USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Norwell > Town of Norwell annual report 1930-1939 > Part 36
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(Approved by the Advisory Board).
Article 4. To see if the town will vote to appropriate a sum of money for a reserve fund to be provided for by transfer from overlay surplus.
Approved by the Advisory Board which recommends that the sum of thirty-five hundred dollars be trans- ferred.
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Article 5. To see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate for the use of the Plymouth County Trustees for County Aid to Agriculture a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars and choose a Town Director as provid- ed in Sections 41 and 45 of Chapter 128 of the General Laws.
(Approved by the Advisory Board).
Article 6. To see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of four hundred fifty dollars for the purpose of maintaining, during the ensuing year, the mosquito control works as estimated and certified to by the State Reclamation Board in accordance with the pro- visions of Chapter 113, Acts of 1931.
(Approved by the Advisory Board) .
Article 7. To see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate a sum of money for the expense of distribu- tion of Surplus Commodities, so-called.
(Approved by the Advisory Board).
Article 8. To see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of eight hundred dollars to be ex- pended for addition to fire house No. 2.
Request of Board of Fire Engineers.
(No recommendation by Advisory Board) .
Article 9. To see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of five hundred dollars for the pur- chase of two and one-half inch fire hose.
Request of the Board of Fire Engineers.
(Approved by the Advisory Board) .
Article 10. To see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate a sum of money for the repair of the Syd- lowski property acquired by the town, determine whether the same shall be rented by the Selectmen to any official or employee of the school department, or take any action relative thereto.
Request of the School Committee.
(Not approved by the Advisory Board) .
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EIGHTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT
Article 11. To see if the town will vote to authorize the Selectmen to sell the Szydlowski house and barn, now on the site of the New High School, the buildings to be removed from the High School grounds, or take any ac- tion relative thereto.
(Approved by the Advisory Board).
Article 12. To see if the town will vote to change the name of the Ridge Hill Library to the "William J. Leon- ard Memorial Library" or take any action relative there- to.
(Approved by the Advisory Board).
Article. 13. To see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars to be expended for the suitable observance of Armistice Day.
Request of John D. Murphy and others.
(Approved by the Advisory Board) . -
Article 14. To make allowances to town creditors.
Article 15. Will the town give any instructions to town officers ?
Article 16. Will the town vote to pay the tax collector a salary of eight hundred dollars ?
Request of Alfred H. Prouty.
(Not approved by the Advisory Board) .
Article.17. To see if the town will vote to authorize the Town Treasurer, with the approval of the Selectmen, to borrow money from time to time in anticipation of the revenue of the financial year beginning January 1, 1937, and to issue a note or notes therefore, payable within one year, and to renew any note or notes as may be given for less than one year in accordance with Sec- tion 17, Chapter 44, General Laws.
Article 18. To see if the town will vote to authorize the Town Treasurer, with the approval of the Select- men, to borrow money from time to time in anticipation of the revenue of the financial year beginning January
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1, 1938, and to issue a note or notes therefore, payable within one year, and to renew any note or notes as may be given for less than one year in accordance with Sec- tion 17, Chapter 44, General Laws.
Article 19. What salary and compensation will the town vote to pay all its elected officers in accordance with Section 108, Chapter 41, General Laws.
Article 20. Will the town act with the town of Han- over to maintain electric lights at the junction of River Street, Norwell and Broadway, Hanover, and at Assinip- pi.
Norwell School Directory
School Committee
JOHN M. LIND
Tel. Norwell 12-12
BENJAMIN LORING, Chairman
Tel. Norwell 67-3
MRS. Nellie SPARRELL, Secretary
Tel. Norwell 76-3
Superintendent of Schools
WILLARD SPALDING Tel. Hanover 91
Supervisors MRS. PANSY STETSON, Music RODMAN BOOTH, Art
School Physician WILLIAM P. GROVESTEIN, M. D.
School Nurse CATHERINE A. ROE, R. N.
School Dentist WILLIS B. PARSONS, D. M. D.
Janitors RICHARD WHITING JOSEPH F. MERRITT MRS. MARY BRUCE
SCHOOL COMMITTEE REGULATIONS
Children who become five years of age on March first may enter school the following September.
No child under seven years of age will be admitted to school for the first time after October first of any year.
If there appears to be room in the first grade, tests will be given to children who are too young to enter school. No child may take this test who will not be five before the opening of school.
A child entering school for the first time is required to present to the teacher a birth certificate and vaccina- tion or exemption from vaccination certificate. Exemp- tion certificates must be renewed every six months.
School Committee Report
To the Tax Payers of Norwell
The School Committee was organized March 10th as follows, Benjamin Loring, Chairman, and Nellie L. Spar- rell, Secretary-Treasurer. Regular monthly meetings have been held with the Superintendent of Schools, be- sides many special meetings.
