USA > Vermont > Rutland County > Rutland > Annual report, City of Rutland, Vermont, 1917 > Part 33
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One teacher seriously ill was granted a pension of $25 per month in accordance with vote of the citizens at their last an- nual meeting. This is the first instance of a public school teach- er receiving a pension granted by the voters of a town or city in this state. We are glad to note that this teacher has recovered her health and no longer needs a pension. Forty-four of our teachers are now members of the Vermont Teachers' Retirement Association.
HEALTH INSPECTION
For several years the citizens have given their approval, by increased majorities, to Medical Inspection in the schools. A law recently passed continues Medical Inspection in towns which have so voted until the town votes otherwise. Health inspection of the children was never so effective as at present and this inspection extends to private as well as public schools. A school nurse is now employed for the full calendar year to assist the Medical Inspector and to follow up cases needing medical atten- tion. The local branch of the Red Cross is endeavoring to supply milk to all school children wishing it, making special provision that children unable to pay shall receive the milk without charge. More than 1700 quarts of milk were distributed in the schools
136
ANNUAL REPORT
last month. A marked improvement in the health of many undernourished children is apparent. I wish to commend in highest terms the work that our Medical Inspector, School Nurse and the local branch of the Red Cross are doing in our schools.
HIGH SCHOOL
The High School has had a prosperous year under an ex- ceptionally strong principal and teaching force. The enrollment, as well as the number of tuition pupils, the amount of tuition collected and the number of different towns patronizing the school are all the largest in its history. The Principal has made to me an able report of the work done, which as far as space will allow I incorporate into this report, as follows:
"After nearly five years of service in the school it is per- haps not out of place for me to bring to your attention some of the things that have been done during that period :
1. The most important development in the school has been in the line of democracy. Five years ago the lines of social cleavage apeared very closely drawn, and the line between classi- cal and commercial departments much more so. After a good deal of struggle, more difficult because it could not be brought to public attention, we have practically eliminated this condi- tion. I do not believe any student in school at the present time can truthfully say that he is discriminated against or made to feel inferiority.
2. The Commercial Department has been entirely over- hauled. We are now doing in the last two years of the course all of the commercial work that formerly took the most of the time of four years. The course is not cluttered with those students who are hopelessly incompetent, and students who real- ly have ability and interest are not held back in their work by a large number of such students.
3. We have made considerable progress in Music. We now have a rather large number of students taking Music under
137
CITY OF RUTLAND
approved teachers, following in general the suggestions of the course we have adopted, and taking examinations each Spring. These students are receiving credit for this work as for their work done in school. It is now possible for a student to receive about one-fourth of the total credits required for graduation in the subject of Music. Our orchestra has been well sustained and creditable to the school.
4. Our College Preparatory work has been on the whole well done. We now have our graduates in twenty different col- leges. I have yet to hear of any student who has entered college on our certificate and been unable to do college work. Several of the colleges are now requiring the entrance examinations of the College Entrance Examination Board. Our students, in common with those of most other schools, are finding it very difficult to meet the requirements of these institutions. Our very best students can do it. The colleges now on this basis say they wish only the very best students, so the arrangement is evidently working as they desire. A student who can main- tain a straight grade of A in this school can usually meet the requirements of these colleges.
5. We have been experimenting now for three years with the Industrial Course under the Smith-Hughes Act. In many ways this has been satisfactory and in some ways unsatisfactory. The class-room instruction has been of a very high type; so much so that several boys who have wished to change back to the regular course have been able to carry the advanced work in Mathematics, English and Science without loss of time. Because of the money earned by the boys in these courses some have been able to stay in school who would otherwise have been obliged to leave. The course has helped to improve the general attitude of the school toward work that is at least in part man- ual, and has given many students a more dignified estimate of the man who works with his hands.
