USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > Town annual report of Swampscott 1915 > Part 10
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The increase in enrollment which will come in February and Septem- ber will necessitate the addition of at least two new teachers and a pro- portionate expense in other directions. This will mean an addition to the appropriation over last year, but not out of proportion to the increase in the number of pupils. Your Committee feels that it has had a year of loyal cooperation on the part of teachers, principals and superintendent and looks forward to a year of greater advance than ever before. It has continued its policy of making the superintendent the executive officer of the board in all the various departments of the work, and he has met the demands made upon him with a display of willingness and determination that have brought a large measure of results.
EDWARD TILLOTSON, Chairman. J. HENRY WELCH, ARTHUR W. STUBBS.
SWAMPSCOTT, January 1, 1916.
95
SCHOOL COMMITTEE'S REPORT.
1915]
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
To the Members of the School Committee:
The appropriation granted by the Town for the work of the School Department for the year of 1915 was $56,000. The amount expended for the year was $55,951.24, leaving a balance on December 31 of $48.76 to revert to the treasury. In addition to this there was an appropriation of $1,200 for improving the playgrounds. This sum was entirely expended with marked improvement, particularly at the Hadley School, which demanded the greatest attention. The regular appropriation was expended as follows :
GENERAL EXPENSES.
School Committee
$567 43
Superintendent .
2,750 20
EXPENSES OF INSTRUCTION.
Supervisors .
4,727 96
Salaries-Principals
$2,060 00
$2,640 00
Salaries-Teachers
9,194 00
18,885 00
Text Books .
933 38
952 37
Supplies
753 03
1,149 22
EXPENSES OF OPERATION.
Janitors
910 00
2,740 00
Fuel .
454 95
1,770 59
Miscellaneous
225 78
1,044 06
EXPENSES OF MAINTENANCE.
Repairs, etc.
366 06
1,081 20
AUXILIARY AGENCIES.
Libraries
·
61 48
Health .
.
252 00
Transportation
330 00
MISCELLANEOUS EXPENSES.
Tuition
71 00
Sundries
766 55
OUTLAY EXPENSES.
New Equipment .
1,264 98
Totals .
. $10,791 60
$14,897 20
$30,262 44
Appropriation
. $56,000 00
Expended for year
55,951 24
Unexpended balance
$48 76
Respectfully submitted,
ARTHUR W. STUBBS,
Secretary.
General.
High.
Elementary
96
TOWN DOCUMENTS.
[Dec. 31
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS.
To the School Committee of the Town of Swampscott :
GENTLEMEN, - I wish to present to you in the following report, in addition to the usual statistics on census and attendance, a number of our school problems which demand the greatest consideration and attention at the present time.
First, an examination of the attendance statistics will be made to find out the schools and districts in which we have the largest increase, with the idea of determining where the next school accommodations must be provided.
Second, a review of the most prominent development in educational progress, the Intermediate or Junior High School, with a view as to how and when to introduce this in Swampscott.
Third, an analysis and comparison of units of cost in education in our schools, to see if our expenditures are justifiable.
Census and Attendance Statistics.
SCHOOL YEAR, SEPTEMBER, 1914 to JUNE, 1915.
Number of boys 5 years of age or over and under 16 637
Number of girls 5 years of age or over and under 16
· 561
Total
· 1,198
Number of boys 5 years of age or over and under 7 . ·
152
Number of girls 5 years of age or over and under 7
. 123
Total
275
Number of boys 7 years of age or over and under 14
395
Number of girls 7 years of age or over and under 14
· 356
Total
751
Number of boys 14 years of age or over and under 16
. 90
Number of girls 14 years of age or over and under 16
.
. 82
Total
172
Total enrollment in the schools
1,333
High School enrollment
249
Elementary Schools
. 1,084
Average membership
1,267
Average daily attendance
· 1,200
Per cent of attendance
. 94.7
97
SCHOOL COMMITTEE'S REPORT.
1915]
ATTENDANCE FOR FALL TERM, 1915.
Average Membership
Average Attendance
Per cent of Attendance
September
1,360.I
1,320.2
97.1
October
.
