USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Fairhaven > Town annual report of the offices of Fairhaven, Massachusetts 1930 > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8
9
BUDGET FOR 1931
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Estimated
Expended in 1930
General Control
$5,678.00
$5,609.37
Instruction
82,107.00
81,185.78
Operation and Maintenance
16,860.00
16,560.48
Other Agencies
7,130.00
7,355.44
Sundries
275.00
277.40
$112,050.00
$110,988.47
From outside sources
7,050.00
7,043.26
Appropriation required
$105,000.00
$104,400.00
The amount requested is $600 more than last year. It in- cludes the cost of four eighth grade teachers who will be at the new building instead of at the Rogers School and also the cost of salary and supplies for four months of a Special Class teacher.
BUDGET FOR 1931
HIGH SCHOOL
Estimated for 1931
Expended in 1930 $38,162.93
Instruction
$41,250.00
Operation and Maintenance
11,800.00
11,497.89
Other Agencies
750.00
214.00
Sundries
400.00
408.46
$54,200.00
$50,283.28
for 1931
10
From H. H. Rogers Trust Fund 26,100.00
Appropriation required
$28,100.00
Appropriation of 1930
$24,700.00
Increase
$ 3,400.00
Some difficulty has been experienced in making out a high school budget. An effort will be made to so utilize the depart- mental teachers of the eighth grades as to require for the high school only two additional teachers. There will be needed also at least one day more of service for Manual Training, if the subject is to be restored to the seventh grade. Just how much increase will be necessary for janitors' salaries or for fuel and building supplies, which include telephone, electric lights, paper towels, etc., is difficult to estimate. A small increase has been made in the budget for these purposes.
Respectfully submitted,
WILLIAM B. GARDNER, Chairman, JAMES A. STETSON, MISS SARA B. CLARKE, MRS. ELLA H. BLOSSOM, ORRIN B. CARPENTER, GEORGE F. BRALEY,
Fairhaven School Committee.
Report of the Superintendent of Schools
To the School Committee of Fairhaven :
Herewith is submitted the nineteenth annual report of the present Superintendent of Schools :
ATTENDANCE AND MEMBERSHIP
The total enrollment for the year ending June, 1930 was 2,213; the average membership 1999; and the percent of attendance 95.3. The average membership was 26 more than that of the previous year. The actual membership of the schools on December 1st, was 2,110.
THE NEW BUILDING
The outstanding event of the school year has been the favorable response of the town to the recommendation of the Selectmen and School Committee that a new building be provided to relieve the long standing congestion in the high school and upper grades. Work on the foundation has begun. The contract calls for completion of the building before the opening of schools in September 1931.
DESCRIPTION
The new building will be 196' long, 65' wide, and two stories in height. The walls are to be of brick with trim- mings of limestone to match the present high school. The type of architecture also will harmonize with this.
12
The building will have eight regular classrooms, a manual training room 30'x92', a typewriting room, 51'x24', mechani- cal drawing room 46'x23', printing room 33'x23', and an auditorium 71'x52'. Corridors 12' wide run the length of the building on each floor. On each side of these will be lockers for the wraps of the pupils. There is also an office 18'x12' and a supply room of the same size. A tunnel 35' long 8' wide and 7' high will connect the new building with the pres- ent high school, entering the latter through the gymnasium. This will be lighted by daylight "side-walk lights" though a few electric lights will be used. Locker rooms with shower baths for both boys and girls are provided on the lower floor to be used in connection with the gymnasium of the present high school. The auditorium of the new building can be used for all physical training of the eighth and ninth grades except the apparatus work.
The heating will be from the high-pressure steam boilers of the present high school with an auxiliary gas-fired boiler in the new building which will turn on automatically when the main boilers are unable to maintain pressure. Humidity will be furnished the rooms by a series of steam jets con- trolled by the teachers.
The electric lighting will be independent of the present building.
The gymnasium, lunchroom, science rooms and library of the high school will be made available to the pupils of the new building. Operating under one schedule and adminis- tration, all rooms of each building may be utilized by the pupils of both.
