USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Reading > Town of Reading Massachusetts annual report 1930 > Part 10
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The major problem of school administration for this year has been deciding on a comprehensive plan for determining the nature and location of new school buildings to be erected in the next twenty or thirty years to take care of the growth in school enrolment. All of our schools are comfortably filled with pupils now. Every school room is in use at present. Some more pupils can be cared for in all of the schools but the number that can be added without creating condi- tions that are detrimental to the best educational results is decidedly limited. With the exception of the buildings of the High School, Junior High School, and Highland School, all the school structures in Reading are typical country school houses built of wood and devoid of many of the important facilities characteristic of a modern urban schoolhouse. About fifteen years ago the Prospect Street School was enlarged by raising the building and constructing two rooms under- neath. The Lowell Street School was enlarged by finishing off two rooms in the second story previously unoccupied; and the Chestnut Hill School was enlarged by re-opening a room that had been closed for some time. These five rooms with the Grouard House and the Channell House were the only additions to the Reading school accom- modations in twenty years until the erection of the Junior High School building. Unfortunately this schoolhouse had to be cut down about twenty-five per cent after the first preliminary plans were drawn in order to bring the cost within the borrowing capacity of the town inside the debt limit. Consequently the Junior High School is already fiilled to its normal capacity although it is still possible to take care of a limited number of additional pupils without serious detriment. Because of these conditions it was imperative to plan for the erection of a new building in the near future. The survey made by Professor Davis presents a definite, practical, and satisfactory plan of expansion, involving the enlargement of the Highland School by the addition of six rooms, the erection of two other fourteen-room elementary schools, the enlarge- ment of the Senior High School and of the Junior High School, and the abandonment eventually of the Center, Union Street, and Lowell Street Schools. There is a choice in the order in which these several projects shall be undertaken but it is highly important that some one of them should be started as soon as possible. Otherwise, the normal growth in school enrollment, without abandoning any buildings now in use, will
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cause serious crowding before the new construction can be ready for occupancy.
During. the year 1930 the processes of educating the pupils in the schools has gone forward with undiminished energy in all depart- ments without serious interruptions or fundamental changes in ob- jectives or methods of procedure. A considerable portion of my report for last year was devoted to a survey of educational practices in Reading schools in comparison with the "Significant Movements in City School Systems" as set forth by W. S. Deffenbaugh, Chief of City Schools Division U. S. Bureau of Education in bulletin, 1929, No. 16. Further developments in perfecting and extending these educational practices have been carried on during the past year in all the major divisions of the curriculum: Primary, Intermediate, Junior High, Senior High.
The underlying principle guiding the development on which at- tention has been specially focused this year has been the clearer defi- nition of the units of learning of the curriculum in the minds of the teachers and the setting up of teaching procedures and tests that will insure that every pupil will master the minimum essentials of each unit of learning and be provided with the opportunity, according to the pupil's ability and disposition, to extend his knowledge beyond the minimum essentials and acquire the mastery of this particular unit to a degree that it becomes a working tool habitually called into use whenever the occasion requires it.
Primary Schools
In the primary grades attention has been given particularly to reading and arithmetic and to the revision of the time alotments for the different subjects. The teachers in the Primary Grades, under the guidance of Miss Wadleigh, are beginning to study at the present time the methods of teaching through activities of the pupils as well as from textbooks. Teachers' meetings and visitations to neighboring towns and cities are being carried on in connection with this study.
Intermediate School
In the Intermediate School, grades 5 and 6, attention has been given especially to Arithmetic; new textbooks in this subject were provided, important changes were made in the course of study and ap- propriate teaching procedures inaugurated. It has taken time to adjust to these changes but any confusion that may have ensued was temporary and by the end of this school year the new procedures will be well established. All agree that the new textbooks are very satisfactory.
Three teachers added to the Intermediate School corps have reduced the size of classes and made it possible to attend more speci- fically to the needs of individual pupils. To provide rooms for these
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additional teachers it was necessary to place one class in the Grouard House, to use for the extra teacher's classes different rooms vacated for a period by classes in practical arts, physical training or music, or by other exercises in the assembly hall.
Junior High School
The outstanding development in the Junior High School has been the means of improving classroom instruction and attention to the needs of individual pupils undertaken by the teaching corps on their own initiative. Prof. Wilson of Harvard University was engaged and paid by the teachers themselves to give a course in the principles of class management and instruction.
