USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Duxbury > Town annual report for the town of Duxbury for the year ending 1920-1925 > Part 38
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43
Duxbury is most fortunate in being financially able to provide ideal school buildings for all its children, and very few towns are as favorably situated for consolida- tion. Excellent roads and school distances make com- plete consolidation easy. Transportation of all children would not be a question of hours, but of minutes.
I am glad to submit the following recommendations : first, the complete abandonment of all school buildings. The erection of one central school in the vicinity of the town athletic field and library. The acquiring of addi- tional land to provide adequate grounds.
Second, in case the first plan does not meet with ap- proval I believe a central junior-senior high school for grades six to twelve with adequate facilities for assem- bly and physical education be located as recommended above. That a new three-room building with a small assembly room be constructed at Tarkiln for grades one to six and that the present East Grammar School be en- larged so as to provide four rooms and an assembly room accommodating grades one to six. The present building has, in my opinion, an adequate heating and ventilating system if operated properly. The present classrooms are adequate for 32 to 35 pupils. Present-day practice restricts the size of classes to 35 pupils. That provision for growth and for those years when the registration in a given room is large, four rooms rather than three should be provided.
While the first plan, which I believe to be ideal, has advantages over the second plan, it is possible to carry on efficient work in two elementary centers and a junior-
-23-
senior high school comparable with the work now being done in the progressive towns of the State. I feel cer- tain that if the junior-senior high school building and a central school at Tarkiln is constructed at this time pub- lic sentiment will within two or three years demand a central school in the east part of the town.
Very truly yours,
A. B. LORD.
-24-
REPORT OF PROF. C. EMANUEL EKSTROM, GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION BROWN UNIVERSITY Providence, Rhode Island
June 22, 1925.
To the Special Committee of Fifteen, appointed to con- sider school needs, Duxbury, Massachusetts :
I have the honor to confirm in writing the informal verbal report on the existing school situation in Dux- bury which I was able to give to some of the members of your Committee after visiting the schools of the town Friday, June 19, 1925.
It usually falls to the lot of any person who is asked to survey the school situation in a city or town to point out a number of deficiencies in the school facilities pro- vided. In the nature of the case his report, if frank and disinterested, cannot be complimentary, inasmuch as his advice is not, as a rule, sought until it becomes apparent that conditions are not all that they should be and that improvements are imperatively needed. I am sure, there- fore, that when I find it necessary to call attention to shortcomings in the Duxbury system, you will realize that I am merely performing an unpleasant duty and am in no sense criticizing those who have school matters in hand. I may add that in the case of your town the school faults that came to my notice were chiefly such as have grown out of the school conditions of past generations and are not attributable to individuals at present en- gaged in school activity.
In view of the fact that a report of this kind must, as I have remarked, necessarily deal largely with defici-
1
-25-
encies and shortcomings, I cannot forego the pleasure of noting one commendable feature which struck me forci- bly in my visits to the various schools. This was the ob- viously high type of teacher now serving in the Duxbury schools. Your town is fortunate in having the services of so capable a corps of teachers. The pity is that they have no better facilities with which to carry on the most fundamental civic enterprise of your community - the education of its children.
The present school problems of Duxbury center about its school plant, that is, the buildings used for school pur- poses, together with their equipment.
In general the school work is carried on in one-room buildings. These one-rooms schools, with perhaps one exception, were built by a past generation and are of the old type characteristic of the middle of the last century. Originally they were well built and properly met the school standards of those times. From a modern point of view, however, they are quite unsuited for school use. Every one of them falls far short of acceptable school standards. Unfortunately, too, the features in which these buildings rank especially low are fundamental, such as only extreme modifications, amounting practically to complete reconstruction, can remedy.
