USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Norwell > Town of Norwell annual report 1910-1919 > Part 41
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109
TOWN OF NORWELL
with surroundings which would have an important bearing on their future development.
All sorts of memorials to our war heroes have been sug- gested and erected in various places. Tablets, bridges, monuments, parks, and even highways have been the method of paying honor. None of these has any direct connection with the cause for which these boys struggled. Not one of them has any great lasting bearing on the preservation of true democracy. Monuments are soon familiar and there- fore unimpressive: tablets corrode and are forgotten; bridges are useful and sometimes even ornamental, but never inspir- ing. A school building on the other hand is the very cradle of true democracy, and education the only salvation from anarchy. What better, more lasting, and more fitting mem- orial could be raised than a school building wherein true Americanism could and would be founded and fostered.
The cost of such a building as would be a source of pride and inestimable benefit to Norwell is not excessive. Similar buildings have been constructed in Massachusetts during the past year at prices ranging under $50,000. This amount could be subscribed in an afternoon by those of the residents of Norwell to whom have been intrusted by fortune, means far in excess of their possible needs. Are there not those who will see this need and help meet it? Surely no finer method of public benefaction could be possible.
Red Cross, Y. M. C. A., and Liberty Loan drives found Norwell ready to answer the call. It she not as ready to heed the call of her children?
With such a consolidated school for her elementary pupils, and with her high school students adequately educated in a Union High School; Norwell could occupy an enviable posi- tion among the towns in this state.
110
SEVENTIETH ANNUAL REPORT
THE UNION HIGH SCHOOL
A little more than a year ago a new idea was suggested to Norwell and the two adjoining towns, Hanover and Pem- broke. This idea was born of the necessity, long existing, for a more adequate form of high school education in these and similar communities. This necessity was aggravated, in Norwell, by the very pressing need of decent housing pro- vision for the school children. It was felt that these towns could unite in building, equipping and supporting a union high school.
The novelty of the idea at once produced the usual reac- tion against what was considered an untried innovation. It was soon demonstrated that the idea was far from untried. It was found that a similar plan was meeting with phenomen- al success in some of the western states, notably Illinois. Moreover a similar arrangement was found in Concord and Shelburne in this state; the same in its practical effect though not in name.
As the novelty wore off and the working of the plan was more thoroughly expounded, a change in sentiment became evident among those who gave the plan careful consideration. Of late the number favoring the proposition has grown by leaps and bounds.
Through the cooperation of Mr. Clarence D. Kingsley of the State Board of Education, who has given much time and effort to the advancement of this project; a bill has been presented to the General Court permitting the towns to unite for the purpose stated, and designed to safeguard the best interests of all concerned.
The text of the tentative draft of this bill follows.
SPECIAL ACT.
An Act to authorize the towns of Hanover, Nor-
111
TOWN OF NORWELL
well, and Pembroke to form a Union High School District for the purpose of erecting and maintain- ing a Union High School.
Section 1. The towns of Hanover, Norwell and Pembroke, or any two of them, are hereby author- ized, upon the acceptance of this Act by said towns, to form a union high school district for the purpose of erecting and maintaining a union high school.
Section 2. The school committees of said towns shall elect two persons from each of their respective committees who shall form the union high school committee with all the powers and duties of school committees with reference thereto.
Section 3. In case all the towns are in one sup- erintendency union the union superintendent shall be the superintendent of said school. Otherwise, the union high school committee shall select as sup- erintendent of said school a person who is superin- tendent of schools in one of the towns; and the sup- erintendent, or superintendents, in the other towns shall act in an advisory capacity. The superinten- dent of the union high school shall be the executive officer of the union high school committee with all the duties of a superintendent relative thereto.
Section 4. The treasurer of the town in which the high school is located shall be the treasurer of the union high school, and he shall furnish a bond satisfactory to the Committee, and shall receive such compensation as it may fix. No bill shall be allowed by said treasurer for payment unless ap- proved by said Committee.