The location of the building so as to enable physical con- nection with the present high school provides without expense, the site, playground, and the other facilities above mentioned and, also, economizes greatly administration and teaching costs. These are in themselves sound reasons for locating in the rear of the present high school. But the
13
fundamental reason for doing so concerns the future. There will certainly come a time when the high school membership alone will require all of the new building. At an average rate of increase this will be in ten or, at the most, fifteen years. In what other location could an addition to the high school be placed? If elsewhere, the town would be compelled to maintain two high schools. The location selected is there- fore advantageous in the present and anticipatory of the future needs.
EFFECT OF THE NEW BUILDING ON ELEMENTARY ORGANIZATION
Some designate the new building as a junior high school, others as an addition to the high school. The latter name is more nearly correct. The result will be a five-year high school and a seven-year elementary school. Ability to use the facilities of the present high school for the eighth and ninth grades and a large increase in the shop space will ren- der possible some of the benefits that would be derived from a 6-3-3 plan of organization, but there cannot be, under present conditions, the differentiation of courses and the elaborate program usually presented in a real junior high.
The organization of no school will be affected by the new building, except that of the Rogers. The Edmund Anthony, Jr., the Job C. Tripp, and the Rogers School will each con- tinue to have the first seven grades; the Oxford and East Fairhaven, the first six grades, and the Washington St. the first four. There is no room at Oxford or at East Fairhaven for a seventh grade so this will continue to be transported from these sections to the Rogers School. The Rogers School will have next September as nearly as can now be forecast, four seventh grades, two sixths, and two fifths. These will occupy the eight regular school rooms. There will be no class on the third floor and there ought never to be again. One room in the Rogers portable will be used for a Special Class, required by law.
14
TEACHERS
Two principalships have become vacant during the year, one at East Fairhaven, the other at Oxford. The latter was filled by the appointment of Miss Margaret McGuire, who has been a teacher in Fairhaven schools for five years.
There were in addition to the above four resignations in the grades and one in the high school, a total of only seven changes in the corps, the smallest number in twenty years. An encouraging phase of the present situation as regards teachers is the tendency to remain longer in their positions. The so called "over supply" is largely responsible for this. A feature not so encouraging is an under supply of the kind of teachers that are desired. That there will be in the future fewer graduates of normal schools seems certain. The minimum length of the teacher-training course in Massa- chusetts schools was raised to three years in September and undoubtedly will become four in the near future.
The following table showing the permanancy of our teaching force may be of interest :
LENGTH OF SERVICE IN FAIRHAVEN OF FULL TIME TEACHERS
Men Women
Having had no experience
3
5
66
one year of experience
2
15
66 three years of experience
66
66 four years of experience
4
66
66 five years of experience
5
66
seven years of experience
1
eight years of experience
5
nine years of experience
2
1 7
66 two years of experience
4
six years of experience
4
15
06
ten years of experience
66 eleven years of experience
2
66
twelve years of experience
1
66
fourteen years of experience
1
66
nineteen years of experience
1
66
twenty years of experience
1
66 twenty-five years of experience
2
66
66 thirty years of experience
1
66
thirty-five years or over
1
6
65
LENGTH OF SERVICE OF PART TIME TEACHERS AND SUPERVISORS
Physical Training
1 No experience
Physical Training
1 two years
Manual Training
nineteen years
Vocal Music
thirty-three years
Instrumental Music
three years
Sewing
four years
CHANGE OF SCHOOL CALENDAR
The law in Massachusetts requires that elementary schools be in session 160 days each year, exclusive of holidays, and that high schools be in session 180 days. The actual average number of days the schools are in session is more than the legal requirement. For the school year ending June, 1930, the average number of days all schools of the State were in session was 183; that in the cities was 184, and in towns of our size, 182. In Fairhaven there is no difference in the length of session of the high and elementary schools. In the past the school year has been forty weeks in length,
thirteen years of experience
1
16
Excluding legal holidays and those caused by inclement weather, the average number of days for several years has been 186. There have been four terms in the school year, one of sixteen weeks and three of eight. Vacations have occurred in the summer, in December, in February and in April. To enable the three short terms, schools have opened the first week in September and closed the last week in June.