During the month of January, everyone connected with the schools was occupied with the adjustment of the High School to its new quarters in the Sylvester High School. The change from a two session day to a single session held late in the afternoon was a radical one, which required the exercise of much patience on the part of teachers, pupils, and parents. The routine of each home from which a pupil attended school was af- fected, and the Committee wishes to express its gratitude to the parents for their splendid co-operation, and to the pupils for the very creditable manner in which they have conducted themselves away from home. We feel it must tend to make Norwell and Hanover better neighbors.
The night driving for the return from this session has been dangerous, and further co-operation of pupils and parents is solicited in the interest of safety.
The cost of transportation this year was more than double that of 1935 because the mileage covered was more than double that of the previous year. The town will receive reimbursement from the State, however, for one-half this extra cost of transportation.
The loss of most of our text books, and supplies by fire, or damage by water, has increased the expenditure for these items this year, as has also a slight increase in enrollment. The State requires the town to furnish each pupil in school with a complete set of text books regu- larly in use.
The School Committee has caused to be inserted in the town warrant an article for the retention and repair
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EIGHTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT
of the so-called Szydlowski property. We deemed it ad- visable for the following reasons :
1. As a convenience to the school department to have a rental available for employees.
2. As a silent protection to the school property.
3. As a source of at least $300.00 yearly income, all of which may affect the taxe rate.
However, this is a matter for the voters alone to decide, but this department inserted the article to acquaint the voters with the question.
We have been advised by men who dig or drive wells, that in their opinion the town well is not a sufficient wa- ter supply for the needs of the Centre Primary School- especially in a dry time. This may not be the year to act upon this advice, but it is a matter for careful consid- eration and action in the near future.
At the second meeting of the School Officials and the Advisory Board, the latter informed us that should all departments receive the full amount of their budgets, this town would probably be faced with a tax rate of $40. Realizing the calamity of such a situation, and wishing to do its share in keeping the rate down, the School Committee held a special meeting for the re- consideration of its budget. It was voted to reduce same by $1,300.00.
This may be further reduced if the building is ready for occupancy earlier than the tentative date now set, for the school department intends to occupy the building immediately upon its completion.
The Committee agrees with the Superintendent of Schools in his desire to restore salary cuts to our teachers. Unless intimately connected with schools and teachers, the layman has small conception of the amount of work done by a teacher or the diversified knowledge the present day teacher must possess to teach successfully. Our educational system should prepare children to live successfully under conditions they find in the world about them. The system and subject matter
.
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must, of necessity, change as conditions change socially, economically, or politically. In addition to the three R's, history, science and geography, the school systems of to- day are obliged to educate along the lines of safety, health, citizenship, and international affairs, which, af- ter all, are the subjects best fitted to prepare the pupil to live in the world. It can readily be seen, therefore, that the present day teacher must constantly acquire knowledge of these newer subjects to be taught, and that she gives more of her life's strength to the position she holds. Other towns have restored their salary cuts along the line, and Norwell should restore the only ones cut-those. of the teachers.
In December, proposals were issued for Coal and Oil. Bids were received as follows :
Coal (White Ash and Egg) :
Albert Culver Co .- $14 per ton with $1.00 per ton cash discount if paid in ten days.
John S. Fitts $12.00 per ton Oil :
John S. Fitts No. 1 furnace oil 61/4c per gallon No. 2 furnace oil 534c per gallon Ramsay Oil Co. No. 1 7c per gallon No. 2 6c per gallon Robie Leslie No. 1 61/Qc per gallon No. 2 6c per gallon No. 2 614c per gallon
Culver Company
Coal was engaged of John S. Fitts at $12.00 per ton; also Oil of John S. Fitts at 61/4c per gallon for No. 1, and 534c per gallon for No. 2.
Trusting in your approval, we remain,
Respectfully submitted,
BENJAMIN LORING, Chairman
JOHN M. LIND NELLIE L. SPARRELL, Secretary-Treasurer
School Superintendent
To the School Committee of the Town of Norwell :
In this, my fifth annual report, I wish to show the progress which has been made in the schools of Norwell and to point out some of the steps which must be taken to continue the forward movement.
Five years ago the schools were using a reading sys- tem which was out-of-date and which did not teach chil- dren to sound the words as they learned them. This faulty reading system was producing some non-readers each year and was making it very difficult for many others to progress satisfactorily in those school subjects which are based on intelligent reading of books. These pupils were lacking in the reading skills which made it possible for them to understand geography, hygiene, his- tory, and arithmetic textbooks.
Today we are fortunate in having, in the first four grades, a modern reading system which is already doing much toward correcting the mistakes made in the past. We can expect greater improvement as this system is extended through the other grades and has more contin- uous use in the ones where it is now available.
