USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > Town annual report of Swampscott 1934 > Part 12
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Abatements January 1 to June 30, 1934
3.75
Outstanding June 30, 1934
1,609.33
$2,650.60
Outstanding July 1, 1934
$1,609.33
Commitments July 1 to 28, 1934
813.93
Water services 1933 entered as 1934
12.69
$2,435.95
Payments to treasurer July 1 to 28, 1934
$527.58
Outstanding July 28, 1934, per list
1,874.72
Cash balance July 28, 1934
33.65
$2,435.95
Water Interest
Outstanding January 1, 1934
$611.11.
Commitments January 1 to June 30, 1934
88.37
Interest on water liens not previously charged
26.48
$725.96
Payments to treasurer January 1 to June 30, 1934
$63.05
Outstanding June 30, 1934
662.91
$725.96
Outstanding July 1, 1934
$662.91
Payments to treasurer July 1 to 28, 1934
$9.95
Outstanding July 28. 1934, per list
652.96
$662.91
1934 J
DIVISION OF ACCOUNTS
119
Water Liens
On hand January 1, 1934
Transfers to water liens January 1 to
June 30, 1934:
Water rates 1933
$56.59
Water rates 1934 62.45
119.04
Collection not committed-recording fee Overpayment adjusted
1.00
.01
$3,674.06
Payments to treasurer January 1 to June 30, 1934
$1,450.94
Water liens reported as miscellaneous charges
4.00
On hand June 30 and July 28, 1934, per list
2,219.12
$3,674.06
$3,554.01
TOWN OF SWAMPSCOTT Balance Sheet-June 30, 1934 GENERAL ACCOUNTS
Assets
Liabilities and Reserves
Cash: In Banks and Office: General
$212,074.53
Petty:
Selectmen
$10.00
Police
50.00
Special Deposits:
Health
25.00
Soldiers' Relief
20.00
School
25.00
Library
15.00
145.00
Overpayment-Motor Vehicle Excise Taxes 1931
79
Accounts Receivable :
Taxes:
Levy of 1932
Revenue
$342,210.69
Non Revenue
7,072.27
Levy of 1934, Polls
$15,638.33 87,635.25 6,608.00
109,881.58
Water:
Old Age Assistance Taxes:
Revenue
$45,981.59
Levy of 1932
$32.00
Non-Revenue
2,976.28
Levy of 1933
176.00
208.00
Motor Vehicle Excise Taxes:
Levy of 1932
$723.48
Levy of 1933
970.28
Levy of 1934
5,527.84
7,221.60
Temporary Loans: In Anticipation of Revenue: 1933
1934
$150,000.00 300,000.00
$450,000.00
Police Badges Newsboys' Badges
$28.50
-
3.75
32.25
$212,219.53
Cemetery Sale of Lots Fund Appropriation Balances : General,
1,488.00
TOWN DOCUMENTS
[Dec. 31
48,957.87
398,240.83
120
$349,282.96
Levy of 1933
Special Assessments:
Moth 1932
$37.25
Moth 1933
307.25
Sewer:
Unapportioned
369.76
Added to Taxes 1932
863.84
Added to Taxes 1933
1,051.51
Sidewalk:
Added to Taxes 1933
181.50
Sewer
2,285.11
Sidewalk
181.50
Tax Title
38,026.35
Departmental
7,534.11
Water
28,624.66
Departmental:
Health
$162.00
Public Welfare
6,315.86
Soldiers' Burials
169.25
School
177.50
Park
137.50
Cemetery
572.00
Water:
Rates :
1930
$301.85
1931
64.21
1932
1,403.07
1933
7,920.35
1934
13.551.59
Water Department Available Surplus Reserve Fund-Overlay Surplus Overlay-Reserved for Abatements: Levy of 1933 Revenue-Reserved Until Collected: Motor Vehicle Excise Tax
34,465.43 892.05
2,515.63
$7,220.81 Special Assessment:
Moth
344.50
2,811 1
Tax Titles and Possessions :
Tax Titles
$37,771.00
Tax Possessions
255.35
38,026.35
Surplus Revenue
84,217.04 59,663.28
DIVISION OF ACCOUNTS
121
ยท
1934]
7,534.11
$23,241.07
Services:
1931
$41.59
1932
176.25
1933
674.39
1934
1,609.33
Interest
2,501.56 662.91
Liens
2,219.12
$28,624.66
Revenue 1934:
Appropriations Voted Deduct:
$668,708.90
Polls 1934
Assessed $6,608.00
Estimated Receipts Collected 66,043.99
72,651.99
$596,056.91
$56,760.40
Overlay 1932 Deficit
Due From Trust Funds : Sale of Lots Fund Phillips Medal Fund
$6,630.00 54.65
6,689.65
$1,031,515.30
$1,031,515.30
[Dec. 31
122
TOWN DOCUMENTS
Water Department Appropriation Less Water Receipts Collected 34,775.79
21,984.61 257.19
DEFERRED REVENUE ACCOUNTS
Apportioned Assessments Not Due $20,975.72
Apportioned Sidewalk Assessment Revenue-Due In:
1934
