USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Westford > Town of Westford annual report 1902-1907 > Part 30
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8th. To hear the report of the Commissioners of Public Burial Grounds, and act in relation to the same.
9th. To see if the Town will accept the report of the Auditor chosen to audit the accounts of the Town Officers, and act in relation to the same.
10th. To see if the Town will accept the list of Jurors as reported by the Selectmen, and act in relation to the same.
11th. To see if the Town will determine the compensation of the Tax Collector, and act in relation to the same.
12th. To raise and appropriate money to repair Roads and Bridges.
13th. To raise and appropriate money for Town Debts and Charges.
14th. To raise and appropriate money for Public Schools.
15th. To raise and appropriate money for High School purposes.
16th. To raise and appropriate money for support of Poor.
17th. To raise and appropriate money for School Text Books and Supplies.
18th. To raise and appropriate money for the alteration of the Carlisle Road, as ordered by the County Commissioners, and act in relation to the same.
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19th. To hear the report of the Selectmen in regard to, and see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate money to improve the sanitary conditions of the Town Hall, and act in relation to the same.
20th. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate one hundred dollars ($100) for improving the Common, and act in relation to the same.
21st. To see if the Town will appropriate money for providing additional snow rollers, to be purchased under the direction of the Selectmen, and act in relation to the same.
22nd. To see if the Town will vote to instruct the Selectmen to rearrange the voting precincts by the addition of one more precinct, to be established at Forge Village, as provided in the Revised Laws, and act in relation to the same.
23rd. To see if the Town will vote to change the time of holding its annual meeting, from the third Monday in March to the fourth Saturday in March, and act in relation to the same.
24th. To see if the Town will accept a legacy of fifty dollars under the will of the late Anna Richardson, to be held in trust, in accordance with the provisions of Section eighteen of Chapter seventy-eight of the Revised Laws, the income to be used for the care of the family burial lot of the late Ira G. Richardson, in Fairview Cemetery in this Town, and act in relation to the same.
25th. To see if the Town will raise and appropriate money to install, during the current year, a system of lighting in the Town Hall, and act in relation to the same.
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26th. To see if the Town will vote to install and maintain four gasoline arc lights in each of the three villages of Granite ville, Forge Village, and Westford Centre, and act in relation to the same.
27th. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate money for the repair of school houses, and act in re- lation to the same.
28th. To see if the Town will appropriate money for graduation purposes at Westford Academy, and act in relation to the same.
29th. To see if the Town will vote to appropriate money for medical inspection in the public schools, and act in relation to the same.
30th. To see if the Town, in accordance with the suggestion of the School Committee, will vote to diminish the present number of this Committee to three members, and act in relation to the same.
31st. To see what action the Town will take in regard to remedying the present condition of the Centre School house, and act in relation to the same.
32nd. To see if the Town will vote to appropriate money for the purchase of apparatus for protection against fire, and to construct a building to house the same at Brook- side, and act in relation to the same.
33rd. To see what action the Town will take in regard to grant- ing to the Westford Water Company the right to construct a water tower on a portion of the Town Farm, and act in relation to the same.
34th. To see what action the Town will take in regard to making an appropriation for protection against fire, and installing a system of hydrants, and act in relation to the same.
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35th. To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Town Treas- urer, under the written direction of the Selectmen, to borrow such sums of money as may be required for the demands upon him in anticipation of the taxes for the current year and payable therefrom, and act in relation to the same.
36th. To determine the manner of collecting taxes for the ensu- ing year, also the rate of interest on taxes remaining un- paid at a time to be fixed by vote of the Town, and when and how said taxes shall be paid into the treasury, and act in relation to the same.
37th. To choose all other Town Officers necessary to be chosen by hand vote, and act in relation to the same.
38th. By request of the Veteran Association, to see if the Town will appropriate the sum of one hundred fifty dollars ($150) to commemorate Memorial Day, and act in relation to the same.
39th. By request of the citizens of Graniteville, Forge Village, and Parkerville, to see if the town will appropriate the sum of seventy-five dollars ($75) for the purpose of distributing books from the Public Library in these three villages, and act in relation to the same.
