USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 1916-1955 > Part 24
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In the high school there were forty-six teachers-fifteen men, and thirty-one women. All had college degrees. Salaries for men teachers ranged from $800 to $1,400 a year; for women teachers, from $640 to $1,000 a year. In 1919, salaries were in- creased to a range of $1,000-1,800 a year for men, and $960- 1,280 a year for women teachers.
Attendance at the high school had been growing even faster than the rapid rise of the city's population as a whole. Enroll- ment had doubled in the 1890s. It doubled again from 1900 to 1910 and then shot up even faster, again doubling in the 1910-1915 period. In September 1915, almost 1,100 students were enrolled in the high school on the Common.
A brick structure with three floors, the high school building was relatively new, having been completed in 1898. Adequate for its day, it had long since been outgrown, being intolerably
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overcrowded in spite of the fact that every foot of space was put to use. Classes were held in the basement, and even in the corridors. This only partially relieved the congestion, and in 1914 a hundred students were transferred to a late afternoon session. At the same time, the commercial department was moved to the Read School near by.
To consider the high school's problems, the authorities ap- pointed a commission which began what threatened to become an interminable debate on whether to add wings to the high school, build a new one, or do nothing at all. This last, while not formally pronounced, was the actual policy for some years as the discussion continued.
For want of a gymnasium and proper facilities, high school students had no physical education program during school hours. Relatively few participated in after-school athletics. There was a sad want of laboratories for teaching the physical sciences and the household arts. The high school building had a basement lunch room but no cafeteria, and became increas- ingly crowded to the detriment of pupils and teachers alike. All of this, united with the narrow educational program offered, accounted in large part for the fact that only one of every three students entering high school went through to get his or her diploma.
Appointed in 1911, Harry E. Pratt resigned as high school principal in 1916 and was succeeded by Lorne B. Hulsman, who had been principal of the high school at Melrose, Massachu- setts. Hulsman shared his predecessor's view that the old build- ing on the Common was poorly designed and so poorly lighted that it would be a waste of money to enlarge it. A new and much larger high school of modern design was needed, a project that would entail much more extended debate before it was approved.
Meantime, the new principal took steps to improve and broaden the curriculum. A course in civics and United States history was made compulsory for all students. Four years of mathematics were offered. Courses in general science, European history, Spanish, and community civics were introduced. The
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commercial course was extended from two to four years. A student athletic association was formed. School clubs of various kinds were granted periods to meet during the school day.
The question of improving the old high school building or erecting a new one was indefinitely postponed with our entry into World War I early in 1917. The war years were difficult ones for all of the schools. The opening of school in 1916 had been delayed by an outbreak of infantile paralysis, or polio- myelitis. Having opened for a few sessions, the schools were again closed by the Board of Health till November 13, after which the rigid enforcement of state vaccination laws caused more complications.
Then came the winter of 1917-1918, one of the worst that Pittsfield ever suffered. To severe cold and heavy snow was added a coal famine caused by the war. To save fuel, the schools were closed for many weeks. The coal in their bunkers was re- moved and sold to shivering householders most desperately in need of it. Not many months later, just before the Armistice in November 1918, the terrible influenza epidemic of that year struck Pittsfield. The schools and all places of public assem- blage were closed for an extended period.
During the war, children in the schools had participated in selling and buying thrift and war savings stamps, in Red Cross work, in the food conservation programs, in digging and tend- ing school gardens. Older children, those over sixteen, joined battalions for supervised farm work in the surrounding country- side. The schools were used in the summer of 1917 to teach housewives the latest processes in canning.
The call of men for duty in the armed forces had revealed a shocking situation. Of those called in Massachusetts for the first selective service draft, almost 40 per cent failed to pass their physical examinations because of one defect or another. As a result, Pittsfield hired its first physical education supervisor in 1918, a woman.
