USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Merrimac > Town Annual Report of the Officers of the Town of Merrimac 1950 > Part 5
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23.7
Merrimacport School
Prin., Grade 3
Mae Ethel Davis
Salem Normal
22.5
17.5
Grades 4 & 5
Grace M. Smith
Fitchburg Normal, 1926
2
0
Grade 2
Ethel B. Whiting
A.B. 1913, Bates
5
5
Crafts Class
Howard G. Patchett
B.A. 1914, Union; M.A. 1926, Clark
29
19
Drawing Teacher
Richard J. Herman
B.S.E. 1949, Mass. School of Art
1
1
Music Teacher
Doris M. Currier
Institute of Music Pedagogy
28.5
19
5
0
English
7.6
7.6
French & Latin
Bridgewater Normal, 1929
12.5
5.8
1 2 1 2
TOWN OF MERRIMAC
Position
23
6
ISCHOOL REPORT
1950 FINANCIAL SUMMARY
Regular school appropriation
$63,290.00
Refunded dog tax
331.50
Total available for schools
$63,621.50
Total expenditures
63,605.77
Balance
$ 15.73
Reimbursements:
Supt. Schools
$ 919.78
Chap. 643, Acts of 1948
18,636.54
Chap. 679, Acts of 1947 1,095.00
Chap. 560, Acts of 1949 3.60
Tuition, Transp. State Wards, '49
1,133.13
Tuition, Transp. State Wards, '50
1,448.39
Tuition local schools
76.55 $23,312.99
Total expenditures
$63,605.77
Total reimbursements 23,312.99
Total cost from local taxation in 1950
$40,292.78
Summary of Expenditures
General Control
School committee expenses $ 5.25
Supt. Schools' salary 1,250.00
Secretary's salary 512.50 -
Travel expenses & office costs 237.16
Law enforcement 461.45
.$2,466.36
7.
TOWN OF MERRIMAC
Cost of instruction
Teachers and substitutes
40,695.57
Drawing, music, nature lore
teachers
1,829.00
Text books
1,656.65
School supplies
1,898.94
46,080.16
Cost of Operation
Janitors' salaries
2,767.72
Fuel
3,011.61
Janitors' supplies, etc.
424.02
6,203.35
Maintenance
2,126.10
H. S. Athletics
138.27
Libraries
359.94
Health
1,089.76
Transportation
3,405.64
Equipment
1,395.64
Telephones, miscellaneous
340.55
$63,605.77
1951 FINANCIAL ESTIMATES
General Control
School committee expenses
$ 25.00
Supt. Schools' salary
1,350.00
Secretary's salary
575.00
Travel expenses and office costs
250.00
Law enforcement
460.00
$2,660.00
Cost of Instruction
Teachers and substitutes
44,300.00
Drawing, music, nature lore teachers
2,080.00
Text books
1,850.00
4
School supplies
1,900.00
50,130.00
8
SCHOOL REPORT
Cost of Operation
Janitors' salaries
3,080.00
Fuel
3,000.00
Janitors' supplies, etc.
425.00
6,505.00
Maintenance
4,000.00
H. S. Athletics
200.00
Libraries
200.00
Health
1,075.00
Transportation
3,400.00
Equipment
2,000.00
Telephones, miscellaneous
300.00
$70,470.00
Estimated reimbursements:
Supt. Schools
$ 933.33
Chap. 643, Acts of 1948
19,415.29
Chap. 679, Acts of 1947
1,125.00
$21,473.62
Total estimated expenditures
$70,470.00
Total estimated reimbursements
21,473.62
Estimated total from local taxation in 1951
$48,996.38
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION STATEMENT
Vocational education appropriation
$2,000.00
Vocational education expenditures
1,039.01
Balance
$ 960.99
Vocational education expenditures
$1,039.01
Vocational education reimbursements
689.78
Total cost from taxation for vocational education $ 349.23
9
TOWN OF MERRIMAC
MORE CLASSROOMS NEEDED
Merrimac public schools must have constantly more classrooms during the next four or five years; it looks as though one of them would be needed for September, 1951. To that end the 1951 school budget estimate includes the salary of an extra teacher beginning next September and $1,000 for extra classroom equipment. Where is the class- room itself to be found? If there were no Crafts class in September there are somewhat over five hundred square feet of floor space in the Lancaster court building that could be used to house a small overflow group, but the returns from this spring's travelling state clinic are not likely to be back in time to provide for getting a class- room constructed and ready to occupy in September, in case the Crafts class is mandated again for the fall.