$370.41
1935
288.93
1936
47.04
Apportioned Sewer Assessment Revenue-Due In:
1934
$3,256.79
1935
3,122.26
1936
2,614.18
1937
2,485.58
1938
2,465.94
1939
2,455.42
1940
2,445.60
1941
1,387.27
1942
21.60
1943
14.70
20,269.34
$20,975.72
$20,975.72
1934]
$706.38
DIVISION OF ACCOUNTS
123
124
TOWN DOCUMENTS
[Dec. 31
School Committee-1934
Eleanor H. Ingelfinger, Chairman
5 Cliffside
Thomas S. Bubier
3 Beverly Road
John R. Hurlburt
Br. 3574
Philip A. Graham
Br. 1169-W
Leo J. Coughlin
5 Essex Terrace Ja. 2579
Regular meeting, second Wednesday of each month. Superintendent of Schools and Secretary of School Committee Frank L. Mansur
29 Andrew Road Br. 2193
The office of the Superintendent of Schools is open on school days from 8.00 A.M. to 4.00 P.M .; Saturdays from 9.00 A.M. to 12.00 M.
School Calendar-1935
Winter term begins
Wednesday, January 2
Friday, February 15
Spring term begins
Monday, February 25
Spring term closes
Friday, April 12
Summer term opens
Monday, April 22
Summer term closes
Friday, June 14
High School Graduation
Friday, June 14
Fall term begins
Wednesday, September 4
COMMITTEE'S REPORT FOR 1934
The School Committee submits the following report for the year 1934 :-
Finances
The committee is glad to be able to report that it kept well with- in the appropriation during the past year despite rising prices for practically all supplies and that it has an unexpended balance at the end of the year of $2,594.25. The budget asked for 1935 is $1,257.46 less than the amount appropriated for 1934. Your com- mittee feels that these facts give an indication of its efforts to op- erate the schools with all possible economy consistent with proper educational facilities for our children.
A summary of the expenditures and receipts for the year are as follows:
Appropriation
$190,108.46
Expenditures
General Control
$7,235.54
Instructional Service
146,145.97
Operation of Plants
19.582.78
Maintenance
6,381.14
Capital Outlay
2,694.51
Auxiliary Agencies
5,474.27
187.514.21
Unexpended Balance
$2.594.25
Winter term closes
Br. 8790
Br. 3893 40 Beach Bluff Avenue
11 Humphrey Terrace
125
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE
1934]
General Receipts of Department
$62.92
Tuition Received 808.98
State Aid to Trade Schools
369.89
State Refund to Town from General School Fund
15,177.20
Net Cost of Schools
$171,095.22
School Buildings
One of the important duties of the committee is not only to see that the school buildings are kept in condition to comply with the state laws as to fire protection, health and sanitation, but also to see that by proper care and repairs they are kept from depreciation. A fact not generally known is that in 1931 three of the schools did not have the certificate of fitness issued by the Commonwealth to school buildings that complied in all respects with the laws and reg- ulations affecting such buildings. A new superintendent was select- ed in the spring of 1931 who, in co-operation with the then exist- ing committee and by diligent attention to this feature, succeeded in regaining for all the schools, by June, 1932, certificates of fitness, which are still retained.
Minor repairs have been made this year in all of the buildings as needed. The leaks through the brick work and artificial stone at the Hadley School, and in the brick work at the High School, have been repaired, and the heavy rains of the past fall provided an excellent test to prove that both buildings are now weather-proof. This has enabled us to do some painting that has made the stairway at the High School less unsightly, and to re-plaster and paint the two rooms at the Hadley School that showed the worst effects of the leakage. In September of this year the principals of the schools told us that the school buildings were in better condition than they had been within their recollection.