The employers of these boys have done their best to give them opportunities to learn a trade. But business conditions
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ANNUAL REPORT
have been such that in many cases it has not been possible to give the boys the various types of work that are necessary to make a master workman. * * * In this type of work just as soon as compensation while learning becomes more important to the boy than learning the trade, he may well be dropped from the course. * * *
6. The work in teacher training has developed steadily, and the increase in salaries has had a tendency recently to at- tract more girls into this line of work. We have at present twenty-two girls in training for rural school teaching.
7. The work in Domestic Science has been expanded until a girl can now get three full years of it five periods a week. In this department we are seriously handicapped by a lack of room and the work is limited. This work cannot be much further developed without more ample accommodations for it.
8. We have introduced in a small way physical training for all the students. This is proving of considerable value. Our athletics offer development for a few students, but at least eighty per cent of the students do not engage in athletics. In common with most other schools we need to introduce a type of mass athletics, to include all the students in school, and to sup- plement this with physical examinations. We are failing more seriously in health education and the physical development of our pupils than in any other way. We need a gymnasium, a playground, and a full-time physical instructor, entirely apart from our interscholastic athletics.
9. The work in Elocution, Reading and Dramatics has been well sustained and has invariably reflected credit on the school.
10. For the past two years we have been securing closer co-operation with the homes, largely through the use of a part of one teacher's time in visiting the homes, getting acquainted with the parents, attempting to learn the abilities and ambitions of the students, and trying to secure more home study on the part of the students who are not doing their best.
139
CITY OF RUTLAND
11. The percentage of failures in school has been materially reduced. In 1917 at the mid-year markings this percentage was 19.8. This year it was approximately 12.2. The number of failures is still too large and seems to be growing at present. There are several reasons for this :
(a) Since the discontinuance of the free tuition examina- tions by the state, some schools have not been careful in their promotion into high school.
(b) War wages and the employment of students of high school age have given so much money for pleasure that much time which should be put into school work is required to spend this money.
(c) It has not been the policy of the school to drop stu- dents who have not sufficient ability to do work of secondary grade. We now have students who have been in school three or four years and rate in the standard mental tests with the average of students in the sixth grade. *
(d) Our salary schedule has led to frequent changes of teachers, and new teachers always mean an increased failure list.
(e) Under the present organization of the grammar grades it is pretty difficult to learn the general trend of a child's abili- ties. Hence the first year sees many misfits in studies and too much failure and discouragement. *
RECOMMENDATIONS
From the foregoing statements of progress and conditions, it is possible to infer what is necessary to make a better high school. I will enlarge upon only two.
1. Need for more manual work in the lower classes.
We have many students in the lower classes who are totally unable to devote themselves for a whole day to intellectual work. Some of these would profit through the training of the muscles and through the learning of such things as may be taught in a high-grade course in Manual Training. Nearly all of them would do better work in the academic subjects if a part of their day could be devoted to physical work. There would
140
ANNUAL REPORT
also be a certain pre-vocational value to the work, for this type of student needs to try various things before finding the thing he can do best.
2. I can see no prospect of any great advancement in the high school work in Rutland without additional facilities. * The high school is growing slowly all the time, and the elimina- tion of the ninth grade will have a tendency to bring into high school many students who now do not enter because they are in grammar school one year longer than they should be, and arrive at the age when they feel they cannot afford the time for a high school course. Thirty-four graduates of last year's gram- mar school graduating class did not enter this school. * *
The only reasonable solution I can see for our building problem is to be found in the erection of a junior high school building near enough to the present high school so that the schools could use in common the Domestic Science rooms, Man- ual Training equipment, Printing equipment and Gymnasium which the new building should contain, and the junior high school could perhaps use our assembly hall and laboratories. Such a school, properly erected and organized, should do at least the following things:
(a) Make it possible to maintain only three years of work in the present building, giving more ample room for class work and study.
(b) Relieve the congestion in the grades by removing the grammar school pupils to the junior high school, making un- necessary the construction of more ward buildings.
