USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Tewksbury > Town of Tewksbury annual report 1939-1944 > Part 51
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ART. 19. To see if the Town will vote to convey to Ada Adalman of 268 Windsor Street, Cambridge, Massachu- setts, all the rights, interest and title it holds on Lot 624, Shawsheen River Park, containing 2,000 square feet more or less, and authorize the Selectmen and Treasurer to make out and sign a deed with Quitclaim Covenants on behalf of the Town making this conveyance.
ART. 20. To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Treasurer to discharge the Tax Title on Real Estate in the Town of Tewksbury, which appears to be of doubtful validity and on which it appears the Town has no claim or interest, as follows ;
Matilda Weinfield, Lots 191 to 194 inclusive, also lot 250 on a Plan of Land known as "Plan A, Oakland Park", described in a deed recorded with Middlesex North District Registry of Deeds, Book 721, Page 103.
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ART. 21. To see if the Town will vote to appropriate the sum of $1,500.00, said sum to be used to continue the school lunch program, or take any other action relative thereto.
ART. 22. To see if the Town will vote to appropriate the sum of $173.03 for unpaid bills of 1944 of the School Department.
ART. 23. To see if the Town will vote to appropriate the sum of $301.97, said sum to be used for purchase of equip- ment for the gymnasium at the High School.
ART. 24. To see if the Town will appropriate the sum of $1,200.00 to be used for repairing Pickering Hall, Fire- proofing Air Ducts and Installing Water Bubblers or take any other action thereto.
ART. 25. To see if the Town will vote to install one light on South Street near the residence of Richard O'Neill or take any other action relative thereto.
ART. 26. To see if the Town will vote to install one light on South Street, near the residence of Mrs. Hallett.
ART. 27. To see if the Town will vote to install one light on South Street, near the residence of Walter Hilliard and Frank Stout.
ART. 28. To see if the Town will vote to install one light at the corner of Water and South Street, also one at the corner of Bond Street and Lakeview Ave.
ART. 29. To see if the Town will vote to install one light on French Street, near the residence of Mrs. Eaton.
ART. 30. To see if the Town will vote to install one light on Sunnyslope Ave., near residence of Joseph Dubuque.
ART. 31. To see if the Town will vote to install one light on Clark Rd., near the residence of Thomas Bebbington.
ART. 32. To see if the Town will vote to cause the School Committee to hold their business meetings publicly and at specified and advertised dates, or take any other action relative thereto.
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ART. 33. To see if the Town will vote to have the Moderator name a committee of five for the purpose of outlining and defining a set of zoning by-laws to be acted upon at the next town meeting, or take any other action relative thereto.
ART. 34. To see if the Town will vote to direct the Select- men to prepare the lines and boundaries necessary to make all of the town south of the line through the center of Shawsheen Street into a voting precinct according to General Laws, Chapter 54, Section 6, or take any other action relative thereto.
ART. 35. To see if the Town will reconsider the action taken on Article No. 43, passed at the Town Meeting held on February 11, 1942, appropriating $5,500.00 for the purchase of a fire engine, or take any other action relative thereto.
ART. 36. To see if the Town will vote that all Motor Vehicles, owned by the Town of Tewksbury, shall be lettered with the name of the Department to which the vehicle belongs, or take any action relative to same.
ART. 37. To see if the Town will vote to set aside $15,000, from the fund set up under Section 1 of Chapter 4 of the Acts of 1942, for the erection of a Memorial Library after the termination of the existing state of war.
ART. 38. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appro- priate the sum of $500 for the obtaining of preliminary plans for a Memorial Library, expenditure of said money to be made by the trustes of the Public Library, or take any other action relative thereto.
ART. 39. To see if the Town will vote to appoint a "Public Service Relations Committee" to represent the Town in regards to rates, schedules, and services as offered to the Town by the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway, The New England Telephone & Telegraph Co., The Auto Insurance Companies as controlled by the Commonwealth or any other public service performed in Tewksbury by any outside company, with the authority to demand public hearings, petition the the General Court or take any other suitable action necessary to obtain proper consideration. Also to appropriate a sum of money to cover necessary expenses or to take any other action relative thereto.