Five years ago, for the most part, children were reading books in the lower grades which were using widely different vocabularies. This meant that there was much time lost in the teaching of arithmetic, hygiene, science, and the other subjects because of the need of teaching the meaning of the words which the pupils found in the texts.
Today we find that the books in the lower grades are written with the same basic vocabulary and that only technical words need to be taught. The rate of learning is more rapid than it has been.
Five years ago the children in the elementary schools were being taught the same material, substantially, as
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is taught now, but there was no attempt to interrelate the various branches of the curriculum. The various subjects were taught as entirely separate entities. Children felt that the contents of the geography book were meaning- less in any other than a geography class. They had the feeling that school was made up of a number of mental boxes and the mind went from one to the other, closing itself to the one which had just been used. It is apparent that life is made up of a complex interweaving of the many things which are taught in school.
Today, while still insisting on drill and the mastery of fundamentals the teachers are constantly trying to dis- cover and use the interrelations of the subject taught in such a way that children will be aware that they are all a part of the complex pattern of life outside of school.
Five years ago the only measure of the achievement of the child was the judgment of the teacher. This was, and is, a very important criterion of success in the class- room. Like all human judgments, however, it was sub- ject to some error. It was not the same in every room in every school since teachers, like other people, do not all think the same way. There was no way to compare the achievement of the Norwell pupils with that of similar pupils in other towns.
Today there is in use a system of tests which supple- ments the judgment of the teacher in the matter of pro- motion and which offers the opportunity of comparing the schools of Norwell with those in other communities which use the same tests. There has been a steady im- provement in the results which our pupils have attained on these tests. Our schools are improving.
The great problem confronting Norwell is that of improving the educational system in the high school in order to make it worthy of the fine building in which it will be housed. In the past the work done in the six upper grades has been excellent, when one considers the physi- cal handicaps under which the children worked. We will have no such problem in the future, and we must turn
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EIGHTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT
our efforts towards a constantly improving standard of achievement in those grades.
The essential point in any educational system is the teacher. The great need in Norwell is that of retaining in service for long periods of time these persons who are giving excellent service. In order to do this we must meet the salaries which are paid by those communities to which our good teachers would normally go. At the present time the salaries paid to teachers in the Norwell High School is much below the average for other com- munities of the same size. We cannot hope to retain good teachers, or to get good ones in the future, unless we can offer them some future in Norwell. At present it is im- possible to do this as the teachers are under a salary cut and have been for the last few years. This cut should be returned to the teachers and provision made for increas- ing the salaries of those teachers whom we wish to re- tain.
Recommendation
I recommend that the salary reductions be returned to the teachers and that increases in salary be made for teachers whom the school department wishes to retain in the schools.
The second need in the high school is a greater stress of the mastery of the fundamentals of the subjects taught in the schools.
There are several methods on instruction which are adapted to this aim. One of these, which I prefer, calls for an extension of the length of the period with pro- vision made for all of the work to be done by the pupils under the direction of the teacher. Home work is never done well by a majority of the students. The modern home has too many distracting influences in it to make it possible for boys and girls to concentrate on the work which they have to do. In addition to this, there are few homes in which the reference material necessary is pro- vided. Probably it is too much to expect that this will ever be provided in many of the homes since the cost is prohibitive. The third reason for failure to do home
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work accurately is that of inability to get needed help at the right time. Few parents have the time to assist chil- dren when they need assistance. In many cases, immed- iate assistance would mean that the child would proceed with little delay and that the time necessary for him to complete his task would be much shorter than that which is used at present.
One by-product of the lengthening of the period and the subsequent elimination or reduction of home work is that of increasing emphasis upon essentials and less upon supplementary material. In the past, the schools have tried to teach too many things and have not taught enough of them well. It would be very desirable to re- duce the content of each subject to a minimum and to see that minimum were completely mastered by every pupil. Those bright students who are able to do much more work than this minimum could be taken care of in a long period, as they would complete the requirements sooner and would have time left to carry on work in broader fields of knowledge.
I recommend that the high school be reorganized so that it will be possible to lengthen the period and to stress more thorough mastery of the fundamentals.
One of the important items in secondary education is that of training our young people to have a sense of responsibility toward participation in the activities of organized society after they are out of school. This training can best be given by encouraging them to man- age their own affairs in school. Student government in some form gives the pupils practice in guided manage- ment of that part of their school life which involves athletics, plays, socials, assemblies and similar activities. It develops a sense of belonging to the school which will develop a sense of responsibility for its well being. This should result in the only effective kind of correct behav- iour, that which is correct because each pupil knows that it is the right way to act, not that which is correct through fear of punishment from a superior.