(c) Make uniform the work of all pupils above the sixth or seventh grade, and give all those students an equal oppor- tunity.
(d) Make possible the introduction of Domestic Science and Manual Training as full-time subjects in those grades where they are most needed.
(e) Ascertain and test the abilities and aptitudes of stu- dents before they reach the high school proper, and place them in the kinds of courses they can do best.
141
CITY OF RUTLAND
(f) Allow us to develop and improve our work in health education, home making, manual arts, English and Science.
(g) Provide opportunity for the evening school work which many states are already making compulsory for students who leave the regular schools before the age of eighteen.
All of the above things are nearly at a standstill and must have more room and equipment before the youth of the city can get what they are entitled to receive."
EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP
The National Education Association of the United States at its last annual convention adopted the following resolution :
"We maintain that education for the responsibilities of citizenship is an increasingly pressing obligation on the schools at this critical period of national and world affairs and to that end education for citizenship must fill a large space in school programs from the kindergarten to the grad- uate courses of the universities, and this education must provide for practice along with instruction, so that there may be training in habits, ideals, and attitude of service for the common weal of community and nation."
Public education is one of the vital forces in our national life; it is a function of the state, and public school funds should be expended for the greatest good of all the children of the state without regard to age, race or creed. We are coming rapidly to the recognition of our obligation of developing to the utter- most and along the most beneficial lines this tremendous power. The time has passed when the obligations of a city or state can be considered fully discharged if its school funds are expended simply in teaching the subjects required by law and only the children within the compulsory school age. If this conception of Education is right, we may ask what is Rutland doing with its annual school fund of $100,000 to educate and train for citi- zenship those among us unfamiliar with our language and ideals : what is she doing to assist those who on account of adverse cir- cumstances, were forced to leave school at the close of the com-
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ANNUAL REPORT
pulsory school age; what is she doing to help those men and women among us who now see and feel the need of further study and training to more fully meet the demand of citizenship and society ? The time has come in my opinion when this city through its schools should offer greater encouragement and as- sistance to all these classes of people. I shall welcome the time when our state by law will make it not only possible, but man- datory, for every school department to provide for the further . education of such persons.
RECOMMENDATIONS
I recommend the following :
1. That the Mayor appoint at an early date a joint commit- tee, representing the interests of the School Board, the Board of Aldermen and of other local organizations interested in civic im- provement to make a survey of the school buildings of Rutland and to make its report to the citizens of the city.
2. That immediate steps be taken to relieve the congested condition in the High School and to make possible the establish- ment of a Junior High School.
3. That at the close of the present school year the ninth grade be eliminated from our system and that a sunior High School be established; if that be not possible, that all the gram- mar grades of the city be consolidated in the Longfellow Build- ing and departmental instruction be continued.
4. That the ungraded school for backward pupils be con- tinued and that Domestic Science, including cookery, be taught in that class and in the grammar grades.
5. That Manual Training be reestablished in the grammar grades and that the Industrial Course in the High school be con- tinued provided the manufacturing interests of the city will en- courage the course.
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CITY OF RUTLAND
6. That Americanization and Citizenship receive greater attention in the school program from the kindergarten grade through High School course.
CONCLUSION
In closing this report I wish again to make hearty acknow. ledgment of the unfailing courtesy, good will and assistance so generously extended to me during the past year by all with whom I have been associated.
Respectfully submitted, DAVID B. LOCKE, Superintendent of Schools.
Rutland, Vermont, February 11, 1921.
144
APPENDIX
LIST OF TEACHERS IN THE EMPLOY OF THE CITY OF RUTLAND DURING THE FINANCIAL YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31st, 1920.
Name of School and Teacher
Grade
Where Educated
Salary
Service Began
David B. Locke ..
Superintendent. .
Dartmouth College.
$2,800 00
1906
HIGH SCHOOL
*Edward S. Abbott ..
Principal.
University of Vermont.