40th. To see if the Town will authorize the Selectmen to act as its agents in any suit or suits that may arise during the current year; also in such other matters which may arise, requiring in their judgment the action of such agents, and act in relation to the same.
41st. To see if the Town will appropriate two hundred dollars, ($200) for the suppression of the liquor traffic in town and instruct and authorize the Selectmen to employ or appoint Constables or Police Officers to enforce the law and act in relation to the same.
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42nd. To see if the Town will authorize the Selectmen to offer a reward of one hundred dollars ($100) for the arrest and conviction of any person or persons setting forest or other fires in town, and act in relation to the same.
43rd. To see if the Town will vote to alter or change the location of the Nabnassett School House, and act in relation to the same.
And you are directed to serve this Warrant by posting up true and attested copies at the Town House and each Depot in said Westford, eight days at least before the time of holding said meeting.
Hereof fail not, and make due return of this Warrant, with your doings thereon, to the Town Clerk, at the time and place of holding the meeting aforesaid.
Given under our hands, this Twenty-seventh day of Feb- ruary, in the year of our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Seven.
OSCAR R. SPALDING, WESLEY O. HAWKES, ALEC. FISHER,
Selectmen of Westford.
ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
OF THE
TOWN OF WESTFORD, MASS.
FOR THE
SCHOOL YEAR ENDING MARCH I, 1907
WEST
FO
TOWN
R
1729.
OR
PORATED
23
T.
P'
SE
LOWELL, MASS. COURIER-CITIZEN COMPANY, PRINTERS
1907
2
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
SCHOOL COMMITTEE 1906-1907.
ALBERT R. CHOATE, Chairman Term Expires 1907.
JOHN C. ABBOT
Term Expires 1907.
ARTHUR E. WILSON
Term Expires 1908.
WALTER C. WRIGHT, Secretary
Term Expires 1908.
HOMER M. SEAVEY Term Expires 1,909.
CHARLES A. CHAMBERLAIN
Term Expires 1909.
SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS.
ARTHUR B. WEBBER, Residence, Littleton, Mass.
ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL COMMITTEE, 1906.
ALBERT R. CHOATE Chairman.
WATLER C. WRIGHT Secretary.
BOOKS AND SUPPLIES.
WALTER C. WRIGHT.
ASSIGNMENT OF SCHOOLS.
JOHN C. ABBOT-High, 8th and 9th Grades and Center Schools. ARTHUR E. WILSON-Parkerville, Minot's Corner, Nashoba, and High.
CHARLES A. CHAMBERLAIN-High and Forge Village Schools. ALBERT R. CHOATE-Graniteville and Nabnassett.
WALTER C. WRIGHT-Graniteville and Stony Brook School.
3
Report of the School Committee.
We herewith submit the report of the School Board for the past year, together with those of the Superintendent of Schools, Supervisor of Music and Drawing, and Principal of Westford Academy. Early in the year Mr. Herbert E. Richardson resigned his position as superintendent of schools to accept the same position in the Ayer Schools, thus making it necessary to elect a new superintendent for the district. The joint school boards of the three towns of Acton, Littleton and Westford which comprise the school district, met in Acton and elected Mr. Edgar L. Willard of Scituate as superintendent, who after serving a short time also resigned to take the superintendency of the Newburyport schools. The three boards met again, this time in Littleton, and Mr. Arthur B. Webber of Ashfield was chosen.
Since his election Mr. Webber has faithfully performed his duties as superintendent, and we think that the schools have made good progress under his direction.
NEW HEATING AND VENTILATING APPARATUS.
A communication was received from the inspector of fac- tories and public buildings, stating that the heating, ventilating and sanitary system of the Graniteville school building were very defective and unsatisfactory, and that new and approved systems must be installed. Also a fire escape must be provided for the building. The heating and ventilating system installed is the Fuller & Warren system, which is a combination of furnace and steam. It has had a good trial during the recent cold weather and has done its work well. It was found too, that the chimney would not be large enough to furnish draft for the
4
new apparatus, so the old chimney was taken down and a new and safe one built. A pipe was laid from the well in the school yard to supply the steam boiler and the building with water. The fire escape is an enclosed wooden stairway on the back of the building, opening into each of the upper rooms. Nothing has been done in regard to the sanitary system as required by the inspector, but it must be attended to this summer.