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SEVENTIETH ANNUAL REPORT
Section 5. Said union high school committee shall, with the approval of the department of edu- cation, determine the location of the schoolhouse, with its site, and shall have charge of the erection of said schoolhouse. Said committee shall submit an estimate of the sum necessary for said purposes and apportion it to the several towns in shares pro- portional to the state tax. Upon authorization by each town of the expenditure of its share of said sum, each town shall issue bonds or notes payable in accordance with general laws so that each loan will be extinguished within twenty years from date of issuance, and shall deliver from the proceeds of the sale of said bonds or notes to the treasurer of said high school its share of said sum.
Section 6. Each town in said district shall an- nually, not later than April first, elect representa- tives who shall serve on a union high school appro- priation board. Each town shall be entitled to one such representative for every 500 inhabitants, or fraction thereof, as shown by the latest census, state or national. Said representatives shall meet annually not later than April fifteenth, at a time and place agreed upon by the chairmen of the boards of selectmen of the several towns, or by a majority thereof. Said board shall elect a chair- man and a secretary. Subsequent meetings may be held at the call of its chairman. Said board shall receive from the union high school committee esti- mates as to the funds required for the support of the union high school including all necessary trans- portation expenditures, and for additions, altera- tions and new equipment, and any other purposes not provided for in Sec. 5, and shall determine the
113
TOWN OF NORWELL
amount that may be expended therefor by said un- ion high school committee. The appropriations for expenditures called for by this section shall be sub- ject to approval by any of the respective towns when, and only when, the share of said appropria- tion to be paid by that town, over and above the amount received from the State during the preced- ing year by said town on account of said union high school, exceeds an amount that would accrue from a tax of $4.00 per $1000, valuation in said town. The chairman and secretary of said board shall thereupon notify the treasurer and assessors of each town of the amount to be contributed by said town. And the assessors shall assess that amount in the tax levy of that year. The treasurer of the union high school shall borrow a sum not in excess of the amount appropriated by said appropriation board in anticipation of the collection of taxes and the treasurer of each town shall pay to him that town's share of said sum on or before December first of each year. The treasurer of the union high school is hereby authorized to hold to the credit of said district any balances unexpended from funds raised for the purposes of this section to an amount not to exceed ten thousand dollars.
Section 7. Each town in such a union in which the high school is not situated shall be reimbursed from the treasury of the commonwealth for the funds which it has contributed for the support of such union high school to the same amount and un- der the same conditions that it would have been re- imbursed if the money had been expended for the tuition of pupils to attend a high school in another town or city.
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SEVENTIETH ANNUAL REPORT
Section 8. Each town in said district not receiv- ing State aid under the preceding section shall, for the purposes of State aid, be regarded as maintain- ing a high school and be credited with a fractional part of the teaching force and reimbursement there- for, said fraction being determined by the cost of support contributed by said town.
ADVANTAGES OF UNION SCHOOL
The advantages of consolidation have had so thorough and widespread exemplification in the business world as to make any further exposition superfluous. Without consolidation many of the commercial enterprises of today would remain undeveloped.
Consolidation for these three towns means that they can together support a school such as no one of them could af- ford even to approximate. The purchasing power of their money would be very greatly increased by virtue of the avoidance of costly duplication. In other words the fixed or overhead charges could be reduced to a minimum with a corresponding increase in ability for legitimate and neces- sary expansion.
If teachers' salaries continue to rise, and it seems likely, the time is soon coming when the small towns will be unable to maintain high schools with efficient teaching corps. Then it will be a case of sending your children out of town to be educated by your neighbors in schools over which you have no control. Even this will be denied you because the sur- rounding towns will be unable to handle this influx from outside. And even if they can be accommodated there will be the very undesirable element of unsupervised transporta- tion on trains, trolleys, and what not. The writer has seen some of the effects of this unsupervised transportation less
115
TOWN OF NORWELL
than a thousand miles from the office where this is printed. It is a moral menace too little considered.
But even granting that an adequate teaching staff could be maintained, and that they were housed in a decent build- ing; would the resulting school be adequate to meet modern conditions ? It would not.
