USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > Town annual report of Swampscott 1959 > Part 8
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Building Programs Represent a Big Step Forward
To say that the most noteworthy development of 1959 was the erection of a new junior high building would be a gross understatement. The addition of the Alice Shaw Junior High to the schools of the Swampscott system not on- ly relieves overcrowding of the past several years but, for the first time in the history of Swampscott, enables us to give our young adolescents a full educa- tional program.
The new structure, through the concentrated efforts both of the Building Committee headed by Walter H. Forbes, Jr., and of the contractor, was com- pleted in what must be record time. Ground was broken in October of 1958. By September 9th of 1959, the opening day for Swampscott public schools, grades seven, eight, and nine attended their first round of classes in the new building, though with several areas still unfinished. In November, however, the building stood virtually complete, and Open House was held on Veterans' Day, the 11th.
We are, in full sincerity, grateful to the Building Committee for its un- stinted efforts in the planning and building of this new school. True, we have not always agreed with their proposals; there have been honest differences of opinion since the very inception of the project. Yet the resulting building is one of which we are understandably proud. For the fact that we now have it, no small debt of thanks is due to Chairman Forbes and committee members Howell E. Estey, Charles W. Eiseman, John C. Kane, and Raymond E. Wer- ner. All our schools are infinitely better off because of the work these men have done.
With the transfer of junior high pupils to the Shaw, the Hadley school Building Committee was able to continue its program of renovating that school. Work went rapidly ahead during ten summer weeks. Improvements were made in the heating, lighting and plumbing services. Structural changes provided large, functional and attractive classrooms for kindergarten and first grade and new offices for the principal and the superintendent. Refinished floors, plastering, and painting created an entirely new environment that has already done much to improve the learning situation and to heighten morale of pupils, teachers, and parents.
Despite a tight work schedule, Hadley, too, was ready for its pupils on the opening day of school in September. The building as it stands today re- flects immeasurably to the credit of the Building Committee that saw the undertaking through from its inception in 1955. Roger Skinner as chairman,
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Town of Swampscott
Mrs. Kenneth White, George Knowlton, Burt Harding, and Thomas Duncan have earned our deepest gratitude for their untiring and selfless efforts.
There remains, however, one most necessary project which we have been trying for years to get underway. This is the creation of an adequate play area for the Hadley School. Safety demands it, and our school program is defective without it. We must continue to ask that the Townspeople make provision for outdoor space at Hadley comparable to that enjoyed at our other schools.
Physical Plant is in Excellent Condition
In addition to our two major projects cited above, others of a more rou- tine nature have been accomplished. We painted exteriors of the Machon School and of the Stanley addition. At the High School we painted three class- rooms, installed new tile flooring in the front stairwells, made minor im- provements where we could in plumbing and lighting, and erected a new fence at the rear of the building, correcting what has been a dangerous sit- uation there.
Several projects contemplated at the time our 1959 budget was adopted were left uncompleted. It became evident early in the year that money bud- geted for these would be needed to complete the Hadley renovation, funds ap- propriated back in 1955 for the Building Committee proving now inadequate. In all, we spent over $4000 for work at the Hadley that we had not anticipated but that had obvious priority over maintenance projects planned elsewhere.
Despite these omissions, however, our physical plant is now in excellent condition. It is only the High School that will require major work in the next two or three years. In this building we must plan for more new flooring, fur- ther improvement of lighting, and extensive interior painting. We also need better facilities for guidance, science, and other parts of our educational pro- gram. This will require remodeling and, in the very near future, an addition to the building.
Curriculum Grows with the Times
Television came officially to Swampscott classrooms in 1959. Although we had experimented in a small way in 1958 with elementary school programs presented by Channel 2, it was this year that the newest instrument of com- munication first made a substantial contribution to our program.
In the spring we offered to one class of Juniors at the High School a three-week series in the Hunmanities televised by Channel 2 with support from the Ford Foundation. We were one of many schools in the Boston area using the telecasts on a trial basis as a prelude to their possible expansion in- to a full-year program for eleventh grade pupils. Individual lessons, based on Our Town, Oedipus Rex, and Hamlet and taught by nationally recognized fig- ures, were oustanding. We were enthusiastic about the immediate results and the future possibilities of the project. Sadly, the Ford Foundation has with- drawn its support. Three weeks of the lessons, however, have been filmed and are available for rental. We hope to be able to integrate these with our reg- ular English program.
