USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Plymouth > Town annual report of the officers of the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts for the year ending 1910 > Part 18
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William H. Drew, Charles F. H. Harris, Herbert F. Whit- ing-South Pond and vicinity.
Benjamin F. Walker-High School.
William H. Raymond-Mt. Pleasant School.
Daniel J. Carland-Pilgrim Hall.
Harry L. Sampson-Beach Park.
Fire Police.
Russell L. Dickson, George F. Barlow, 2d, James M. Downey.
Constables.
Samuel Ferguson, Job H. Standish, James M. Cameron, Edward Manter, Augustine J. Hogan, Harrison B. Sherman, Allen J. Caswell, Lincoln S. Wixon, George F. Barlow, 2d, Herman W. Tower, Freeman Manter, Elwell H. Smith.
Business of the Police Department.
Total number of arrests,
195
Males,
185
Females,
10
Residents,
152
Non-residents,
46
Minors,
35
Number of fines imposed,
65
Amount of fines imposed,
$1,153.00
Defaulted,
2
Appealed cases,
2
Complaints dismissed,
8
Continued,
11
Discharged
15
Released without arraignment,
30
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Placed on file,
16
Probation,
19
Taunton Insane Hospital,
2
Bridgewater State Farm,
2
House of Correction,
10
Bound over to Grand Jury,
8
Monson State Hospital,
1
Arrests by Months.
Males
Females
Total
January,
14
3
17
February,
10
10
March,
9
9
April,
23
23
May,
22
1
23
June,
30
30
July,
23
1
21
August,
13
13
September,
10
2
12
October,
16
1
17
November,
8
1
December,
10
1
11
185
10
195
Offences.
Males
Females
Total
Assaut and battery,
4
4
Assault with dangerous weapon,
2
2
Assault,
11
11
Affray,
2
2
Bastardy,
.
3
3
Breaking and entering,
9
6
Drunk,
75
4 79
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Default,
1
Disturbance of peace,
14
3
17
Epileptic,
1
Evading car fare,
1
1.
Held for other officers,
4
Insanity,
1
1
Issuing false certificate,
3
3
Keeping and exposing,
8
1
9
Liquor nuisance,
3
3:
Larceny,
17
17
Lodging,
3
3
Lewdness,
1
1
2
Non-support,
2
2.
Peddling without license,
1
1.
Rape,
1
1.
Ringing false fire alarm,
1
1.
Runaway child,
1
1.
Stubborn child,
1
1
Trespass,
1
1
Shooting fire arms on Lord's day,
1
1
Unlawful sale of liquor,
2
2
Unlawful scales,
1
1.
Violation clam law,
ry
2-
Violation by-law,
1
1
Vagrancy,
3
3
-
185
10
195
Financial.
January 1, 1911, undrawn balance,
$776 76
Appropriation,
6,000 00
Reimbursements,
7 44
Balance overdrawn,
421 31
$7,205 51
Payments for the year 1911,
$7,205 51
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I would recommend the installation of a police signal sys- tem as soon as possible. Under the present arrangements, if an officer is wanted from the street we are obliged to depend on private telephones or send a man from this station, and in either case valuable time is lost, whereas with the patrol boxes. all men would be in close touch with headquarters and all. orders executed in a speedy manner.
I would also recommend that two additional men be appoint- ed for night duty, one to be used as night patrolman in the- central part of the town, the other to be used as night officer in the police station, thus placing three men in the large ter- ritory which two men are now attempting to cover. This will insure a more effective patrol and will furnish a force to meet. any ordinary emergency.
Very respectfully, ELWELL H. SMITH, Chief of Police.
ANNUAL REPORT
OF
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
FOR THE
Year Ending December 31
1911
1
١
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SCHOOL COMMITTEE
EARL W. GOODING, Term ends, 1914
WILLIAM M. DOUGLAS, Term ends, 1914
J. HOLBROOK SHAW, Term ends, 1912
EUGENE P. ROWELL, Term ends,
1912
INCREASE ROBINSON,* Term ends, 1913
WILLIAM W. BREWSTER, Term ends, *Deceased
1913
Chairman, William W. Brewster,
Secretary, Earl W. Gooding.
The committee meet at their rooms in Town Square on the first and third Tuesdays of each month at 7.15 p. m.
Superintendent of Schools, Francis J. Heavens.
Office hours, 4.15 to 5.30 p. m. each school day. Truant officer, A. J. Hogan.
STANDING COMMITTEES.
Finance-Messrs. Shaw and Gooding.