TRANSPORTATION.
Owing to the small number of pupils attending the Nashoba School, it was thought best by your committee to close that school and transport the children to the Minot's Corner School, which was accordingly done, with beneficial results we believe in every way.
MEDICAL INSPECTION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
By an act of the legislature of 1906, Chapter 502 which provides that every city and town in the commonwealth shall appoint one or more school physicians, it became necessary to appoint such an officer. Dr. Cyril A. Blaney was appointed to that position, to serve without pay until an appropriation could be secured for that purpose.
MORE ADEQUATE BUILDINGS NEEDED.
The demands upon the town for more adequate buildings in the next few years will be considerable. We suggest taking these matters up as early as possible, and doing part each year till the desired end is accomplished. The past year the Granite- ville building has been put into first-class condition, as will be seen by our report, and with the completion of the sanitary changes nothing will be needed there for some years, save general repairs.
We must next turn to the Centre School. The matter of a new building there or radical changes in the present antique structure can not longer be disregarded. The following letter has recently been received from the state inspector of public buildings.
5
BOSTON, MASS., Feb. 14, 1907.
MR. ALBERT R. CHOATE, Chairman School Committee, Westford, Mass.
SIR:
In compliance with the provisions of the Statutes of the Commonwealth relating to the inspection of factories and public buildings, on the eighth day of February, 1907, I inspected the Centre Grammar School Building of Westford, and you are hereby notified that this building is in a very dangerous con- dition as to means of exit in case of fire, as there is but one means of escape from the second story, the furnace being under this exit, or nearly so. Also wooden air ducts are used to con- vey air to the furnace, which is in violation to State Law, Section 23, Chapter 104, Revised Laws.
The building also needs a system of ventilation and better means of heating. Also new floors should be supplied, as the ones in use are in very bad condition. In fact, I should advise a new building, as the existing one is far behind the times.
Respectfully, CHAS. E. BURFITT,
Inspector of Factories and Public Buildings.
This means immediate action, and we ask your consideration of Article number 31 which we have caused to be inserted in the warrant for our annual town meeting. "Behind the times," unsanitary, dangerous! Can we afford to oblige the pupils of the town to submit to such conditions? We cannot, and what is more we may not, the state has attended to that, and we only regret that we have had to have our schoolhouse cleaning come as an enforced suggestion from the outside.
Again, we call the attention of our citizens to the growing importance of the Nabnassett School. This district includes not only the village of Brookside, but also that part of the village of West Chelmsford known as Westford Corner, together with the section around the quarries of Messrs. H. E. Fletcher & Co., a growing district, and one in which the comparative completeness and efficiency of the West Chelmsford graded
6
school reflects something of discredit upon ours. The location of our building is most unfortunate. It is literally in the woods and about half a mile from the nearest family,-the question of janitor service, even, being one of especial difficulty and ex- pense. We would recommend the establishment of a graded school in an adequate, up-to-date building of easier access to Brookside and Westford Corner where the needs of the children of this district could be better served. We would suggest too, the advisability of combining with this the Stony Brook School, transporting the pupils, to the end that a practical graded school might result. Under present conditions regular attendance, especially during the winter term, is well nigh impossible. It is hard too, to secure teachers of high efficiency for ungraded schools, and it will be readily seen that conditions here are such that only teachers of unusual ability can succeed. This work should be undertaken another year. Temporary relief could be obtained in part by moving the present building nearer Brook- side. This could be done with so little expense that we advise its being done, and then without doubt with proper attention paid to the selection of teachers the new building might not be required for some years.
Following upon this will come the needs of the Forge School. Crowded at present with three teachers working in two rooms, the seating capacity of the building will soon be overtaxed. Forge is increasing in population, and we shall soon be obliged to find room for a larger enrollment.
These things must be borne in mind, and they are the most important matters the Town will have to consider for the next few years. The "little red schoolhouse" days are gone by, and these days demand more for our boys and girls than did those days. And we have more children and less home instruction. Life and living are more complex, competition is keener, and the well rounded education and the well founded character are becoming more and more essential to success in life. These foundation stones are what the public schools of today are aiming to supply. Think of these things. Consider the wel- fare of our children.