In September we affiliated with the 21-inch Classroom program of Chan- nel 2 at an annual cost of twenty-five cents per pupil. Although programs are offered to all elementary grade levels and some to secondary, we are present- ly concerned primarily with the conversational French being taught in the fourth grade and science in the fifth and sixth grades. Offerings in art, music, literature, and current events are used by our schools in varying degrees.
Both among our teachers and among our administrators, television has found wider acceptance as a classroom aid than we might have predicted. Most of us now feel that in many areas it is proving the certainty of its worth. Lessons in French have been especially well received, and teachers themselves
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1959 Annual Report
have willingly undertaken additional courses of study to improve their own proficiency. Televised science instruction has also been a high point. Three of our fifth grade teachers, under Boston University sponsorship, are engaged in a research project aimed at evaluating various applications of television in the presentation of natural science lessons. There is ample indication that we may expect televised French and science to become permanent parts of our elementary curriculum.
Committees of teachers during 1959 made surveys of foreign language study and programs of special study for the gifted and talented.
The language committee, after examination of programs in other com- munities and of our special needs and opportunities here in Swampscott, came in with strong recommendations for instruction in French throughout the pri- mary and intermediate grades. The present TV lessons in grade four consti- tute one step in the direction this committee would have us move. Its propos- als, all interesting and well documented, require detailed analysis by both School Committee and administration; the final report paves the way for any of several worthwhile developments in the field of elementary school language instruction.
The committee studying elementary programs for the gifted pupils halt- ed its work in June with a preliminary report on progress to date. Members of this group surveyed literature in the field of education for the gifted and made visits to nearby school systems where special programs of one sort or another are in operation. They analyzed also the teaching here in Swampscott of youngsters with high scholastic abilities. Nothing in their findings here or elsewhere seemed to justify an immediate major reorganization of our pro- gram. As the committee resumes its study, it will have the advantage of our recent experience with conversational French and stepped-up instruction in science, which, along with other similar projects, open doors to further explor- ation of types of work we can best offer our most capable boys and girls.
Last year I reported that, for the first time, we were offering science to pupils in the seventh grade on a two-day-a-week basis. In September of 1959 this program was expanded to five full periods each week. We are now giving all pupils in grades seven, eight, and nine a full science program.
It was, however, the opening of the Shaw Junior High which had by far the greatest influence on curriculum. Thanks to the fine modern facilities now available, we have been able for the first time to present a really strong pro- gram not only in science but also in home economics, art, industrial arts, and physical education. As we develop our library, this too will contribute greatly to the Junior High program. Also, with the right kind of classroom space now available, we were able to begin a special class at Shaw to serve those pupils for whom the regular program is not fitting. This represents an exten- sion of the special class program for elementary schools which we have had for the past four years at Stanley.
Staff Changes Increase Total Faculty by Five
Nineteen new teachers joined our staff in 1959. I list below their names, colleges, degrees, and teaching assignments:
Eleanor Birch
Salem Teachers College, B.S. Jr .- high social studies
Josephine Christo
Framingham Teachers, B.S. Hadley, grade one
Karen Clain
University of Mass., A.B.
Speech therapy
Emerson College, B.A.
Richard Conners
Salem Teachers College, B.S.
Jr .- high social studies and English
Olga Drougas
Wayne State University, B.S. Jr .- high home econ.
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Town of Swampscott
Charlotte Ettinger
Emerson College, B.A.
Christine Ellis Elizabeth Johnson
Salem Teachers College, B.S. Connecticut College for Women, B.A. Harvard University, M.A. Salem Teachers College, B.S. Wellesley College, B.A. Salem Teachers College, B.S. Boston University, B.A. M.A. Skidmore College, B.A.
Junior-high speech (part-time) Machon kindergarten Jr .- high social studies
Estelle Karalekas Mary Keenan
Clarke, grade three Jr .- high mathematics
Carole Morganstern Virginia Phillips
Judith Pilkington
Laura Pringle
Carole Regan
Boston University, B.S., Ed. M. Clarke, grade three Salem Teachers College, B.S. Clarke, grade one Junior-high art Mass. College of Art, B.S. Radcliffe College, B.A., M.A. Clarke, grade four Clarke, grade one Pembroke College, B.A.