At the High School we are seriously handicapped by lack of space. A visitor would be somewhat surprised to find the library filled up by pupils who have no apparent need to be there, and to find boys working on problems in mathematics at the tables in the lunch room. The explanation is simple: there is no other room for them.
The Superintendent has submitted to the committee a plan for helping these conditions next year, as follows:
1. Fit up the annex formerly used for manual training for a room for drawing.
2. Remove the partition between the present drawing room and the stockroom and make this the library.
3. Remove the stock room to the room now used as a library. 4. Move the physics laboratory to the room used for chemistry.
We think this plan should be adopted and that the amount of money necessary for it, namely $1,400, should be provided in next year's appropriation.
Courses of Instruction
The only change or addition in the courses of instruction con- templated for the ensuing year is the establishment of an office machine department in the commercial course at the High School. The committee feels the commercial course requires strengthening in this particular, in order that the graduates may enter the mod- ern business world equipped with a good working knowledge of of- fice machine operation.
$16,418.99
126
TOWN DOCUMENTS
[Dec. 31
Teachers
There have been very few changes in the teaching staff in the past few years. Out of a total of 70 teachers, 62 are now on ten- ure, that is, they have held their positions for three or more years. The new teachers have been selected with care, and every ef- fort has been made to get the best out of a large number of appli- cants. In this matter we must rely to a great extent on the judg- ment of the Superintendent. Up to the present it has been excel- lent.
With a view to economy we have, in the past three years, dropped some of the teachers who were not urgently needed, par- ticularly in the Junior High School, and a majority of the commit- tee believe that we have not impaired the efficiency of the schools in so doing. In this way, largely, the cost per pupil in the Junior High School has been reduced from $143.56 in the year 1931-2 to $122.03 in the year 1933-4. Some of the commitee believe that there is still an opportunity for a saving in this respect.
High School
The question of a new high school is always before us. A visit to the present building, while the school is in session, will convince any interested person of this fact. For the past three years the committee, recognizing that conditions made a new school impos- sible, have not urged the question. Today there seems to be a definite movement on foot to build a new high school in Phillips Park, but, strange to say, at the date of the preparation of this report (January 10) neither the committee nor the superintendent has been consulted in regard to it. While the committee does not intend to take a definite position on this question, we think it appropriate to point out some of the facts that deserve serious consideration.
1. The old high school, while altogether outgrown as a high school, is still serviceable, and can be used for many years for one of the elementary schools. That is, the number of pupils in each of the elementary schools is about 200, and in the High School about 400. In the elementary schools the questions of gymnasium, laboratory, library, and lunch room lose much of their importance. If a new school were built in Phillips Park it would probably mean that the pres- ent high school would be abandoned.
2. For economy of operation, a new high school should be com- bined with the junior high. It has been suggested that the committee should acquire the Chick property that adjoins the Hadley School, build the High School on this lot, using the present school for one of the walls of the new build- ing, and move the elementary school to the old High School. There are good arguments both for and against this plan, but, under the present circumstances, it seems unnecessary to consider them in detail.
School Regulations
The committee also adopted a set of Rules and Regulations for the government of our schools, copies of which have been printed and are available to citizens at the Superintentent's office. Thus, for the first time, within memory of any present member of the committee, there is now a procedure set up for the conduct of the committee's meetings and definite rules for the guidance of super- visors, teachers, janitors and others having to do with school bus- iness. The only matters requiring particular mention in this report are the paragraph which gives the superintendent the power, at his discretion, to cause a no-school signal to be sounded in stormy
127
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE
1934]
weather, and the paragraphs that restrict the employment of mar- ried women as teachers in the schools.
In closing the committee desires to commend the Superintendent for his close application to duty during the past year and the co- operation he has extended to the committee, particularly in the matter of closely supervising all costs. We feel also that the teach- ing force has performed as a whole very efficiently during the year. We desire to particularly commend the janitorial force for the man- ner in which they have maintained buildings and grounds.
Respectfully submitted,
ELEANOR H. INGELFINGER, JOHN R. HURLBURT, THOMAS S. BUBIER, PHILIP A. GRAHAM, LEO J. COUGHLIN,
School Committee.
REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS
To the School Committee of Swampscott Mrs. Ingelfinger and Gentlemen:
I submit herewith my annual report as superintendent of the public schools of Swampscott.
The continued definite trend toward the reduction of the costs of public enterprises during the year has been reflected within this department. From a high point of $203,175.00 in 1932, our budget for 1934 was reduced to $194,353.00. Even this was decreed too high by the finance committee, and an item of about $4,000.00 for better quarters for Manual Arts was omitted, so that our actual appropria- tion ultimately became $190,108.46. We have kept within this appro- priation and are returning an unexpended balance to the town treas- ury. Our requests for 1935 are reduced to a still lower level- $188,926.00.