In 1950 the raise in entrance age by three months, coming as it did in one of the two years which child- ren entered who were born during the birthrate decline of the latter part of World War II, resulted in only thirty first grade pupils. These were all assigned to one teacher at Centre School. In 1951 the entrants will cover again a birth span of twelve months; it is unlikely that they can be taught properly by one first grade teacher. Another teacher means still another classroom, which is only a beginning. There were fifty percent more births in Mer- rimac in the five-year period from 1945 to 1949 than there were in the five-year period from 1940 to 1944. It is reason- able to expect, therefore, fifty percent more entering pupils in 1951 to 1955 than there were in 1946 to 1950. Citizens know by now how overcrowded the schools have been during the latter period, and of the opening of three rooms at the Port and one at Lancaster Court. The sig- nificant enrollment spurt should begin in 1952 and 1953.
The immediate problem is the provision of a class-
10
SCHOOL REPORT
room for September, 1951. As the town's efforts for a new school building have been delayed, we are faced with the possibility of having to provide additional class- room space. Shall it be by building an addition on some present building, such as Prospect Street School? Is some other room in town available? Shall it be by moving into the high school building and sending high school pupils out to tuition, if possible ? The latter would be unfortunate in many ways; there is no Massachusetts statute whereby a town can contract with a neighboring community for more than a year at a time. When the enrollment spurt reaches the high school, communities will drop outside tui- tion pupils, late comers first, to care for their own. Then, too, in the towns of this district that have always paid a nearby community to give their high school children an education, the number of pupils that have dropped out be- fore completing high school has been much higher than in the towns that have run their own high schools. Financial- ly, it would take in 1951 an added estimated appropriation of $1,165 per school month, or $4,660 in 1951 from Sep- tember to December, to make it possible for the school de- partment to send high school pupils out as things stand at present : tuition and transportation costs are somewhat off- set by teacher salaries and other costs. As enrollment in- creases, however, and tuition costs rise, the extra cost to the town would roll. The extra transportation costs would be reimbursed entirely, but tuition costs would not, since the passage of Chapter 643 of the Acts of 1948. Latest re- ports of the cost of education in small towns that send their high school pupils out, and pay tuition, are that the an- nual cost for education is $56.56 more per pupil per school year for education in those towns than in towns running their own small high schools. The figures are averages for the whole state.
MAINTENANCE
The main item of maintenance and improvement of
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TOWN OF MERRIMAC
school buildings during 1950 was on the first floor and. hall at the high school, where painting and decorating were followed by the installation of twelve school type fluorescent lights in the main room and six in the English room,-together with a Montgomery office program clock which rings schedule bells automatically. The program clock is two-circuit, twelve-cycle, with calendar control. At the high school also, additional cabinets were placed in the storage closet, a cabinet for athletic goods was built in the girls' cloak room, and a new dome was put on one of the furnaces in the basement. School roofs were repaired at High, at Prospect Street, and at Centre, over side entrance.
ENROLLMENTS
On the first of October the enrollment of the Merri- mac public schools was 478, distributed as follows: At Port 90, at Centre 197, at Lancaster Court 13, at Prospect 75, at High 103. Further distribution was-At Port: Grade II, 30, Mrs. Whiting; Grade III, 30, Mrs. Davis, Acting Principal; Grade IV, 10, and V, 20, Mrs. Smith. At Centre : Grade I, 30, Mrs. Manning ; Grade II, 32, Mrs. Verrette; Grade III, 28, Mrs. O'Connor; Grade IV, 33, Mrs. Felch, Principal; Grade V, 36, Mrs. Dowd; Grade VI, 38, Mrs. Hume. At Prospect: Grade VII, 36, Mrs. Wolfe; Grade VIII, 39, Mrs. Donaghue, Principal. At High School: Grades IX, 35; X, 29; XI, 25; XII, 14,- Principal Bailey, Miss Phelan, Mr. Morrow, Mrs. Salerno, Mrs. Bailey.