Winifred Sheehan
Sue Ann Smithwick
Goucher College, M. Ed.
Eric Warne Rosemary Whelan
Fitchburg Teachers Col., B.S. Boston University, B.S.
Jr .- high indust. arts Stanley, Building Asst.
It is appropriate to mention here also that J. Richard Bath, new principal of Hadley, was appointed to his present duties from the High School, where since 1956 he served as guidance counselor. The Hadley position was made va- cant when Keith Jordan assumed the principalship of the new Shaw Junior High School.
Some changes are the cause of very deep regret. The entire school family was saddened last spring by the death of Miss Charlotte Connors, who first taught in Swampscott at the old Palmer School in 1929 and then joined the faculty of Stanley when it first opened the following year.
Miss Anne Linscott retired during the summer as supervisor of speech. In the nineteen years of her work here she built on elementary and secondary levels a program whose high degree of excellence will make itself felt far in- to the future, both in the lives of those she taught and in the curriculum of the Swampscott school.
Tendering resignations of their positions during 1959 were Miss Jane Mitchell, teacher of first grade at Clarke; Mr. John Dinan, school adjustment counselor; Mrs. Beverly Stone, teacher of history at the Junior High; Mrs. Vera Beiman, teacher of English and history at the Junior High; Mrs. Paula Cook, homemaking teacher at the Junior High; Mr. Samuel Goldfarb, building assistant at the Stanley; Mrs. Gertrude Love, third grade at Clarke; Mrs. Joan Lawrence, kindergarten teacher at Machon; and Mr. Richard Pavesi, indust- rihl arts teacher at the High School, who has become head of the industrial arts department at the new Masconomet Regional School.
Granted leaves of absence were Mrs. Marjorie Carlson, Mrs. Norma No- lan, and Mrs. Ann McCarthy.
Retiring also from their positions were Mrs. Edith Legro, secretary to the High School principal, and Henry Callahan, Clarke School junior building custodian.
Professional Activities Reach a New High
Swampscott can take pride in the recognition being given to its staff by professional groups at state and national levels. I have seen a significant in- crease in this type of activity in the past four years, and in 1959 we reached
78
Junior-high science Junior-high English
1959 Annual Report
a new high. It seems to me that this type of recognition is some indication of the reputation held by our people in their professional relationships.
Theodore C. Sargent, chairman of the School Committee, is serving as vice-president of the National School Boards Association. Principal of the Shaw School, Keith L. Jordan, is president of the Massachusetts Association of Junior High Principals.
Miss Madelaine Murphy, principal of Clarke School, is president of the State Teachers College Alumni Association and has been appointed by Gover- nor Furcolo to the Massachusetts State Committee on Children and Youth. Elected last June to the executive committee of this body, Miss Murphy will participate in the White House Conference to be held in April in Washington, D.C.
Mrs. Mary Cooper. our guidance director, was a panelist last spring at the Cleveland, Ohio, conference of the National Vocational Guidance Associa- tion and also was chosen to attend the six weeks' Guidance Institute sponsored by the General Electric Company at Harvard University during the past sum- mer. Our athletic director and coach of football, Stan Bondelevitch, always ac- tive in speaking engagements, will address the NCAA meeting in New York in January of 1960.
Miss Bernice Chaletzky, teacher of the ungraded class at Stanley School, has been a participant in several meetings. Most recently, as one of a group of specialists in her field, she attended a hearing before a Congressional com- mittee in New Haven, Connecticut, on the subject of Federal legislation affect- ing the handicapped.
Your Superintendent was invited in the fall of 1959 to participate as a panelist for one of the major sessions of the national convention of the Amer- ican Association of School Administrators in Atlantic City in February of 1960.
High School Undergoes Evaluation
Throughout the year 1959, the High School has been actively engaged in self-appraisal preliminary to an objective analysis this spring by educators from the outside. The New England Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges, of which our High School is a member, requires this periodic evalua- tion. We had planned to start this project last year. It was deliberately post- poned, however, until overcrowding was relieved by the building of the new Junior High and we could profit from the findings and recommendations result- ing from the study.
