,500 00
Outlay appropriations
117,898 61
Trust Funds, income :
400 88
School, S. Newton Cutler
33 23
Martha R. Hunt, art .
219 29
Martha R. Hunt, books
41 28
Isaac Pitman, ant
55 48
Isaac Pitman, poetry
7 27
Wilder, children's fund
7 01
Martha R. Hunt (part of principal)
202 77
Premium on bonds
1,070 40
Accrued interest on bonds
1,310 94
Tellers' shorts and overs
3 97
Sundry persons
127 11
Excess and deficiency .
37,419 75
Reserve fund (surplus from overlay)
3,224 45
Sale of land (Fire Station, Winter Hill)
500 00
Public school trust funds
5,000 00
Public library trust funds .
20,414 58
Public school trust funds (investment)
5,000 00
Public library trust funds (investment)
20,414 58
$2,475,552 37
$2,475.552 37
.
Reserve supplementary assessments, 1916
399 80
Highway betterment assessments, 1916
Debit. $237,246 23
Funded debt
.
Library, S. Newton Cutler
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE. CITY OF SOMERVILLE.
School Committee Rooms, December 28, 1917.
Ordered, that the annual report of the Superintendent be adopted as the annual report of the Board of School Com- mittee, it being understood that such adoption does not com- mit the Board to the opinions or recommendations made there- in; that it be incorporated in the reports of the City Officers ; and that 1,000 copies be printed separately.
CHARLES S. CLARK,
Secretary of School Board.
SCHOOL COMMITTEE, 1917.
GEORGE E. WHITAKER
, Chairman
HERBERT CHOLERTON
. Vice-Chairman
Members.
EX-OFFICIIS.
Term expires January.
ZEBEDEE E. CLIFF, Mayor, 29 Powder House terrace 1918
WARREN C. DAGGETT, President Board of Aldermen,
28 Belknap street 1918
WARD ONE.
JAMES J. RUDD,
46-A Franklin street 1918
DR. WINNIFRED P. DAVIS,
125 Pearl street 1919
WARD TWO.
DANIEL H. BRADLEY,
19 Concord avenue 1919
CHRISTOPHER J. MULDOON,
GEORGE E. WHITAKER,
OSCAR W. CODDING,
HARRY A. STONE,
FRANK H. HOLMES,
HARRY M. STOODLEY,
MRS. JULIA R. ALDRICH,
GUY E. HEALEY,
GEORGE E. WARDROBE,
FRANK E. PORTER, HERBERT CHOLERTON,
43 Ossipee road 1918
94 College avenue 1919
Superintendent of Schools.
CHARLES S. CLARK.
Office: City Hall Annex, Highland avenue. Residence: 75 Munroe street.
The Superintendent's office will be open on school days from 8 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.
Superintendent's office force :-
Justin W. Lovett, 29 Cambria street. Mary A. Clark, 42 Highland avenue. Mildred A. Merrill, 26 Cambria street. H. Madeline Kodad, 1067 Broadway.
88 Concord avenue 1919
WARD THREE.
75 Walnut street 1918
21 Pleasant avenue 1919
WARD FOUR.
254 Broadway 1918
22 Walter street 1919
WARD FIVE.
283 Highland avenue 1918
262 School street 1919
WARD SIX.
38 Cambria street 1918
31 Rogers avenue 1919
WARD SEVEN.
STANDING COMMITTEES, 1917.
Note .- The member first named is chairman; the one second named is vice-chairman.
District I .- Rudd, Dr. Davis, Muldoon.
PRESCOTT, HANSCOM, BENNETT.
District II .- Bradley, Muldoon, Codding.
KNAPP, PERRY, BAXTER.
District III .- Whitaker, Codding, Dr. Davis.
POPE, BELL, CUMMINGS.
District IV .- Stone, Holmes, Mrs. Aldrich.
EDGERLY, GLINES.
District V .- Stoodley, Mrs. Aldrich, Stone. FORSTER, BINGHAM.
District VI .- Healey, Wardrobe, Stoodley.
CARR, MORSE, PROCTOR, DURELL, BURNS, BROWN.
District VII .- Porter, Cholerton, Healey.
HIGHLAND, HODGKINS, CUTLER, LINCOLN, LOWE.
High School .- Bradley, Cholerton, Dr. Davis, Whitaker, Holmes, Stoodley, Healey.
Finance .- Stoodley, Stone, Rudd, Bradley, Codding, Wardrobe, Porter, Cliff, Daggett.
Text-books and Courses of Study .- Healey, Muldoon, Rudd, Whitaker, Stone, Mrs. Aldrich, Cholerton.
Industrial Education .- Holmes, Rudd, Bradley, Codding, Mrs. Aldrich, Healey, Porter.