1,361.7
1,3TO.4
95.2
November
1,350.4
1,289.9
94.2
December
1,345.0
1,244.8
92.1
Total
1,354
1,291
94.6
The distribution of school membership for the fall term of 1915 follows, showing comparison for the same term of 1914.
Per cent
School
1914
1915
Gain
Gain
High
233
275
42
18.
Hadley
517
571
4
10.5
Clarke
290
302
12
4.I
Machon .
.
141
140
I
.7
Palmer
·
71
70
I
1.4
Total increase over 1914-106, or an increase of 8.5 per cent.
Increase over fall term of 1913-181, or 15.3 per cent.
Increase in the High School since September 1913-46.
Increase in the Elementary Schools since 1913-135.
Some explanation of the various increases in the different schools is necessary, otherwise a wrong impression will be received as to the district in which the next school accommodations will be needed. The increase of 42 in the High School is a normal increase, augmented by the fact that new accommodations and a new gymnasium have kept a good many pupils in school who otherwise would have left to go to work. The increase of 54 in the Hadley School must not be taken to mean growth in the immediate district which the school accommodates. This is rather due to the fact that all pupils who leave the third grade of the Palmer School enter the Hadley School, and that half of the pupils who leave the fourth grade at the Machon School are transferred to the Hadley School. In addition to this, there are a large number of pupils in the first three grades of the Hadley School who should properly go to the Clarke or the Machon Schools, as they live nearer those schools. At the Clarke School there is an wholesome increase in spite of the fact that many pupils in the first six grades in that district are now attending the Hadley School. The membership of the Machon and Palmer Schools remains about the same. This is due to the fact that these two buildings provide for only the primary grades and that the pupils, instead of remaining in the district, are transferred either to the Hadley or Clarke Schools.
These increases in school population mean an increase in the number of teachers, which in turn, means an increase in the cost of instruction. Referring to the figures for increases since the fall term of 1913 (this being the period of my term of office as Superintendent) a growth of 46 is observed in the High School. As the State Board of Education recom- mends that for every 25 pupils there shall be at least one teacher, and will not approve a High School for purposes of admission to State Normal -Schools which have more than 25 pupils to a teacher, this increase of 46 means an increase to the teaching force of two. As a matter of fact in the
98
TOWN DOCUMENTS.
[Dec. 31
period covered by the former figures, three teachers have been added and a fourth teacher has been secured on part time. This addition to the faculty, so far in excess of that which is theoretically required, is due entirely to the system of semi-annual promotion, which now obtains in the High School. With a year's work thereby divided into two units the number of classes is doubled, and thus the size of the classes is reduced one half. This is particularly noticeable in the upper years of Ancient and Modern Languages and History, where in some cases there are not more than three or four pupils in a division. Nevertheless, in spite of the size of the classes, additional teachers are necessary whenever the number of classes is increased.
With reference to the growth of 135 in the grades since 1913, we have been able to maintain a more satisfactory ratio of increase in the number of teachers employed. Only one teacher has been added to the force in this period. If the force had been increased in proportion to the growth of the schools, that is, one teacher for every 35 pupils, we should have added four new teachers. The amount saved to the Town by the course we have followed is $2,100 a year. This considerable saving has been brought about by the transferring of pupils in the crowded rooms of one district to rooms elsewhere in which there chanced to be an abundance of room.
When such changes have been made annoyance has been felt tempo- rarily by the parents of some of the pupils thus affected. But in a town so compactly settled as Swampscott, no hardship is imposed on pupils by asking them to go to either of the central schools; and particularly is such a course justifiable, when thereby we can materially reduce the cost of operating the schools.
School Accommodations.