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ART. 40. To see if the Town will vote that the following Noisome Trades within the borders of the Town shall be licensed Annually by the Board of Health, or Board of Selectmen; (Slaughter Houses, Commercial Piggeries, Rendering Works) and to provide that any License issued by such Board permitting a person, firm, Association, or Corporation to operate any such noisome trade named HEREIN, shall become void and shall be revoked by such Board, IMMEDIATELY upon the receipt by such board of a written complaint, or petition, which is signed by a majority of the inhabitants residing within the area affected by such noisome trade, or to make any other rules, or regulations relative to the licensing, operation, and restriction of noisome trades named HEREIN within . the borders of the Town.
ART. 41. To see if the Town will vote to purchase additional burial ground in the Tewksbury Cemetery, adjacent to the soldiers' lot, and to make appropriation for same, for the purpose of enlarging the present soldiers' lot to provide burial space for ex-service men and women who have entered the armed services of the United States, from Tewksbury, or who have become residents of the Town, and may desire to be buried in the soldiers' lot in Tewksbury, or take any other action relative thereto.
ART. 42. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appro- propriate or transfer from available funds in the treasury, a sum of money for the purchase of war bonds or other bonds that are legal investments for savings bank, in order to establish a post-war rehabilitation fund, in ac- cordance with the provisions of Chapter 5, Acts of 1943.
ART. 43. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appro- priate the sum of $50.00 in support of the Trustees for County Aid to Agriculture, through the Middlesex County Extension Service, said money to be spent under the direction of the local director or take any other action relative thereto.
ART. 44. To see what sum of money the Town will vote to raise and appropriate for necessary expenses of the Civil- ian Defense Committee, or take any other action thereto.
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ART. 45. To see what sum of money the Town will vote to raise and appropriate for a reserve fund under Section 6 of Chapter 40 of the General Laws or take any other action thereto.
ART. 46. To see if the Town will vote to appropriate the sum of $44.00 to be paid to the Dog officer for the keeping of dogs.
ART. 47. To see if the Town will vote to appropriate the sum of $13.13 to pay Robert A. Haines for services as a Call Fireman from April 9, 1944 to April 29, 1944.
ART. 48. To see what salary or rate of compensation the Town will vote to pay the Assessors, and Tree Warden, or take any action relative thereto.
ART. 49. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appro- priate the sum of $300. for clerical services in the office of the Town Treasurer for the year of 1945 or take any other action relative thereto.
ART. 50. To see if the Town will vote to appropriate the sum of $117.14 for the payment of amounts due to the City of Lowell for the board, care and treatment for inhabitants of Tewksbury at the Isolation Hospital in Lowell.
ART. 51. To see if the Town will confirm the action of the Selectmen in granting an easement to the Beacon Oil Co. for installing of an oil line, or take any action relative to same.
And you are directed to serve this warrant by posting up attested copies thereof, one at each of the Public Meeting Houses, one at the Town Hall, one at each of the Post Offices, and leave one hundred copies for the use of the citizens at the Post Offices in said Town, 8 days at least, and over two Sundays, before the time of holding said meeting.
Hereof fail not and make due returns of this Warrant, with your doings thereon, to the Town Clerk at the time and place of Meetings as aforesaid :-
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Given under our hands, this 20th day of January, in the year of our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and forty-five
IRVING F. FRENCH, BERNARD H. GREENE, EDWARD J. SULLIVAN,
Selectmen of
Tewksbury.
A true copy attest :
Constable of Tewksbury
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TABLE OF ESTIMATES FOR 1945
Street Lighting
$ 6,400.00
Incidentals
1,300.00
Highways
17,000.00
Schools
74,394.50
Library (Dog Tax )
1,300.00
Police
12,191.00
Stationery and Printing
1,200.00
Board of Health
3,000.00
Park Commission
350.00
Tree Warden
1,500.00
Department of Public Welfare
8,000.00
Aid to Dependent Children (Plus Federal Grants)
5,500.00
Bureau of Old Age Assistance (Plus Federal Grants)
20,500.00
Fire Department
10,372.87
Town Hall
3,650.00
Assessors
3,200.00
Vocational School
1,000.00
Inspection of Meat and Animals
900.00
Aid, State and Military
2,500.00
Interest on Loans
600.00
Collection of Taxes
1,000.00
Municipal Insurance
1,500.00
Sealer of Weights and Measures
225.00
Dog Officer
200.00
Maintenance, Legion Headquarters
125.00
Gypsy and Brown Tail Moths
1,500.00
Board of Registrars (including census and listing)
850.00
SALARY ACCOUNT
Auditor
$ 1,000.00
Town Clerk (exclusive of fees)
750.00
Tax Collector
1,850.00
Selectmen
1,100.00
Election Officers
75.00
School Committee
225.00
Road Commissioners
400.00
Treasurer
2,000.00
144
Annual Report
OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE
OF THE
Town of Tewksbury
OF TEW
S
TOWN
B
URY
INCO
734
R
P
RA
FED
ALSO
Report of Superintendent of Schools
For the Year Ending December 31, 1944
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
Mrs. May L. Larrabee 1943-1946 Chairman
Tewksbury
J. Harper Gale 1944-1947 Secretary
Tewksbury
Ralph S. Battles 1942-1945
No. Tewksbury
SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS
Stephen G. Bean
Wilmington
SCHOOL PHYSICIAN
Herbert M. Larrabee, M.D.
