Town annual reports of Acton, Massachusetts 1951-1955, Part 20

Author: Acton (Mass.)
Publication date: 1951
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1262


USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Acton > Town annual reports of Acton, Massachusetts 1951-1955 > Part 20


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(Approximately $1000 per teacher)


$36,000.00


Transportation 3,000.00


$39,000.00


Tuition-Town of Boxborough


$4,500.00


Town of Westford


600.00


City of Boston


800.00


Commonwealth of Massachusetts


1,000.00


6,900.00


Miscellaneous


Telephone tolls


$10.00


Reimbursement for damaged books . 10.00


20.00


Total Estimated Receipts for 1953 $45,920.00


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Estimated Expenditures for 1953


School appropriation request .... .$167,967.00


Estimated Receipts for 1953 (non-local tax) .$ 45,920.00


Amount to be raised by local taxation . $122,047.00


Proposed Budget for 1953


(Revised form-similar to form used by State Department for "School Returns")


Explanation


Amount


Instruction


$115,170.00


Textbooks and Supplies


6,777.00


Plant Operation 22,550.00


Maintenance


1,000.00


Auxiliary Agencies


11,520.00


General Control


8,700.00


Outlay


1,750.00


Contingency Fund


500.00


$167,967.00


ESTIMATED EXPENDITURES IN DETAIL Instruction - $115,170


Elementary High School


(Gr. 1 to 6) (Gr. 7-12)


Salaries of Principals, Supervisors, and Teachers (entire year)


$53,600.00 $49,050.00


Substitutes, etc.


500.00


500.00


Expenses .


50.00


50.00


New Staff :


Languages, H.S. (entire year)


2,800.00


South-Second


1,000.00


Mr. Winton


1,320.00


West-Fifth


1,100.00


New-First


1,100.00


Cafeteria


500.00


500.00


South-Third (1% basis)


1,100.00


Increases ($100) ({% basis)


1,000.00


1,000.00


$59,950.00 $55,220.00


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Textbooks and Supplies - $6,776.81


Textbooks - $3,412.01


Center


$ 484.43


Remedial


130.00


West


689.97


South


550.00


New (W-5)


571.61


$2,426.01


Guidance


$ 116.00


Music


60.00


Art


10.00


Books


800.00


$ 986.00


Supplies --- $3,364.80


Center


$ 354.49


Remedial


24.00


West


675.91


South


450.00


Tests


90.00


New (W-5)


100.00


Art (in elem. sch. Music budgets)


$1,694.40


Guidance


200.00


Science


310.40


General


500.00


Home Ec.


200.00


Art


160.00


Shop


300.00


$1,670.40


$4,120.41


$2,656.40


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Operation of Plant - $22,550.00


Janitor Service (entire year)


$ 6,540.00 $ 3,800.00


Fuel (New School, $900)


3,000.00


2,000.00


Janitors' Supplies (30% increase)


1,000.00


1,000.00


Water


75.00


Gas


175.00 50.00


50.00


Light-Power (New School, $250)


1,000.00


1,000.00


Telephones


250.00


250.00


Rent (Jan. to June)


2,160.00


Miscellaneous


100.00


100.00


$14,275.00


$8,275.00


Maintenance of Plant - $1,000.00


Repairs, Upkeep and Replacement ... $250.00 $750.00


(typewriters, instruments and buildings)


Auxiliary Agencies - $11,520.00


Census by Seniors


$ 50.00


$ 50.00


Libraries


50.00


50.00


Promotion of Health


250.00


250.00


Transportation


4,750.00


4,750.00


Insurance


70.00


Tuition


25.00


25.00


Graduation


100.00


Miscellaneous


50.00


50.00


Two Platoon Transportation


500.00


500.00


General Control - $8,700.00


Superintendent


$5,700.00


Attendance Officer


100.00


Secretary


2,400.00


Travel - Expenses


100.00


Stationery and Postage


175.00


Equipment


25.00


School Committee


100.00


Miscellaneous


100.00


Printing and Advertising


-


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Outlay - $1,750.00


Capital Improvements :


Curtains


$ 325.00


Vision Test


110.00


New Furniture


565.00


$1,000.00


Typewriter Replacement :


Remington Manual


$200.00


Underwood Manual


300.00


Smith Manual


250.00


$750.00


Contingency Fund - $500.00


$100.00 a building


$300.00 $200.00


Housing


Temporary Facilities. September 1952 found the local school system six classrooms short of the number required for its 700 students, but the two shift plan which seemed to be inevitable was postponed for another year by making use of the following facilities :