As part of the program, courses of study have had to be revised or, in some cases, written in detail for the first time. A philosophy and a list of ed- ucational objectives has been developed. Other studies of personnel and of pu- pil population have been undertaken.
In the spring a team of fifteen educators from other schools will spend three days in Swampscott. They will visit classrooms, interview teachers, and analyze the studies of our own people. They will then submit their complete report.
While I have reservations about the validity and objectivity of any self- evaluation anywhere, I do nevertheless regard it as a healthful experience and one productive of many benefits. It can result in worthwhile soul-searching and a stimulating exchange of ideas and information. It can furnish new per- spectives, along with not a few objective measures of accomplishment. It can show us, besides the strong areas, the weak ones that need attention.
Used wisely, the self-evaluation and the report of the visiting educators can be stimuli which in the years ahead will give our High School a sense of direction and purpose.
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Town of Swampscott
Financial Statement
Total Appropriation Transfers
$ 991,707.00
632.15
$ 992,339.15
Expenditures:
General Control
$ 26,099.61
Instruction
788,208.81
Operation
116,833.10
Maintenance
35,403.51
Capital Outlay
3,376.94 $ 990,888.14
Balance at close of year
$ 1,451.01
Receipts Deposited with Town Treasurer State Aid, General School Fund
$ 62,672.71
State Aid, Special Services
10,001.00
Tuition Received
1,299.00
Other Receipts
1,920.00 $
75,892.71
We Cannot Afford Complacency
In conclusion I ask you to look ahead with me to anticipate needs and problems that may be in store for us, even though a glance of this kind into the future may well remind us of our shortcomings in the present.
Our enrollment at the Senior High will increase, not momentously per- haps but significantly enough to create real problems. It is services, however, that we must accomodate as well as pupils. Already hard put for efficient op- erating space are remedial reading and guidance, which were not on the pro- gram when the building was remodeled in 1935. Music, library, science, home economics and other equally essential parts of today's program are already sadly handicapped by present space restrictions at the High School. Increased enrollment will make the situation worse. We cannot afford to let these prob- lems go unheeded.
We know that the immediate future will require even more progress in science. We are now organized to do a good job. Federal aid presently avail- able and stepped-up programs in our Junior High and at elementary levels should encourage-and even force-a constantly strengthened science curricu- lum at the High School.
Foreign language teaching presents another challenge. The conversation- al French now offered at the fourth grade will likely mean eventual introduc- tion of that language as a regular course of study at grades seven, eight, and nine. And this in turn should mean eventual installation of language labora- tories at the secondary level.
It is also our responsibility to do more for the gifted pupils. In many areas we now have special opportunities for these people. But we must devise ways to do more, and yet still preserve the sound democratic nature of our present organization. We must re-think our instruction in mathematics and science for the more able youngsters at our Junior High. At the High School we have already provided special work in these two areas, but must now create similar opportunities in other fields. I am not concerned for an Advanced Placement Program as such. It seems to me that if we see to it that our pu- pils are learning all they can, those who are capable of advanced placement in college will attain it if they want it.
As an adjunct to our program we should plan a summer school, for which we have provided in the 1960 budget. This I would design essentially as a type
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1959 Annual Report
of enrichment, offering at the secondary level opportunities for development of skills like typing and for exploration in literature, art, language, science, mathematics, and other areas for which pupils cannot always find room in their regular programs. It would seem to me that many boys and girls, espec- ially those heading in the fall for college, would find this type of summer study both welcome and profitable.
I am grateful, extremely grateful, to the citizens of Swampscott, School Committee, building committees, teachers, other staff members and all who have in the past fought so many good fights for the schools of this town. To quote again from President Stratton's report,“. . no amount of revision and up- grading of a system that is so much a part of our tradition will enjoy material success unless it is deeply rooted in the family and the community." We with- in the schools must continue to revise and upgrade. It is my sincere hope, however, that deep community roots will give our work the strength and vi- tality to make our system thrive.
Respectfully submitted, Robert D. Forrest, Superintendent of Schools
Pupils Enrolled-October 1, 1959
Elementary
Kind.
