The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-02-24
#'hselius Reeister
Wednesday,. y,....-.February "a.
City superintendent OF schools.

CITY superintendent Oh
The Educational committees OF tn
House and Senate met in joint seSslo
at the State House yesterday afternoo
to consider the oxpediency of abolishin
the Office of City Superintendent for IN
public schools of Wheeling. A nnmee
of onr citizens were in attendance
Law before the committee certain fact
bearing upon the question. Petition
signed by several hundred resident
and Taxpayers we're presented, pray
ing the abolition of the office. I
remonstrance against the measure
also numerously signed, was lai'
before the committee. The Princi
pals of the various Ward schools
united in still another memorial, asking
that the prayer of the petitioners b
not granted. The petitioners set forth
that the Superintendency was needless
office, entailing useless expense upor
the taxpayers of the city. The remon
strances claimed that the Office was use
ful and necessary and could not be dis
pensed with without great detriment tc
the school system.
The Chairman of the joint committee
Mr.. DIX, of the Senate, announced that
the committee would be happy to hear
from gentlemen present any views they
might desire to offer to aid in arriving
at proper decision.
Mr.. THOMAS HoRNBRooK stated that
he had been an active friend of free
schools from their earliest establish
ment here; he had acted for some years
as school trustee before our present law
went into effect. At that time the
Office of Superintendent was not in ex-
istence. The trustees had control of
the schools and the plan had succeeded
well. They had no Commissioners oil
SuperiD riDtendent to whom to make re
ports, and the school affairs had beer
managed with more general satisfac
tion than at present.
In asking the abolition OF the Office o.
Superintendent he had no unfriendly
feelings for the public schools or their
officers, but merely desired relief from a
portion of the enormous taxation by
which the people were now borne
down. He had thought that the ex-
penses for building had been nearly all
incurred before the war. But now in
stead of higher taxation, it was much
heavier. Before the war he paid SlO0
school tax. Since that time he had dis
posed of $4,000 worth of his real es-
tate and was paying on his remaiEing
property, over $3.50. When this petition
was gotten up he had inquired into the
matter and learned that the duties of the
office were trivial and might be per-
formed by the Clerk of the School
Board with very little additional trOu-
BILE to that officer or cost to the public
Mr.. CLOHAN had been connected with
the Board of Education since the fOrma
tion of the new State. Had tried to give
the subject some attention. One year
the Clerk of the Board had received
$500 and the next year $500, and had
discharged most of the business connect
ed with the schools. He could see no
absolute necessity in the Superlnten-
dency. His work consisted mainly IN
the preparation of a tablo showing the
attendance of pupils and giving the
logging statistics. This was the
substance of his reports, and so
utterly useless had they been
deemed that the Board of Commission
ers had declined to allow them to be
read.
1t was true the Superintendent ex-
amiued the teachers, but before we had
any Superintendent competent COM
mittee conducted the examinations. AS
an evidence of the manner in which
this examining was now done, the
speaker instanced case where the Su-
perintendent had examined and passed
Al applicant, but when the Board re-
viewed the case, they had been COM
PEELED TO withhold their sane
tion from the Superintendent's ac'
tiOn. That officers business seem,
ed to be to give trouble to
parents aud children; he had INTRODUCED
laws to give consequence to his office
requiring a pecsliar kind of excuse to
secure admission to the school after alb
sence, or to procure his consent to re
admission; this compelled the people tC
hunt him up, and hence came the ardu-
Gus duties which were claimed to belong
to his position. Furthermore the pres
ent incumbent was physically unable
to fill place requiring much labor, and
the fact that he filled the Su
perintendency showed clearly thai
the work of the Office was but slight
The speaker further thought that the
office itself was unconstitutional, but Of
this the committee could judge. But
little attention ought to be paid to the
Principals memorial. They had {
Teachers Association, whose object wa
as much for self-protection and th'
raising of salaries as that of any Trade
Unien.
Mr.. CLoHAN read from the school re
port for Ohio county, statement tha
1--WE had not q few enemies of Public
Schools" and these the Superintendent
had denounced as wolves in Sheep
clothing" The man who would us'
such language was incompetent for
high position. Mr.. CLoHAN further
stated that an architect named FAIRFAA
had put the city to great expense and
inconvenience through his blunders
and this man had been highly be-puffed
in the CITY Superlntendcnt's report