The trend of our costs has been definitely and abruptly down since the school year 1931-1932. Per pupil costs at the High School have dropped from $155.26 to $131.28 and at the Junior High from $143.56 to $122.03; and while the Elementary School costs this year apparently rose $1.75 to $85.53, the increase was due to replace- ment costs of over $5.00 a pupil for the Clarke School heating plant, leaving an actual decrease, except for that unusual item, of about $3.25.
The means of arriving at this result have been careful atten- tion to small expenditures, and the continuance of certain determined economy measures. Alone among all town departments with one possible exception, the members of our staff bore a salary reduc- tion for a full year instead of for forty-two weeks. Our contrib- utory scheme went into effect in February, 1933, and extended to February, 1934, we thereby being the first department to institute the movement and the last to abandon it.
There has been further reduction in the number of department employees, in that the position of librarian at the Junior High School has been done away with and the library placed under the supervision of a teacher engaged primarily in classroom work. I trust this may be considered a temporary and emergency measure, and that the library at that school and at the Senior High School may ultimately be expanded to the point that you will feel justified in again engaging a qualified librarian to serve these two libraries in combination.
All in all, our present full-time teaching force is seven teach- ers less than it was in 1931. How much further such reduction can
128-
TOWN DOCUMENTS
[Dec. 31
be carried is not evident, but there are signs of shrinkage in the elementary grades. Our school census shows a falling off in pupils between the ages of five and sixteen of approximately 12% since 1931, most of it in children from five to seven years old. Presum- ably this means smaller classes in the lower grades. The one el- ement standing in the way of organizing these classes more econom- ically is the residential distribution of the members. We have tried to maintain school zones by considering Pleasant street, Monument avenue and Walker road, and the Boston and Maine railroad tracks as boundary lines. Each zone contains one elementary school for the pupils of the zones to attend. Each year, however, the neces- sity has arisen of transferring pupils in one grade or another to some other school, temporarily, to avoid congestion. This has been accepted by parents without serious protest for the most part when they have understood the reasons, but it is not reasonable to ask them to send their children by one school to attend the next. Hence, from time to time congestion arises at one part of the town that might be overcome to our financial advantage if certain pupils lived elsewhere; but since we have to take them where they are, obvious- ly, then, shrinkage in census or enrollment does not mean necessar- ily a chance to decrease the teaching force unless that shrinkage takes place in areas bearing very definite relationships to school lo- cations.
It is my belief that elimination of activities and reductions in force should not be made wholesale but accomplished gradually. Complete turnovers in policies and reductions that strike at funda- mentals produce shocks that effect the whole system unfavorably. After all, in matter of education, we are dealing with futures even more than with present conditions. What we do today may save us a few immediate dollars, and it may at the same time have a lasting harmful effect on the lives of the children with whom we are dealing. The former can be proved by bookkeeping, but the latter is beyond our power to compute for several years to come. I trust that we may proceed with moderation, and keep our eyes on cur own problems rather than follow blindly patterns cut to fit the predicaments of others.
A year ago last September our Manual Arts department for High School boys was moved to the Hadley School shops. The year of experimenting and adjusting has passed and at present we seem to be settled on a course that should attain, and I believe already is attaining, more satisfactory results than have been possible at any previous time. Our principal handicap, as always, is lack of space, particularly storage space where unfinished projects can be kept safe from injury or loss. It is a peculiarity that those who plan school shops never seem to provide space enough for that es- sential purpose-in our particular case, none whatsoever. We have already overflowed into unused space in adjacent toilet rooms.
The further organization of this department should be to bring the allied subjects of Shop Mathematics and Mechanical Drawing directly into the department. What study we have made of the situation seems to indicate that teacher time might be used to great- er advantage by such an arrangement, and a closer relationship established between the branches than now exists.
Late in the fall I reported to you what seemed to me to be the logical step to take when you should desire to extend the activities of the Commercial Department at the high school in line with the best thought on the subject, namely, the establishment of an office machine branch of instruction, to be of equal standing with the
129
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE
1934]
stenographic and accounting branches now existing. The demand for machine clerical workers, we are advised, is greater than the demand either for stenographers or for accountants as such. You have determined that this recommendation shall go into effect in September, and we are already planning to that end. Since it ap- peared that the normal growth of the Commercial Department would doubtless require the addition of a teacher by that time, this move does not mean the addition of a teacher that might not otherwise be needed.