Tewksbury
SCHOOL NURSE
Miss Edith E. Haines, R.N .- deceased Mrs. Althea Knox-present incumbent
Tewksbury Billerica
ATTENDANCE OFFICER
Jeremiah Hoolihan
So. Tewksbury
146
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE
The work and supervision in the Tewksbury schools have been carried on as usual during the past year. Necessary repairs have been made on all school buildings.
Last summer during a severe thunder storm, the Foster school was struck by lightning causing considerable damage to the chimney and roof. Repairs were made at no expense to the Town as the building was covered by insurance. Several rooms and halls in the Shawsheen school were redecorated during the Christmas vacation.
The School Committee are pleased to report that the heating system at the Shawsheen school is working satisfactorily.
Hot lunches are now being served at the Foster and Shawsheen schools and a similar project will be started in the Ella E. Fleming school in the near future.
The Committee wishes to take this opportunity to thank the women of Tewksbury who have volunteered their time and service daily at the schools. Their help has made these projects most successful.
MAY LARRABEE, HARPER GALE, RALPH BATTLES,
School Committee.
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REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS
To the School Committee of Tewksbury:
Madam and Gentlemen:
The following is my fourteenth annual report as Superintendent of Schools. For the sake of conservation of paper, it will be found that it is reduced to an absolute minimum.
World conditions being much the same as when I wrote my last report, many of the observations made at that time as to the effect on our schools still hold true. There are the same influences of these conditions affecting the attitudes and reactions of our children only increasingly aggravated by longer duration.
One of the fortunate circumstances of the year is that through the good judgment of the Committee in creating a more reasonable salary schedule, we have been able to hold our teaching corps to a minimum of changes. In these days of teacher shortages, any small town that can keep together a reasonably efficient staff of teachers is extremely fortunate. To do this and also improve the general average is almost beyond expectation. Such is the present status of our school situation. Since September we have had the best general average that has been obtained for several years in our teacher personnel.
In the High School in September we had but one newcomer. This was Miss Arlene Moore a graduate of the Home Economics Course at Framingham Teachers' College. She replaced the teacher best known to us as Miss L'Esperance who left us after her marriage.
At the close of the school for the Christmas vacation, we knew that two more positions must soon be filled. We lost Miss Rita Sullivan of Lowell and gained Miss Rita Sullivan of Tewksbury. Miss Joan Holt of the English Department succumbed to the lure of a posi- tion in the world of business and we secured the services of Mrs. Margaret Ingraham of Billerica.
The new teachers were finally assigned so that Miss Sullivan took over the work of Miss Holt and Mrs. Ingraham assumed the duties left by the Lowell Miss Sullivan. Both of these teachers are fitting into our faculty very satisfactorily.
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Fortunately no vacancies occurred in the staff at the Foster School and both of our reliables at the Ella Flemings School remained with us.
The roster of teachers in the Shawsheen School shows three new names as of September. Mrs. Dorothy Ogston Barry, Mrs. Josephine Mclellan Hedstrom and Mrs. Eileen Flynn, all local incumbents, left us during the summer vacation. Mrs. Hedstrom's grade was taken over by Miss Mary Furey of Lowell, a graduate of Lowell Teachers' College, with experience. In place of Mrs. Barry, we secured the services of Mrs. Mae Armstrong Kane, also a Lowall graduate with a record of experience in the Medford Schools. The third new name as compared to last year's report is that of the Principal, Miss Margaret Delaney of Lowell, a teacher of a number of years of successful ex- perience who, after more than a year of trial of work in another field at much better remuneration, decided that her real love was for teaching, even at a lower salary.