TEACHING STAFF
In the high school Principal Boak resigned at the end of the school year in June. In September he was replaced by Mr. Hamilton R. Bailey of Orange, Massachusetts, a graduate of Bates, and a man of twenty-one years' experi-
12
SCHOOL REPORT
ence as high school principal. At the same time Mrs. Ham- ilton R. Bailey took over the French, Latin, History posi- tion which was held through June by Miss Beaubien. Mrs. Bailey is likewise a graduate of Bates who had taught in Hallowell, Maine, and had substituded in Townsend and Orange, Massachusetts. On Friday, November 17, Mr. and Mrs. Bailey resigned in order that Mr. Bailey might accept the superintendency of the school union including Seekonk and Rehoboth, Mr. Ashlyn M. Huyck of Schuyler Lake, New York, was elected to the principalship of Mer- rimac High School, to begin the following Monday, Novem- ber 20, and Miss Joan M. Gullage of Melrose to begin the French-Latin-History position at the same time. Mr. Huyck is a graduate of Syracuse University, 1926, with several added summer courses in Education. He is a prin- cipal and teacher of fourteen years experience in New York state,-in East Worcester, Schaghticoke, Milford, Castleton and Fort Ann. During World War II he left teaching to work for the General Electric Company. Last summer Mr. Huyck was married. Mrs. Huyck, a former Topsfield resident, is employed by the Massachusetts State Department of Health. Miss Gullage, who followed Mrs. Bailey, is a graduate of Siena Heights College, 1950 (Adrian, Michigan). Her scholastic record and the record of her practice teaching (which was in one of the large Detroit High Schools) were both superior.
In September Mr. Edward Morrow returned from his year's leave of absence and study, and resumed his position as boys' athletic coach and teacher of general science, biology and social sciences,-a position held through June by Mr. Donald MacAusland.
At the Centre School, at the end of the school year in June, Mrs. Marion E. Journeay retired after thirteen years in Merrimac; she had been an estimable member of the staff. For the fifth grade position Mrs. Dowd was transferred from the Port School, beginning in September.
13
TOWN OF MERRIMAC
At the Port School there was no first grade in the fall. The raising of the entrance age by three months in one of the same years in which a drop was expected before the big rise in enrollment (see page 9 of 1949 Merrimac report) combined to give an enrollment of 30 which could be handled entirely by one teacher, Mrs. Manning, at Centre School. At the Port Mrs. Whiting was assigned a second grade class and Mrs. Davis a third grade class. To the class upstairs, a combination of fourth grade and fifth grade, Mrs. Grace M. Smith of Newburyport was assigned as teacher. Mrs. Smith is a graduate of Newbury- port High School and of Fitchburg Normal School. Her previous teaching experience was in Westminister and Haverhill, followed by substitute teaching in Topsfield, Amesbury, Newburyport, and Salisbury.
Among special teachers, Miss Dorothy Snyder of Pea- body Museum, Salem, under the auspices of the Massachu- setts Audubon Society, resumed her work in Nature Lore and Conservation every other Thursday in fifth grade classes, in the place of Mr. Harry Levi who continued through the spring. In the Crafts Class, beginning in the middle of February, and starting again in the fall, Mrs. Richard J. Herman gave sewing lessons to the girls. At. the Centre School office, lessons in instrumental music were permitted, limited by facilities at hand, for pupils whose parents wished to engage them. In the fall Mrs. Printon was continuing with violins (5) and Mr. Henry Lajoie with reed instruments (6). Earlier in the year Mr. Rowell had some pupils with trumpets (5). Such instrumental instruction is often the background of school orchestras.
GRADUATIONS
On Tuesday evening, June 20, at Sargent Hall, a class of thirty pupils, consisting of nine boys and twenty- one girls, graduated from the eighth grade. Ten were honor pupils: Florence Bixby, Judith Hamm, Elsie Hoyt,
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SCHOOL REPORT
William Murphy, Dorothy Reynolds, Sally Stuart, John Swenson, Leonard Tilton, Dorothy Wechezak and Marilyn Wolfe. The class gift, the beginning of a record album, with records of Stephen Foster's music and Gilbert and Sullivan's H. M. S. Pinafore, purchased from the proceeds of "Meet Arizona" and other activities, was presented by William Murphy and accepted by Peter Donaghue. The class hymn (written by the class, to the tune of on ancient Croatian carol) was sung by the class. The class motto "Take Time" was the title of the closing talk by Sally Stuart. The welcome was followed by an essay on Stephen Foster by Dorothy Wechezak. Diplomas were presented by Mr. Howard L. DeLong.
On Thursday evening, June 22, at Sargent Hall, a class of sixteen pupils, consisting of nine boys and seven girls, graduated from the Merrimac High School. The valedictory was by William Andrews, Jr., and the saluta- tory by Donald Cell. The award for excellence in history and the Readers Digest Award went to William Andrews, Jr., and the D. A. R. Good Citizenship Award to Ninette Ayers. The Varsity Club award for sportsmanship and athletic ability went to Daniel Gulezian. Diplomas were presented by Mrs. Agnes H. Powers, Chairman of the School Committee.