2,800 00
1916
Frank C. Phillips .
Assistant Principal ..
Yale University **
2,100 00
1916
Eleanor J. Meldon
Assistant.
Rutland High School.
1,275 00
1908
Ruth W. Temple ..
Assistant.
Mt. Holyoke College.
1,275 00
190S
Marie W. Johnson .
Assistant.
Rutland High School.
1,200 00
1907
Nellie H. Newton.
Assistant.
Emerson School of Oratory
1,025 00
1907
Harold I. O'Brien.
Assistant ..
Holy Cross College. .
2,600 00
1916
Lacy W. Bump. .
Assistant.
Middlebury College.
2,000 00
1917
Helen Harlow .
Assistant.
Smith College.
1,500 00
1917
Helen M. Nugent.
Assistant.
Albany State Teachers College.
1,225 00
1918
Irene L. Copps .
Assistant.
Smith College ..
1,125 00
1918
Jeanette F. Statham
Assistant ...
Syracuse University
1,175 00
1918
D. Philip Locklin .
Assistant.
Middlebury College.
1,400 00
1920
Zenobia R. Jacobs
Assistant.
Syracuse University ..
1,150 00
1920
Frances N. Krook.
Assistant.
New Hampshire College.
1,100 00
1920
Helen R. Harman.
Assistant ...
Boston University .
1,100 00
1920
William C. Krook.
Supervisor Industrial Training. .
New Hampshire College
2,500 00
1919
' Catherine Aagessen
Principal Training Course.
Columbia University **
1,900 00
1920
Aida P. Skeeles.
Assistant Teacher Training Crs .. . Burlington High School.
1,200 00
1894
Mary E. Norton.
Office Assistant .. . .
Rutland High School ..
585 00
191S
ANNUAL REPORT
1,125 00 1892
Mabelle A. Howley.
Eighth
Rutland High School ..
950 00
1905
Agnes H. Rule.
Seventh.
Rutland High School .. . Rutland Teacher Training Course. . . Castleton Normal School.
725 00
1920
Catherine Gaynor ..
Fifth.
.
Rutland High School ..
950
00
1897
Nora B. Anthony . .
Third-Fourth.
.
Rutland Teacher Training Course. . .
650
00 1920
M. Joyce Hindley.
First-Second.
Rutland Teacher Training Course. .
700 00
1920
MADISON SCHOOL
*Anna F. Toohey .
First-Second.
Rutland High School.
1,000 00
1896
M. Catherine Purcell.
Seventh.
St. Joseph's Academy. . .
975 00
1903
Helena G. Corcoran.
Fifth-Sixth
St. Joseph's Academy.
950 00
1903
Ramona R. Crowley.
Third-Fourth.
Castleton Normal School.
750 00
1920
LONGFELLOW SCHOOL
Seventh.
Rutland High School.
1,125 00
1885
Anna E. McCavet.
Ninth.
St. Joseph's Academy.
1,025 00
1900
Anna R. Maughan.
Ninth.
Castleton Normal School .
1,000 00
1903
C. Louise A. Branchaud.
Eighth
Rutland High School ..
975 00
1896
Adelaide B. Schryver.
Sixth ..
Rutland High School.
950 00
1895
Irene E. Moroney ..
Fifth.
St. Joseph's Academy
950 00
1908
Mary V. McCavet.
Third-Fourth.
St. Joseph's Academy.
950
00
1905
Mabel H. Gleason.
First-Second.
Rutland High School.
950 00
1896
KINGSLEY SCHOOL
*Louese R. MacFarlane.
Fourth.
Rutland High School.
1,012 50
1894
Mary R. Kieley ...
Fifth-Sixth .
Rutland Teacher Training Course. .
775 00
1919
Mary E. Hickey
Third.
Rutland High School ..
950 00
1899
Margaret I. Hulihan .
Second.
St. Joseph's Academy.
950
00
1903
Kathrine M. Walsh.