The Supervisory staff was subject to a heavy turnover. Two out of three left us during the summer. Miss Mary Shea, now Mrs. James A. Field, was succeeded as supervisor of art by Mrs. Evelyn Andersen of Wilmington, a product of the Massachusetts School of Art and Boston University. This was a most difficult position to fill, but in combination with Wilmington, where no art supervisor could be secured for nearly a year, the position was made sufficiently attractive to lure an unsuspected candidate almost on our doorstep.
The work in High School music was taken over, also in combina- tion with Wilmington, by Miss Olive Littlehale of Tyngsboro. Miss Littlehale taught in the regular grades for some years and after repeated refusals over a period of years finally consented to take up the specialty for which she was trained.
Just before the end of the year, the school department lost one of their most earnest and loyal employees by the death of our School Nurse, Edith E. Haines, R.N.
Miss Haines was peculiarly fitted for the type of work in which she was engaged. She had an understanding of people and conditions in homes which made her work invaluable. Never sparing herself, she gave her best in sympathy and service to the infirm school childran of the town. Many a child enjoys better health today because of her insistence that proper attention be given to diseased tonsils, bad dental conditions and eye and ear troubles. Some cases would never have received proper treatment had she not transported them to the various clinics.
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Mrs. Althea Knox was elected to succeed Miss Haines but was given a leave of absence to visit her husband on the West Coast during his furlough. Mrs. Marie Cooke has been acting as substitute during her absence.
BUILDING PROBLEMS.
The major problem facing us at the close of the winter season of 1943-1944 was that of adequate heating for the Shawsheen School. A heating engineer was consulted and after exhaustive survey, a set of recommendations was made which involved tearing out a large part of the rectangular ducts and replacing them with cylindrical pipes of smaller capacity to accelerate the flow of heat. A dome was also added to the furnace jacket to focus the heat flow and simplify its control. Changes were also made in the ventilating shaft for the two rear rooms to increase the outward flow of cold and foul air from near the floors. Thus far these changes, aided by increased janitorial assistance, have been reasonably successful. The school has operated on a regular schedule and, except for one day, with reasonable comfort.
One of my general observations, based on many years of experience, is that there are more school rooms which are overheated than there are which are kept at the desired sixty-eight degree temperature. Complaint is seldom heard, in winter, when the room temperature is eighty, but if the thermometer reads sixty-five I soon hear from it, either from teachers or parents. Twelve degrees above normal is so much worse than three degrees below. I wonder just why this is so, when these same people will want fans on an eighty degree Spring day. It is fair to observe that this attitude is not confined to school workers. The same thing is found true in almost any except the air conditioned offices or stores. Something about working indoors seems conducive to irritation about room temperature. Perhaps a little exercise would help. In other buildings in the system, repairs have been made as needed in a systematic attempt to have surroundings clean and well lighted.
I am still of the opinion that a better distribution of heat and a corresponding improvement in ventilation can be secured by making the indirect system work on the north side of the Foster School. Experts have looked this over and only one of them ever gave it consideration. New chimneys have been built and a new heater installed, but this circulatory system is still inactive and useless. Not being a heating engineer, I do not claim infallibility, but I still belive greater comfort in those rooms is possible.
150
AFTER THE WAR WHAT?
That is the paramount question before American educators today. It does not apply so much to the first six grades but in the so-called junior and senior high school years there seems a call for some kind of a change, especially in the senior high school.
So many of the seventeen and eighteen year old lads have been drawn into this war and their whole lives disrupted that serious thought must be given as to what we can do for these boy-men or men- boys, and girls as well, to help them start to rebuild a future where they left off.
The difficulty seems to be that they can't-or won't-start where they left off. They will have lived one kind of a lifetime during their period in service. They will have acquired some kinds of knowledge far beyond their years. What can we do to fit together the jumbled pieces of their life puzzle so that a fair and complete picture may develop; how can we untangle and weave together the threads of their lives into a strong and lasting fabric? This is the great educational question of the hour.
As usual there are at least two schools of thought taking sides on this question. Probably there are more than two; but two have definitely emerged. They are the same two which have battled perennially over the question of whether we educate children to live or to make a living.
I must confess that my own philosophy of education has always leaned towards the theory that we should educate people to live. This tendency is based on a lifelong observation that many men have made a living and even piled up fabulous fortunes with little or no education, but the majority of all of these have never really learned to live a full, satisfying and successful life. I have had many of these, in my life- time in this profession of. education, confess, or at least tell me of their regret, that they had not had adequate education; that life had not been all that it could have been had they known how to live.