In September of this year, a new schedule of terms went into effect. Under it schools begin the Monday after Labor Day and close the third week in June. There are three terms instead of four. A fall term of fifteen weeks, winter term of thirteen weeks, and spring term of eleven weeks. The February vacation is omitted. The chief reasons for this change in the school calendar were:
1. To make it probable that most pupils would be in school on the opening day. Under the former schedule many parents delayed returning from va- cations until the week after Labor Day.
2. To close school earlier in order to avoid the hot weather. In order to do this the February vacation of one week is omitted.
3. To cause the vacation seasons to come at a time of year when children are better off out-of-doors.
4. It is felt that longer terms and less frequent vacations may make possible more profitable school work.
The change in the school calendar is an experiment. It will be discontinued if found unsatisfactory. Under it, al- though there are only thirty-nine weeks in the school year, the number of days the schools are in session is practically the same. It is necessary to say, however, that extra holi- days, which were sometimes allowed under the old schedule, cannot be granted if the length of our school year is to remain the same.
17
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
In organization and curriculum, no radical changes have been made. New courses of study in history for grades seven and eight were prepared and placed in the schools in September. Modifications of the required work in geography and arithmetic have been introduced. A new issue of Direc- tions for Using the Courses of Study, with a revised time allotment, has been furnished the teachers. The daily plan books used for some years have been discontinued and new ones made especially for the Fairhaven-Mattapoisett schools were adopted. Experimentation with a new system of primary reading is being made in one first grade room.
READING
It is a truism to say that the most important subject taught in our schools is reading. Every person who thinks believes this. Not only is poor reading, which is really an inability to get thought from the printed page, a fundamental cause of many failures in school work, but it is also a handicap to success of any kind. Gist says, "Successful popular gov- ernment is based upon uniform ability to read intelligently, and the development of a high type of citizenship is, in turn, based upon intellectual self-reliance and a love of good reading."
In recent years the teaching of reading has undergone great changes. Some of these are manifest in the work being done in Fairhaven schools. There has on the whole been marked improvement. Phonics are better taught ; pupils have grown self-reliant and skillful in ability to pronounce new words; there is much more fluency than in the past, and expression is better. Silent reading has been introduced and progress has been made in this direction. The School Department has mimeographed or purchased seatwork devices, furnished silent reading texts, provided suggestive hand books, and, in short, has tried to stimulate interest and give definite suggestions for improvement.
18
Oral reading has its practical values. In schools it tests for the teachers the child's ability to pronounce words correctly and trains in posture and poise. It furnishes also a means of checking the pupils attitude and ability. Silent reading seeks chiefly to cultivate the ability to get thought from written language. In primary classes in particular, methods have been developed to train the child from the beginning to look for ideas, not merely for words. To do this successfully the subject is approached very differently than by former methods.
The results of silent reading tests given in Fairhaven show that our children are making an average standard in this respect. It is, however, of fundamental importance that they do better than this. Right training will give increased ability to use books, libraries and other sources of inform- ation, and will, as a consequence, contribute materially to success both in the school and in life. It is extremely desir- able to reach a higher standard in this subject than we have yet attained. To do this makes desirable a change in our system of teaching primary reading. Such a change cannot be made wisely if made hastily, and it is for this reason that the experimentation mentioned above is being made.
MUSIC
The work in instrumental music has been maintained on the same high level during the year as in the past. Hard times are undoubtedly responsible for the fact that not quite so many new instruments have been purchased. There are at this time the following instrumental organizations in our schools :
Fairhaven School Band - Forty pieces Fairhaven High School Orchestra - Forty-two pieces Junior Symphony Orchestra - Forty pieces Elementary School Second Orchestra - Over one hundred pieces
19
There is, also, a building orchestra in each of the follow- ing schools: Rogers, Job C. Tripp, Edmund Anthony, Jr., Oxford and East Fairhaven.
