USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Town of Reading Massachusetts annual report 1914 > Part 10
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mission of this Board) and which elsewhere provides that such price may be greater than cost if it will allow a profit of no more than eight per cent., also expressly provides that "the gas and electricity used by the town shall be charged to it at cost.") Not only does this last provision require this charge to be made, but no authority is given in the sec- tion, either to the town authorities or this Board, to make the charge for current so used either more or less than cost. The provisions for a price to yield no more than a definite maximum profit, and a price which may permissibly be less than cost, are so clearly inconsistent with the requirements about the charge to the town as to make such provisions inapplicable to the current used by the town and to restrict the application of the word "price," as used in the statute, to current sold to private consumers. The provisions about "price" are in their nature elastic; those about the charge to the town, however, are inelastic and rigid.
The town owns and is equally bound to maintain both the electric and water plants. The importance of a definite charge for the service rendered by one to the other is obvious, not only for convenience in accounting, but as an aid to the proper administration of both departments, and in maintaining a proper adjustment of the relative rights and obligations of the respective customers of each and of the tax payers. But the delivery of electricity by the elec- tric to the water department is not a "sale " for which the statute requires a price to be fixed. It is only for electricity supplied to its inhabitants that a price must be fixed. A careful reading of the section makes clear that the Legisla- ture intended primarily to require the fixing of a price for electricity so supplied, and to prescribe the procedure upon its change and its minimum and maximum limits.
But without the requirement which follows respecting the charge to the town in the sentence already quoted, all of the items enumerated might be loaded upon the output to private customers in computing the "cost " upon which
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the price to them is to be based-a view which seems to have been urged at one time in this controversy. With this requirement, however, the management of the plant in the prices which it fixes for private customers can ask them to pay only their proportionate part of the operating and fixed charges, and at the most an 8 per cent. profit on the invest- ment. All of the operating and fixed charges not covered by the revenue which such prices to private customers pro- duce must of necessity be raised by taxation, and will in fact be the payment which the town makes for all electricity fur- nished for municipal use.
For these reasons the Board is of the opinion that it has no authority to give or withhold its consent to the so-called "price " for electricity furnished for pumping at the water works, or to the recently established price of 5 cents for municipal buildings, although this price was not included in the application. In reaching this conclusion, however, the Board has confined its attention strictly to the issue pre- sented by this petition. Section 125 of the act referred to (Chapter 742, Acts of 1914) empowers this Board to secure compliance with all provisions of the municipal electric lighting law, including the section which has been so fully discussed, but the law plainly was not intended to shift from the cities and towns owning them and their managers the responsibility for their sound administration. While the statute does not fix the limits of the charges which may be made for electricity furnished to other departments, yet in the practical administration of the business the maximum and minimum limits prescribed for price to private custom- ers can best be determined to the satisfaction of reason and justice if the town adopts the policy of complying fully with the spirit of the statute by raising by taxation its proper share of the operating and fixed charges of the plant. Some of the difficulties in this case have arisen because of differ- ences of opinion about matters which must be finally settled by the town and the Municipal Light Board and manager rather than by this Board. But as they entered into the
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discussion at the hearing it has seemed not improper for the Board to make some suggestions respecting them.
The electricity supplied for pumping or for public build- ings involves at most but a few hundred dollars annually. The chief municipal use of electricity is for street lighting. For the past two years the plant has been operated at what is termed a " loss " in section 154 of the act. That is to say, not enough has been realized from the revenues of the plant and from taxation to provide for the operating expenses, maturing debt requirements, interest and depreciation. It is quite natural under such circumstances to infer, as was done at the hearing, that the prices for electricity supplied to private customers have been too low. But the same result follows if the town fails to provide in the tax levy for the full cost of the electricity supplied for municipal use, whether for the pumping station, public buildings or street lights. From the data exhibited at the hearing and from its own investigation, the Board is convinced, notwithstand- ing the opportunity for differences of opinion as to the exact basis and factors involved in the computation, that the price charged private lighting customers appears to approach closely, if not in fact to exceed, the maximum limit pre- scribed by the statute. In addition, inasmuch as the so- called "loss " in operation of any year must be taken care of in the succeeding year to the extent that this results from an inadequate provision in the tax levy of the preceding year, the private customers must share with the taxpayers in taking care of a deficiency for which they are in nowise responsible. In fact, had the plant been independently owned, and had it received from the town for the electricity supplied for municipal use its cost as defined by the statute, it would probably have shown some profit in excess of all operating expenses and fixed charges, including deprecia- tion and the payment of its maturing debt. This is a con- dition creditable to the management of the plant. It also indicates that it is the taxpayers and not the private cus-
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tomers who have failed to carry their fair share of the finan- cial burdens of the business.