With the completion of the addition to the High School this fall ample room was provided for the growth of that school for some years to come. Where before we had but 270 sittings now we have 396 sittings and room for 42 more. The problem for accommodations at the High School is, therefore, not now one of finding sittings for the pupils, but rather to take care of the large number of small recitations caused by the system of semi-annual promotion. Where heretofore we might have a class of 15 pupils, now we have two classes of 6 or 7 each. These must meet at different times in different rooms. However, there would have been no reasonable excuse for going to the expense of building an addition that would be far in excess of the needs of the school, simply because we wish to maintain an expensive system of promotion. At the Hadley School the fact that the building is rapidly filling shows the wisdom of the Town in building a building of this size and this type. It is to be hoped that this successful experience will be utilized by the Town, and that as they are called upon to build further accommodations they will use the same foresight.
As noted above, the most significant fact about the growth of the Hadley School is not the growth of its immediate district. At the pres- ent time pupils in the upper grades all over the Town are sent to the Hadley School, so that the Hadley School is really being filled up because it draws from all sections of the Town. Therefore, the particu-
99
SCHOOL COMMITTEE'S REPORT.
1915]
lar problem is this : When the Hadley School is filled, what is to become of the children that are now being sent from other sections? The answer is new buildings in the districts from which pupils are now being sent.
Pupils graduating from the Palmer School third grade are sent to the fourth grade at the Hadley School. Pupils finishing the fourth grade at the Machon School are sent to the Clarke School, Grade V, and the Had- ley School, Grade V, according to the districts in which they live. The pupils in the fifth grade of the Clarke School, when this grade becomes crowded by reason of receiving pupils from the fourth grade of the Machon School, are also sent to the Hadley School. Pupils finishing the seventh grade at the Clarke School are sent to the Hadley School for the eighth grade, the Hadley School being the only school in Town which has an eighth grade. Beginning in February, owing to the increase of pupils in the primary grades at the Clarke School, pupils from the sixth grade will be transferred to the Hadley School for their seventh grade work. From then on all the seventh and eighth grades will be centered at the Hadley School. So the real problem of school accommodations is not at the Hadley School, which appears to be growing fastest, but in those districts from which this school now draws. Chiefly these districts are around the Palmer School and in Upper Swampscott, or the district which is accommodated by the Machon School. Additional accommoda- tions must be supplied in these districts before the opening of school in September, 1917.
As to the situation in the Machon district, there are other considerations besides that of the problem of congestion, which make it highly desirable and imperative that steps be taken immediately to provide better and larger accommodations. The Machon School is an old building. It has been remodeled once, the construction is entirely of wood, the staircases are narrow and much out of repair, and the basement is exceedingly low studded, crowded, unsanitary, and in no way suited to the proper physical upkeep of the building. Time and again we have considered the making of much needed repairs in this school and the fixing up of the grounds in suitable shape; but each time the problem has been considered we have concluded that not much attention could be given to these matters as the needs of a new building there were so obvious. Having thus committed ourselves on the matter of making repairs, we should ask the Town to take steps immediately to secure an eight-room building in about the same location as that of the present school.
The situation at the Palmer School is not so serious as that at the Machon School, but the Hadley School cannot continue to take for long the children from the Palmer School without beoming congested in cer- tain grades. This fact, together with the necessity of transporting on the cars small children in the fourth grade, makes it highly desirable that additional quarters be provided for this district as soon as possible. It seems to your Superintendent that a two-room addition should be built to the Palmer School before the opening of school in September, 1917. Until such time, we are trying to arrange the work at that school so that a fourth grade can be accommodated with the present facilities, in order that residents of that section will not be compelled to send their children up to the center of the Town on the cars each day.
100
TOWN DOCUMENTS.
[Dec. 31
The Intermediate School.
The foremost problem in educational progress which is before the Schools to-day is the intermediate school, or as it is sometimes called, the Junior High School. Developments in the organization of Public Schools are breaking away from the traditional elementary and High Schools and are introducing this intermediate step. The present system, or rather the system which was most in vogue until about five years ago, provided for an elementary school of eight or nine grades and a High School of four grades.
The tendency now, in most progressive school systems, is to divide the school period into three groups, the elementary group comprising the first six years; the intermediate group of what is now the seventh and eighth grades, and the first year of High School; and the High School to include what is now the last three years.
This change has been brought about by the importance of certain problems which arose because of the present division and because the proposed division, which includes the Junior High School, seems to point the way to the solution of most of these problems.