The heating, ventilating, and lighting facilities are bad in every case. The one-room schools have but from a fourth to a third the amount of light which they should have for proper conservation of the children's eyesight. Furthermore, in every case the light enters from at least two sides, and in many case from three sides. One case was noted where the children must sit all day gazing into an unshaded window behind the teacher's desk. In al- most every school it was necessary to use blackboard space inserted between two windows. Conditions could
-26-
not be worse for creating eye strain and other sight troubles, particularly in the case of growing children.
Add to this the cross shadows on the desks when read- ing or writing, inevitable in bi-lateral lighting, and the insufficient amount of light on dark cloudy days and we have a set of school room conditions which parents, if they realized the seriousness of the matter, would not tolerate for a single day beyond the time necessary to provide a remedy. A school room should have a win- dow area equal to at least one-fifth of the floor space, and these windows should always be at the pupils' left, and, if possible, look to the east or west.
Toilet facilities are practically non-existent. Construc- tion is bad, there is little attempt at proper seclusion and the number of seats provided is too small. It must be said, however, that there are evidences of efforts at clean- liness and sanitation. The type of facilities provided, nevertheless, defeat these efforts, and conditions in some cases are such as would not be tolerated by adults. Chil- dren, unfortunately perhaps, are too young and unin- formed to protest.
No suitable cloak rooms are provided, nor is there pro- vision for a retiring room. Luncheon must be eaten in the school room itself. Even the one-room building, if used as a school in these days, is expected to provide these facilities. They are real necessities, not luxuries, in any building where children must spend from 6 to 7 hours each day.
I mention some of these features, in spite of the fact that they are already only too well known to you, chiefly to indicate that the present school plant is grossly inade- quate in precisely those aspects which cannot be provided for in the old buildings without a complete rebuilding. On the other hand, some of the readily controlled fea- tures, such as blackboards, teachers' and pupils' desks, and painting and minor repairs give evidence of care and regular supervision. Other items of equipment, such
-
-27-
as maps, reference books and various improved school supplies, were in some instances meagre and unsatis- factory.
Because of the material and physical conditions in your one-room schools briefly outlined above, and for certain "educational" reasons to be alluded to later, I am of the opinion that Duxbury will serve its best interests by abandoning its one-room schools entirely. To modernize the buildings now in existence would involve a very con- siderable outlay and would give in the end only a "one- room" system with its inherent handicaps. The school children of Duxbury should be housed in buildings of several rooms where proper heating, ventilating, light- ing, toilet and other service facilities may be provided. The town fortunately offers an adequate network of roads which would make it entirely feasible to collect the chil- dren into a school center or centers where adequate hous- ing could be provided. Such a change would, at the same time, make possible certain educational advantages, such as one or two-grade rooms segregation of problem chil- dren and a better social and professional atmosphere for the teachers of the town.
My recommendation is, therefore, that the town pro- ceed at once to erect an elementary school building to house all the children of the town in grades 1-6. I am not in a position to suggest a site for such a building but it should be near the center of population and located with reference to accessibility by the roads over which the children must be transported.
Such a building should be constructed to house 200 to 230 pupils. Six classrooms, each to seat between 35 and 40 pupils, with possibly a smaller room to seat 20-25, would suffice. There should be included an assembly hall, a play room, a library, a principal's office, and teachers' rest room. Toilet facilities should be provided on the ground floor, not in the basement where proper ventil-
-28-
ation and cleanliness is not possible. A one story build- ing of attractive appearance could be designed for this purpose which would give Duxbury a model centralized elementary school. Three or four acres of land should be provided as a school lot, properly graded for play- ground purposes.
In consulting with your Committee, I found some mak- ing the suggestion that the western part of the town would profit culturally and in the fostering of commun- ity spirit, if it were provided with a school center. In my opinion no one influence can do more for a commun- ity or neighborhood than a good school building which may serve as a sort of cultural center for that community. To my mind, therefore, the consideration advanced by these persons has real merit from this point of view. It would be entirely feasible to build two elementary schools for grades 1 to 6, one to house about 100 pupils, and the other about 120, instead of one to house 200-230 as rec- ommended above. One ought then to be located in the village and the other (the smaller one) near the center of population of the western half of the town, again with due reference to the roads over which the school busses would travel.
