USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > Town annual report of Swampscott 1955 > Part 10
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Salaries for teachers have been rising throughout Massachusetts and the Nation. The Swampscott schedule with a salary for beginning teachers of $2700 was no longer adequate to attract and retain good teachers. Nor, more importantly, was it sufficient compensation for the contribution made by teachers to the welfare of our community.
Realizing the situation and desiring to insure the continued high level of teach- ing competency in Swampscott, the School Committee in December adopted a revision of the current salary schedule that provides for a minimum salary for teachers with a Bachelor's degree of $3100. Annual increments of $200 enable a teacher to reach a salary level of $5100 aften ten years.
Teachers with a Master's Degree have a minimum salary of $3400 and a maximum after ten years of $5400. The schedule for those with a Doctoral degree is $400 higher.
The revised schedule becomes effective after the Town Meeting, but will be retroactive to January 1, 1956.
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Town of Swampscott
Crowded Conditions Intensify
The total pupil enrollment on October 1, 1955 was 2447. This represented an increase of 127 over the total one year previously. The additional number of pupils was felt most keenly in the High School where an extra 92 pupils brought the enrollment to 681.
Several emergency measures have been made necessary by these enrollments which exceed our operating capacity. In the Hadley School the kindergarten is on double platoons. It has also been necessary to curtail cafeteria service. Those pupils below the fifth grade no longer may avail themselves of the hot lunches.
In the Machon School the auditorium continues to house the kindergarten and the remedial room has been taken over as a regular classroom. Two kindergartens share the same room in the Clarke School. The remedial room continues to serve as a regular classroom.
One-way traffic in the corridors of the High School is an innovation started this year to alleviate the congestion. The cafeteria and the assembly hall are used for classes and study halls. Other conversions have been noted elsewhere in this report.
Study Committees Report
Two faculty committees submitted reports in 1955. A group making a study of science teaching in the elementary grades selected a textbook to be introduced gradually into the elementary classrooms. All sixth grades were supplied with the books this year.
A committee consisting of all kindergarten teachers prepared a teaching guide for kindergarten classes. This outline of the objectives and learning activities of the kindergarten program has helped to coordinate our efforts at this level.
In the spring a committee of parents, School Committee members, and teaching personnel was created by vote of the School Committee to study and make recom- mendations as to whether changes should be made in the schedule of hours. After investigating local achievement records, practices in other schools, and the findings of professional research, the committee concluded that no change should be made in the hours at this time.
Financial Statement for 1955
Expenditures:
General Control
15,136.23
Instructional Service
535,040.22
Operation of Plant
90,077.94
Maintenance
10,566.27
Auxiliary Agencies
18,105.57
Capital Outlay
4,703.46
673,629.69
Special Accounts
14,105.85
Credits to the Department:
State Refund, General School Fund
45,317
State Refund, Trade and Vocational Schools
1,521
State Aid - Special Services
1,511
Tuition Received
955
General Receipts
604
49,908
102
1955 Annual Report
School Committee Member Honored
The Swampscott schools were greatly honored this year when Theodore Sargent was elected President of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. Mr. Sargent was also appointed a Massachusetts delegate to the White House Conference on Education.
Personnel Changes
During the fall of 1955 the teaching staff included twenty-three teachers who were new to the Swampscott system. Nine of these represented additions to the staff, but the others replaced former members.
Our school sustained a great loss during the year on the deaths of two beloved and respected teachers, Jeanne Lepine, who taught French and Spanish at the High School, and Helen Hudson, who taught kindergarten in the Hadley School. Dr. Loring Grimes, who served many years as a school physician, also passed away during the year.
Mr. John Whitehead in June terminated three years of service as the Superin- tendent of Schools. He now holds a similar position in Tuckahoe, New York. Teachers lost through resignations include Shirley Sterman, Marion Bennett, Dorothy Henderson, Bronia Sielewicz, Nancy Adams, Ruth Fraster, Elizabeth Henderson, and Shirley Covner.
Marion Newcomb and Helen Warren, both of the Hadley School, and Arthur Cronk of the High School, retired during the summer. These teachers rendered valuable service to the school and community for many years, and their absence will be missed by their associates.
Granted leaves of absence were two teachers, Sophie Boratgis and Helen Nelson, and Lena Wilson, cafeteria assistant.
To the School Committee, to the entire school staff, and to the many Swamp- scott citizens who have served the schools in various capacities during the year, I take this opportunity to express my personal appreciation for the time and efforts you have given, conscientiously and willingly, to the improvement of education for the youth of Swampscott.
Respectfully submitted, ROBERT D. FORREST Superintendent of Schools
Pupils Enrolled - September 30, 1955
Freshman Sophomore Juniors
High School
224
178
141
Seniors 136
P.G.
Total 681
Junior High School
346
Grades
Kind.