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ACADEMY GRADUATION.
All the sentiment, all the traditions, all the prestige of its century of influential existence have come to the Town with the practical control of Westford Academy. Its funds are contributing to the welfare of the Town, and while its trustees have become inactive as regards the conduct of the school, it is and should be the aim of your committee to preserve and retain all the customs which have contributed in the past to make the school successful, and to foster a proper institutional spirit among the students and alumni,-a spirit of pride and devotion to their Alma Mater. To many of the students the completion of a course in our time-honored Academy means that the preparation for life work is completed, and such senti- ment as clusters about the graduation day exercises, is seized upon and treasured through many a useful life. How many who read this report will call to mind the scenes of their respective graduation days, forgetting perhaps what part they had to per- form on the programme, but mindful of much that others greater than they said and did on that occasion, and grateful for the personal influence of wise teachers and the bounty of generous trustees, they point with pride to the diploma of the ancient institution which bears perhaps, the name of our beloved ex- Governor, John D. Long, and which possibly, was received with a cordial grasp of his gracious hand.
The funds of the Academy are no longer available for graduation purposes. It does not seem right for the Town to let these pleasant customs pass away. The influence of great men, the recognition of faithful work in the Academy, the sentiment of the good dinner given for many years to the grad- uating class, all mean too much to be thoughtlessly cast aside. If these exercises are to continue, if we are to invite the great and wise to speak to our young people on these graduation days, the Town must extend its hospitality to them, and it must defray the expenses of carrying out a creditable programme. We ask your most earnest consideration of Article 28 in the warrant for town meeting.
S
A PLEA FOR THREE MEMBERS ON THE SCHOOL BOARD.
We believe that the efficiency of the School Board could be strengthened by the adoption of the policy obtaining on the other boards of officers in the Town of Westford. You have three Selectmen, Overseers of the Poor, Assessors, etc., a good efficient working number as these boards can testify. We be- lieve a school board of three members desirable for obvious reasons, chief among which is the greater ease and dispatch with which business could be conducted. Most of our sister towns have adopted this plan, and good work is being done. We invite your consideration of Article 30 which we have in- corporated in the warrant for town meeting. Of course this change cannot be made this year, but by electing one member each year subsequently, your board would be on a more practical working basis at the end of three years.
Approved by the Committee:
ALBERT R. CHOATE, Chairman, JOHN C. ABBOT, CHARLES A. CHAMBERLAIN, HOMER M. SEAVEY, T. ARTHUR E. WILSON, WALTER C. WRIGHT.
TEXT BOOKS AND SUPPLIES FURNISHED SCHOOLS.
Appropriation . $600 00
Amount expended 589 60
Balance unexpended $ 10 40
EXPENSE OF SUPERVISION.
Salary paid by Town
$800 00
Rebate from State 625 00
Net cost to Town $175 00
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APPROPRIATIONS RECOMMENDED.
Schools $6,500 00
For High School purposes 2,200 00
Text books and supplies
700 00
$9,400 00
TEXT BOOKS AND SUPPLIES FURNISHED.
High School $87 23
Centre, Three Schools 96 89
Graniteville, Four Schools 94 46
Forge Village, Two Schools 81 89
Stony Brook 37 88
Nabnassett
53 04
Minot's Corner
51 94
Parkerville
31 76
$535 09
TRUANT OFFICERS' REPORT.
Number of Cases Investigated 34
Number brought to Trial none
JOHN A. HEALEY, E. G. BOYNTON, S. H. BALCH,
Truant Officers.
10
Financial Statement.
INCOME.
Balance unexpended from 1905 $ 139 15
Appropriation, schools 6,500 00
Appropriation, High School
2,200 00
From State on account Supt. of Schools. . 625 00
Income from Mass. School Fund. 1,077 50
-$10,541 65
EXPENDED.
Tuition of scholars at High School
$1,650 00
Teachers
5,596 76
Fuel .
590 81
Janitor service, cleaning, etc
534 07
Transporting scholars .
922 60
Tuition of our pupil, 8th grade, Town of Chelmsford
19 00
9,313 24
Balance unexpended
$ 228 41
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Report of the Superintendent.