The system of pupil guidance in the Junior High School has been further developed and organized, and a central office and consolidated files for pupils' records established. The guidance teacher for each pupil acts as advisor on matters relating to choice of courses, marks in studies, and behavior problems, and confers with parents at the school, over the telephone, or in their homes as circumstances require.
This school is now giving a variety of objective and standardized tests by members of the teaching staff under the lead of Miss Harri- man, who is highly trained in administering standard tests of achieve- ment and of intelligence.
The athletic activities of the ninth grade have been more closely articulated with the Senior High School, affording a better preparation for the opportunities open to pupils on entrance to the senior school.
Senior High School
The present problems of adjustment and development in the Senior High School center around the increasing number of pupils who desire to attend this school. Many of them are not fitting for college, normal school or other higher institutions of learning. They want and need courses of instruction that will give them a better under- standing of the complexities of the present environment in which they are living and will enable them to deal more intelligently and effectively with the life-situations in which they find themselves now or will en- counter in the immediate future as they become independent and self-supporting citizens. In order to assist in working out this problem, Mrs. Lucas, who has been Director of Research and Guidance in the Reading Schools for several years, was transferred to the teaching corps of the Senior High School in September. The growth of the Senior High School during the past ten years has been eighty-five per cent while the increase in population of the town has been only thirty-one per cent. This seems to indicate that in Reading as else- where, "American Public Opinion desires an institution of secondary grade to minister to all American children, not to a small group of
A
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leaders." (Quoted from Dr. William John Cooper, United States Com- missioner of Education.)
Another outstanding development of the Senior High School this year, prompted by the School Committee, has been the re- organization of the administration of athletics. A pupil athletic or- ganization has been formed and an additional coach provided for boys and an assistant coach for girls. Interest among parents and citizens has been aroused; and the present set-up promises well for the future.
Changes of Teachers
Thirteen teachers left their positions in the Reading Schools during the year: five from the Senior High School, four from the Junior High School, and four from the Primary Schools. Eighteen new appointments have been made (besides several transfers) : seven to the Senior High School; three to the Junior High School; three to the Intermediate School; and five to the Primary Schools. One person was transferred from the supervisory staff to a teaching position and one new appointment made in the supervisory staff, mak- ing the whole number of supervisory officers the same as in 1929. Among the five positions vacated in the Senior High School and the four vacated in the Junior High School were several of major import- ance and responsibility, but nearly all of these positions have been filled so satisfactorily that the previous high standards of the schools have been maintained. The high regard in which Reading schools are held by members of the faculty of the Schools of Education of Harvard University, of Boston University, and of other teacher-training institu- tions has assisted us materially in obtaining applications for teaching positions from students of high standing and of great promise in the field of education, from whom we may make selections for filling vacan- cies in our teaching corps.
Administrative Officers
The administrative and executive responsibilities of each school are centered in the principal of the school who is the proper medium of communication with the superintendent and school committee. The superintendent is assisted in supervision by several specialists in partic- ular fields of school administration. They act as his lieutenants in assisting the principals and teachers in organizing and administering the work of the schools in their respective departments and in evaluat- ing and reporting the results obtained to the superintendent for his information and for transmittal to the school committee as occasion requires.
Accounting Department
All requisitions and orders involving expenditure of money, estimates and proposals for contracts, all accounts of appropriations and expenditures and financial statements involving preparation of
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the budget and tne disbursement of the same are attended to by Miss Hunt, the accountant in charge of the school committee office. Handling a large amount of detail requiring considerable experience and expert knowledge is required in this position. The work has been somewhat simplified during the past year by discontinuing the dividing of each special column in the general account into the items chargeable to each school. If any particular items need to be distributed among the schools, it can be done by means of the vouchers on file. If more detailed financial research and statistics should be desired, an assistant clerk would be necessary in this department.
School Lunches
The business management of the three school cafeterias, the mid- morning milk lunches, and the supplies for the classes in cooking is delegated to Mrs. Mingo as one of her three fields of work. The management of the cafeterias involves hiring the workers, purchasing the food supplies, fixing the prices of items on the menu, collecting and banking the receipts, adjusting complaints, and seeing to it that each cafeteria is self-supporting but does not charge more for food than necessary. It requires skill, good judgment and vigilance on the part of the manager to accomplish this.