1
2
3
4
5
6
Sp.
Clarke
47
53
62
59
50
52
42
365
Hadley
39
45
48
51
59
48
38
328
Machon
25
41
40
48
30
26
36
246
Stanley
55
68
75
62
72
65
67
17
481
High School
681
Junior High
346
Elementary
1420
2447
2
Class I 180
Class II 166
103
Town of Swampscott
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT DIRECTORY
HIGH
James H. Dunn, Principal
Nance Marquette
Robert V. Andersen
Irene P. McCormack
Raymond Autell, Jr.
Eleanor F. McKey
Brooks K. Blossom
John I. MeLaughlin
Harry Boudakian
Flora B. MeLearn
Marion P. Burlingame
Jennie M. Mc Vey
Bette L. Davis
Edna I. Morrison
Walker G. Drogue
James Murphy
Ralph B. Earle
Mildred J. O'Leary
Thomas J. Eickelberger
Charlotte M. Oliver
Irving Fletcher
Richard W. Pavesi
Enos E. Held
L. Joseph Roy
Robert Hayden
Lois Roy
Walter R. Henshaw
Eileen Soper
Philip JJenkin
Richard Stevenson
Antoinette Lambert
Katherine W. Trickey
Richard J. Lynch
Emma S. White
Leon Marden
Marjorie White
JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Keith L. Jordan, Principal
Beatrice M. Hutchinson
Mary G. Boyce
George E. Hutchinson
Francis E. Chiary
Jeanne F. Mc Govern
Beatrice I. Cook
Crandall P. Nodwell
Alice T. Durgin
Priscilla M. Schryver
Elizabeth Gapsinski
Katherine R. Townsend
Kathleen Gordon
Grace E. Young
CLARKE SCHOOL
Madelaine M. Murphy, Principal
Virginia T. Grimes
Patricia Burke
Katherine F. Kerans
Marjorie M. Carlson
Gertrude Lowe
Marilyn F. Dennett
L. Francis Mitchell
Joan Dimeno
Ruth Nickerson
Joan M. Dymond
Barbara Poole
Marilyn E. Francis
Alice Pooler
Catherine T. Garrity
Evelina S. Roney
HADLEY SCHOOL
Keith L. Jordan, Principal
Thelma Hessell
Stanton Baker
Eva Ladge
Emma Blossom
Cecelia P. Loring
Maxine Boyd
Anne M. McCarthy
Melba Collins
Margaret Nordin
Virginia Earle
Mary E. Selvage
Ruth K. James
Georgette Weddendorf
MACHON SCHOOL
Esther K. Heikel, Principal
Hazel V. Chase
Evelyn H. Lovejoy Laura Pringle
Helen F. Gangi
Phyllis Smith
Averill D. Gellersou Frances Goddard Mae M. Graham
Elizabeth W. Wade
Catherine Walsh
104
Gertrude L. Hammond
1955 Annual Report
STANLEY SCHOOL
Hilda J. Gifford, Principal Dorothy Bondelevitch
Bernice Chaletzky Harriet Clark
Natalie Clough Charlotte N. Conners Margaret E. Durgin Grace M. Farrell
Margaret P. Johnston
Jessie C. Martin Rosalie Muchnikoff
Genevieve Pierre
Dorothy E. Rich Helen Sharp Clara Waterman
Carolyn H. White Barbara L. Young
ALL SCHOOLS
Mary M. Chaisson Supervisor of Art Barbara Baker Art Mary W. Cooper Director of Guidance
Donald C. Hammond Instrumental Music Stanley Bondelevitch Director of Physical Education
Mary E. Hanifey Physical Education Anne Linscott Speech Esther Nazarian Supervisor of Music
Gloria Strickland Music
Amy C. Burk, R.N., School Nurse
SECRETARIES
Bessie Heggie, Hadley School Edith Legro, High School
JANITORS
Elizabeth Kehoe Daniel J. Myers Carl B. Goodwin Ralph E. Gould Mario Travascio Wendell Jones Emery Doane Henry J. Callahan
Frank Coletti Kenneth Cort Richard Corcoran Michael Pagnotta Thomas Bailey Donald R. Peterson
Francis Losano
ASSISTANTS
Elsie Topp
Charlotte McCarthy
LUNCH ROOM
Hilda Boston Sarah Corcoran Clementine Emery
Lillian Morse Rose McNair Doris Coletti
105
Town of Swampscott
Public Library
TRUSTEES GEORGE W. HOWE, Chairman NELSON J. DARLING, JR. RUTH M. BARRY, Secretary
STAFF EDITH N. SNOW, Librarian ELIZABETH W. FORBES, Acting Children's Librarian
RUTH E. POLLARD, Reference Librarian MARGUERITE W. CONDON, Part Time Assistant BARBARA E. MANSUR, Library Secretary JOANNE H. BISHOP, General Library Assistant ANGELO LOSANO, Janitor
The immediate future, with the alluring possibilities of an enlarged and rearranged building, makes it rather difficult to think of the past.