To the School Committee:
Herewith I submit the fourteenth annual report of the Superintendent of Schools.
This year being my first in the field must of necessity be largely spent on getting in touch with the work and learning the needs of the field. In the half year which has elapsed certain points of strength and certain weaknesses have manifested themselves. The main points attacked have been arithmetic and reading. There seems to be a general backwardness in the reading and language work which I attribute to the fact that the classes have been without basal text books in the grades. Upon this point I must differ radically with my predecessor. I do not believe that satisfactory work can be secured from children below the ninth grade without a uniform text to which the child shall be held, making use also of all the reference works available. The mind of the child in the grades is in need of discipline, and the habit of study along definite lines, and of definite facts, must be insisted upon. In cases where I have followed the method of using many texts with a lower grade, the result has invariably been that the child hung upon the teacher, and failed to become an independent worker. This is very manifest in the seventh grade work, and in many of the grades above. That the work may be strengthened in this line I would urge that each child be furnished basal texts in arithmetic, language, geography and history. In the majority of schools geography has already been put upon this footing.
The general organization of the schools I have found to be in excellent running order, and the spirit shown by both pupils and teachers is most commendable. The attendance is in too many cases not what it should be. There is a tendency among
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parents to feel that the absence of a child once a week is not of great importance. While realizing that there are times when the older children are a virtual necessity as helpers in the work of the home, I wish to emphasize especially the clain of the school to regular and unbroken attendance. The child has little enough schooling at best, and certainly only the most extreme necessity should be allowed to deprive him of his just dues.
Inasmuch as the school is a community, the training school for life, it behooves us to seek to inculcate in the pupils the principles of honesty, truthfulness, reverence, cleanliness, indus- try, a respect for the rights of others, as well as the common school branches. Here it is that the child must learn the principles of punctuality, perseverance, honor and application to the task at hand. Unless he makes school work his business, and enters upon it with just that regularity and purposeful determination that mark the successful business man in his daily work, just so surely will he fail to meet the demands of his later life.
A system of medial writing has been introduced, in the hope that the more thorough teaching entailed by the use of copv books will produce a more satisfactory result. The medial system was chosen as productive of a speedier and more easily acquired handwriting, and in response to a demand from business men that vertical writing be discarded.
The new education, which to some seems to include certain "fads" is the logical outcome of changed conditions of society. The purpose of education is no longer the mere cramming of the mind with facts, and the ability in narrow lines of the funda- mentals-life today is far more complex, even for the child, than it was twenty years ago. The average boy leaving school todav comes face to face with the need for greater mental alertness and a finer sense of perception than did his equal of a generation back. The great cry today is for a mechanical, or industrial training, not to fit the child for a trade, but to so round out the character that it is a unity. The older methods of instruction unquestion- ably produced good results, yet, as we readily see by our own experience, they failed to make the average pupil master of what he was taught. Modern psychology teaches that every sensation creates an impulse within the brain which seeks an outlet through
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motor activity. If this tendency to produce something be curbed, and the child be given no opportunity to express the awakening of the mind through action there is a distinct loss. This repeated leads to a mental laziness which is to be deplored.
In some of our schools there is an unorganized effort to furnish this training, and much of the work observed is com- mendable. It should, however, be made more systematic and present a more continuous development.
The teaching force has been subject to the usual changes, but upon the whole, we have been fortunate in securing able and enthusiastic teachers. They are to be commended for the willingness and earnestness with which they have undertaken work suggested, which was along lines new to many of them.
A most important factor in promoting the welfare of the schools is the continuance of a teacher in the same place. I quote from Hon. W. W. Stetson, State Superintendent of Maine: "The value of what a teacher does depends on what she is; her personality teaches more than her words. Unless she helps to develop in the children worthy motives and ennobling ideals, she is a failure. The desire to be useful is worth more than glib recitations; the thirst for knowledge more to be coveted than high ranks; a love for the best in literature and art is more fruitful than class honors, and the wish to do right, because it is right, is more blessed than fantastic diplomas. The work of the school is to give such instruction, furnish such stimulus, and form such habits as will help the child to be prompt to do justice, and alert in responding to the best that is within him."
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