It does, however, mean the necessity for more room, and this, I believe, is possible by making the chemistry laboratory serve as a physics laboratory as well. While not ideal, such an expedient is not a serious handicap in view of the obvious greater inconveniences we are putting up with in the high school building. The space gained will provide us with a classroom in which the additional teacher may hold her classes.
In this connection, may I point out that the facilities of the school might be further improved at small expense by renovating the cubicle attached to the rear of the main building and by removing a partition now standing between the stock room and the inade- quate art room. We could then move the Art Department to the cubicle, with quarters about four times as large as at present, use the enlarged room thus vacated for a library, doubling our space, and locate the stock room conveniently next door to the office.
With rumors again in the air relative to a new high school building, it may on first thought appear that little or no money should be expended on this building. However, the building is struc- turally substantial, and is in better condition than for some years back due to the renovating it has received in the last three years. Its fault is that it is wholly inadequate in the facilities a modern high school should provide and that its antiquated architecture does not lend itself to alteration or enlargement. That is not true as regards its use as an elementary school, for which it might be used practically as it stands. It is so located that thirty percent. more grade school children live within half a mile of it than do within a like distance of the Hadley Elementary School. An undeveloped tract suitable for home building is close at hand. It appears to me that any plan for a high school should seriously consider, as a mat- ter of economical treatment of the problem, the use of this build- ing as a grade school. With this in view small expenditures for improvements in it are not in the nature of waste.
Reporting on affairs at the Senior High School, Mr. Gray calls attention to the fact that the enrollment this year is 418, and that about 105 will be graduated in June. On that basis he is doubtless correct in expecting a larger enrollment next year, since there are 141 members in grade 9 at the Junior High School and some others to enter from St. John's School.
Commenting on the college entrance situation, he has shown that of all examinations taken in June in only two did pupils fail contrary to the expectations of the school faculty. Since we have no way of preventing from taking examinations those not qualified, it must always happen that some whom we cannot recommend will be examined and fail. Mr. Gray further calls attention to the fact that during the first semester-the most difficult that a pupil has to pass through-89% of all marks received by students who en- tered colleges from Swampscott High School in 1934 were average or better, and only one out of a hundred was below the passing point.
Graduates of the class of 1934 are representing Swampscott in Bates, Bowdoin, Connecticut, Dartmouth, Earlham, Norwich, North- eastern, Princeton, Skidmore and Smith.
130
TOWN DOCUMENTS
[Dec. 31
Relative to the general problems of high school education, Mr. Gray writes:
"The financial depression has caused many people to consider seriously whether or not the great and unique social experiment of offering free high school education to all young people should be continued. Some think that we cannot afford it, while others be- lieve that the disappointing outcomes of secondary education do not justify the expense.
"High school education has undergone a great change. It used to be a privilege for a few; now it is demanded as a sort of inalien- able right for the multitude. It has become the fashion and is taken for granted. As a result of this attitude, perhaps, there has de- veloped a sort of flippancy among high school pupils toward study. With many, a high school education is no longer a gateway to a career; it is merely an incident. Consequently there is little regard for intellectual training and very little strenuous effort.
"To induce seriousness among its pupils, it has been suggested that the American high school might dismiss indolents. Depriving a few of the privilege of a high school education might inculcate a greater spirit of earnestness in the others. Of course, there are serious objections to the policy of excluding pupils of any type from tax-supported high schools. It may be that a reorganization of society outside the schools must precede the renewal of a spirit of earnestness among high school pupils. Certainly, if society will demand of young people earnest devotion to their studies, the schools will be raised immediately to a new level of efficiency. This may well be one of the beneficient outcomes of the present demand for economy."
While this quotation was intended as a general comment, a close application might be made of it to our own immediate situation.
There have been few changes in our teaching force. Miss Esther Chorover is replacing Miss Agnes Santry, resigned, as ac- companist to the Supervisor of Music. Miss Alice Durgin and Miss Margaret Durgin are both on leave of absence. Miss Dora Magoni is assistant at the Machon School in place of Miss Thacher, who is transferred to the Hadley. Miss Ilah Spinney resigned from the High School early in December to be married, and Miss Mary Mal- lery has come from Provincetown to take her place. As the year closes, Miss Florence Knutson leaves us to accept a more desirable position at Concord, Mass.
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