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Recommendation
I recommend that a careful study be made of student government and that a desirable type be used at the Norwell High School.
Test results over a long period of time show that the Norwell pupils are deficient in literary background. It is impossible to correct this through required reading. The only solution of this matter is that of encouraging pupils to read because reading is enjoyable. In order to do this it is necessary to provide books which are in- teresting and attractive to boys and girls. The James Library is not readily accessible at all times to our students. As the new school building has a space pro- vided for a library much better results would be achieved if these books were at the school and could be used by the students there.
Research by students is an essential habit. In order to teach this it is necessary to have some source mater- ial which can be used. All of the reference works which were at the old high school were burned. Our new li- brary should have on its shelves sets of reference books in the various subjects taught in the school.
Guidance of students should be a part of every modern high school. Effective guidance means that there must be available to the student and the teacher wide varieties of information. There should be in the library volumes which include in formation about the educational re- quirements of those institutions which our boys and girls might probably attend. There should also be volumes which give information about the educational require- ments of certain vocational groups so that a pupil may learn what vocations he cannot follow if his high school education is limited to certain subjects. It is not nec- essary to have details about every conceivable type of work. It is necessary to have such information as will show a student that certain lines of employment are defi- nitely off of the list if he does not plan to study certain of the subjects which are offered in the school.
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TOWN OF NORWELL
Recommendation
I recommend that the library room in the new High School be equipped with a good supply of books which will include the great stories of our language, good ref- erence material for research, and information which will be of assistance in guiding our pupils toward a planned career.
The teaching of science in Norwell has been ineffective for many years. I have never observed a more poorly equipped laboratory than the one in the old building. Our new laboratory is to have fine tables and is to be piped for gas and electricity. The teaching in this room can be effective, only if there is good teaching equipment on hand. Pupils must actually see or do ex- periments in order to have a complete understanding of them. It is essential that these supplies be on hand when the building is ready for use.
I recommend the purchase of an adequate supply of scientific equipment in order to make the teaching of science effective.
The teaching of manual training has been needed for a long time in Norwell. To my mind, effective teaching in this subject should be so organized that the students learn to do the things which must be done in every home. They should learn to repair furniture, set glass, paint rooms, finish wood furniture, seat chairs, repair electric equipment, do ordinarily simple plumbing re- pairs, make small articles for the home, and do the many other things which are constantly demanded in each home. This type of teaching does not demand the installation of a large amount of power driven machin- ery, since it is improbable that the student will ever have the opportunity to use this type of equipment after leav- ing school. It does demand the thorough knowledge of the use of hand tools. These tools should be provided.
Norwell is fortunate in the amount of reimbursement which it receives for each new teacher employed. Under one part of Chapter 70, it will receive the amount of
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EIGHTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT
$675.00. Under another part of it it receives the amount of $150-250.00, depending upon the experience of the teacher. The net cost the first year for an inexperienced man at a salary of $1,200.00 would be $375.00. The re- imbursement would increase to a maximum of $925.00 at the end of three years. If this same teacher continued in the school and received a salary of $1,500.00 at the end of three years, the net cost would then be $575.00.
Recommendation
I recommend the appointment of a teacher of manual training and the purchase of equipment and tools for the teaching of this subject.
Our pupils should learn to meet one another in social situations with ease and to conduct themselves properly when attending social affairs. This can only be learned through practice. Since a large number of the students ride to the school on the buses, it is is impossible to or- ganize a program of activity which can take place di- rectly after school. The hour directly following school could well be used for practice in dramatics, in debating, in socials, in practising for the various school teams, in orchestra rehearsals, or in many other ways which are extremely valuable in the training of correct social habits.
Pupils who miss work through absence or through failure to understand have little opportunity to meet the teachers after school and make up the lost work or to get social help. This results in needless failures, and in faulty school work. Provision should be made for pupils to remain after school to get needed assistance without requiring them to walk long distances, which in the past has meant that they did not stay.
Recommendation
I recommend that a study be made of the bus situation with a view toward providing transportation for those pupils who remain after school for an hour in order to carry on the various activities outlined above, or in order
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to get help. It is well to keep in mind that one-half of the added cost of such transportation will be borne by the state under the provision of Chapter 70.
Summary of Recommendations
1. The return of salary reductions to teachers and the beginning of salary increases.
2. The lengthening of the period in the high school with an increased emphasis upon the mastery of fundamentals.
3. The organization of a form of student government.
4. The purchase of volumes for a good school library.
5. The purchase of adequate science equipment.
6. The employment of a teacher and the equipment of a shop for the teaching of manual training.
7. A study of the bus situation with a view to pro- viding after school transportation.
Please accept the sincere appreciation of the teachers and myself for your kindly advice and cooperation dur- ing the past year.
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