Among the important difficulties of the present system is the problem of the large number of pupils in the seventh and eighth grades who lose interest in the purely academic studies. - And for the most part, that is all that has been offered to pupils in the elementary schools heretofore, regardless of their capacity. Such pupils are as a rule forced to stay in school because they have not reached the age at which the law allows them to leave school, or because their parents are determined that they shall obtain an education. The result is that too often these boys and girls fall below in their studies, are a drag upon the rest of the pupils of the class who seem to have an aptitude for academic work, and usually become grave problems in maintaining discipline. Ofttimes pupils of these grades, who are old enough, feel that there is nothing of particular interest to them in the work taken up in the schools and drop out to go to work. Sometimes they graduate from the Grammar School, attempt the first year in High School, and finding that the work there is largely academic, drop out in that year to go to work.
Another objectionable feature of the present organization, often com- mented on by parents, teachers and officials, is the abrupt change which now exists between the elementary schools and the High School. After spending eight years in a paternal and arbitrary course of study and methods of discipline, pupils pass immediately into the more democratic methods of the High School. There they find radically new methods of study, of discipline and of organization. The result is that they flounder around before they find themselves-if they ever do find themselves- ofttimes lost interest in the serious work of getting a proper education, and frequently waste much valuable time because of the selection of a wrong course of study. Such a process not only entails loss to the pupils themselves, but also handicaps the faculty of the school, in that they are obliged to spend time in adjusting the freshman class to its new surround- ings, which should be given to the essentially highly specialized work of a High School.
To counteract these objectionable features, the aim of the intermediate school is primarily to begin the work of differentiation of course of study
IOI
SCHOOL COMMITTEE'S REPORT.
1915]
two years earlier and to bring about gradually the specialized education which is necessary to the adolescent youth.
In the first six years the aim would be to give the pupils all the funda- mental processes in arithmetic and to teach them common facility and accuracy in the use of the mother tongue. The work for all pupils in these grades would be alike. Then beginning in the seventh year and through the eighth and ninth years, there would be a slight differentiation in the courses of study for the various types of pupils, increasing with the progress of years. The most significant feature of this plan is that this change is but slight, at first, and that enough of the fundamental subjects are given to all pupils in these grades so that they may change from one group to another without loss of work previously covered.
Generally speaking the work of this school meets the requirements of the three groups of children that are found in all schools, namely : the academic group, the commercial group and the practical arts group. Children in the academic group have more work in history, some modern language, and a little Latin. The commercial group would tend to specialize in commercial arithmetic, commercial geography, elementary bookkeeping and some typewriting. Those in the practical arts group, in addition to taking the required fundamental work, would spend the remainder of their time in such activities as manual training, domestic science, printing or some activity dictated by the industrial life of the local community. None of this work would be so highly specialized but that pupils who found that they were not suited to one form of work might enter one more adapted to their capacities before they were ready to con- tinue their chosen form of study in the High School.
The following details of organization would be necessary under such a plan. Departmental teaching in these grades, promotion by subjects rather than by grade, and ultimate centralization of the present seventh and eighth grades and the first year of High School in one building.
The establishment of an intermediate school in Swampscott would not be a radical measure. Neither is it in any way an experiment. The idea is being carried out either in whole or part in the most progressive com- munities, not only of the West, but in Massachusetts as well. An exam- ination of the school reports of the cities and towns of Massachusetts will show that a majority of the schools are considering this plan and are mak- ing steps to inaugurate this system or have already done so.
The introduction of the intermediate school is justified, because it is an attempt to solve the problem of the seventh and eighth grades and of the first year of the high school; because it does away with the dangerous abrupt change from elementary to high school; because it is adapted to the age of pupils which it handles, and because it seems to give the proper education to the various types of children, and because it greatly increases the efficiency of the senior high school.
Conditions locally are favorable toward the gradual adoption of such a plan. In fact, steps have already been taken in this direction by central- izing the eighth grades of the Town in the Hadley School Building. Another step in this direction is the centralizing of the seventh grades at the same place during the coming year. The excellent equipment of the large Hadley School School Building in a central location is another favorable factor. Further, I believe that if the committee had not been
8
IO2
TOWN DOCUMENTS.