"This year we have commenced specific work in physical training and in corrective work," reported Superintendent Per- sons. "One supervisor gives her entire time. . . . This leaves:
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1,000 high school pupils without any instruction. The entire work is handicapped by the absence of any gymnasium or suita- ble apparatus."
Persons resigned as superintendent of schools in 1919 and in January 1920, was succeeded by John F. Gannon, who had been serving as assistant superintendent at Worcester. In 1923, after several years in Pittsfield, Superintendent Gannon received recognition of his work as an educator by being given an hon- Orary LL.D. degree by Holy Cross College, his alma mater, where he had taken his bachelor's and master's degrees.
In 1920, soon after Gannon's appointment and under his direction, the School Committee authorized a major change in the educational system-the introduction of junior high schools. First established in 1909-1910 as part of the school systems of Columbus, Ohio, and Berkeley, California, junior high schools had proved successful and been adopted by many communities. Under this system, a child attended elementary school for six years, went on to junior high school for three years, and on to senior high school for the same time.
The adoption of this system entailed a major realignment of curriculum and school facilities. But the junior high schools offered many advantages. They brought together children of the intermediate age group. This helped to create better and broad- er social relations at the often difficult period of early adoles- cence. The new schools offered elective courses, departmental- ized teaching of a more systematic order, better physical edu- cation, a broader musical program, courses in manual and home arts, and the opportunity for youngsters of varying interests to form in-school clubs.
'Strictly speaking," said Superintendent Gannon in com- menting on the local scene, "a junior high school should have its own setting; namely, buildings, courses of study, and a dis- tinctive junior high school social atmosphere, with opportun- ities for pre-vocational instruction, educational advice and guid- ance. If these were possible, adoption of the junior high school into the Pittsfield school system would be comparatively easy The chief difficulty in installing the junior high school
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arises from the traditional courses of study, present school prac- tices, and housing facilities."
In September 1920, junior high schools were established in conjunction with four elementary schools-Dawes, Mercer, Plunkett, and Pomeroy. Four more were added on January 31, 1921-at Crane, Redfield, Russell, and Tucker schools. The junior high schools would have to wait a long time before they got their own proper buildings.
In 1919, Massachusetts had passed a law requiring that a continuation school be established in every community which had two hundred employed minors in the 14-16 age bracket. The state agreed to pay half the operating costs. The city bought the equipment of a Springfield printing shop and in- stalled it in the Pomeroy School basement. In September 1920, the Continuation School opened with more than two hundred enrolled. In addition to academic subjects, the boys studied printing; the girls, sewing. Courses in woodworking and cook- ing were soon added.
The Continuation School remained in operation throughout the 1920s. When employment was high and youths could get jobs, the school was filled. When employment was low, at- tendance dropped off as the young people remained in the regular schools.
Two new elementary schools were built-Pontoosuc (1920) and Hibbard (1924). A third story was added to Tucker in 1926. But this construction did little to relieve the general over- crowding in the schools as enrollments went up and up. Many schools had to adopt double sessions. There was the 8:30- 10:30 and 12:30-2:30 shift, and a 10:30-12:30 and 2:30- 4:30 shift.
To help relieve congestion, the city turned to "portable" schoolhouses. Two were established in 1925 at Plunkett and Stearnsville schools. Others were added at Dawes, Bartlett, Hibbard, and Crane schools. The one at Crane School was a three-room building, with two classrooms and an auditorium. While the "portables" left much to be desired, especially in
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the sharp Berkshire winters, they at least allowed some of the schools to discontinue double sessions.
Double sessions were soon the order of the day at the high school. The removal of the commercial department to Read School, which in 1920 became the High School of Commerce, and the introduction of the junior high schools eased the space problem somewhat. But the solution was only temporary as the number of students continued to rise. Disappointed that the city had done nothing about the problem, Principal Hulsman re- signed in 1920 and in March 1921, was succeeded by Roy M. Strout, who remained in office until his retirement after com- mencement in 1955. The new principal had been head of the high school at Danvers, Massachusetts.