First ..
St. Joseph's Academy.
950 00
1903
*Principal
** Special student
145
CITY OF RUTLAND
DANA SCHOOL
*M. Kittie Crowley . .
Ninth.
Oswego Normal. .
975 00 1902
Mary E. Corcoran.
Sixth ..
850 00 1916
Ruth D. Kennedy ..
Second-Third.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
*Rhoda W. Southard.
146
LIST OF TEACHERS-Continued.
Name of School and Teacher
Grade
Where Educated
Salary
Service Began
ABRAHAM LINCOLN SCHOOL
*Etta Franklin .
Ninth.
Rutland High School ..
$1,150 00
1893
May E. McCormack
Eighth. .
Castleton Normal School.
950 00
1912
Margaret E. McDevitt.
Seventh.
Castleton Normal School.
875 00
1918
Geraldine M. Lyston.
Sixth ..
Rutland Teacher Training Course.
850 00
1914
Anna C. Carpenter ..
Fifth ..
Castleton Normal School.
800
00 1920
Abbie E. Greaves.
Fourth ..
Rutland High School ..
950
00
1908
Gertrude R. Cline ..
Third .
Castleton Normal School.
775 00
1917
Elizabeth N. Locke.
Second ..
Rutland Teacher Training Course.
775 00
1917
C. Marion Anderson .
First ..
Rutland High School.
950 00
1903
Sabina T. Brothers ..
Ungraded.
Castleton Normal School.
1,200 00
1920
WATKINS AVENUE SCHOOL
*Ellen Z. Mylott ..
Seventh-Eighth
Castleton Normal School.
1,050 00
1893
Lizzie I. Mclaughlin.
Fifth-Sixth .
St. Joseph's Academy. .
950 00
1906
Catherine C. McKeogh.
Third-Fourth.
St. Joseph's Academy ..
950 00
1904
Eleanor T. Maughan
First-Second.
Castleton Normal School. .
950 00
1914
PARK STREET SCHOOL
*Mary E. Cannon.
Sixth-Eighth.
St. Joseph's Academy. .
1,025 00
1903
Mary J. Moher. .
Fourth-Fifth.
St. Joseph's Academy. .
950 00
1905
Nellie Crowley.
Second-Third
Rutland High School ..
800 00
1920
Katharine A. Purdy.
First .. .
Wheelock's Kindergarten School .. . .
675 00
1919
.
ANNUAL REPORT
.
.
-
SUPERVISORS
Charles V. H. Coan
Supervisor of Music ..
St. John's Chapel, N. Y. City ..
1200 00
1910
Mary F. Pierce. .
Supervisor of Art .. .
Skidmore School of Arts ..
900 00
1920
Mabel H. Woods ...
Supervisor of Sewing.
Simmons College **
800 00
1917
Helen P. Magner
Supervisor of Domestic Science .. . University of Vermont.
1,100 00 1920
Helen W. Clark.
Superintendent's Clerk.
Rutland High School ..
936 00
1915
TEACHERS RESIGNED OR ON LEAVE OF ABSENCE DURING THE YEAR
Anne C. Smythe. .
Assistant High School.
N. Y. State College ..
$1,100 00
1920
Marguerite A. Fox.
Assistant High School ..
Emerson School of Oratory
1,150 00
1919
Clara M. Coleman.
Supervisor Domestic Science
Mechanic's Institute. .
1,300 00
1919
Dorothy Erskine.
Assistant High School.
Smith College.
1,075 00
1918
John P. Hoyt ..
Assistant High School.
Middlebury College.
1,300 00
1919
Anna E. Collins ..
Fifth Grade Dana
Castleton Normal School.
900 00
1916
Agnes B. Crowley.
First Grade Park Street.
Rutland High School.
950 00
1904
Aida P. Skeeles.
Model Teacher Dana.
Burlington High School
1,050 00
1894
Lena C. Ross.