There are few towns of our size that have so large a num- ber of young people active in this direction. The recent Music Festival revealed that we have quality as well as quantity. The very skillful rendition of difficult classical music by the Junior Symphony surprised not only fond parents and in- terested citizens but, also, critical listeners belonging to neither of these groups.
Vocal music continues to be well taught and is making progress. The singing of a large chorus in connection with the Tercentenary pageant, and that also at the music festival by a mixed chorus was as outstanding in quality as the or- chestral selections.
Complete training in music includes not only training to perform, but also to listen. The latter is increasingly desir- able because of the musical programs made available by radio. It is unfortunate that the demand for a course in music appreciation at the high school was not sufficient to warrant its continuance.
THE PAGEANT
The tercentenary of the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was celebrated this year throughout the state. Many cities and towns appropriated money for the purpose. In Fairhaven no special funds were provided but the schools through the cooperation of teachers, pupils, and parents pre- sented a pageant in June which commemorated the event in a very effective way. The expenses in connection with its production-approximately seven hundred dollars-were met by requiring a small admission fee of those for whom seats could be provided. There were over five thousand people in attendance.
20
The production of this pageant involved much more than merely preparation for an ordinary school entertainment. It placed upon the special committee in charge, appointed by the Superintendent of Schools, the necessity of giving many hours of labor outside of school hours, and of carrying for several weeks a heavy burden of responsibility; it required the self-sacrificing cooperation of every teacher whose pupils had a part in the celebration. Parents contributed most generously toward the costuming. The program carried out on the occasion will be found at the close of this report.
The committee in charge were: George C. Dickey, Chair- man, Anna B. Trowbridge, Anna Salice, Inez Boynton, Linn S. Wells, Ruby R. Dodge, Mary E. Heald, Marion L. Barker, Doris M. Plaisted, Robert C. Lawton, James Park- inson, Elizabeth Hastings, Mabel G. Hoyle, Lucie Reynolds, Helen K. Nicholson, Clarence W. Arey.
At a town meeting held June 23rd, the following reso- lution presented by Mr. Thomas A. Tripp was adopted un- animously: "The Citizens of Fairhaven have recently wit- nessed a pageant enacted by the school children of the town, portraying the customs and activities of the early settlers of this Commonwealth.
Because of the great interest of the citizens in the schools of Fairhaven-because of the accuracy of costume-the ex- cellency of music and action-because of the ingenuity and painstaking efforts of teachers and pupils and the co-oper- ation of parents to make this pageant a conspicuous success, it is voted to make this expression of appreciation and inter- est permanent by writing it into the records of this town meeting."
21
HIGH SCHOOL
A class of eighty-five, the largest in its history, graduated in June. The present membership is 419. This year's graduating class numbers sixty. The present size of the eighth grades, one hundred sixty-nine pupils, presages a Freshman class of at least one hundred forty-five. Allowing duly for losses in the Sophomore and Junior classes, there is every reason to expect a high school enrollment next Sep- tember of at least 475 pupils. The "addition to the high school" will be needed.
Sixteen, or nearly twenty percent of the graduating class, an unusually large proportion, entered colleges this Septem- ber. With one exception, entrance was by certification.
The colleges attended were: Bowdoin 1, Brown 3, Sim- mons 1, Wheaton 1, Bates 1, Massachusetts Agricultural College 2, Rhode Island State College 1, University of Ver- mont 1, University of Michigan 1, University of Alabama 1, Elmira College 1, Maryland State Teachers' College 1, Syracuse University 1. So far as is known these students are doing well.