In view of these considerations the Board has-
Voted, To consent to the power, heating and cooking prices for electricity heretofore established by the Munici- pal Light Board and Manager of Municipal Lighting of the Town of Reading and set forth in their petition filed with this Board on May 7, 1914, and to dismiss for lack of juris- diction so much of said petition as relates to the price for electricity furnished to the water department of said town for pumping purposes.
For the Board,
FOREST E. BARKER, Chairman.
Annual Report
OF THE
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
OF THE
TOWN OF READING
For the Year Ending December 31 1914
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
WALTER S. PARKER, 55 Walnut St.
HOWARD W. POOR, 27 Mt. Vernon St.
Term expires 1917 Term expires 1917
MRS. IDA A. YOUNG, 86 Woburn St. Term expires 1916
JESSE W. MORTON, 114 Woburn St. Term expires 1916
ARTHUR N. MANSFIELD, 107 Woburn St. Term expires 1915 MRS. ELIZABETH H. BROWN, 83 Prospect St. Term expires 1915
Superintendent of Schools
ADELBERT L. SAFFORD, 78 King St. Tel. Reading 170.
OFFICE High School, hours 8.30 to 9.30 A. M. Tel. Reading 181-W
Secretary to the Superintendent MYRTLE D. WELLS, 55 Prescott St.
Truant Officer WILLIAM KIDDER, 26 Lowell St., Tel. Reading 324-M
Medical Inspector E. DALTON RICHMOND, M. D., 24 Woburn St. Tel. Reading 259
Janitors
HIGH SCHOOL, Clement Gleason 64 Orange St.
32 Bancroft Ave.
HIGHLAND SCHOOL, Jesse N. Hutchinson CENTRE SCHOOL, William Kidder . 26 Lowell St.
26 Lowell St.
UNION ST. SCHOOL, William Kidder . . LOWELL ST. SCHOOL, Sylvanus L. Thompson 167 Lowell St. PROSPECT ST. SCHOOL, Timothy Cummings 25 Temple St. CHESTNUT HILL SCHOOL, Alfred Ells . 47 Hopkins St.
HIGH SCHOOL MATRON, Mrs. Ara Pratt
29 Orange St.
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ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE
WALTER S. PARKER, Chairman ADELBERT L. SAFFORD, Secretary
Sub-Committees
A. N. Mansfield
FINANCES AND ACCOUNTS H. W. Poor J. W. Morton
J. W. Morton
BOOKS AND SUPPLIES Mrs. Ida A. Young W. S. Parker
SCHOOL HOUSES AND PROPERTY
A. N. Mansfield J. W. Morton H. W. Poor
RULES AND REGULATIONS Mrs. Elizabeth H. Brown H. W. Poor A. N. Mansfield
H. W. Poor
TEACHERS AND SALARIES W. S. Parker J. W. Morton
MUSIC AND DRAWING
Mrs. Ida A. Young J. W. Morton Mrs. Elizabeth H. Brown
H. W. Poor
COURSE OF STUDY Mrs. Ida A. Young J. W. Morton 238
REPORT OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE, 1914
TO THE CITIZENS OF READING :
In behalf of the School Committee, the following report is submitted for the year of nineteen hundred fourteen.