[Dec. 31
impressed with the possibility and the desirability of such a school, that instead of asking the Town to make alterations in the present High School building, it would recommend a large new structure; but the greatest reason for the adoption of this plan here, as well as elsewhere, is the resultant economy in administration of this group, as well as in the more expensive administration of the senior high school group, and also the conservation of the varying capacities of the different ages of pupils.
The Cost of our Schools.
One of the most important tasks of your Superintendent is to keep close watch on the expenditures of the department. With the growth of our schools the total expenditure must necessarily increase. But if the increase in the appropriation is greater by far than the increase in our average membership, then we should carefully examine our expenses to see wherein we can make them consistent with numerical growth, and even if we find our rate of increase in expenditure less than our rate of increase in size, there is still the problem of examining the per capita cost. In the following table I have made a comparison of the units of cost of 1914 with those of 1915. You will find that in this table the mem- bership statistics are not the same as those given in the preceding table. This is due to the fact that the following table is made out for the fiscal year of 1915, while the previous figures are made out for the school year of 1914 and 1915.
1915]
Statement of Costs for the Fiscal Year, 1915. A COMPARISON WITH THE YEAR, 1914.
1914.
1915.
Decrease.
Increase. % o Change
I. Average Membership
2. Amount expended for support of Schools ·
3. Average Membership of High School .
265
22
+9.0%
4. Average Membership of Elementary Schools
1,041
69
+7.1%
5. Total cost per unit of Average Membership
$44 00
$42 85
$1 15
-2.6%
6. Cost of conducting High School per unit of Average Membership ·
67 10
66 65
45
-0.7%
7. Instruction cost in High School per unit of Average Membership ·
51 40
52 75
$1 35
+2.6%
8. Cost of books and supplies in High School, per unit of Average Membership . ·
6 0I
6 36
35
+5.8%
9. Instruction cost in Elm. Schools, per unit of Average Membership .
23 10
22 60
50
-2 3%
IO. Cost of books and supplies, Elm. Schools, per unit of Average Mem- bership · ·
1 86
2 02
26
+14.0%
II. Appropriation asked, 1916-$60,000. Expended, 1915
55,951 24
$4,048 76
+7.2%
12. Average Membership for January, 1916, 1,345. For January, 1915 ·
1,251
106
+8.5%
·
.
.
1,306
91
+7.5%
·
.
.
1,215 $53,262 07 243 972
$55,951 24
$2,689 17 +5.0%
.
·
SCHOOL COMMITTEE'S REPORT.
103
104
TOWN DOCUMENTS.
[Dec. 31
The story of the foregoing table is, first of all, that from 1914 to 1915 our membership increased 7.5%, while our expenditures for the same period increased but 5 %. To go one step further in the same comparison, our membership increased from January, 1915, to January, 1916, 8.5 %, but the increase in the amount asked for by the committee for 1916 over the amount expended for 1915 is .but 7.2 %.
The conclusion is that the present administration has had due regard for the cost of the schools and has been more than fair to the tax payers. In spite of this, we feel that the schools have increased in educational efficiency and have not retrograded in any respect.
The items, which show a comparison of units of cost in two years, have their particular value to those who administer the schools, in that they show where more money may be expended without inereasing the propor- tional cost of the schools, and also where more care must be observed in expenditures. I beg leave to make the following explanation of the comparison of the unit costs :
Item No. 5 shows that for each pupil in our schools the cost during the past year was $1.15 less, or 2.6% less than the year before.
Item No. 6 shows that the cost of maintaining the high school has been 45 cents per pupil, or .7% less than last year. These two items we should expect to be less whenever the ratio between the expenditures is less than the ratio between the increase in any given period.
Item No. 7 shows that the instruction in the high school costs $1.35 per pupil more, or 2.6% more than it did the previous year. This is explained by the fact that more teachers have to be added on account of the system of semi-annual promotion in the high school. As long as this system obtains, this cost will continue to increase.
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