The educational advantages are without question on the side of the single large school. One grade to a room, a special room for those who learn slowly, specialization of work by the teachers - these desirable features are more possible in a school of 200 than in one of 100 pupils. However, if Duxbury has in reality two community cen- ters, the social and cultural effect on the western half of the town of having a school center of its own may out- weigh these advantages and justify the building of two smaller elementary schools. I should say that the two elementary schools plan would attain perhaps 95 per cent. of the improvement over present school conditions which the plan for one large elementary school would provide.
If two elementary schools are built, each should con-
-29-
tain an assembly hall and be provided with two or three acres of ground.
The high school situation in Duxbury presents little choice as to what recommendation one may make. The Academy building now in use is entirely unadapted to modern high school needs. The same criticisms as to light, toilet facilities, and general unsuitability to school uses as in the case of the one-room schools hold with re- gard to this building. There is added a distinct fire haz- ard in the way in which the boiler is housed under a lathe and plaster ceiling. The building cannot be adapted, without such remodelling as to destroy its identity, to the varied needs of a present day high school - special rooms for hand work, household arts, science instruction, library facilities, gymnasium and the like.
My recommendation with regard to high school facil- ities is, therefore, that a junior-senior, or six-year, high school be erected to provide for grades 7 to 12, that is, the present four high school years and the present 7th and 8th grades. This would necessitate a building to care for about 150 pupils. Four or five ordinary classrooms together with the special rooms referred to above would be needed. An assembly hall seating 200 persons, with stage equipment, a gymnasium above ground with shower baths adjoining, and 5 or 6 acres of grounds for play purposes are features that should be included. If agri- culture is to be taught, added space for school gardens ought to be provided.
A plan such as I have outlined - a six-year high school for the whole town, located near the center of population, and one or two six-year elementary schools - would give
1
-30-
to the children of Duxbury the sort of educational facil- ities to which they are entitled if they are expected to compete with other children who get their start in life in schools of this kind. A rough estimate would put the cost of these buildings (apart from the land) at about. $150,000 - $100,000 for the high school, $50,000 for the grades. A patchwork plan of remodelling the present buildings, or adding to them, would cost but a few thous- and dollars less, if made to provide the features needed, and would produce a school plant that would again be obsolete in the course of a few years. A town so stable in its population and industrial activities as Duxbury may safely plan far ahead and build substantially.
With regard to the location of the contemplated build- ings, I must say that I am not familiar enough with the geography or topography of Duxbury to venture to sug- gest any precise site. I may point out, however, certain desirable features for any school site. It should have some elevation to allow for effective sewage disposal as well as for architectural effect. It should be retreated . somewhat from any busy, noisy highway. Playground space is essential. Orienting the building so as to get east or west light into the school rooms should be given consideration. I should like to add, too, that architec- tural effect is of more than sentimental importance. For many children the only building of size and importance to which they will habitually go is the school. The stand- ards of taste in the builder's art will be largely fixed by their school experience. To give them something mean and ugly will inevitably form their standards of taste and judgment on a similarly low and ugly plane.
In conclusion I wish to refer to one further consider- ation. The village grammar school, the two-room build- ing, might serve as the basis for a four-room-plus-as- sembly-hall building if the lot on which it stands can be added to. It would be necessary to move it back from the road and rearrange the interior, but a few thousands
-31-
might be saved in this way if two elementary schools were decided upon.
Finally let me say how much I have enjoyed meeting the members of the Committee and how much I appreci- ate their courtesy and consideration while with them.
Respectfully yours,
C. EMANUEL EKSTROM,
Assistant Professor of Education.
A Report to the COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN on the
BUILDING SITUATION in
DUXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS
SQUIRE F. BROWNE With the Advice of L. O. Cummings
Cambridge, Massachusetts. December, 1925.