It must be acknowledged, however, that there must be failure somewhere in our practice of educating when so-called thinking men can be led by the nose by a newspaper editor, a radio "columnist", a political promise maker or a Hollywood mountebank. We seem to have failed to teach our people how to think.
The Nazis are given credit for having done the most wonderful job of educating in the past twenty years that the world has ever known.
151
This is a false idea, however. Hitler did not teach his followers how to think. He merely indoctrinated them in what to think. There is a vast difference. Real thinking is the hardest work in the universe. That is why we have our Hitlers, and his kind, to do our thinking for us.
If there is no known way for us to succeed in teaching our people to think, then indeed education has a most serious problem to find one. And yet, there have been times in the past when this nation had a fair average of thinking men. We have never reached our present state of national well being without thought. Have we lost something precious from our teaching processes in these latter years. If we have, what is it? Let's rediscover it. It may be up there in the attic with the other antiques waiting for some smart "dealer" to shine it up and make a fortune.
Yes, we have an obligation to these boys who are, God willing, coming back some day to ask for our help. It is our duty to do sonie thinking and be ready. We owe them nothing less than the best. It is up to us to find out what is best and have it ready.
Reports of those of my associates as were here during the full year are appended. I did not require reports from the supervisors of Arts, and of Music in the High School and the School Nurse because they have been in service since September or later. Those that are here merit careful consideration. The report of the head of the High School should be given special attention.
CONCLUSION
I am deeply appreciative of the co-operation that I have received from all of my associates in the teaching and supervisory staffs and to the members of the school Committee for their understanding and their sharing in keeping Tewksbury schools up to a standard of accomplish- ment commensurate with and geared to this community. It is no simple task to keep schools functioning efficiently in these days of shortages of both personnel and materials.
Respectfully submitted,
STEPHEN G. BEAN,
Superintendent of Schools.
January 20, 1945.
152
REPORT OF THE HEADMASTER Tewksbury High School January 1945
To the School Committee of the Town of Tewksbury:
In June, 1944, Tewksbury High School was awarded, for the ninth time, a Class A Certificate by the State Department of Education.
The Ninth Annual Commencement of Tewksbury High School was held in the high school auditorium on June 9, 1944. The following is the graduation program.
Salutatory IRENE R. BAZMAN
Honor Awards The Larrabee Scholarship Medals IRENE R. BAZMAN and ROBERT H. SLOAN
The Balfour Award BEVERLEY BENNETT
The Melvin Rogers Athletic Medals JOHN READY
The P. T. A. Citizenship Medal LOUISE DEWING
The Washington and Franklin History Medal GEORGE FARRELL
The Danforth Awards BEVERLEY BENNETT and JOHN READY
The Readers Digest Award ROBERT SLOAN
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The D. A. R. Citizenship Award BEVERLEY BENNETT
Address to the Graduates MR. STEPHEN BEAN, Superintendent of Schools
Presentation of the Class Gift
JOHN READY President Class of 1944
CHARLES PITMAN President Class of 1945
Valedictory ROBERT H. SLOAN
Presentation of Diplomas MR. RALPH BATTLES
SENIOR CLASS
Agnes F. Balnis Irene R. Bazman
Beverly Ann Bennett
Barbara M. Bernsson
Isabel Blue Dorothy F. Brownstein
Mary C. Chandler
Louise H. Dewing
Flora A. Gay Marjorie A. Hodgson
Rosemary Huston
Anne A. Lafreniere
Alberta I. LeBlanc Amelia J. Lisay Shirley T. Myhr
Concetta V. Richadelli
Joyce A. Roper Gloria L. Sawyer
Barbara L. Scammell Theresa C. Sheehan Sophie H. Suslovitch Maxine Thompson
Arthur J. Balnis Donald E. Berube Joseph P. Canavan Paul J. Carey Frank Gaddard Manual L. Matnick Allen R. Merrill George Pendleton John J. Ready John F. Ryan Robert H. Sloan Donald Webber Alfred F. Yokubonis
Class Marshal ALFRED YOKUBONIS
JUNIOR USHERS Rita O'Neil, Jane Gross, Bernard Dougherty, James Chandler
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CURRICULUM ACTIVITIES STUDENT COURSE DISTRIBUTION
(October 1, 1944)
College 77
Commercial 51
General 26
Manual Training 18
Nurse's Training 17
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