Attendance Supervisor
Enforcement of the laws requiring school attendance, behavior cases involving suspension from school or court action, special cases involving girls, particularly in the Senior High School, but also serious cases in other schools, are all comprised in Mrs. Mingo's second field of action. Much charity work in distributing clothing, reporting to the Children's Aid Society, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and to representatives of different religious societies is in- volved in the duties of this office.
U. S. and State School Returns and Tuition Pupils
As a third field of action, Mrs. Mingo acts as secretary to the superintendent. She takes in shorthand and typewrites his official letters, typewrites the school committee records, compiles the official report to the State and U. S. departments of Education as required by law, keeps an account of all tuition pupils in Reading schools, renders bills for such tuition and checks up with the Town Accountant to see that they are promptly paid. The receipts from tuition amounted to about $15,000 last year.
Fitting the School to the Child
For more than ten years Reading has provided a specially trained person or persons to adjust pupils to their school work so that the best results might be obtained for the time and money invested in the pupil's education. This service involves individual tests of ability and
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achievement and grouping of pupils, so far as possible, so that the in- dividual will not be held back nor forced ahead faster than insures a reasonable degree of thoroughness. Some adjustments of the require- ments of the contents of the curriculum are necessary for pupils that learn slowly as well as for those who learn easily and go ahead rapidly: that is, a definite distinction must be made between the minimum require- ments, the standard assignments, and the enriched and extended treat- ment of each unit of learning necessary to give scope to the abilities of superior pupils. Specific work in these lines has been going on this year as stated elsewhere and improvements have been made in the cumulative record sheet on which placement and promotions are based. Only one supervisor is employed in this work at present instead of the two engaged in it formerly. The principal and guidance teachers in the Junior High School are now able to do this work for their own school to a large extent. Certain parts of the work of adjustment of pupils are taken care of now by the principals and teachers of the other schools, particularly in the schools having a principal who is free from the charge of a room and devotes herself to supervision.
Health Program
The addition of a second school nurse has strengthened greatly the health work which had expanded beyond the capacity of one in- dividual to attend to it adequately. A new line of work was made possible by the purchase of an audiometer for accurate measurement of the hearing of pupils. The results of these tests are surprising in revealing forty-two cases of a serious degree of deafness in about six hundred pupils tested. In a few cases deafness is so severe that very little if any school progress is possible without teaching the pupil lip-reading. It is evident that a full-time or a part-time teacher of lip-reading is urgently needed in the Reading schools. In the meantime an otologist should examine the pupils discovered with defective hearing and recommend the proper procedure in dealing with each case.
The several clinics : dental, habit, posture, diphtheria-prevention, under-weight, and pre-school have all been carried on successfully as heretofore and in some cases a closer cooperation has been effected with marked improvement in results. In several cases the habit clinic has been able to suggest improvements of the child's school situation and these have been carried out with satisfactory results. The report of the Director of Health on file in the school office con- tains an extended account of the many ramifications and important achievements of the health work in the schools during the year.
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The No-School Signal
There appears to be a variety of opinions among parents relative to the function or purpose of the signal for closing the schools on stormy days. One idea seems to be that the school authorities should decide for all pupils whether attendance at school is expedient or not. Under any given conditions of the weather, it is always fit and proper under the circumstances for some to attend and for others not to attend. Distance from school, protective clothing, means of trans- portation, robustness of the child, habits of self-protection, and many other factors must be taken into consideration in deciding the ex- pediency of having any individual child attend school on any parti- cular stormy day. These are questions for the individual parent to decide in the first instance and not for the school authorities. If it appears to the attendance officer that parents are lax and violating the compulsory attendance laws a complaint may be made but such a complaint is seldom if ever entered against a parent on account of keeping a child out of school on a severely stormy day.