The day is long past when we regarded children as so many units of the same type of material, susceptible of a uni- form method of fashioning into an identical product. Ameri- can children are individualistic; more so than the children of any other nation in the world. This individualism requires variety of opportunity to develop, a type of opportunity be- yond the means of these small communities. Consolidation must come if we believe in public control of education.
Below is shown the superior opportunity offered by the Union High School as compared to the present organization.
CURRICULUMS
UNION
NORWELL
Classical Preparatory
Classical Preparatory
Technical Preparatory
Secretarial or Clerical
*Technical Prep. ( Weak) Secretarial or Clerical
Business (Full)
! Business ( Partial)
Household Arts
Manual Arts
Agriculture
Physica 1 Training in
No physical training at all all courses.
*Weak because of poor laboratory facilities
! Partial for lack of time and facilities
N. B -- Three more full courses in addition to definite courses in Physical Training are made possible by the union.
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SEVENTIETH ANNUAL REPORT
The state would pay two-thirds of the salary of the teach- er of Agriculture.
TEACHING CORPS
UNION
THREE SEPARATE SCHOOLS
Principal
Principals (3)
*Sub-master (Phys. Tr. boys)
!Agriculture
Stenography & Typewriting
Stenography & Type- (2) writing
!Household Arts
!Manual Arts
Ist Woman Asst. (Phys, tr. girls)
Assistant (Latin & History) Assistants (3)
Asst. (English & History) Assistants (3)
Total number teachers (9) Total number teachers (II)
*This teacher would be head of the Commercial Dept. !These teachers would share the work in Science.
The Principal would have charge of Mathematics.
With the present enrollment it might be possible to get along with eight teachers in the Union High School, which is the equivalent of the number employed in two of the schools at the present time. If the enrollment were to in- crease to 200, which is not impossible, the full corps shown in the table would be necessary; with an increase of one teacher for every twenty-five added to the enrollment over that number.
There would be a saving of three or at least two teachers over the present combined staffs. The financial saving would be even greater than the salaries of two teachers, be- cause one principal at $2500 would take the place of three
117
TOWN OF NORWELL
now employed at a cost of $4500, a figure likely to increase to $4900 within the year. Moreover as stated above, two thirds of the salary of the teacher of Agriculture would be reimbursed by the State.
The economy of the scheme is indicated in the following table :
MAINTENANCE COSTS
Union Three separate Schools
Increased Saving
Teaching (Gross) $12,750 ** $13,800
Teaching (Net) ..
9,216 ** 11,100
$1884
Janitor
1,000 875
125
Books & Supplies 800 600
200
Repairs & Upkeeps
Fuel & Jan, Sup.
Insurance
.
** These figures are based on a 9 teacher Union school, if only eight teachers were needed this item would be reduced at least $900 and show a saving $2784 in cost of teachers.
The last three items would show a saving of at least $500 in consideration of the fact that there would be a new, fire- proof structure located near fire protective apparatus in a closely populated section.
It seems safe to estimate a saving of at least $2000 annu- ally resulting from consolidation of the three schools.
But the saving of money is a minor consideration. The great outstanding fact is, for the same or less expense high school advantages could be secured for the children of the three towns such as the towns singly can never afford.
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SEVENTIETH ANNUAL REPORT
NORWELL MUST HAVE DECENT HIGH SCHOOL FACILITIES.
THIS IS THE BEST AND CHEAPEST WAY TO GET THEM.
SCHOOL POPULATION
There are in the schools of Norwell 215 children dis- tributed as shown in the accompanying tabulations.
:
TABLE I SCHOOL AND GRADE DISTRIBUTION
| I |II |III IV | V |VI |VII/VIII IX | X | XI | XII| T |
Church Hill
| 4 | 2 | 4|
2
2
14
1
Center
11
9
6
8
2
19
15
10
80
Ridge Hill
18
9
10
10
14
6
9
1
77
High School
22
11
7
4
44
33
20
20
20
18
25
24
11
22
11
7
4
215
TOWN OF NORWELL
119
TABLE II AGE AND GRADE DISTRIBUTION
5 6 7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
T
A
Per Ct.