HIGH SCHOOL SURVEY
A high school survey was made again in 1950 during the middle of May. It was similar to the one made in 1946 and explained on pages 10 to 13 of the Merrimac school report of that year. The Science Research Associates of Chicago were engaged to find percentiles of each pupil as well as of the median of each class. The Iowa Tests of Educational Development take four days of school time. The tests are sent immediately by express for correction and scoring. The punches on the scored card enable the
15
TOWN OF MERRIMAC
statistical machine at Iowa to find with lightening speed the percentiles, both of individual scores and of class me- dians. The comparisons are made to classes or to pupils of the same grade in countless schools, large and small, public and private. A fifty percentile would mean than half of the thousands tested scored higher and half scored lower; a sixty-two percentile would mean that sixty-two percent of the thousands scored lower and thirty-eight percent higher.
.In the 1950 survey the seniors scored highest by far. Seniors are of course compared to other seniors, juniors to other juniors, sophomores to other sophomores, fresh- men to other freshmen,-that is, the class medians locally are compared to the grand median of the classes of the grade in question in all the schools. Of the nine subjects tested our senior class medians were below the general median in only one,-quantitative thinking. Two medians were above the sixty percentile, three above the eighty percentile, and three above the ninety percentile. The latter three were correctness in writing, ability to interpret literary materials, and general vocabulary. The latter showed the ninety-nine percentile. The class which did second best was the freshmen (in comparison to other freshmen) and the one whose median was the lowest was the junior (in comparison to other juniors). The one subject that was above average in every class was gram- mar and the one subject that was below average in every class was quantitative thinking (mathematics). It is hoped and expected that the results of this survey will prove valuable. It must be remembered that there are individual pupils whose percentiles are low in nearly every class that is high and there are individual pupils whose percentiles are high in nearly every class that is low. Every class median has as many pupils below it as above it. It is the point at which one class median stands in respect to other class medians in the same grade that gives the true comparison of the progress of groups.
16
- SCHOOL REPORT
GENERAL SCHOOL NOTES
The annual standardized achievement tests for all pu- pils in grades two to eight were given on May 16. Herewith are some of the grades whose medians stood well above the national medians for the subject and grade in ques- tion. Such accelerations in comparison to national medians may be only partly the growth in learning during the sin- gle preceding school year; they represent the cumulative growth to that point: Grade 6 was accelerated one year three months in reading and one year in vocabulary. In doing arithmetic problems it was over three years accel- erated and in arithmetic computation two years. As to growth in the single preceding year, the outstanding re- sults were in eighth grade literature, and sixth grade arith- metic, reading and literature. The third and fifth grades showed very even growth of well over a year in every sub- ject. The fourth grade showed over a year in arithme- tic and spelling. There is no first grade test and therefore no way of measuring the amount of growth in the second, but the second grade was ahead of schedule in arithmetic and spelling.
Under Chapter 423 of the Acts of 1941 pertaining to religious instruction, 105 pupils were excused from school for one hour per week during the school year beginning in the fall, at the written request of their parents. The numbers were, by grades: Grade IV-35, V-32, VI-32, VII-5, VIII-1. Of the foregoing, 86 were from Centre School, 13 from Port School, and 6 from Prospect Street School. Twenty-eight attended instruction furnished by the Church of the Nativity.
In April the union school committee of the four towns including Merrimac voted to buy a Maico Audiometer and twenty earphones for testing the hearing of each ear of each pupil in the district. Tests may now be made by school nurses at more frequent intervals. Heretofore the
17
TOWN OF MERRIMAC
state machine was available for loans at long intervals and for short periods. On October 4, after the Maico Audiometer had been calibrated by the state, Mr. James Gentile from the Division of Child Growth and Develop- ment of the State Department of Health, and Mrs. Hedwig Sorli, Public Health Educator from the Northeastern Dis- trict Office, demonstrated to nurses and principals and teachers of this district the use of the instrument by testing the hearing of these school officers and answering ques- tions concerning the interpretation and use of the results. The union is now equipped with its own machines for test- ing both ears and eyes; in 1949 the union had already bought the equipment for giving the Massachusetts Vision Test. Mrs. Sorli and the other personnel of the Northeast- ern District Office (Wakefield) of the Department of Health stand ready at any time to assist in the best use of this equipment for testing sight and hearing.