In 1921, at the request of the School Committee, Mayor Michael W. Flynn appointed a "Five Year Planning Commit- tee" to make recommendations on a city-wide school building program.
With George H. Tucker as chairman, the committee issued a report the next year urging the construction of a new high school on the Plunkett, Holland, and Zander properties at East and Second streets. The mayor and members of the Council unanimously accepted the report. But there was still substantial public sentiment for enlarging the old building on the Common instead of spending $1,000,000 or more on a new structure.
This largely explains why three years passed before Mayor Fred T. Francis, as authorized by the Council, appointed a Com- mission on the New High School, with Judge Charles L. Hib- bard as chairman. The other original members were Harry C. Crafts, Simon England, Clifford Francis, and Robert F. Stanton. Two more years passed with little done on definite plans.
By this time, the old building on the Common was literally bursting. The commercial department had to be moved back from Read School, which was needed to relieve the overcrowd- ing in the elementary grades at Plunkett School. This necessi- tated dividing the high school students into two "platoons." One group attended classes in the 8:00-12:30 shift, the other
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between 12:45 and 5:15. If the students' complaints were sharp, the teachers' were more so.
Some action was plainly imperative, and a reconstituted Com- mission for the New High School got to work in 1928 and the project was soon under way. The Commission decided to build on a seven-acre tract at the corner of East Street and Appleton Avenue. Some objected that the choice of this site meant the destruction of three of Pittsfield's oldest and finest houses, in- cluding the one famed as the Longfellow House, and involved the levelling of a knoll beloved by the children of the neighbor- hood. For generations it had been their favorite winter play- ground as they did their sliding and coasting down its slopes.
But the decision had been made, the old houses came down, the knoll was levelled off, and the new $1,300,000 high school building began to go up. In September 1931, some 1,400 stu- dents entered the doors of their new "home," which was indeed impressive. The teachers and the entire School Department had contributed much to its planning.
A handsome four-storied Georgian structure topped with a white cupola, it contained thirty-six classrooms, six recitation rooms, five study halls, an auditorium with almost 1,500 seats, a well-equipped gymnasium, shower and locker rooms for boys and girls, a large library, proper laboratories for the sciences, a students' cafeteria seating 640 people, a faculty dining room, three typewriting rooms, and other rooms for music and special purposes.
But ample as the new building was, a welcome change from the "mouse trap" on the Common, it soon became evident that it was not large enough. All the students could not be seated at the same time in the auditorium, and after 1934 school as- semblies had to be held in two sections.
During the 1920s, the school system introduced the use of intelligence tests (1921), "factory classes" in Americanization (1921), a special class for children not speaking English (1921), a vacation school (1921), a special class for the men- tally retarded (1922), a state-aided high school class in the household arts (1922), and school safety patrols (1923). A
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supervisor for the primary grades was appointed in 1923, with Ellen Irons as the first to hold the post.
Between 1920 and 1930, student enrollment in the public schools increased from 6,700 to 8,800 and the number of staff* from 246 to 375. Teachers' salaries were raised, with men teach- ers in the high school again favored, earning up to a maximum of $2,300 a year.
But the average staff salary remained comparatively low, rising during the decade from $1,250 to $1,510 a year. Day school expenditures increased from $391,911 in 1919-20 to $756,874 in 1929-30. These figures were not quite comparable, for the latter figure included certain maintenance costs that had been part of the Public Works Department's budget up to 1927, and prices in general had risen.
Then came the Great Depression, which ended all thought of expanding and improving the school system for the time being. It was a struggle for the schools even to maintain the educa- tional levels they had reached.
The first depression cut occurred in 1932, when the school budget was reduced $75,000 below the preceding year. Appro- priations for the kindergartens and the Continuation School were eliminated. The School Committee reduced the length of the fall semester and cut teachers' salaries 25 per cent for the period-equal to a 10 per cent cut for the year. As no other city employees had had their paychecks reduced, the teachers felt that the schools were being turned into a "political football."