School Accommodations .- Stone, Porter, Dr. Davis, Muldoon, Codding, Stoodley, Wardrobe, Cliff, Daggett.
Teachers .- Cholerton, Bradley, Whitaker, Stone, Mrs. Aldrich. Playgrounds and School Hygiene .- Mrs. Aldrich, Muldoon, Dr. Davis, Holmes, Wardrobe.
Rules and Regulations .- Muldoon, Healey, Holmes.
REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS.
To the School Committee of Somerville :-
I have the honor to submit to you a report of the condi- tion of the schools for the year ending December 31. 1917. This report is in accordance with your rules and regulations and is intended to serve as a report of the School Committee as well as of the Superintendent of Schools.
In a general way the special work of the year has been to carry into effect certain policies which have been initiated within the last few years. Chief among these has been the continuance of the movement to provide relief for overcrowding in several parts of the city by opening a new junior high school, and by transferring thereto pupils from several grammar schools. The effect of these changes will be examined in this report somewhat in detail. Another large feature of the year's work was the adaptation of the curriculum of the schools and of the teaching corps made necessary by the withdrawal of an additional number from the high and elementary schools and the increasing thereby of the number of pupils and teachers enrolled in the junior high schools. Still another feature of the year has been the unusual activities in which pupils have en- gaged as the direct consequence of the entrance of this country into the European War. All of these undertakings have been carried on quietly and effectively. They constitute in the total a work considerable in amount and far-reaching in kind. It has been the year of transition, of progress from things that were towards things that are to come. While we cannot clearly see what the outcome of the world conditions is to be after the war, it is certain that the experiences through which the world is passing will have a profound effect upon the life and customs of the people of the countries engaged in war. Among the other institutions of the people which will be so affected must be numbered the schools of the people. Already pupils are being introduced into new fields of thinking and acting, and this process will continue while war lasts and will be followed by readjustments which will make a new order differing greatly from the old.
The chief change in the enrollment of pupils in 1917 as compared with that of 1916 has been in the growth of attend- ance in certain parts of the city with a decline in others. The total of the average membership in all schools in November was 12.989, as compared with 12.665 for the same time in 1916.
85
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
In the East Somerville and Winter Hill districts the schools are full. This is particularly true of the elementary schools where every class room is taxed to its fullest capacity. In the central part of the city the schools are generally full, although not overcrowded. Those in the western part of the city have been relieved by the opening of the new junior high school. but are still comfortably full. Every room except one in the High- land School is occupied and with few exceptions the classes are as large as they ought to be; many of them are too large. The Morse and Burns Schools, which in preceding years have been overcrowded, have been relieved by transfers of pupils made possible by the opening of the West Somerville Junior High School. The High School has now a membership of 1.450. con- trasted with 1.800, the membership last year. From this ac- count it will be seen that already the High School has been greatly relieved by the opening of the Junior High School. and that there has been a reduction in overcrowding all over the city. In East Somerville and Winter Hill. where at the present time the elementary schools are filled. there are at present no half time classes. nor is there one in any other part of the city. The general conditions are such. however, that there is only a small margin between actual present demand and accommoda- tion provided. A slight increase in attendance in certain dis- tricts will make half time classes again necessary.
During the year two new school buildings were opened. The West Somerville Junior High School on Holland Street was completed and ready for occupancy on the opening of schools in September. This is a building constructed in ac- cordance with plans providing for a large structure with class rooms on four sides and a hall and gymnasium in the center. The front and part of one side of this general plan have now been built supplying fifteen rooms available for class rooms and shops. The basement contains two rooms for practical arts for girls and two rooms for practical arts for boys. The class rooms on the first and second floors are devoted to academic subjects. By means of a folding door, two adjoining rooms can be converted into one and in this way provide an as- sembly room large enough to seat two hundred persons. The building, like the one at East Somerville, is light, well ventilat- ed, and well adapted to the purpose for which it is intended.
The other new building is an addition to the Vocational School for Boys. This building is a one story wooden structure 90 feet long and 40 feet wide. It contains two rooms : one for a machine shop and the other for an automobile shop. This building, although not fully completed, has been used since September by a class in automobile repair work.
86
ANNUAL REPORTS.
Another accomplishment of this year has been the pur- chase of land adjacent to the Baxter School to increase the playground of that school. This land is situated on the south- erly side of the school premises, and is 50 feet on Bolton Street and 110 feet deep, comprising 5,500 square feet. This addition is valuable both because it adds play space in a locality where very little space for play is available to children, and because the possession of this land by the city will prevent the erection there of any structure which would cut off light from the school building.
