The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1858-10-16
For the Advertiser.
A Candid n. view Of the School Centre.
very In Upton.
ny A NxxpKn or rug soarp.

very In Upton.
ny A MEMBER or THg BoAnn.
The opposition which has been mani
tested towards the system of free school-, !
aud the present Board of Directors, has |
at length reached a point which renders
1t very serious affair, ard one of public
interest, not only to the citizens Of Tip.
ton, but of the whole State of Iowa.
The public School is broken up, and the
public school house is in the hands Of a
special committee, who have taken furci-
bic possession, by removing the old locks
and substituting new ones! These sim
pie facts are enough to arrest the atten-
tion of every lover Of good order, aud to
raise the inquiry, mho is responsible for
this state ef Ainys?
1t would be better, in some respects,
that disiptcrcstcd person should give
history of the affair. But no such per-
son will, at present, undertake it. Aud
having the advantage of thorough
! knoslc,l-c of the facts in the case, and
of some facts known to 10 other IN embcr
Of the Board, it has seemed proper f~r
the undersigned to set forth what he
! knows, and to give his deliberate inter-
rrctation thereof Ii | shall i'm any in
stance misstatc facts, or put q wrong con-
s.ruc,itn upon them, it will be uninten-
tionai, and the way will be open for 4
proper correction. The controversy Is
not yet settled but the future develupe-
mcnts vii! assume mere Of a .jadicini
form, and their history will b. recorded
elsewhere.
The present Board Of Directors was
elected in May, 1883, hy a fair majority
over their competitors. 1t is an ofiiee
vii h the writer never sought, nor O.
sired, and he did not know that he was
candidate; till he saw his name printed
on the ticket, The affairs of the dis
trict were in complicated, unsettled
unsatisfactory state, which had been ac.
cumu!ating for mouths, aud even years,
under the management Of different
Boards. The district was also largely III
debt for the house, with iittlc ability to
cancel that Indebtedness. All this has
nee eccssarily tended to emtarrass the course
of the Bcnrd, And their opposcrs have
seized the opportunity, very anJustly, to
charge the whole responsibility OF the
indebtedness aud bad state Of things III
the district, upon the present Board.
This has been done repeatedly, and in
Inverse ways, both in public and in pri-
sa,e.
; Tkc fr., and principal demonstration
a-ainst the Board, was made In July nj
mectinr. called ia ull good faith, to see
! if the district would vote tax to con.
tinuc the school in operation, and t.
, fence in the house, and make some ether
I necessary improvements 1t was much
! the largest district meeting ever held ii
linton. The room was nearly full before
= the hour OF the meeting had arrived
1t vas called to order precisely at nin'
! . clock, and was adjourned before ter
+ o clock. 1t was evident that great cx
. citemcnt had been raised, in some way
bv somebody. Several things eonspiree
+ to produce it, the chief of which, a
+ urged 1t the time, was, the opPreSsie
taIatioa, which could be endured NJ
longer. This was, doubtless, the rca
9 motive, with many, tn, ugh they were Ia
boring under erroneous impressions as l.
the cost of tho school, eontoundlng TIL
cost Of the house with that of the school
J. Among the other motives, may be named
opposition to t. free school system, hos
,ility to the strict discipline of tn
school, political and sectarlan prejudice
.. aud false notions of the design OF til
Board in calling for the tax: as If tn
Board wished the district to vote ia
in general and leave it to them to tx tn
amount; whereas, no sum was specified
in order that the district might decid
ID that point for themselves. All thes
different motives were combined In on
general, emphatic, unreasonable, dete'
mination to vote down the tax. 1t va
= done. The hands of the Board wer. e
fectually tied The school was ciose(
the teachers dismissed, and the childre
turned out to play
- Several meetings have since been cal
ed, by request, for specific purposcs, an
opc-the semi-annual mceting-for gel
e-aI purposes: all Of which, with tho
specifc designs and doings, have. bee
=" noticed in the Aaocrtiser. At no one
- these meetings was any intimation give
Of desire to have public school, pr
vioIs to the informal meeting, Sept. =
which, after appointing special comm
tee "to take charge of the school-house
- instructed the Board ito take mcasur
fer public school six months, from Il
18th of October" The inconsistent
and impractieability of such commit
sppears at once, in the utter lncongrul
of these two transactions, viz giyi'
\ snecial committee charge Of the sche
p house, for pirate schools, and the reg
~ lar Board instructions to establish Pab
schools in the same house, at the same tin
. There could be only about three weel
A, the longest, for the private schoo
- before the public schools were to co
~, mcnce.
cts Notwithstanding the impropricty a
we illegality Of such committee, and the d
resncct thus shown to the Board, who
!. never asked for any assistance, nor
fused to perform any duty, they prom
- - " called another meeting, in accordaf
7, with the desire expressed above, to see
the district would vote tax to ena
IS, them to open public school. But
was now too iate' The levy OF the col
s ty Judge had just been made Tor
,aor and the tax. If voted, would HI