Repairs-Messrs. Gooding, Robinson and Brewster. Janitors and School House Supplies-Messrs. Rowell and Rob- inson.
Heating and Ventilation-Messrs. Robinson and Rowell. Text Books and Course of Study-Messrs. Douglas and Shaw.
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SCHOOL SESSIONS.
High School-8 a. m. to 1 p. m.
North Schools-Grammar and Primary-Morning session, 9 to 11.50 o'clock; afternoon session, 1.30 to 3.45 o'clock.
Centre Schools-Morning session, 9 to 11.50 o'clock; afternoon session, 1.45 to 4 o'clock (except from Nov. 1 to Feb. 15, when the afternoon sessions are from 1.30 to 3.45 o'clock).
The sessions of the other schools are as prescribed from time to time by the committee.
Schools are in session every school day. Every year there are a few days when inclement weather makes it inadvisable for some children to come to school. The decision in such cases is; left to the parent. The schools are open to receive all pupils who come.
CALENDAR FOR 1912.
Winter term began Tuesday, January 2, 1912. Summer term begins Tuesday, April 2, 1912. School year ends Friday, June 21, 1912. Fall term begins Tuesday, September 3, 1912. Fall term ends Friday, December 20, 1912.
VACATIONS.
March 23, 1912, to April 2, 1912.
June 21, 1912, to September 3, 1912. December 20, 1912, to January 2, 1913.
HOLIDAYS.
Every Saturday, Washington's Birthday, Patriots' Day, Memo- rial Day, Columbus Day; from Wednesday noon before Thanksgiving, the remander of the week.
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FINANCIAL REPORT
RECEIPTS.
Appropriation,
$60,000 00
Balance from last year,
15 67
Sale of school house,
100 00
From Murdock Fund,
18 25
For tuition,
21 85
$60,155 77
PAYMENTS.
Salaries,
$40,706 81
Books,
1,977 34
Supplies,
1,684 66
Fuel and light,
5,286 22
Repairs,
2,647 02
Janitors and care of school houses,
3,890 22
Building supplies,
86 72
Freight and teaming,
295 19
Night schools,
657 50
Transportation,
1,360 21
Truant Officer, .
100 00
Furniture and furnishings,
457 26
Printing, 349 35
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Incidentals,
373 35
Piano, 100 00
School census,
47 10
Tuition to other towns,
62 50
Unexpended,
$60,081 45
74 32
$60,155 77
MEDICAL INSPECTION.
Receipts.
Unexpended balance from last year,
$80 90
Appropriation,
350 00
$430 90
Payments.
Services of physician,
$399 24
Balance on hand,
31 66
$430 90
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REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
The expenses of this department, as shown in the foregoing financial statement, have been kept within the amount provided by the Town, and although a larger sum was given for schools this last year than in any of the preceding years, great care has been required to avoid an overdraft. In our earlier reports attention has been repeatedly called to the causes leading to the continually increasing expenses of this department, and these causes are still operative, while on the other hand there is scarcely anything to relieve the situation. The number of scholars has increased and we are now again confronted with a condition of congestion which calls for relief. This pressure is apparently continuous, and in meeting the present needs a wise policy demands that we build to provide for the larger number which we shall probably have within a few years.
To meet the expenses of this department for the year 1912 we ask for an appropriation of sixty-three thousand dollars.
Heretofore the medical inspection has been provided for by a special appropriation, but a change in the system of town accounting makes this expense chargeable to the general appro- priation for schools, and no special appropriation is asked for.
Last spring the School Committee was given the use of the Fire Station on South street, and an appropriation was made to provide for the alteration and equipment of the building to accommodate the ninth grade and a new school to be made from the overflow of nearby schools which had outgrown their seating capacity. When this matter was taken in hand it became apparent that the relief thus afforded would be only temporary unless
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more scholars were provided for. A study of the building with the architects and mechanics showed that the best arrangement possible for four schools would not be free from serious objec- tions, and the reconstruction of the building could be made only at an expense which the committee thought to be unwarranted. They, therefore, felt obliged to fit the building for immediate and temporary use without the installation of the usual and required system of ventilation. Owing to a succession of dis- appointments the building was not available at the opening of the fall term, and consequently in the schools to be relieved the pupils were divided, some attending in the morning and the others in the afternoon, while waiting for the building to be made ready. The ninth grade now occupies the double room on the upper floor, and the new school the one on the lower floor. The fitting and furnishing was done from the special appropriation. While the present rooms are pleasant and con- venient and serve the schools now occupying them, they do not meet modern requirements and can not be made to do so with- out a large expenditure. The steam boiler, sanitaries and other fittings have been placed with a view to their removal to a new building when this one shall be vacated by the school depart- ment.