-34-
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I The Present School Plant 35-41
II The Effect of the Building Situation on Retardation 42-45
III The Building Situation as It Affects the Elementary Program 46-48
IV Lack of Coordination of School Work .
49-50
The Effect of the Present Situation on the Course of Study 51-52
VI The Limitation of the High School Offering by Building Conditions 53-54
VII Arguments for a Consolidated 6-6 School 55-63 The 6-6 Form of Organization Recom- mended 59
Location of the Central School Plant 60-61
Population and School Enrolment 61-62
The Building Needed
62-63
VIII The Financial Ability of Duxbury
64-66
-35-
I
The present school plant does not meet modern standards for school buildings with respect to safety, healthfulness, or adequacy.
The Duxbury school plant consists of nine buildings - seven one-room buildings, one two-room building, and the high-school building. Each of four of the one-room build- ings houses the first four grades, one is used for grades one to three, one for the three intermediate grades, and one for the two grammar grades. The two-room build- ing, known as the Village Grammar School, contains the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades.
All of these buildings, with the exception of the Vil- lage Grammar School, were erected many years ago when one-room buildings were considered satisfactory for school purposes. The Tarkiln Primary School, which was originally put up to serve as a community house, is even less suitable than the others for school purposes. A building erected in 1843 for a private school serves for the high school.
The superintendent of schools, officials from the State Department of Education, and other competent authori- ties have called attention to the undesirability of the one- room buildings for school purposes. Further, since the School Committee are agreed as to their unsatisfactory condition, it is not necessary to make a detailed report upon each of them. Since, however, there is some ques- tion of the Committee's stand with respect to the reten- tion of the Village Grammar School and the high-school building in the future school plant, these were studied in detail.
One way of describing buildings is in the terms of the American Institute of Architects, which classifies them as follows:
-36-
Type A-A building constructed entirely of fire-resistive materials, including its roof, windows, doors, floors, and finish.
Type B-A building of fire-resistive construction in its walls, floors, stairways, and ceilings, but with wood finish, wood or composition floor surface, and wood roof construction over fire-resistive ceiling.
Type C-A building with masonry walls, fire-resistive cor- ridors and stairways, but with ordinary con- struction otherwise, i. e. combustible floors, par- titions, roof, and finish.
Type D-A building with masonry walls, but otherwise ordinary or joist construction and wood finish. Type E-A frame building, constructed with wood above foundation, with or without slate or other semi- fireproof material on the roof.
All of the school buildings of Duxbury are Type E con- struction.
Scoring the Buildings: Village Grammar School and High School
These two buildings were scored according to the standards set in the Strayer-Englehardt score cards for elementary and high-school buildings. Each item is given a certain number of points in a total of 1,000 points. The main divisions are as follows for elementary school buildings :
Points
125
Site
Building 165
Includes
Accessibility; character of environ- ment; drainage; nature of the grounds for athletics and play pur- poses; adequacy of the site for the expansion and proper orientation of the building, and for all out-of-build- ing school activities.
Orientation; external features; mate- rial; height; roof; foundation; stair- ways; corridors; basement.
-37-
280
Service System
Heating; ventilation; fire protection; cleaning system; lighting; facilities for drinking, washing, and bathing; toilets.
290
Classrooms
Accessibility to exits, stairs, and toil- ets; size; number; shape; lighting; cloakrooms; blackboards; doors; equipment.
140 Special Rooms
Auditorium; gymnasium; library; of- fices; rest rooms; service rooms for nurse, physician, and dentist; labora- tories; shops; etc.
1,000
The score card for high-school buildings is substan- tially the same with the exception that the "Special Rooms" division is subdivided into Special Class Rooms, General Service Rooms, and Administration Rooms.