The Wall Street Journal, a leading financial paper of New York City, says recently in an editorial that everybody who has had experience in the handling of unskilled labor knows that there are some men who fail through lack of concentrated effort. It says, "They constitute a discontent- ed class which believes that society should do for then what they could have done for themselves with a little con- science and effort. All the legislation in the world will not remedy it. There is no conceivable plan of helping a man who declines to help himself except by putting him in the workhouse or the jail.
"This is the fault of a badly conceived system of educa- tion. We are trying to teach the child that education is easy. It is not. It is difficult and involves toil and self- denial. Our educational system lays the foundation of idle- ness and waste because it teaches the child that things worth having can be obtained without hard work. If we are willing to start fairly with the child by showing him that life is a serious thing and that there is nothing in it worth having which is not won by arduous effort we shall have largely solved the problem of unemployment."
The ideas suggested in the article as to the stand which educators assume on the subject of education are entirely false. Teachers do not maintain that education is easy ; in fact, they take just the opposite view. In some cases,
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parents take the stand, that, somehow a pupil should pro- gress and be promoted from grade to grade, even if he does not work. Teachers and educators have always held the doctrine that good results and real progress can be made only by faithful work and hard study. It is self-evident that good scholarship and strong character can be attained only by the self activity of the pupil.
The one great thing that is needed on the part of par- ents and pupils today in Reading and elsewhere is a saner view of the importance of thorough work in all departments of school study. The quality of work done is a sure measure of its value to the student. Good work will result in real progress. One of our teachers recently at a meeting of the Neighborhood Betterment Association, when called upon to give her ideas of how things could be improved in the High School, dwelt very strongly on the importance of a more serious attitude on the part of pupils towards the work of the school and a more pronounced and firmer stand on the part of parents and friends. She pointed out that good results can be obtained only by persistent and painstaking efforts by the pupils, and asked that the school work should not be allowed to take a secondary place in the activities of the pupils. The chief interest of the young should be directed towards getting a good education, which can be ac- quired only by a steady and undivided attention to that end. Bacon, years ago maintained, "that a steady and un- divided attention to one thing was a sure mark of a superior mind."
Attention is strongly urged to the report of the Superin- tendent and to the financial report of the Committee. In order that the citizens of the town may have full knowledge of the action of the Committee in financial matters, we print as a part of this report the statement made by the Superin- tendent to the Town Finance Committee as an explanation of our request for funds for the year 1915.
The Superintendent in his report has touched upon many phases of school activity, and we invite your attention
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to them. We desire once more to present recommendations for the employment of a teacher of Domestic Science and Household Arts. Emerson says, "Teach those things which the pupil will wish to know and practice in later life." Our girls are to become home makers in years to come, unless our civilization is a failure. Is it not a fair question to ask, what are we doing in the educational field that leads directly to this end ? Domestic Science and Household Arts is a broad and comprehensive subject which touches life and living at its very sources. Food, clothing and shelter are the fundamental things which are necessary to life. In our com- plex civilization, what more practical thing can be found than the knowledge requisite for the economical purchase of foods and the ability to prepare a "balanced ration " to meet the needs of a family. The time has come when there should be no further delay in this matter. The expense is not large and the results are vital to the happiness and well being of our future homes.
We are pleased to note that the frequency of changes in the teaching staff has been somewhat checked this year, but this condition cannot be maintained without further in- creases in salaries. Details relating to this matter will be found in the letter addressed to the Town Finance Commit- tee.
The terms of Elizabeth H. Brown and Arthur N. Mans- field as members of the School Committee expire this year.
BUDGET FOR 1915
We recommend the appropriation of the sum of $43,000 and receipts for school maintenance, and also two special appropriations as follows: $500 for typewriters and office appliances ; $1,000 for improvement of school grounds.