West Acton Second Grade Roosevelt School, Maynard


South Acton Second Grade .. Coolidge School, Maynard Center First Grade . . Center Church Sunday School Room Center Third Grade . Center Fire House


South Acton Fourth Grade Acton Center Woman's Club Third Section High School Converted High School Seventh Grade .Library


This arrangement was upset by the fire which destroyed the Wilson School in Maynard on December 18, necessitat- ing the termination of the two school-room renting agree- ment with Maynard which now needed all its available space. Improvisation again made it possible to avoid the two-shift system for the West and South Second Grades when through the cooperation of Mr. Porter Jenks, two of his new apart- ments on School Street, West Acton, were rushed to com-


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pletion between Christmas and New Year's Day and were ready for classes on Wednesday, January 7. Temporary ap- proval from the State Building Inspector was secured by the Superintendent, and another rush project carried out by high school students Dexter Loring and James Kazokas, who worked during the school vacation period, provided forty-two desks by the January 7 deadline. Most of these desks were "cannibalized" from old parts salvaged from the attics and basements of all school buildings, and were nicely refinished, along with teachers desks secured as surplus mili- tary property from Fort Devens three years ago. Coopera- tion from Mr. Percy Kelly of the Concord Reformatory and other Department of Correction officials allowed the speed- ing up of delivery on chairs ordered for the new primary school building, so that the required number were on hand for the displaced Second Grades.


Two-Shift Plan for High School, September, 1953. As far as the High School is concerned, there seems to be no way of postponing a change to the two-shift system beyond the present school year, and in view of the expected enroll- ment of well over three hundred students next fall, the School Committee has authorized the Superintendent and Principal to make plans for two-shift operation. Under this scheme Seventh and Eighth Graders will go to school in the morning and Grades Nine to Twelve in the afternoon.


School Building Survey and Long Range Planning. A year ago the School Building Survey made by Educational Service Associates was completed, and it has become the basis for long-range planning by the Acton School Commit- tee, the Local and Regional School Building Committees, and the State School Building Assistance Commission which passes on the question of state financial aid for school build- ing projects. The construction of the new elementary school, which should be ready for use in the fall, represents one phase of the plan recommended for Acton by the Survey, and the acquistion by the Town of nearly forty acres of land on both sides of Charter Road was another important step which was recommended for the long-range development of Acton's school facilities.


Since Acton voters are going to have to make a crucial decision regarding high school construction plans at the


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1953 Town Meeting, it seems advisable to incorporate the Summary and Recommendations of the Educational Service Associates in this report:


Summary


1. Acton's school enrollment is increasing, most rapidly in the elementary levels, but also in the secondary levels.


2. Acton's elementary school buildings should be replaced as soon as possible by modern facilities.


3. Acton is not now, nor will it be in the early future, large enough to maintain a local high school which can meet present and future educational needs. The attainment of the minimum enrollment of 500 pupils in grade IX through XII seems a remote possibility.


4. A regional high school properly organized will provide Acton boys and girls with a better educational program than is possible if the Town attempts to maintain its own school.


5. A larger high school will be more economical both in con- struction costs and operating expenses for the same de- sirable quality of program.


6. Acton should continue to participate in an attempt to de- velop a suitable cooperative endeavor with its neighbors.


7. Acton should not take any action which will commit the Town to a policy contrary to regionalization.


8. Acton can solve its problem of enrollment pressure by erecting about eight rooms suitable for elementary school use, so integrated with the existing high school building that the whole may be converted into a centralized ele- mentary school.


9. The site for the centralized school should be enlarged.


Recommendations


1. Acton build an eight-room unit adjacent to or integrated with the present high school building and use it to house elementary grades.


2. The site of this centralized school be increased in size by adding land to the north (or northeast) and/or to the west to make a total acreage of at least 25 acres. It seems


13


best to relocate the exit of Charter Street upon Massachu- setts Avenue.


3. Acton participate in the development of a regional high school district with neighboring communities.


4. Acton abandon its old elementary buildings and establish a centralized elementary school when the regional high school is opened.