In our report of last year we predicted that the time would soon come for the enlargement of the new Hedge building by the addition of four rooms at its rear. The conditions in the schools at the northerly part of the Town indicate that this building should be at once made into an eight-room structure, in accordance with the original scheme. The present passage- ways and sanitaries are adequate for the enlarged building.
To meet the cost of this enlargement and the additional fur- niture required we ask for an appropriation of twelve thousand dollars.
To furnish a permanent home for the schools now on South street we recommend the erection of a building similar in size and plan to the present Hedge building, to be built in the
... ...
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vicinity of the High School building. This new building, while having but four rooms at first, may later be economically doubled in capacity.
The estimated cost of such a building with its furnishings, exclusive of the lot, is twenty-three thousand dollars.
The new building at Manomet affords excellent accommoda- tions for the two schools, the upper room being unoccupied. We have been asked if the use of this room could be had for social uses connected with the uplift of the youth in that neighborhood, and the committee are still of the opinion that the room will not be needed for a school in the immediate future. It has heretofore been the custom to allow a limited use of the school buildings in the outlying districts, and occasionally the High School house, for gatherings which were not connected with school work, but recently, in response to a demand that school buildings be available for use in civic improvement, a law has been passed authorizing such use. One effect of this law is to point out the illegality of the permission without the sanction of the town. We, therefore, recommend the adoption of Chapter 367 of the Acts of 1911, which provides that "the school com- mittee of any city or town which accepts the provisions of this act may grant the temporary use of halls in school buildings upon such terms and conditions and for such public or educa- tional purposes, for which no admission fee is charged, as said school committee may deem wise; provided, however, that such use shall not in any way interfere or be inconsistent with the use of the halls for school purposes."
At the High School conditions are recently much improved, but to bring this school up to a desirable efficiency the recom- mendations of the Superintendent should have attention, and this will necessarily add to the cost of the school; but we believe that the results will justify the expenditure.
Certain school yards are now too small and should be enlarged by the addition of adjoining land when this may be done upon
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reasonable terms. The large amounts needed for other purposes prevent our urging this matter for immediate attention.
Respectfully submitted,
WILLIAM W. BREWSTER,
WILLIAM M. DOUGLASS, EARLE W. GOODING,
EUGENE P. ROWELL, J. HOLBROOK SHAW,
School Committee.
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SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT
To the School Committee of Plymouth-
The following is submitted as the report of the Superin- tendent of schools for the year 1911. It presents statistics of attendance of all the schools for the year ending June, 1911; and a record of all other school matters for the year ending December 31, 1911. No unusual events or important changes in the school work have occurred during the year. There has been the normal increase in the number of school children, re- quiring more schools, more teachers, and more money to pay for them. Insufficient school accommodations, especially in the north part of the town, call for immediate relief. A more definite statement of the needs in this particular is given below.
CENSUS.
The school census, taken in September, 1911, gave the fol- lowing returns :-
Children between 5 and 15 years of age:
Boys,
1063
Girls,
1093
2156
Children between 7 and 14 years, the compulsory school age,
Boys,
742
Girls,
773
1515
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These figures show an increase over last year of thirty-four children between the ages of seven and fourteen, and an in- crease of eighty-three between the ages of five and fifteen. By far the larger part of this gain was in the district north of Cold Spring.
ATTENDANCE.
Two thousand two hundred and seven different pupils at- tended the schools here during the year ending June 23, 1911. This total enrolment is only twenty-two greater than the en- rolment of the previous year. The average membership for the year, that is, the number which shows the constant mem- bership of the schools for that period, is 2,082. The average daily attendance, 1,957, or 94 per cent. of the number in the average membership.
Considering the number of outlying schools and the diffi- culty of reaching them in inclement weather, our record for regularity of attendance is good. A few schools have main- tained for weeks a perfect attendance. In most school rooms it is the few pupils whose irregular attendance mars an other- wise excellent record. Such pupils are not being given the attention their delinquency requires. The attendance and truant laws were passed to meet just such cases, and they meet them well when uniformly and continuously and judiciously applied.
The efforts of the teachers, who promptly report irregular attendants, must meet a quicker and more efficient response before they can well serve their purpose.
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ACCOMMODATIONS.