STATE-AIDED VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN AGRICULTURE
Ever since Governor Douglass appointed a Commission to investigate Industrial Education in Massachusetts there
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has been constant agitation of the question and the state has committed itself so strongly in favor of vocational edu- cation that she has been pointed to by other states as the pioneer and model. Laws have been enacted authorizing towns and cities to establish vocational schools of different kinds; the State Board of Education was reorganized in the interests of industrial education; a deputy commission of education with numerous assistants has been employed to have the direction of the establishing and management of Industrial Schools; and state laws have been enacted em- powering the state to pay half the cost of such education. Notwithstanding all this, the cities and towns have been slow to respond and bear their part in cooperation with the Commonwealth. A few schools of different types are scat- tered over the state and are doing splendid work, but most towns, like Reading, have been indifferent to its needs, opportunities and duties in these directions.
The School Committee has unanimously requested that an article be placed in the warrant for the Town meeting to see if the Town will establish in connection with the High School a State-Aided Vocational Department of Agricul- ture. The State will repay to the Town two-thirds of the salary paid for instruction in such an approved school. This would be at least half of the whole expense of maintaining the school. This section of the State has been looked over by an agent of the State Board of Education who has ap- proved Reading as a center for establishing agricultural instruction. Concord, Mass., with the aid of the State, has maintained such a school for two years with marked success and benefit to the community. This is undoubtedly Read- ing's present opportunity in the direction of vocational edu- cation. Such a school would not be a heavy burden on the tax-payers. Two thousand dollars or a tax of less than thirty cents on a thousand of valuation would be required the first year beginning April 1 for a school to take care of twenty pupils. The following year one thousand of this would be repaid so that a tax of fifteen to eighteen cents on
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the thousand of our present valuation would be sufficient to maintain the school after the first year.
The work done by such a school is of the most practical character. No pupil is accepted who does not agree to carry on actual farm projects in connection with his school instruc- tion. The average income of thirty boys-five from each of the six centers carrying on this work in 1913-was $324 each, or over $6 a week for the entire 52 weeks of the year. One boy averaged $22.50 a week of income for the entire year from his earnings and projects, a total of $1150.15.
The School Committee feels that this matter ought to be placed before the voters of the Town for their thoughtful consideration and action. They therefore recommend that the sum of $2000 be raised by taxation and appropriated for the establishment and maintenance of a State-Aided Voca- tional Department of Agriculture in the High School for the year 1915.
WALTER S. PARKER, Chairman HOWARD W. POOR
IDA A. YOUNG
JESSE W. MORTON
ARTHUR N. MANSFIELD
ELIZABETH H. BROWN
School Committee of Reading.
Feb. 9, 1915.
REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, 1914
TO THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE OF THE TOWN OF READING, MASS. :
I respectfully submit for your consideration the twenty- second annual report of the Superintendent of Schools. The year has been a prosperous one in which the schools have maintained their accustomed standards of excellence and in some particulars have been improved.
TEACHERS
The number of changes in the personnel of the corps of teachers was reduced to a minimum through the judicious use of a small sum for increasing salaries. The loss of the teacher of Manual Training, Mr. Eastwood, and the teacher of French and German in the High School, Miss Dey, was regrettable but was inevitable. Mr. Eastwood's full time was required by another town and Miss Dey was appointed to a position with a maximum salary far beyond anything that Reading can be expected to afford at present. The other four changes did not affect unfavorably the efficiency of the schools. In contrast with the record of the preceding year, when there were fourteen new teachers, this year has been very satisfactory and will go far toward the promotion of a steady improvement in scholarship and discipline among the pupils.
Such efforts to keep efficient teachers for longer terms of service must be continued, however, if our schools are to do their full duty to the children. Nearly every week school officials from near or far visit Reading teachers and offer some one a higher salary to go elsewhere. Only the confi- dence that their services are appreciated and will be re-
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warded by favorable conditions for work and suitable advancement in salary has kept at least six of our best teachers in Reading this year.