The work of the year has been largely routine, a matter of maintaining the usual services as normally and as long as possible. As this report is written the adult department has just been closed to permit the final renovation of the main room. Patrons responded well to our urging that they take extra numbers of books with the dual purpose of having 'enough to last' while the Library was closed, and of lessening the handling of volumes within the building. Every volume must be moved at least twice; some will have to be moved several times because not all the new stacks can be put up until the basement is remodelled.
The Children's Room has continued - and will do so - with a minimum of interruption. Added help has been needed there at least three afternoons a week. In its new quarters some changes in procedures will be put into practice, and a "reader interest" arrangement will be tried. It is on organization of such projects that the staff will spend some of its time while the adult department is closed.
Because it seems impossible to tell where the stresses will come and to just what extent benefits will accrue from the rearranged building, the Board is asking in 1956 for more help to be paid for by the hour. By another fall re-evaluation should be possible, and a rational determination reached on the number of staff needed, what skills they should have and how they may best be scheduled. A small staff demands a good deal from each member.
Particular mention for devotion to duty in a year which has been easy for no one on the staff, is due to our janitor, Angelo Losano, who has worked long hours and often under most trying circumstances. He has been of inestimable value, in planning as well as in executing the many adjustments which have been necessary.
Gifts of the past year which deserve special mention are: From Mr. and Mrs. R. J. Thayer, a group of seven framed pictures of Swampscott, done by Philip Arneth, Mrs. Thayer's father.
The practice of giving memorial books has also grown, and gifts of one or more have been received as follows:
In memory of Mrs. Charles Lovejoy, from Mrs. Edward Scott O'Keefe
In memory of Gustavus J. Esselen, from Mrs. Esselen
106
1955 Annual Report
In memory of Ralph Russell, from R. I. Nesmith
In memory of Edward H. Heath, Sr. from Robert and Louis Sherman
In memory of Mrs. Francis Faulkner from Mrs. D. J. Murphy
An autographed copy of his book, "The Horn That Stopped the Band" came from Arthur H. Parsons, Jr., former librarian here.
A six months' subscription to the English Travel Book Club was donated by William W. Harris.
The Library Board is most appreciative of the services of the Building Com- mittee. Under the able chairmanship of Andrew R. Linscott they have carried for nearly two years the responsibility for our needed expansion. They have held numerous meetings, requiring much time and thought to work out the not incon- siderable problems. When it was found additional money would be necessary to meet the lowest bid, they presented it to the Town Meeting.
As we begin a new era of greater usefulness with our enlarged facilities, we again thank these public-spirited citizens.
The objective of the local Civil Defense Organization is to provide a means for utilizing the entire resources of the community to deal with the effects of enemy attack, or with natural disasters which may be, or already are, too great for regular public protective forces to deal with unassisted. The local Civil Defense Director is appointed by the local government as provided by Section 13 of Chapter 639, Acts of 1950, to act as Disaster Coordinator for the various Civil Defense services, (Fire, Police, Medical, Radiac, etc.) which utilize all available resources of the Community. The technical direction of each service rests with the head of that service. The over-all approach to disaster situations and the coordination of each service with the others, is the responsibility of the C.D. Director. It should be noted that when a state of emergency is declared by the Governor of the Commonwealth, the local C.D. Director acquires extensive powers and in the time of disasters he will direct the over-all disaster operations within the municipality.
I have in my previous reports stressed the importance of Civil Defense and surely the floods of this year and the hurricanes of 1954 have shown the important part a Civil Defense organization can play during disasters. Civil Defense has become, and in my opinion will always be, a vital part of the Government of every city and town.
I would like to metion briefly what has developed at the State level during the last part of 1955.
The Legislature voted to build a new State Civil Defense Control Center, which will be one of the best of its kind in the United States. State and Federal funds will build it at an estimated cost of $1,452,000.
An adequate and satisfactory budget for Civil Defense was passed by the Legislature. Now the State Agency can go ahead with plans for staffing and equip- ping area and sector headquarters. Area 1 has moved from Boston to The Bradley Palmer State Park, Topsfield. Work has been started at this location on a Civil
107
Town of Swampscott
Defense Training Center and Rescue School. Federal funds will be alloted to Massachusetts for the completion of evacuation plans.
I wish also to mention the appointment of Ralph I. Lindsey by the State Civil Defense Agency to the post of Sector Director of 1F. Mr. Lindsey has been one of my associate directors as well as Evacuation Officer and it was mainly through his efforts that we were able to complete our evacuation plans. As Sector Director he will be in charge of all Civil Defense personnel in the fourteen cities and towns that comprise 1F. It is good to know that we have a man like Ralph Lindsey in this important position in our Civil Defense.