The milk program continued in 1950, with subsidies under the National School Lunch Program, Type "C". Under Chapter 417 of the Acts of 1950 a revolving school lunch fund is set up by the town treasurer. Into this fund goes all the money paid for milk, all the checks received for claims filed for milk used, together with all money receiv- ed for the fund from any source. The milkman can be paid only by a bill approved by the school committee and drawn against the fund. The fund does not revert at year- end and is not subject to re-appropriation. If the fund were inadequate for an approved bill, because of un- paid-for milk or other reason, the milkman's bill would have to be paid by an appropriation or a gift or a bene- fit turned over to the treasurer and earmarked for the school lunch fund. It is the same system as under the full school lunch program of Type "A," in which the financial problem grows to large proportions. Incidentally, under Chapter 658 of the Acts of 1950 all money hereafter raised by any organization in the name of the school or of any of its subdivisions, or by classes themselves through athletic
ยท
18
SCHOOL REPORT
events or other activities, will have to be turned over to the town treasurer in a school fund and be administered by bills approved by the school committee in the same manner as the school lunch fund. The organizations them- selves cannot buy gifts from money so raised, according to the ruling of the state accountant's office under Chap- ter 658. Several bills will come up in the 1951 legislature for amending Chapter 658, which is statute law at the end of 1950.
On October 25 the Merrimac elementary teachers joined the elementary teachers of the district in a con- ference at the Plains School, Salisbury, with Miss Mary Miller of Altoona, Pennsylvania, reading consultant.
School features and activities during 1950 were many and varied. Early in the year the record winning of double championship trophies in the Merrimac Valley League Tournament in basketball under Miss Phelan as coach for the girls and Mr. MacAusland as coach for the boys, will long be remembered. The high school paper, the Jamaco Journal, continued. On May 26, under the direction of Mrs. Currier, the Prospect Street School presented "Meet Arizona"; the proceeds were divided-one-third to the treasury of each of the two classes and one-third for fur- ther school music. In June there was the Junior Prom on the second, many class outings (such as that of the Crafts Class to Benson's Animal Farm on the fourteenth), and the Senior Reception on the twenty-third. In the fall the P. T. A. received the school officials of September 21, there were the usual athletic events, Stunt Night on December 15, and Christmas celebrations at the close of school.
In the spring a joint presentation of "The Mikado" by Mrs. Currier, is in prospect.
Plans have been made during the coming basketball season for extension of the coaching to the seventh, and eighth grades-Miss Phelan for the girls and Mr. Morrow for the boys. A new basketball score board has. been
19
TOWN OF MERRIMAC
placed in the Town Hall through the efforts of the high school pupils.
Appreciation is extended to P. T. A. and to many groups and individuals who have encouraged and aided the schools and their functions - to the Massachusetts Northeastern, for instance, for transporting children to and from Amesbury for "The Three Musketeers," to the Teen Age Club which, through Clifford Connors, offered a record player to the Prospect Street School, and to the Boosters Club that raised funds for athletic suits,
TRANSPORTATION
On the first of October, 173 of the 478 Merrimac public school pupils (36.2%) were transported regularly by the Massachusetts Northeastern Transportation Com- pany. Ninety-three rode an average of at least one and one-half miles each way each school day. The 173 trans- ported included 36 of the 103 high school pupils, 29 of the 75 Prospect Street School pupils, 41 of the 197 Centre School pupils, 4 of the 13 Crafts Class pupils (Lancaster Court), and 63 of the 90 Port School pupils. From Birch- meadow there were 48, from Bear Hill, Lake Attitash, and Trailer Park there were 67, and from the Port, 58.
VOCATIONAL
At Haverhill Trade School in the fall four boys were registered, one in machine shop, one in upholstery, one in auto repair, and one in printing. The latter was a fourth-year boy. In Haverhill Trade Extension two were registered in carpentry and one in welding. At the Essex County Agricultural School at Hathorne three were reg- istered. One was graduated in 1950. There was a pupil in carpentry at the Newburyport Vocational Apprentice School, and two from Merrimac were studying lasting at
20
SCHOOL REPORT
the Lynn Independent Industrial Shoemaking School. The tuition is paid for citizens by Merrimac. Half of the amount paid is reimbursable after payment and the filing of a claim to the state.
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL NURSE
My report is herewith submitted dating from January 1, 1950 to December 31, 1950.
Number of School Visits 177
Number of Home Visits 52
Number of Pupils examined by Dr. Davis (annual
physical examinations) nurse assisting 469
The Toxoid Clinics were held by Dr. Davis and nurse on March 16, April 6, April 27 and May 18. Number receiving the three innoculations 10
Number receiving Booster dose (one dose) 120
The Pre-School Clinic was held May 1, at Center School by Dr. Davis. This Clinic was held for all children who would be entering the first grade in September. A physical examination is given each child so that any physi- cal defect which was found could be corrected during the summer months.
These children were registered for the first grade by the first grade teachers at the same time. Number attending 19
The vision testing machine was used to test the chil- dren in the 1st, 4th and 8th grades and any other pupils the teachers thought necessary.
Number screened 270
I attended an all day meeting at Newbury on the. use of the Audiometer.
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