R
Per Ct
I
6 | 20
4 |
3
33
6
18
3
9
II
4 | 10
4
1 |
-
1
20
4
20
2
10
III
|4 | 8 |4 |3 1
20
4
20
4
20
IV
-
-
3
8 |
4 |
3
18
0
0
7
39
VI |
3
12
6 | 3
1 |
25
3
12
4
16
VII |
24
5
21
5
21
VIII
-
1
2 [ 6 | 1 |1 | 1
11
8
73
1
9
IX
1
4 | 12
5|1
22
4
18
1
4.5
X
-
-
-
-
-
j 3 | 3|
1 |
7
6
86
0
0
XII
-
3
-
1
4
3
75
1
25
6 24
18 |
16
20
| 12
27
23
21 | 21
18 | 6 |1 1
1
1
|215
44
20.5
31
[14.4
-
20
1
5
2
10
V -
1 | 15 | 2 |
-
2
-
-
-
-
1
4 | 5 | 9|
4 | 1
-
-
-
-
-
-
11
0
0
1
9
XI
-
-
1
-
| 8 | 2|
1
-
-
-
-
- 1
KEY-(A) represents those children under age, i. e. too young for the grade. (R) represents those who are re- tarded, i. e. who are too old for their grade. Heavily diagonals show age limits for the different grades.
121
TOWN OF NORWELL
These tabulations are based on the ages of the children December 31, 1919. For that reason the age limits are set higher than in the similar report made a year ago.
It is worthy of note in Table II that the number of chil- dren who are accelerated or above grade is in excess of those retarded. This would be a very creditable showing for a city school system. In a system such as we have however, it raises the question as to whether we are using proper care in our promotions. On the other hand it is also a fact that the children in Norwell usually enter school as early as is permissible. It seems therefore that it may safely be re- garded as a sign of successful progress throughout our schools.
I wish to express my approbation and appreciation of the very progressive attitude of the Norwell Committee. This attitude has made the year's work a pleasure and is an incentive to increased effort.
Respectfully submitted,
Dec. 31, 1919.
STEPHEN G. BEAN
Report of Principal of High School
To the Superintending School Committee :
I hereby submit my annual report upon the work of the High School for the past year. This year has been notice- able for the hearty cooperation between teachers and pupils and the results secured have been correspondingly better. Indeed in the last two years an atmosphere of scholarly en- thusiasm has pervaded the school which promises well for its future.
Most of our recent graduates who have taken the Commercial branches offered are now filling good posi- tions. The class graduating this year will be the first to complete the full course. I believe the results have amply justified your wisdom in adding this course to the curricu- lum, as a special training which rests upon the broader foun- dation of general knowledge.
The "Honor Roll" of students receiving no mark in schol- arship or deportment below "B" for the preceding bi- monthly period contained the following names, one or more times during the school year end ing June 1919.
Robert Anthony
Esther Leggett
Ethel Bates
Helen Lincoln*
Ruth Berry
Marguerite Oakman*
Elsie Briggs
Marie Olson
Ruby Briggs*
Cecilia Osborne
Bernice Damon
Margaret Pemberton
Eleanor Ford
Lora Thomas
Katharine Turner
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TOWN OF NORWELL
Those whose names are marked with a * won the spec a! distinction of being on the "honor list" during the entire year.
Several of these students have gone away from town now and their removal has been a serious loss to the school. Only by the most earnest work of all the teachers and the enthusi- astic response of the pupils have we secured under the ex- isting limitations the results attained. The pressing need of better facilities and a modern equipment is apparent to everybody. The school has now a body of eager and life with the enthusiasm and hope of youth.
What better opportunity can be desired to leave a fitting memorial to those who have honored this town in every war our country has passed through. To do this or to form a Un- ion High School with one or more neighboring towns seems altogether fitting and perfectly feasible. Those who advocate the latter plan point to its greater economy. the larger oppor- tunities offered through a wider range of studies and the spirit of emulation which is present in a larger body of stu- dents. Whichever plan is deemed the better, action of some kind should be taken at once. Further neglect is both in- excusable and unjust to the youth of the town.