The problem of college preparation in the smaller high schools has been discussed at length in previous reports. It is not peculiarly that of our high school, but assumes serious proportions in every school of our size and, also, in a lesser degree, in larger schools as well. In the large city schools the problem is more easily solved. Classes can be organized composed exclusively of those who are planning college work. Very specialized preparation can be given. In Fair- haven High, on the contrary, each class is a mixture of college-preparatory and non college-preparatory pupils, with the latter usually in the majority. To try to instruct such a class so as to make it most efficient for college preparation is to present subject matter and use methods that are not advantageous to the class as a whole.
22
Not more than twenty percent of the high school member- ship plans college entrance. The present requirements for college admission are extremely exacting. Only pupils who are academically inclined, who are of the distinctly studious group, can be adequately prepared for college by any instruc- tion or by any methods. Admission may sometimes be secured through the use of high-pressure methods of prepara- tion for the college entrance board examinations by a type of mentality not really interested in or prepared to do college work. But experience has proven that this kind of prepara- tion does not by any means insure success. The mortality of freshman classes is high. Out of 972 admitted to a well- known college, 205 withdrew before completing the fresh- man year. In another college where approximately sixty percent of the students were fitted in private preparatory schools, 85 out of 205 freshmen left. It is evident that everyone who can get into college cannot stay there. It is not safe to assume that the school most successful in pre- paring pupils to take the college entrance examinations is the best type of school, or that individual teachers most successful in this direction are the best teachers for a public high school. Eighty percent of the pupils, as stated before, are non college-preparatory. It is not a justifiable use of the taxpayers' money to permit the policy of the school or of the teacher to be so narrow in the direction of college preparation as to discourage the many boys and girls who are sent to high school in order to receive better preparation for life.
Fairhaven High has been successful in a higher degree than the average school of its size in preparing for college, but this is not its chief purpose. Opportunity to prepare is there. The large number of graduates already in college attests this. With the opening of the new building and the capacity to use more effectively the present teaching staff, with the addition of enough teachers to make the divisions smaller, and by special provisions which will increase effici-
23
ency, the opportunity to prepare will be even better in the future than in the past. It needs to be repeated, however, that it is merely an opportunity that is offered. The school of itself cannot do the work. It can safely guarantee that a pupil of average ability and of the mental type necessary for college work, who is willing to pay the price necessary to make the grade, will receive a preparation which will enable admission under the certification plan to some good college. The price includes a willingness to study not less than three hours everyday outside of school. It is under- stood, of course, that teachers are powerless to enforce this requirement. The pupil must do it voluntarily or be driven to it by his parents. If the latter is necessary it will indicate that the pupil is not likely to succeed in college work.
As to the ability of the school to prepare pupils to take successfully the college entrance board examinations, no promise can be made. These are evasive and slippery things. Even a student of marked ability and earnestness of applica- tion may fail after the school has done its utmost. The private college-preparatory school with its single purpose, its small classes, its individual instruction, and its relatively highly paid teachers, can probably place a larger proportion of its students through this method of entrance than can any small high school. It is well to remember, however, that the records of colleges show that, considering the whole college career, high-school-prepared students show a better scholastic average. "They may fall a little short in their knowledge of subject matter, but are superior in re- sourcefulness and individual responsibility."
ATHLETICS
The success of the high school has continued. The basketball team was fair, the baseball team good, and the track and football teams superior.
24
The most gratifying phase of our athletics is that there are so many students who take part in them. Through intra- mural contests there is practically a one hundred percent participation of the boys. This causes physical education in the high school to serve its purpose. If winning teams were made the chief objectives, there would be little reason for expending the taxpayers' money in this direction.
The following from the 1929 report of the Superintendent of Schools of Concord, Massachusetts, expresses quite closely my feeling in regard to the present status of athletics in Fairhaven :
"The season has been successful not alone in winning a .large part of the games but also in training for sportsman- ship and character. While these boys have been given much instruction in the "finer points" of these games, they have also been held up to a high standard of conduct. No in- structor can do so much toward character training as he who coaches athletic teams. The subject is intensely interesting to the student, the methods are direct and exciting, and the results when the instruction is properly given are very much worthwhile. There has been developed along with good athletes a high standard of sportsmanship and conduct."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.