In 1933, the budget was cut again-almost $70,000. As in all city departments, salaries in the School Department were reduced 10 per cent. Again, there were no appropriations for kindergartens and the Continuation School. Both had kept going by the transfer of funds from the salary account of the teachers, who accepted an additional pay cut in the form of seventeen payless furlough days in the school year.
At a time of unprecedented social crisis, when small children were feeling the strains of family and community life and being deprived of their usual opportunities, there were widespread
*** Staff" included teachers, supervisors, and principals.
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and very strong objections to abolishing the kindergartens, which had become an integral part of the school system in 1902 after a long and often bitter battle.
In 1934, under the new city charter, the elected School Com- mittee was reduced from fourteen to seven members. The new Committee, four members of which had served in 1933, decided that the best and fairest method of solving the problems of the schools and of the teachers-or as good a method as any under the circumstances-was (1) to discontinue the kindergartens, which were not required by law; (2) to abolish the Continua- tion School, in which enrollment had dropped sharply as the Depression deepened; (3) to discharge thirty-three teachers, most of them newly appointed; and (4) to transfer teachers with longer service to positions that were unfilled-all of which was done.
Between 1930 and 1934, student enrollment had not mark- edly increased, rising from 8,800 to 9,300. The school budget had fallen from $820,000 in 1931-32 to $646,000 two years later, a decline of almost 25 per cent. The number of the staff had remained almost stationary. The average staff salary had fallen from $1,510 to $1,280 a year, back to the 1920 level.
In 1931, the School Committee had created a new office, assistant superintendent of schools, and to that post appointed Edward J. Russell, head of the science department at the high school. Superintendent Gannon refused to recognize either the office or the appointee. After some legal questions had been settled, Russell took office in 1933 and in July 1934, became superintendent of schools, succeeding Dr. Gannon, who had been ill. Superintendent Russell has been in office since that time.
With Caroline C. Plunkett as chairman, a sub-committee of the School Committee undertook, with Superintendent Russell's technical assistance, to realign the school districts in 1934. The district lines established at that time remained virtually un- changed until the building of three new elementary schools almost twenty years later. As the suspension of kindergartens and other curtailments during the early Depression released a
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number of rooms, it was possible to do away with the "porta- ble" schoolhouses, which were sold and carted away, with stu- dents and parents and the entire neighborhood rejoicing.
Under the 1934 city charter, the maintenance of school build- ings, long sadly neglected, was placed in charge of a superin- tendent of public buildings. With the close cooperation of the first building superintendent, George C. Beckwith, the School Department began an extensive program for rehabilitating its physical plant.
Old plumbing was removed, new boilers and sanitary drink- ing fountains were installed, roofs were repaired, fire hazards and structural weaknesses were corrected, desks and blackboards were refinished, the buildings got a coat of paint inside and out at long last. The electric light bulbs in use since 1910 gave way to a far brighter and better illuminating system. The school cafeterias were much improved.
There was also intellectual "rehabilitation." In spite of low budgets, obsolete textbooks were thrown out and replaced with up-to-date ones. Wall maps and other modern teaching aids were placed in the classrooms. The high school's commercial department was provided with modern business machines. Portable projectors for silent and sound films, film strip pro- jectors, and radios became available for classroom use and were in almost constant service. Under the direction of John E. Joyce, Jr., the Radio Guild at the high school wrote scripts and pro- duced programs for local broadcasting station WBRK, as did the radio clubs in the junior high schools.
With all education, from college down, being subjected to critical review and reappraisal during the 1930s, every course in the local schools, no matter what the grade or subject, was revised to incorporate new insights on child development and educational psychology, and the recommendations of academic authorities on cutting "dead wood" out of the curriculum. The giving of standard tests for reading, spelling, and arithmetic became routine procedure. The trend of training was toward the "practical" and vocational.