COURSE OF STUDY
In the High School, the Commercial Course has been greatly strengthened along the lines suggested in last year's report. The time devoted to shorthand and typewriting has been increased from five hours a week to ten hours; and the time for commercial arithmetic from three hours a week to five hours. A third year of bookkeeping has been intro- duced and a new text-book placed in the hands of the beginners ; new courses of five periods a week in commercial English with new text-books have been introduced in the Junior and Senior years ; penmanship and spelling each for one period a week have been introduced in all of the four years ; the number of typewriters in the school was increased from twelve to twenty-four; a teacher of commercial branches replaced a teacher of English and French who resigned in the latter part of 1913. These changes in the Commercial Course have proved popular with the pupils and they have responded far beyond our expectation in the number electing commercial subjects-especially penman- ship and spelling-and in their increased interest and enthusiasm for the work. Several of the class of 1914 returned in September for post graduate work in commer- cial branches. The opportunities now afforded by the High School, if properly utilized by the pupil, will fit for first class office positions. Attendance at a private commercial school is unnecessary. The private commercial school by concentrating on the strictly technical subjects offers a shorter course, but unless the pupil has already graduated from the High School, he loses in the commercial school the broader training that promotes future advancement in the business world.
During the year nineteen hundred fifteen, six more typewriters should be added and suitable office appliances
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for instruction purposes. These should include a billing machine, different forms of letter presses, duplicating de- vices, vertical filing case, and card indexes.
Other improvements in the course of study in the High School and in the grades have been made in connection with the introduction of new text-books as follows: first and second year English, new edition of Latin grammar, Latin word list, algebras for all classes, plane geometry, chemis- try. United States history in High School, readers for all elementary grades, spellers for grades five to eight inclu- sive. Other aids to teaching supplied this year have included a Thompson reflectroscope and lantern affording facilities for displaying on a screen or curtain lantern slides, colored post cards and other pictures and drawings, and microscopic slides ; 240 carefully selected American views have been provided, and others will be obtained as fast as funds permit; also two Victor talking machines, number twenty-five, especially designed for school purposes, have been secured. One for the High School was purchased from the receipts of the Girls' Glee Club concert, and the other for the Highland School was purchased from the receipts of the annual concert of the Highland School pupils.
The Montessori sets of letters and the Parker word builders have been supplied to each primary room in the town. Two new charts for the study of United States his- tory have been furnished, one for the Highland School and one for the High School.
A new method of teaching primary pupils to see rela- tions of magnitude and number has been carefully outlined for the teachers of the lower grades. This work is designed to develop the pupil's power to solve problems independent- ly. The introduction of new mental arithmetics in grades five to eight is planned for next year. The lack of ability to grasp the meaning of a problem and analyze it for the essential facts is one of the most serious and noticeable de- ficiencies among our pupils. This defect coupled with
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inability to express fluently in good English such ideas as they do have is the greatest hindrance to further progress, especially in the High School. A concerted attack in these two directions is being made all along the line from the first grade through the High School. These faults, however, are so thoroughly entrenched-not so much in consequnce·of inadequate results of school work as on account of limita- tions of nature-that the task calls for all our resources and yields results slowly.
QUARTERLY WRITTEN EXAMINATIONS
With the increasing scope of civil service examinations and the time honored system of written tests to determine fitness to enter various higher institutions of learning, in- cluding normal schools and colleges, the importance of abil- ity to express knowledge in written form has rapidly in- creased. This is another reason for redoubling our efforts to improve the analytical powers of our pupils, and their ability to convey thought in lucid English. As one means to these ends, quarterly written examinations have been established in the High School in each subject. The exam- inations count for one-third of the pupil's mark and his daily class work counts for two-thirds. The examinations given at the end of the first and third quarters are shorter, occupying about an hour each; the mid-years and finals occupy two hours each and special programs for three days are arranged for examinations only.
In this connection a slightly higher standard of passing has been adopted. Sixty-five is now required instead of sixty. 90 to 100 is recorded as superior, 80 to 90 good, 70 to 80 poor, 65 to 70 very poor. Below 65 is recorded as a fail- ure. Weekly reports are sent home for all pupils not doing passing work for the week in their recitations. Each teacher devotes at least one afternoon each week to pupils who come for assistance or to make up lessons lost by absence. Many teachers spend nearly every afternoon in special work at the school.
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