Ungraded School.
Dana Institute.
1,200 00
1894
Winifred Leahey ..
Fifth Grade Lincoln.
Rutland Teacher Training Course. .
725 00
1919
Maria E. Steward.
Third-Fourth Madison.
Rutland High School ..
950 00
1903
Elizabeth C. Hoffman.
Prin. Teacher Training Course.
Cortland Normal School
1,350 00
1919
Edward J. Lockwood ..
Assistant High School ..
Boston University Law School ..
1,600 00
1917
CITY OF RUTLAND
*Principal
** Special Student
147
.
148
JANITORS, MEDICAL INSPECTOR, SCHOOL NURSE AND TRUANT OFFICER
Name
Building
Residence
Salary
Service Began
Henry J. Hostler ..
High School Building . .
38 Forest Street. .
$1,600 00
1907
Thomas A. Borden. .
Longfellow Building
30 Hopkins Street. .
866 50
1910
Lemuel T. Barber.
Abraham Lincoln Building ..
143 Crescent Street. ..
926 00
1918
Arthur Hyland. .
Dana Building
51 East Center Street. .
926 00
1920
Asa R. Mairs ..
Kingsley Building
3 Nickwackett Street.
800 00
1912
Joseph A. McIntyre.
Park St. Building
69 Plain Street.
780 80
1914
Harvey Thomas . .
Watkins Ave. Building.
35 Evergreen Avenue.
708 20
1915
Rollin M. Spencer .. .
Madison Building .
79 Plain Street ..
70S 20
1920
Ray E. Smith, M. D.
Medical Inspector
66 Grove Street.
Per diem. .
1919
Mary A. Devlin
School Nurse ..
Brock House ..
300 00
1920
Charles B. Costello
Truant officer ..
10 Mansfield Place.
585 00
1915
ANNUAL REPORT
JANITORS RESIGNED DURING THE YEAR
Edgar C. Mabury. James Walsh.
Madison Building. Dana Building. .
72 Plain Street.
$708 20
1919
38 East Center Street.
926 00
1919
-
Auditors' Report
To the Honorable City Council :
We have examined the books and accounts of the City Treas- urer, City Clerk, Overseer of Poor, Superintendent of Schools, and Sinking Fund Commissioners, and find they have duly ac- counted for all moneys received by them and that they have proper vouchers for all moneys expended.
We find the records of disbursements as shown by the City Clerk and Superintendent of Schools agree with the entries on the City Treasurer's books.
We have checked the cash, and verified the notes, bonds, de- posit books and securities in the hands of the City Treasurer and Sinking Fund Commissioners and found them to be in agree- ment with the books.
The various books and records in all departments were found in good order and vouchers for all disbursements were produced.
We believe the Sinking Fund Commissioners' report, which shows a list of securities in their hands at par value, should also show the market value of these securities at the time their report was made.
We highly commend the purchasing system of the City and advise that the work be extended still farther by the depart- ment of education. The Treasurer's books show a balance of $8,226.84 in uncollected taxes. It is our intention to take this matter up with your Honorable Board in a special report.
JAKE HEYMAN, ROBERT D. SMITH. W. T. SIMONDS, Auditors of the City of Rutland.
Rutland, Vermont, January 29, 1921.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Aldermen, Board of 3
Commissioner of Public Safety, report of 95
Commissioner of Public Works, report of 84
City Attorney, report of 100
City Auditors, report of
149
City Treasurer, report of
20
City Weigher, report of
117
Employees receiving $300 or more per year
67
Fire Department
3
Fire Marshal, report of
98
Health Department, report of
109
Inspector of Buildings, report of
116
Mayor, report of
17
Members of School Board from 1893
14
Officers, city
4
Officers, ward
10
Officers, City Government from 1893
11
Orders drawn on City Treasurer, detailed statement of:
Armory Account
66
Charities and Correction Department
61
City Court Account
65
Fire Department
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