This year has witnessed another event of great importance to the development of the schools. The last junior high school necessary to complete the chain proposed by the School Com- mittee in its recommendations last year was assured when the Board of Aldermen last September made an appropriation of $90,000 for the construction of a junior high school building on Vinal avenue. Work has already been begun on a twelve-room building designed especially for junior high school activities, and to be used in connection with the Luther V. Bell school building. It is proposed to complete this building, ready for use by September 1918. The junior high school organized in this building will draw the upper grade classes from the Morse, Carr, Knapp, and Bell schools.
One year ago I said in my annual report that fifty addi- tional class rooms could be put to advantageous use if they could be provided by the opening of the school year in 1917. Since then seventeen rooms have been furnished and twelve more are under way. Additions should be made during the next year in keeping with the general policy set forth in the last re- port and with the development of the present school year. As conditions now stand, there is need for relief in the East Som- erville and Winter Hill districts. The West Somerville Junior High School is too small for its present enrollment. The new building at the Boys' Vocational School provides too little room for the automobile department. Inasmuch as the auto- mobile repair work has started under very favorable conditions and it appears certain that this is to be one of the most popular and most useful courses in the school, it is desirable to have an addition made to this building in such a way as to give ade- quate room to accommodate eight or ten automobiles while they are under repair.
An addition should be made to the West Somerville Junior High School building to be ready for use next September. The building is now overcrowded. Every room is used regularly. Since the opening of the school it has been necessary to use corridors for class room purposes. Such a condition cramps the proper activities of a junior high school organization by restricting them to the most formal and academic of subjects.
87
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
The junior high school is in nature a laboratory wherein youths seek to discover their aptitudes and to choose the direction of their life work. Such an undertaking cannot be successfully carried on in a space restricted to the most meagre physical need. Room for movement, variety and expansion are neces- sary. With so good a beginning as has been made in West Som- erville an addition of a new wing would relieve crowding and give the room needed for the successful conduct of the various functions of the school. In the Winter Hill and East Somer- ville districts present relief can be secured in one of two ways, i. e., by an addition to the East Somerville Junior High School building or by the erection of a building in connection with the Forster School group. An addition of six rooms to the East Somerville Junior High School building would make pos- sible the transferring of classes from the Prescott School to the enlarged junior high school building. This would be in every way better for the junior high school. The five rooms in the Prescott School so vacated could be used for elementary schools, thereby giving relief to the Hanscom, Edgerly, and Glines schools. This change could be made without the pur- chase of additional land. The Winter Hill Junior High and ele- mentary classes in the Forster School building are greatly crowded. Relief from this condition here can be made only by the purchase of additional land and the erection of a new building. Whether this building were planned for junior high school use or for elementary school use, it would, in connection with the other buildings of the Forster group, afford relief to crowded conditions now existing there and could be made the means of reducing the pressure on the buildings further to the east. Which of these two plans should first be used is a matter for careful consideration. I hope one or the other can be put into effect so that its benefits may be had by the opening of the next school year.
High School.
The High School is now working under the most favorable conditions which it has experienced for a number of years. Its membership has been reduced to such a point as to give ade- quate relief from overcrowding. As a consequence the activi- ties of the school have been conducted this year with increased effectiveness. Two teachers are devoting half their time to Vo- cational Guidance. Working in conjunction with the other teachers of the school they have done much to improve the rela- tions of many pupils to the school, to assist pupils in securing work, and to increase pupils' knowledge of the conditions in industry and commerce, thereby giving them help in determin- ing their own plans for work after leaving school. This work is more fully set forth in a report which these teachers have pre- pared and is printed as an appendix to this report.
88
ANNUAL REPORTS.
At my request Head Master John A. Avery has furnished a statement which expresses his opinion upon these matters. I give it here with my approval in place of more extended re- marks of my own.
"The Fall of 1917 marks a unique condition in this school. For reasons of which I shall speak later, the membership has dropped to 1,440, a decrease of 351 from last year, and of 818 from 1915, the year of the school's greatest membership. For the first time, therefore, in twenty years the membership is small enough to be accommodated normally in the school buildings.
"This means, first, that every pupil has a desk in a room suitable for the purpose; second, that typewriting rooms, me- chanical drawing rooms, sewing rooms, and rooms of like char- acter are no longer used for home room purposes; third, that other vacated rooms may be used for special purposes, such as laboratories, vocational guidance rooms, special commercial rooms, rooms for school paper, orchestra, etc., as soon as they can be equipped ; and fourth, that certain large rooms are avail- able for study purposes exclusively.
"The reasons for the striking decrease in numbers are two- fold; first, the establishment of Junior High schools which has reduced the freshman class about two-thirds ; second, the exces- sive shrinkage of the upper classes due to so many pupils leav- ing before graduation to go to work, a lamentable situation but one well nigh unavoidable in these days of attractive high wages and excessive demands for all kinds of inexperienced labor.