At the present time there are 2,214 pupils enrolled in all the schools, seventy more than were enrolled one year ago. All the larger school buildings are used to their full capacity, and many rooms are crowded, especially in the primary grades. There are 197 pupils enrolled at the Hedge School today, giv- ing the four teachers there about fifty pupils each. These are all in grades one to three. The same grades at the Knapp School have 148 pupils in three rooms; and the one-room Spooner Street primary school has forty-six pupils. There is needed at once at the new Hedge School two additional rooms to relieve the primary schools in that part of the town; and it is altogether probable that a third room will be necessary when the next school year begins.
At the opening of school last September over seventy pupils applied for places in the 7th and 8th grade room at the Knapp. It was found necessary to transfer the whole of the eighth grade, eighteen pupils, from that school to the Cornish. With all the changes and transfers we could reasonably make, the Knapp School yet remains with far too many pupils in each room. The Cornish School has been relieved by establishing a new eighth grade at the remodelled Engine House, where the ninth grade is quartered. This building furnishes com- fortable quarters in three rooms for the ninth grade pupils and for the new eighth grade. The location is far from ideal for school purposes. It lacks several of the desirable, if not essential, qualities which make a modern school. Yet it is furnishing us a convenient, if temporary, means of relief from the half-time schools which were necessary before this build- ing was opened.
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FINANCIAL STATEMENT.
The items given below are based upon the expenditure for school purposes during the financial year 1911. The financial and attendance periods are not identical, but since each covers a full year, the one period being only a little in advance of the other, the returns they furnish are fairly reliable.
1. Assessed valuation of real and personal
property in Plymouth, May 1, 1911, $11,958,720 00
2. Per cent. of valuation expended for cur- rent expenses of schools in 1909-10, .00475
or $4.75 on each $1,000.00,
3. Expense per pupil on average membership, 27 28
4. Expense per pupil on same for schools of State, 1910-1911, 34 36
5. Expense per pupil on average member- ship on total expenditure for schools in 1909-1910, 28 87
6. Average monthly wages of men teachers
(3) in Plymouth in 1910-11, 120 00
7. Average monthly wages of women (54) teachers in Plymouth in 1910-11, 54 90
In this statement the items are based upon the average mem- bership of the schools, 2,082. Items 2 and 3 are based upon the whole amount ($60,082.45), which the Committee has spent, less the cost of repairs ($2,647.12) and expense of evening schools ($657.50). The items which make up this amount are payments for salaries, transportation, fuel and care of school- houses, text books and supplies and incidentals. The sum thus ex- pended ($56,777.83) is by the act of the Legislature, to be regarded as the current expense of the schools, and is the sum to be certified to the State authorities as having been raised by taxation and expended "for the support of the public schools." This sum shows that during the past year the town raised by- taxation, and expended for the school support of each child in the average membership (2,082) of the schools, the sum of
... . ..
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$27.28. The State average on the same basis was $34.36. The total expense of the schools was $60,082.45, or $28.87 for each pupil in the average membership.
There are 354 cities and towns in Massachusetts. During the past year there were 175 of these cities and towns which im- posed upon themselves a heavier tax for the school support of each child in the average membership of their schools than Plymouth, and 178 that imposed upon themselves a lesser tax. There were 200 of these same communities which paid a larger percentage of their assessed valuation for school purposes than- Plymouth paid, and only 153 of them that paid less.
The current expense of the School Department has increased rapidly and continuously for the past fifteen years. For the year 1896 the current expense of the department was $33,- 078.35; for the past year it was $60,082.45, an increase of over $27,000.00 in fifteen years. It has been interesting to determine, and it may be worth while to note, in what par- ticular ways this increased amount of money is spent.
In 1896, thirty-eight elementary school teachers were paid $17,820.00, an average yearly salary of $443.00. Last year, fifty-two such teachers were paid $29,560.00, an average yearly salary of $568.40, an amount which adds to the salary list of the year 1896 the sum of about $13,000.00.
In 1896 the expense for instruction and supervision in the elementary schools was $16.05 per pupil; last year the expense- per pupil for the same purposes was $16.80. But if we leave. out the cost of instruction in Sloyd, work given only to the pupils of the elementary schools and not in the curriculum in. 1896, the cost for instruction in those schools is just about what it was fifteen years ago. In that time the number of children in the average membership of the lower schools has. increased from 1,196 to 1,950, or 63 per cent .; the number of teachers from thirty-nine to fifty-four, or 40 per cent., while- the salary list for those teachers has gone from $19,228.00 tb $32,769.00, or 70 per cent.