Blanchard Foundation Grant of $150,000. Through the generosity of the Blanchard family $150,000 has been made available to aid in the construction of an auditorium-gymna- sium on a site just across Charter Road from the present high school. Since this amount would not pay for the construction of a high-school size gymnasium, and since state aid for a high-school size gymnasium would not be forthcoming until the high-school question itself is settled, the $150,000 is being held in escrow pending the action of the 1953 Town Meeting. If Acton is to receive any state aid for the Blanchard Audi- torium-Gymnasium project, the decision of State School Build- ing Assistance Commissioner John Marshall is essential and his views were expressed in the following letter received by the Superintendent on December 9, 1952:


"What size gymnasium should Acton build? From the viewpoint of this office, the answer to this depends primarily on the school it is designed to serve. Our thinking has been conditioned in part by the survey made by Educational Service Associates. This suggests as a long-range plan for Acton (a) participation in a regional school district, and (b) additions to the high school building that will make it a centralized elementary school.


"Construction of a playroom or combination auditorium- playroom designed primarily to serve the elementary needs in a long-range program, would certainly be approved by this office, assuming that the plan itself was satisfactory.


"Can Acton obtain state assistance at the regional per- centage? Chapter 645, Acts of 1948, makes it clear that the regional percentage for state construction grants can be applied only to a building constructed by a regional school district.


"Can state assistance be used for a school project built with money donated to the town? The only concern of this


14


office is that the school project be justified as educationally sound-as part of a long-range plan for meeting the needs of the school program. As long as the money is expended by the town on an approved project, the source of the local share does not matter."


Instruction


The Teacher Salary Schedule, which recognizes experi- ence, training, and special duties, was revised during the year, and only four members of the faculty resigned at the end of the school year to accept positions in other schools. Mr. and Mrs. Edward Ferry changed to the Manter Hall Pre- paratory School in Cambridge, Mr. John Haynes joined the Melrose Junior High faculty, and Mr. Alphonse Alminas transferred to Commerce High in Springfield, Massachusetts.


New Faculty Members


Replacements and the establishment of new classes caused the addition of the following new faculty members for the 1952-53 school year:


Miss Anne Zammitti . High School Social Studies


Miss Isadore Stearns Physical Education Supervisor


Miss Phyllis Morse . First Grade West School Miss Maureen Conlon .. Elem. Remedial Reading Iustructor Mrs. Madeleine Kingston Fourth Grade South School


Mr. Vincent Gannon High School English


Mr. Douglass MacDonald High School Social Studies


Mr. Norton Levy High School Mathematics


Mr. Theodore Hersey High School Foreign Languages


Remedial Class


The part-time Remedial Reading work which was started last year at the high school level, was continued as a full-time project in the elementary schools by Miss Maureen Conlon who began her work in Acton in September. A large number of youngsters in Grades III, IV, V and VI have benefitted from this new educational service even though it has been in operation only four months.


15


Guidance


Beginning in the fall of 1953 Acton High will be one of the few small high schools in Massachusetts to have a full time Guidance Director, and the program, which is being developed under the direction of Miss Ruth Proctor, will follow closely recommendations made by the State Department of Education's Guidance Supervisor Mr. Warren E. Benson.


Tuition Students


The traditionally close relationship between Acton and Boxborough which has resulted in the local high school's serving both communities has been broadened so that Acton High School is now taking Boxborough youngsters at the Seventh and Eighth Grade levels as well as those in Grades Nine to Twelve. Acton has also a considerable number of tuition-paying students from the City of Boston, Westford, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.


New Science Course


During the past year a new course "Practical Science" has been tried at the Senior High School level to take care of those students who want to continue Science beyond General Science, but do not have a need for the college-preparatory Biology, Chemistry, or Physics. The objective of this course is to train boys and girls for the proper operation and main- tenance of ordinary household mechanical devices, appliances and tools.


Pre-School Conferences


Before classes were resumed in the fall faculty confer- ences were held at appropriate grade levels and in different subject matter fields to discuss curriculum content and goals, to improve coordination with the supervisors, and to orient the new members of the faculty.


Safety Education


Throughout the year great emphasis was put on this aspect of education because of the constantly increasing hazard to Acton children resulting from the heavy traffic on Routes 2, 2A, 111, and 27. Early in the year a special traffic safety survey made by Miss Edith Doane of the Massachu- setts Safety Council at the request of PTA and school officials,


16


indicated that the school system was doing good work in this field, and merited praise for the manner in which a highly complicated bus system (operated by Mr. Ormal Laffin) pro- vided transportation for the large majority of Acton school children.