In closing I want to assure the residents of Swampscott that we in Civil Defense will continue to do everything we can to build up our organization to the point where all services stand ready to meet any emergency. However, we can only reach that point if we have the support and interest of all and a firm belief that Civil Defense is everyone's job.
General Information
Swampscott was incorporated as a Town on May 21, 1852.
Situation: About 15 miles northeast of Boston.
Population: 13,070.
Area: 3.05 square miles.
Assessed Valuation : $31,083,800.
Tax Rate: $51.00.
Administration Building: 22 Monument Avenue.
Senators in Congress: Leverett Saltonstall and John F. Kennedy.
State Senator: Charles V. Hogan of Lynn (1st Essex District) .
Representative in Congress: William H. Bates of Salem (6th Congressional District) .
Representatives in General Court: Thomas M. Newth of Swampscott; John A. Davis, Marblehead; and Ernest W. April of Salem (14th Essex District) .
Member of Governor's Council: Arthur A. Thomson of N. Andover (5th District).
Qualifications of Voters: Must be 21 years of age, born in United States or fully naturalized ; a resident of Massachusetts one year and Swampscott six months. Registration Monday through Friday, 9-12 A.M. 1-5 P.M. Special sessions held preceding elections.
Where to vote:
Precinct 1 - Machon School on Burpee Road.
Precinct 2 - Clarke School on Norfolk Avenue side adjoining Abbott Park.
Precinct 3 - Old Town Hall on Burrill Street.
Precinct 4 - Hadley School on Redington Street.
Precinct 5 - Essex Oil Filling Station, 638 Humphrey Street.
Precinct 6 - Phillips Beach Fire Engine House, Phillips Avenue.
Tax Bills: Due and payable on or before October 1. Law provides for addition of interest from October 1 on bills unpaid after November 1. Poll and motor excise taxes are payable 30 days and water bills are payable 60 days from date of issue.
108
For Your Convenience
EMERGENCY NUMBERS
AMBULANCE
LYnn 5-1111
CIVIL DEFENSE LYnn 8-9622
FIRE LYnn 5-4050
POLICE LYnn 5-1111
Information on:
Call:
At:
Assessors
LYnn 5-1644
Police
LYnn 5-1111
Town Accountant
LYnn 5-1648
Town Clerk
LYnn 5-1646
Building Inspector
LYnn 3-4538
Cemetery Death Certificates
Town Clerk
LYnn 5-1646.
Dog Licenses
Town Clerk
LYnn 5-1646
Dogs - Lost and Found Draft Board
Draft Board No. 68
LYnn 8-9144
Elections
Town Clerk
LYnn 5-1646 LYnn 2-1696 LYnn 5-1645
Fire Permits
Fire Department
LYnn 5-4050
Town Clerk
LYnn 5-1646
Health Department
LYnn 5-1643
Library
Public Library
LYnn 3-8380
Lights, Street
Selectmen
LYnn 5-1645
Marriage Certificates
Town Clerk
LYnn 5-1646
Milk Inspection
Health Department
LYnn 5-1643 LYnn 5-1646
Mortgages, Personal Property Old Age Assistance
Old Age Assistance
LYnn 8-4400
Parks and Playgrounds
Park Department
LYnn 2-2378
Plumbing Permits
Plumbing Inspector
LYnn 5-1643
Resident Listing
Board of Registrars
LYnn 3-1873
Rubbish Collection
Health Department
LYnn 5-1643
Schools
School Department
LYnn 2-2067
Sewers
Sewer Department
LYnn 5-1647
Streets
Highway Department
LYnn 2-3520
Tax Collections Trees
Tax Collector Tree Warden
LYnn 2-2378
Veterans' Benefits
Veterans' Service Department
LYnn 3-4313
Voting, Registration Water
Water Department
LYnn 5-1647 LYnn 2-1696
Weights and Measures
Sealer
Welfare
Welfare Department
LYnn 8-4400
Wire Inspector
LYnn 3-4538
Building Inspector
LYnn 3-4538
Assessments Bicycle Licenses Bills and Accounts Birth Certificates Building Permits
Cemetery Superintendent
LYnn 3-4369
Dog Officer
LYnn 5-8018
Engineering Entertainment Licenses
Town Engineer
Selectmen
Fishing and Hunting Licenses Garbage Collection
Town Clerk
LYnn 5-1646
Board of Registrars
LYnn 3-1873
Wiring Permits Zoning
محمد
SETTLED A.D. 1629.
INCOF
(0)
T. A. D. 1852.
AS
MP
SWA
PHOTO COURTESY OF LYNN ITEM
SWAMPSCOTT PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1996 00132 3163
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