1
2
3
4
5
6
Sp.
Total
Clarke
48
58
52
59
43
60
56
376
Hadley
33
57
47
44
65
64
63
-
373
Machon
26
44
31
31
19
30
32
213
Stanley
62
64
72
49
70
71
67
12
467
Total
169
223
202
183
197
225
218
12
1429
Grade 7
Grade 8
Grade 9
Shaw Junior High
224
224
195
643
Grade 10
Grade 11
Grade 12
High
216
166
169
551
Total
2623
The Planning Board
Harold M. King, Chairman
James R. Maddock, Secretary
John F. Milo
A. B. Way, Jr. Ralph L. Williams
There has been more than the usual building activity during the year in both public and private construction. The major public buildings, Junior High School, Post Office, Fire Station. Private Homes, added to already approved subdivisions plus improvements to existing structures.
Twenty-six plans, including six with prior Board of Appeals approval, were submitted to the Board; some of the plans were improved by suggestions from the Board while the remainder were passed in their original form.
A public hearing was held on five articles in the Warrant which request- ed Zoning changes. The Board recommended approval of three, change in one and opposition to one.
Board members attended the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Fed- eration of Planning Boards and also three Region 5A meetings.
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Town of Swampscott
The Board on April 15, 1957 approved the plan of a subdivision off At- lantic Avenue but the abutters objected and took the Case to Court where the ruling was in favor of the Board. An appeal was made to a higher Court which sustained the lower Court and the Board. The plan was finally signed on January 19, 1959.
Board of Health
E. Wallace Donald, Chairman Robert H. Bessom, M.D. Edward L. Cashman, Jr., M.D. John E. LaPlante, Health Officer
Swampscott deaths totaled 135 for 1959 with a crude death rate of 10.4 per thousand population and an average age at death of 65 years. Leading the causes of these deaths were diseases of the heart and circulatory system which accounted for 56, followed by 20 for diseases of the central nervous system, 13 for malignant growths, and 11 for pneumonia.
One hundred and seventy-seven births were reported through November which appears to be approximately the same as last year. Nine of these babies weighed five and a half pounds or less at birth and are classified as premature; two fatalities were reported among the group.
Following is a list of communicable diseases reported during the past four years:
Diseases
1959
1958
1957
1956
Chicken Pox
52
101
168
54
Dysentery, Bacillary
2
0
-
0
0
German Measles
20
187
157
56
Hepatitis, Infectious
3
0
0
0
Measles
4
132
27
5
Meningitis
1
0
0
0
Mumps
19
176
15
3
Poliomyelitis
0
0
0
0
Salmonellosis
2
7
5
4
Scarlet Fever
11
7
11
14
Septic Sore Throat
1
0
0
0
Tuberculosis (Pulmonary)
2
0
1
2
Tuberculosis (Non Pulmonary)
1
1
1
0
Whooping Cough
1
0
1
2
..
No polio cases were reported for the fourth consecutive year although there was a moderate increase in polio throughout the country. Surveys con- ducted in the school show ninety-five percent of the children have received a completed series of vaccine and we feel this high percentage of vaccine ac- ceptance has been responsible in part for our absence of polio cases. As the percentage of completed adult vaccinations is considerably lower than the school age group, the State Health Department recommended local depart- ments endeavor to raise the percentage among adults. For this purpose, Swampscott along with several other communities in the area conducted pub- lic clinics in June and July.
Regular diptheria and tetanus booster immunization clinics were conduct- ed in the first, sixth and eleventh grades with four hundred and fifty-six chil- dren receiving immunizations.
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1959 Annual Report
Tuberculosis continued at a low level with three new cases, one of which was non-pulmonary. One old case reactivated and was hospitalized.
Our dental program continues to show improvement as the percentage of defect notices has decreased and the semi-annual dental inspections indicate an increasing number of children are receiving dental care.
Plumbing permits issued this year totaled four hundred and seventy-two, an increase of thirty-one over 1958.
At the annual rabies clinic held in September, two hundred and thirty- three of the five hundred and forty-six licensed dogs were inoculated for rab- ies protection. An additional forty-one received vaccine privately.
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