The school system cooperated with the Red Cross to sponsor the highly successful summer water safety program, and subject to Town Meeting approval of funds to continue to provide transportation to Lake Walden, the school depart- ment and the Red Cross will operate the program again in 1953.


Driver Training Instructor Ralph Stetson has continued his work with the prospective automobile drivers at the High School, and the total number of Acton High students who have received licenses through the medium of this course is now nearing seventy. Through the courtesy of the Atlantic Refining Company's Safety Education program, the first week in December was devoted to a series of driving exhibitions, tests, and physiological examinations bearing on safe driving, and a school-wide competition showed that the following were Acton High's best drivers: Sylvia Jewell, Roger Gregory, Sally Jones, William Kazokas, Patricia McCarthy, Peggy Sexton, and Richard Schou.


Textbooks and Supplies


This part of the Budget is based on requests and recom- mendations made by the staff members who will actually use the material. All items are evaluated and passed upon by the principals and supervisors concerned, then submitted to the Superintendent for approval, and finally are subject to scrutiny by the members of the School and Finance Com- mittees before being incorporated in the Budget. Conse- quently, the Budget reflects careful financial and educational planning for the year ahead, and it is this section of the Budget which translates the actual supply needs of each pupil into dollars and cents.


Plant Operation and Maintenance


The "two-shift" operation of the high school beginning in September, 1953, and the continuing late afternoon and ever ing use of the building by school and community groups


17


will increase the custodial service problem by decreasing the school-day-time in which cleaning and maintenance activities can be carried on. However, the proximity of the new pri- mary school building, with its need for additional custodial service, should make it possible to have a double and over- lapping shift of custodians so that one of the custodians will be on duty and available to either building at all times, and so that janitorial work can be carried on over a period of about fifteen hours a day.


Census


The practice of having the Seniors conduct the Annual School Census required by law, and a census of pre-school children as a basis for administrative planning, was con- tinued under the direction of Senior Class Adviser Raymond Grey. Findings of particular significance follow: Resident children eligible for First Grade: September 1953, 104; 1954, 109; 1955, 80; 1956, 74; 1957, 76; 1958, 82.


Library


The dual function of the Library-Classroom limited its use as a Library during school hours, but Library service after school was provided by the appointment of a student Librarian, Miss Magarette Jarvi.


Health


Mrs. Eileen Hale succeeded Mrs. Lillian Taylor as School Nurse during the fall of 1952, and her counsel and efforts coupled with those of School Physician, Dr. Paul Gates, expe- dited the carrying out of Massachusetts' new school health laws which went into effect in September.


Transportation


A special Transportation survey conducted by the Super- intendent in October indicated that only 162 of the 700 youngsters in the Acton schools did not use the bus transpor- tation facilities, that 375 ride over a mile and a half each way to and from school, and that about 150 are carried less than a mile and a half. Even though the mile and a half represents the minimum distance to qualify for the state transportation subsidy, school officials feel that cutting down of pupil highway-pedestrian traffic is well worth the extra cost to the Town.


18


Cafeteria


Installation of an adequate hot-water supply unit has contributed to the success of the two-shift recess system used since September, and has materially speeded up the cafeteria clean-up time. It has also made it possible for Custodian Leveroni to have ample hot water during the summer and at other times when the heating boiler has not been in opera- tion. Serving as many as a hundred hot dishes a day in addition to numerous other food items, the successful cafe- teria operation has reflected great credit on Home Economics Department head Mary Emerson, Manager Anne Rimbach, and Principal William O'Connell.


GENERAL CONTROL (Administration) School Department Accounting System


In the past ten years the procedure for reporting school department expenditures has varied all the way from one account (Department of Education ) in 1944, to thirteen ac- counts in 1945 and 1946, and with a view to promoting consistency, clarity, and conformity to State Department of Education accounting practice, the Superintendent with the approval of the School and Finance Committees will use the following account divisions after January 1, 1953: Instruc- tion, Textbooks and Supplies, Plant Operation, Maintenance, Auxiliary Agencies, General Control, Outlay, Contingency Fund. The same headings have been used in the organization of this report.


Primary School Principal


Miss Julia McCarthy, Principal of the South Acton School, will be the Principal of the eight-room primary build- ing now under construction, and, as she will not have any teaching duties, she will be able to devote her full time to the supervision and administration necessary to mold four First and four Second Grades into an all-Acton consolidated pri- mary school unit.