Recognizing the supreme importance of correctly spelling words commonly used, we have required during the present school year a weekly spelling exercise of all students, in which a reasonable standard must be attained.
For the first time in many years Norwell High School began this fall term with no change in any of its teaching force. This of itself has been a great factor in the year's work. No time was lost in learning conditions and getting acquainted with the several classes. I can hardly commend you sufficiently for making this year so much more suc- cessful by retaining all those who had already contributed so largely to the previous success of the school. To their
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SEVENTIETH ANNUAL REPORT
hearty co-operation and zeal is due in great measure its present condition.
I wish to express my deep appreciation of this and to acknowledge my obligation to Mrs. Eldredge, instructor in drawing, who has maintained a high standard of work throughout the year, and to Miss Wheelock, instructor in music, whose work is well known and greatly appreciated by all who attend the graduating exercises. In conclusion permit me to express my sincere appreciation of the uniform kindness and courtesy, which you and the Superintendent of Schools have always shown me and I hope that the school will continue to merit your approval and support and that of all the citizens of the town.
Respectfully submitted
J. M. NICHOLS Principal.
Report of Supervisor of Drawing
To the Superintendent and School Committee:
I hereby submit my report upon the drawing in the schools for the past year :
I will say progress is ours and it expresses all that is need- ed to be said in the direct line of our department. As I have permission to make this as lengthy as I like, I will lengthen it somewhat, too much can never be said of a worthy aim.
I have no fault to find as ways and means are given me as I can use them and we have good teachers. The high school is in the best condition it can be.
What a wonderful thing a new building would be: This department would feel it to its greatest advantage. We hope it will soon work itself out rightly.
I have had pupils come from a high school where they give mechanical drawing a place in the everyday schedule and it receives the same credit as any regular study. Now, that is doing something to further the means of filling the present need of good draftsmen. A draftsman does not, today, necessarily have to be a man, and women are filling successfully any of its branches and it is one of the best open opportunities for a young man or woman of today.
Art reaches into every study the pupil enters-geography and history, for example, give the best place for special study of the famous art centres of Europe, and associate with each city its great masters in architecture, sculpture and paintings.
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SEVENTIETH ANNUAL REPORT
The additional avenues for expression and the multipli- cation of paths result in greater certainty for the ability of the child to call up his image at a future time. Drawing affords an opportunity for revealing to the child his own powers. Originality receives no more active stimulus than where there arises the consciousness of power to execute that which the mind has conceived. as Froebel emphasizes. the 'inner outer.' There is no better way for teaching economy and inventive faculty than in the work which en- ables the child to make something useful or beautiful out of what he usually throws away.
As we increase the range of what we see, we increase the richness of what we can imagine. When the child is al- lowed to properly mount a picture, or to design a cover and make ornamental initials for his composition, he is thereby stimulated to a greater activity in his written expression, gains power in the manual execution of the paper, and by sufficient repetition learns to know, appreciate and love the truly artistic. In our many little ways we will strive to fill the mission and give enjoyment and to "lead life up- ward." I thank the teachers, school committee, and pupils for their whole-hearted cooperation through the past year.
Respectfully submitted,
A. GERTRUDE ELDRIDGE,
Supervisor of Drawing Jan. 22, 1920.
Report of Supervisor of Music
To the Superintendent and School Board :
The supervisor of music herewith respectfully submits her report for the year 1919.
The progress of classes has been gratifying and more satisfactory than during any other year. Work is rapidly reaching the normal basis for advancement and books are being placed in the grades as fast as pupils are ready for music reading.
The character of the High school work is noticeably superior to that of any preceding year. This is due to the fact that the school is now composed of pupils who have had music training in the grades and are consequently re- ceptive, whereas formerly the High school scholars were without training in this subject and had to begin with the most rudimentary work. 'To boys and girls of High school attainment that was somewhat unpleasant and the net result was impaired.
The cooperation of every teacher has helped immensely in the course. To them, to the superintendent and school board, and to the parents, I wish to express my thanks for the helpful interest shown in my department of the school work.
ROSALIE H. WHEELOCK.
Boston, Massachusetts.
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