The authors of these score cards have found that a building which scores under 500 points can seldom be remodeled satisfactorily to meet the requirements of a modern school plant .*
The High-School Building
The score for the high-school building is as follows:
Site 50 out of a possible 100 points
Building
20 out of a possible 150 points
Service System
40 out of a possible 270 points
Classrooms
35 out of a possible 145 points
General Service Rooms
25 out of a possible 140 points
Special Rooms 5 out of a possible 140 points
Administration Rooms
0 out of a possible 50 points
Total
175 out of a possible 1,000 points
It will be seen that the score of 175 out of a possible 1,000 points is far below the minimum of 500 points set by Strayer and Englehardt for a building that can be used or remodeled.
*Strayer and Englehardt, "Standards for Elementary School Buildings"-1923, "Standards for High School Buildings" -- 1924. Published by Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City.
-38-
Detailed Analysis of the Elements Scored
Site: The location of this building for its original purpose, a private school, may not have been undesirable in those days when the building was seldom used for any but school purposes; but for the uses to which a modern school plant is now put it is too far removed from the center of population. The building is located entirely outside the residence limits.
The size of the site is inadequate for a high school and even more so for a combined high and elementary school plant. Even if additional land should be purchased it is doubtful if the topography is such as to make it desirable for such use.
Structure: The building is the E type of construction - wooden frame and finish. It consists of the original building, a two-story, two-room building, each room ap- proximately 40 by 45 feet, and an annex with two rooms on the first floor. The second floor of the original build- ing is divided into two or three classrooms by movable screens that serve to shut off a considerable portion of the light but do not protect any class from the noise of the others.
The stairways are within the building and are neither fire-resistive nor enclosed in a smoke-proof, fire-resistive tower. The steps are two inches higher than the stand- ard riser, which makes them difficult to go up or down. On one side is an iron rod used as a hand rail, which pro- jects out about a foot from the wall at the upper turn of the stairs, causing an obstruction in an already too nar- row stairway. Because of the height of the riser these stairs cannot be used daily without danger to health and in case of a fire would be a positive menace.
There are no separate cloakrooms. Outer wraps must be hung in the corridor with no means of ventilation or protection. The corridor is sufficiently lighted, but cold and draughty in winter.
The basement is scarcely more than an uncemented
-39-
cellar with no conveniences for the janitor. It is not separated from the rest of the building by fire-resistive walls or metal-lathe ceiling.
Heating and Ventilating: The heating plant is inade- quate. On cold mornings the janitor is not able to make all the rooms comfortable. The structure of the building is such as to make proper heating impossible without a very large heating plant and excessive fuel consumption.
Air ducts supposedly bring in fresh air, but as they have their openings at the level of the ground and catch the dust and dirt from the unsodded ground, the fact that most fresh air is derived from the windows is to be com- mended.
Fire Protection : The fact that this is a two-story frame building makes fire protection of vital importance. The only fire protection is the presence of three fire ex- tinguishers on the two floors and in the basement. With the inflammable nature of the building, the dangerous stairways, and the lack of proper separation of the base- ment from the rest of the building, there is a constant menace to the safety of the pupils on the second floor in spite of an outside fire escape made of wood.
Classrooms: The only classrooms are the two on the first floor, one used for the commercial classes, the other used for the science laboratories and the domestic arts class. The second floor space with its movable screens cannot be classed as a recitation room by any acceptable standards.
Lighting: Proper lighting requires the window area to be from one-fifth to one-fourth the floor area with the height of the top of the windows from the floor at least one-half the width of the room. These rooms have a ratio of one-fifteenth to one-tenth of window area to floor space, not deducting the light shut off on the second floor by the screens. The lighting is bilateral and in some rooms windows are on three sides.
Equipment: The rooms are poorly equipped. The
-40-
domestic arts class is compelled to heat water on an oil stove and shares a room with two science classes.
It has been proposed to enlarge the high-school facili- ties by an addition connecting the academy building with the town hall by a new structure. Plans have been pre- pared by an architect for this purpose. Under the terms by which the trustees of the academy transferred it to the Town:
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.