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The city's first advance into state-aided vocational training occurred in 1927 when a carpentry class of sixteen boys was established in the Pomeroy School basement. The first voca- tional classes contributed to the city's school plant, helping to build the Pomeroy School Annex in 1928 and the Abby Lodge Community House in 1930, later the Abby Lodge School. In 1934, the "general" vocational school moved into part of the east wing basement of the high school.
At Superintendent Russell's request, state educational au- thorities undertook in 1935 a survey of Pittsfield's industries and recommended that a first-rate machine shop course would best serve the community and its youth in the matter of vocational training. An advisory committee of people with industrial ex- perience was appointed. Machine tools and related equipment, mostly donated, were installed. Competent instructors were hired and in September 1937, the school system opened its first state-aided machine-shop course.
Its growth, though not rapid, was steady. It was attended not only by a growing number of high school applicants but by many of the unemployed who were on the WPA, NYA, or local welfare rolls. In 1940, the machine shop was expanded to in- clude the entire east wing basement of the high school.
The outbreak of World War II further stimulated vocational education. The city bought a garage on East Street, across Ap- pleton Avenue from the high school, and converted it into voca- tional shops for teaching auto mechanics, machine shop, print- ing, welding, and cabinet making. Some two hundred high school youths enrolled in the expanded vocational courses in 1941. Students spent alternate weeks working in the shops and attending classes in the high school. By the end of the war, almost 6,000 students, including older men and women, had taken these vocational "war production" courses.
New courses were introduced in the high school on such subjects as "pre-induction" mathematics, first aid, and aero- nautics. More emphasis was placed on physical education in the upper schools. Nursery classes, open from 6:30 in the morning to 6 at night, were formed to care for the pre-school children of
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working mothers. In September 1943, after a lapse of nine years, the kindergartens were reestablished. Successful "back- to-school" campaigns were waged to keep youthful workers in class under an arrangement permitting them to continue part- time employment.
The school children of the city played an active part during the war in the campaigns to salvage waste paper, scrap iron, tin cans, rubber, fats, milkweed floss, and other usable material.
"In responding so well to the salvage appeals," remarked the press, "the children not only are satisfying their patriotic desire to play a real role in the war effort, but they are also financing the local Salvage Committee's worthwhile project of sending Christmas packages to each local man in the armed services."
Money from the sale of scrap also went to the Red Cross, the Community Chest, and into school funds for the purchase of much of the athletic and audio-visual equipment bought during the war years. In addition, profits from salvage helped to finance the city's present series of "safe-and-sane" Halloween celebrations beginning in 1942. Sponsored by the Parent- Teacher Association, the School Department, and the Salvage Committee headed by Superintendent Russell, later taken over by the city's Parks and Recreation Department, these imagina- tively organized and colorful community celebrations, with a big parade along North Street as the main feature, have become part of the Pittsfield tradition.
The teachers of the city did valuable war work as volunteers in the registration of aliens and of selective service men, and in organizing and carrying out the complicated procedures attend- ing the various rationing programs. Some of these activities, especially those concerned with rationing, interfered at times with the school program, but there was no alternative.
It became plain after the war that the schools were facing a serious crisis. With the birth rate rising, the number of school children was constantly increasing, and there had been virtually no enlargement of school facilities since the opening of the high school almost fifteen years before.
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In 1948, as a result of a study of school building needs made by Superintendent Russell, Mayor Capeless appointed a School Survey Commission of six members. Under the chairmanship of Robert G. Newman, librarian of the Berkshire Athenaeum, this commission recommended that a professional firm of educa- tional consultants be engaged to make an all-inclusive survey of the public school buildings. After rather heated debate, this proposal was adopted and the New York firm of Engelhardt, Engelhardt and Leggett undertook to do the survey for $10,000.
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