High School Principal


The rapidly expanding enrollment in the Acton system with its problems of housing, long-range planning, construc-


19


tion activities, and general administration, and the increasing complexity of the high school housing and operating situation caused the School Committee to officially separate the Super- intendency and the Principalship in the spring of 1952. Under the leadership of Principal William O'Connell, who has been aided by an exceptionally well qualified faculty, the High School is building an outstanding record not only for academic and vocational preparation but in the broad field of extra-curricular activities which includes championship teams, gala social events, successful Magazine Drives, Bundle Day campaigns, debates, dramatics, publications, field trips, fund raising suppers, Student Council affairs, assemblies, and musical events.


OUTLAY


Vision Test


In the past Acton has borrowed vision-testing equipment, but the school enrollment has reached the point where in the judgment of the School Physician and School Nurse the school system should have its own apparatus.


Curtains


Each year the use of audio-visual teaching aids is in- creasing and an essential element of this educational activity is the ability to darken classrooms for the projection of films and film strips. Accordingly plans have been made to replace all badly worn translucent shades with opaque curtains and to increase the number of rooms which can be darkened quickly and effectively.


Furniture


Furniture for the new primary building has already been ordered, and fifty of the chairs were delivered during the Christmas vacation so that they could be used in the two temporary Second Grade classrooms established in the Jenks Apartments on School Street. The cost of the furniture for the new building comes out of the appropriation for the eight-room structure, and not out of the regular school budget. However, whatever new desks and chairs will be required for the establishment of a new Fifth Grade at West Acton will be paid for out of regular school funds.


20


Typewriters


Most of Acton High School's twenty-three Commercial Department typewriters date back to the "thirties", and some were made in the "twenties", so to prevent an increasing problem of obsolescence the School Committee has approved the Superintendent's recommendation that a new purchasing policy go into effect in 1953 to provide for the replacement of the machines on a three year cycle. Since the school gets the advantage of a near-cost price from the manufacturers, the annual cost of keeping all machines up to date should be nominal after the obsolete typewriters are replaced.


Contingency Fund


A school budget is at best only an estimate of the school financial needs for from two to fourteen months ahead of the time the budget is made up in the fall, and as such is subject to pitfalls growing out of economic changes, accidents, poor judgment, and social pressures. In the past all "pad- ding" has been carefully pruned from the school budget with the result that heating equipment failure, price increases, roof leaks, changes in safety regulations, and other unantici- pated expenditures have thrown the budget out of line and necessitated special town meeting approval for account trans- fers within the School Department Budget. For 1953 the School Committee, acting upon the recommendation of the Superintendent and with the approval of the Finance Com- mittee, has authorized the establishment of a $500 Contin- gency Account with the idea that this money will be avail- able for unanticipated financial demands.


Public Relations


Cooperation with the various Town Departments and with the civic organizations in Acton has been emphasized to the advantage of all concerned.


The "community" motion picture projector, the pur- chase of which was authorized at the 1952 Town Meeting, has been in constant use by the schools, and has served the Fire Department, Boy Scouts, Cubs, and many other local organizations. In keeping with the "greater use of the school bu ldings" policy inaugurated in 1950, the High School has been used by the Boy and Girl Scouts, and is available to all Acion civic groups. Representatives of all Town Depart-


21


ments and organizations concerned with Safety attended the Traffic Safety Dinner Conference sponsored by the School Department early in December, Acton High Seniors and Juniors staged a debate as the feature of the December Grange meeting, and the Music Department provided the en- tertainment at the December meeting of the West Acton Woman's Club.


An organized plan for newspaper publicity has pro- vided an effective means for keeping Acton people acquainted with the numerous activities, accomplishments, and devel- opments concerning the school system, and many of the more important stories have been carried in the Globe, Traveler, and other metropolitan newspapers.


The School Department Report


Because 1953 may be the most crucial year in the de- velopment of Acton's long-range school policies, and with the conviction that Acton residents want the maximum amount of information about the schools they support, the Superintendent has compiled a much longer report than he has submitted in other years. Since the chief justification for such a long report is its effectiveness in conveying desired information to the voters, the Superintendent and the School Committee would appreciate oral or written comments re- garding the worth of such a lengthy composition, so that these could serve as guides when next year's report is being prepared.




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