The desire of the child to have a record of perfect attendance is commendable but should be subordinated to proper precautions to protect the child's health. Because it may be advisable for some children to be absent does not warrant depriving other children who are differently situated of their right to attend school and receive its benefits. All teachers make provisions for enabling pupils who have been absent to make up in some measure anything missed that may be essential to the pupil's further progress. The average cost of the maintenance of the Reading Schools is more than a thousand dollars per day for the 180 to 185 days per year that the schools are in session. Only in exceptional circumstances can the year be length- ened to make up for days lost on account of stormy weather. As a rule a no-school day is a dead loss educationally. For these and other reasons that need not be enumerated here, it has been a practice for many years in Reading to keep the schools open every day when it seems likely that a majority of the pupils will be in attendance. Several counts of pupils present have been made on stormy days and taking each school as a whole in no case has less than half the total enroll- ment been in attendance.
In deciding whether or not to ring the no-school signal it is difficult to predict the exact conditions that will prevail an hour later. Although the appearance of clearing weather may be evident, a smart shower may be going on during the critical fifteen minutes or half- hour before the school opens while the pupils are on their way to school. The conditions likely to prevail while the children are going home from school can never be predicted except in a general way in
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case of a severe storm. On account of arrangements for transportation and other details of administration it is desirable to decide about two hours in advance if any school is to be closed. It is often very difficult to decide two hours in advance on the necessity for closing. It seems best on the whole to keep the schools open whenever it seems possible and allow parents to decide for themselves whether to send their chil- dren or not under the conditions existing at that time.
In closing this report I wish to commend the teaching corps and administrative officers of this department for their whole-hearted devotion to the important trust reposed in them by the School Com- mittee. More and more each year the world is looking to education to preserve and to improve the conditions of living a good life. It is a grave responsibility that rests upon the schools today. It can be car- ried on successfully only in cooperation with the home and with the encouragement and support of all good citizens.
I thank the School Committee for generous consideration and support in carrying on the duties of my office.
Respectfully submitted,
ADELBERT L. SAFFORD
Superintendent of Schools.
DETAIL OF EXPENDITURES OF SCHOOL DEPARTMENT FOR YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 1930
Transportation:
Eastern Mass. St. Ry. Co. $ ,5.00
James Mason
6,499.40
Frank H. Powell
24.60 $ 6.599.00
Tuition:
Middlesex County
$ 52.00
$ 52.00
Books:
Allyn & Bacon
$ 53.59
F. M. Ambrose Co.
38.98
American Book Co.
50.27
American Educ. Press, Inc.
27.18
D. Appleton & Co. 12.24
Edward E. Babb & Co.
136.01
F. J. Barnard Co.
468.99
133
A. S. Barnes & Co. 8.34
Beckley Cardy Co.
96.58
C. C. Birchard & Co.
13.05
The Bobbs Merrill Co.
10.04
Bookshop for Boys and Girls
6.37
The Bruce Publishing Co.
1.15
Bridgman Publishers
2.12
The Comstock Pub. Co.
3.34
Oliver Ditson Co.
.80
Division of Publications of Mass.
8.25
Dodd, Mead & Co., Inc.
7.9
Doubleday Doran & Co.
7.86
Employing Bookbinders of America
3.80
Farrar & Rinehart
2.00
The Four Seas Co.
.68
Ginn & Co.
589.03
The Gregg Publishing Co.
140.04
The Gregg Writer
2.00
J. L. Hammett Company
4.81
Harcourt Brace & Co. 270.80
Harper & Brothers
4.70
Harvard University Press
2.40
D. C. Heath & Company
294.62
Herrick Company
18.31
Houghton Mifflin Company
130.85
Iroquois Publishing Company
79.08
Keystone View Company
1.97
Charles E. Lauriat Company
4.18
Lea & Febiger
3.50
J. B. Lippincott Company
81.83
Laidlaw Brothers
43.18
Little Brown & Company
17.39
Longmans Green & Company
4.59
Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company
1.07
Lyons & Carnahan
49.30
Macmillan Co.
214.18
Manual Arts Press
4.03
McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc.
17.31
Mentzer Bush & Co.
87.24
Charles E. Merrill Co. 166.86
Noble & Noble
5.00
The Old Corner Book Store, Inc.
115.15
F. A. Owen Pub. Co.
14.05
Oxford Book Co.
.59
Douglas A. Porell
18.26
134
Prentice-Hall, Inc.
88.43
Public School Pub. Co.
126.72
G. P. Putnam's Sons
28.52
Rand McNally & Co.
7.48
Regents Publishing Co.