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In these fifteen years, in the High School, the number of pupils has increased from 170 to 220, the number of teachers from six to eight, and their combined salaries from $4,992.00 to $7,479.00. The cost of instruction and supervision for each High School pupil was, in 1896, $29.40; last year it was $37.50.
During this same period the amount paid for janitors has increased from $1,675 to $3,890, 132 per cent., or from $1.24 for each pupil in the average attendance in 1896, to $1.82 for every such pupil now. Fuel and light have increased from $2,351 to $5,286, 120 per cent., or from $1.72 for each pupil in average attendance then, to $2.47 for every such pupil now ; repairs from $1,291 to $2,647, 112 per cent .; transportation from $300 (estimated) to $1,360, or 350 per cent. Books and supplies cost, in 1896, $3,124 for 1,368 pupils, or $2.28 each. Last year the same items cost $3,661 for 2,062 pupils, or $1.72 each, a diminished cost of $0.56 for each pupil.
The number of teachers in the elementary schools has in- creased from thirty-eight to fifty-four in fifteen years, and their average salary has been increased 26 per cent .; and dur- ing the same period the average salary of each teacher in the High School has been advanced 18 per cent. The evening schools, organized recently under legal requirement, as at pres- ent arranged entail a yearly expense of about $700.00. These three items increase the salary list $16,000.00 over that of the year 1896; and the added expense of the other items mentioned total $11,000.00. Together they fully explain the $27,000.00 increase in the current expense of the schools over their cost in 1896.
PRIMARY SCHOOLS.
Children five years old are admitted to the primary schools during the first four weeks of the fall term only, if they have
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never before attended school. Children of the legal school age are admitted to school at any time in the districts where they live, if there is room; otherwise, they are sent to the nearest school where there is room.
The whole number of children enrolled in the schools at present is 2,214. Of this number 1,185, about 54 per cent. of the total number, are in the primary schools, grades one to four, inclusive, distributed in twenty-eight school rooms. The small- est number in any one room is eleven, and the largest fifty-one.
These 1,185 pupils are enrolled in the four primary grades as follows :
Boys.
Girls.
Total.
Grade I,
171
189
360
Grade II,
154
127
281
Grade III,
138
133
271
Grade IV.
125
148
273
588
597
1,185
The primary schools are becoming overcrowded, especially in the north part of the town, where the pupils of these grades particularly need to be placed in small classes, that they may receive individual attention. Every school room there has an average enrolment of forty-eight pupils-a number greater than any teacher can care for to good advantage. No school of any grade ought to have more than thirty pupils, and no school department should be permitted by law to register more than thirty-five children in any school room in the care of one teacher. If only this latter number were allowed in Plymouth, where the average size of classes in the larger buildings is from forty-five to fifty pupils, it would mean another large build- ing of ten rooms to accommodate ten additional classes at a current expense of $7,000. This means that we are crowding into thirty school rooms a number of pupils that should be distributed in forty rooms, if we would secure one of the con-
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ditions which enable teachers to work successfully and econom- ically. Simple and substantially built school houses, kept clean and comfortable; reasonably small classes, with a capable teacher in charge of each one, are some of the essential condi- tions for successful work in every school; and especially ought such conditions to be maintained in every primary school. That school should be the first care of every community. Pro- vision for its every essential need should be generous and con- tinuous. In the primary school is the large majority of all pupils, and many of them stay in school. no longer than the law compels. At the earliest day they must help provide for their own support. Whatever the school does for such chil- dren it must do speedily and efficiently. To teach obedience and respect for authority; sympathy and toleration of one foreigner for another and both for the native born; to impart a common aim and interest born of association on an equal footing and of the same lessons learned in a common tongue; to instill a growing respect and gratitude for the institution which knows no distinction between rich and poor, high or low ; which generously and wisely furnishes to all alike equal op- portunity to live a larger life; which trains them for a more intelligent citizenship, and inculcates love and respect for the flag that is the emblem of it all-the agency which is set to do this, and honestly tries to accomplish it, should meet no need in its work which is not immediately supplied. For, if well done, there comes of this work, in the majority of those children trained by it, a high aim and an intelligent citizen- ship, which promises well for the government in which they must soon take their part. The welding process which makes possible a common purpose and interest can best be done, under present conditions, by the common school, and prin- cipally in the earlier years of school life. There is nowhere any other adequate provision made to accomplish it. And current events are proving that the day is still here when failure to accomplish it is a menance to good citizenship and
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