Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-02-07
6itp anb county gmtelligente.

SCHOOL REPoRT.-The annual report OF the
School Committee of 1858, read and approved
at meeting of the Committee, on Saturday
evening last, shows that there were, at the
close of the year, tifty-four separate schools in
successful operation. They were under the
charge of seventy-one teachers, though the ac-
tual number employed during the year was
considerably larger. The whole number of
scholars of all ages who attended these schools
during the year was fire thousand one hundred
and ninety-eight, with an average daily attend
ance of ttro thousand nine hundred and nineteen.
This shows an excess over the whole number
registered in 1857 of eleven, and over the
whole number number in 1856 of one hundred
and fifty-two. The average attendance, which
is the safest indication ofvigor decline in the
system, exceeds that of 1857 by ninety-fve,
and that of 1856 by nearly four hundred.
Among the children sent to school last year,
three hundred and ,tifty-Seven were under five
years of age-making so many cases of sheer
cruelty under our present school regulations.
The resources of the School Department last
year were S2S, 1854 81, which was appropriated
by the City Council, and received from the
Commonwealth. The expenses were as FOL
lows:
For salaries of teachers, S24,0S1 16
+" " Superintendent, Secretary,
and Prudential Committee, 1898
For fuel, repairs, aid contingencies, 4,0I4 II
For books, stationery, Sc, l,iU5 ~
For lot on Ash street, AZ 00
Total, S3O,5O4 90
exceeding its legitimate resources 81 $40 50,
which is made up from contingent expenses"
The amount paid for the Ash streetlot belongs
rather to permanent improvements than to the
current expenses of the year. The real estate
now owned by the city and used for school
purposes is estimated at about $140,000
The report makes several suggestions for in
creasing the efficiency and usefulness of the
department. 1t recommends a more general
acquaintance and more frequent consultation
authority of teachers and parents as better
than civil authority for the suppression of tru-
ancy; suggests the propriety of a thorough re-
vision of salaries as an act of justice to teach
ers of superior culture and of long and faithful
services favors the immediate erection of new
school-houses in the Tatnuck and Worthwhile
districts, and the better improvement of the
grounds around many of our schoolhouses,
central and suburban; advocates the election
of Superintendent of Schools who may COM
mand at once the confidence of citizens and
the cooperation of the School Committee, and
finally urges the exercise of more faithful care
and watchful regard by parents over their own
schools.
The reports on the several schools represent
that they are in satisfactory and generally in
a gratifying condition. The committee upon
the Classical and English High School report
its continued and undiminished prosperity
The entire corps of instructors is harmonious
and effective, and combines an amount and di-
versity of educational ability which must be
entirely satisfactory to all the friends of the
school. The Committee believe that there is
in our entire community an increasing appre-
citation of the importance and value of the
school, and they feel assured that its success
and usefulness were never greater than at the
present time.