.65
Rochfort's Book Shop
4.50
Row, Peterson & Co.
31.13
Harold Rugg
19.95
Benj. H. Sanborn Co
70.44
W. B. Saunders Co.
2.70
Charles Scribner's Sons
44.68
Scott, Foresman & Co.
137.79
Silver, Burdett & Co.
161.19
L. W. Singer Co.
4.29
W. Hazelton Smith
.88
Standard Book Co., Inc.
13.50
Teachers College
5.15
University Publishing Co.
11.93
United Typothetae of America
2.25
D. VanNostrand Co., Inc.
3.15
Wheeler Publishing Co.
3.17
"Back Number" Wilkins
5.80
John C. Winston Co.
22.13
World Book Co.
1,333.62
$ 5,475.94
Supplies for Pupils:
Adams Company
9.98
American Book Co.
36.00
American Cookery
1.50
American Educational Press, Inc.
12.00
The Art Shop
2.40
Athletic Trainer's Supply Co.
29.87
G. H. Atkinson Co.
104.56
Edward E. Babb & Co.
156.72
Walter H. Baker Co.
.25
W. Bancroft & Co.
4.80
Barris Lumber Co.
25.64
J. C. Birchall Mch. Co.
4.10
Bostitch Sales Co.
7.25
Milton Bradley Co.
349.23
James W. Brine Co.
77.15
Brodhead Garrett Co.
26.00
Cambridge Botanical Supply Co.
52.60
John Carter & Co.
83.83
Carter, Rice & Company
73.72
135
Central Scientific Company
141.79
M. F. Charles
13.65
The Chemical Rubber Company
135.01
G. S. Cheney Company
24.69
Clapp & Leach, Inc.
11.35
The Classical Weekly
2.00
College Entrance Examination Board
.20
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
13.80
Crescent Laundry
1.00
J. Cuneo & Company
2.65
A. B. Dick Company
6.59
Division of University Extension
15.00
Dennison Mfg. Company
4.84
A
Denoyer Geppert Company
31.09
Eastman Kodak Stores, Inc.
7.50
Carl Fischer, Inc.
9.86
Furniture Manufacturer
3.00
Garfield Fralick Lumber Company
26.62
Ginn & Company
60.92
Globe Book Company
25.51
Good Will Dairy, Inc.
13.17
The Gregg Publishing Company
6.33
The Gregg Writer
2.00
J. L. Hammett Company
4,121.84
D. C. Heath & Company
54.51
Hodson Brothers
14.15
H. P. Hood & Sons, Inc.
.38
Howe & French, Inc.
28.99
W. C. Hutchinson
29.25
Jordan Marsh Company
3.20
Journal of Chemical Education
2.00
Kenney Service Station
.75
Laidlaw Brothers
4.32
H. B. McArdle
170.66
The Macmillan Company
2.40
Marine Biological Lab.
11.56
The Mathematics Teacher
2.00
Morey & Company
10.00
The Palmer Company
1.24
Popular Science Monthly
3.75
Douglas A. Porell
4.29
Public School Publishing Company
31.04
The Reading Chronicle
30.00
Reading Custom Laundry
.50
-
Horace Partridge Company
31.30
136
Reading High School A. A.
44.72
Reading Soft Water Laundry, Inc.
1.50
Anna M. Reck
5.00
Rockport Fish Market
2.00
Ryan & Buker, Inc.
475.41
School Arts Magazine
6.00
Scott, Foresman & Company
7.00
Secondary Education Board 5.34
Service Bureau for Classical Teachers
1.77
Smith-Hammond Company
1.34
Southern Cal. School Book Depository ...
5.75
Samuel Stephens Wickersham Quoin Co. .
313.89
Teachers College
4.80
University Publishing Company
12.61
Upton Lumber Company
9.60
William Westland & Company
11.18
W. H. Willis
5.55
A. J. Wilkinson & Company
11.23
Research Dept. Winnetka Sch. Dept.
8.39
The John C. Winston Company
3.30
A. M. Wood Company
35.66
World Book Company
294.66
$ 7,441.00
.
Apparatus for Teaching:
Art Extension Press, Inc $ 2.00
Milton Bradley Company
22.85
J. G. Blount Company
4.08
James W. Brine & Co.
126.02
Central Scientific Company
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