"The Vocational Work has been given an added impetus during the year by the appointment of a second counselor, so that we now have two teachers devoting half their time each or the equivalent of one teacher devoting all of his time to this work.
"An important part of their work has been in placing pupils in afternoon and Saturday positions and in arranging part time Holiday work for needy pupils in stores and offices in Boston.
"A large number of lecturers secured by the counselors have spoken to the pupils on various phases of business.
"These Counselors have also arranged a series of lessons to pupils of the first year class on "Occupations," treating such subjects as Stenography, Typewriting, Bookkeeping, Telephone Operating, Farming, Management and Organization, Library Work, etc.
"Many pupils have been interviewed individually and ad- vised regarding their choice of work, the fitness of their selec- tion of studies in preparation for their life work and the ad-
89
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.
visability and necessity of staying in school till the completion of their high school course.
"In patriotism and service the school is trying to do its share. Our country's call has taken into the service several of our undergraduates and many of our graduates. At a patri- otic meeting held on the day before Thanksgiving an honor list of 135 graduates and eleven undergraduates was read. These numbers have already been increased by later returns.
"The pupils of the school have also been doing many serv- ices in an unorganized manner. An effort has recently been made to organize this work by the Students' Council. A soci- ety has been formed consisting of all the pupils and teachers of the school under the name of the Somerville High School Patriotic Association under whose management many kinds of patriotic service are being planned and executed. The pledge card of this organization reads as follows : 'I, -of Room - -Class-promise to hold myself in readiness to perform any service consistent with my home and school duties that will directly or indirectly assist my country, my state, or my city'; and on the reverse side the signer is requested to indi- cate the character of the work for which he is most fitted. such as Knitting, Collecting Reading Material. Red Cross Work. Making Surgical Dressings, Making Splints, Tagging. Use of Automobile, Clerical Work. Gardening. Assisting Local Chari- ties, Teaching Disabled Soldiers.
"The outlook of the school is the brightest it has been for many years. The reduction in numbers has relieved all the discomforts of overcrowding. Teachers have smaller classes to teach. Much more personal work can be done and factory methods of handling large numbers have disappeared. Crowd- ing, jostling, impure air are things of the past. so that with the admirable daily physical training exercises put into effect last year, an improvement in the appearance of the pupils is already noticeable.
"Discipline also has already improved and 'Offense cards' and 'punishments' are relatively few. A spirit of co-operation and kindly feeling between pupils and teachers seems to pre- vail as never before. In fact the school is entering on a new era of comfort and normal conditions which is bringing a har- vest of better work, greater efficiency, improved school spirit and renewed ambition."
JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS.
The New Junior High School in West Somerville.
This school was opened in September with 734 pupils and twenty-seven teachers. Its equipment consists of eleven class rooms for academic work; two shops for boys, one a metal working shop, the other a carpenter shop; and two practical arts rooms for girls, one for sewing and one for cooking. One
90
ANNUAL REPORTS.
of the class rooms is equipped as a general science laboratory and another is equipped as a drawing room. One room serves the combined uses of library and study room. One room is used for typewriting. Two academic classes are conducted in large corridors. Most of the teachers for this school were taken from the upper grades of the grammar schools from which the pupils were transferred to form the junior high school, but a few were taken from the senior high school. These changes were made as a result of careful planning, the teachers, in the main, having been given subjects to teach which they prefer and which they are best qualified to teach. In general terms the pupils are pursuing three courses of study, Preparatory, Commercial, and Manual Arts. The course of study in academic subjects is identical with that followed at the other two junior high schools. The one variation that is characteristic of this school is the metal working for boys. The plan for all junior high schools is to have two kinds of manual work for boys and two kinds for girls. This school is now well equipped and well or- ganized and its various departments are running smoothly and well.
East Somerville Junior High School.
At the East Somerville Junior High School an additional activity has been provided this year for boys, a class in book- binding having been added to the work of that school.
As the year closes, the teachers of the junior high school are organized in committees for the purpose of carefully exam- ining the course of study for the school with the purpose of preparing new outlines of work in the various subjects which shall be best adapted to carry into effect the purposes for which these schools were established.
Vocational Schools.
The vocational schools have suffered some loss of attend- ance through the demand for workers and the consequent in- creased opportunities for the youth to find employment. The girls' school has suffered in this particular more than the boys'. Its work, however, continues to be of a high grade, affording a superior training in practical arts for girls. The history of its graduates gives convincing evidence of the high value of the preparation for life which girls here secure. It cannot be doubted that many more girls would be attracted to this school if it were more favorably situated. It will be necessary soon either to remodel or to renovate the building which this school occupies, or to abandon it altogether. In the latter event it will be necessary to move to another building or else to give up the school. The latter alternative ought not to be consid- ered for a moment. It would also be unwise to expend any more money on this building. The remaining alternative is to
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