The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-02-02
The Scha0l.H0use Project.

| The plan proposed to the City Council by
| the Special Committee of the School Commit
| tee was to abandon all the school-houses west
| of Oak and Green Streets and to build new
| school house large enough to accommodate all
the scholars in that section of the city, to the
number, it is said, of twelve hundred.
A special meeting of the City Council was
| held at the request of the Committee, and a
patient hearing was given them in joint con-
vention. A free opportunity was afforded each
member of the Committee to present his views;
and to urge the reasons why such change is
expedient, and why it should be made at once.
There was no one at this hearing to urge
the disadvantages of having so many schools
piled up one above the other to the uttermost
story of the building, nor the inconvenience of
the increased distance from the homes of most
of the children; and the Common Council did
not think it worth while to go into that ques-
ton, for even admitting that the Single School
House system might ON the whole be the best,
they were decidedly and almost unanimously
OF opinion that it would be inexpedient to make
such radical change, involving an expendi-
ture of one hundred thousand dollars or more,
IN the present state of the finances of the city.
Furthermore the Council did not feel assured
that the new policy if adopted would be perma-
nent; that after the change should be made at
great cost and inconvenience their successors
might not be called upon to reverse the policy,
and establish the separate school houses again.
The very representations made by the Com
mlttee In regard to the unfitness of the present
buildings tended to shake the confidence of the
Council in entrusting the School Committee
with the expenditure of further large sums.
There is not probably city in the land that
has raised more money for school purposes in
proportion to its population than Portland.
Most of this money has been expended under
the direction of the School Committee, and
now we are told that the accommodations for
pupils are wretchedly poor, i'll contrived and
out of repair.
The order passed by the Board of Aldermen
required the Committee on Public Buildings to
obtain plans, specifications and estimates for
the new building. The Common Council did
not want to throw away time and money in
this way, when their minds were made up
against the whole project, after hearing all that
could be said in favor of it; and they did not
consider that courtesy to the School Committee
required the passage of an illusory order, but
rather that true courtesy consisted in speaking
the plain truth, and the vote to indefinitely
postpone the whole matter expressed the views
of the majority as clearly as they knew how.
The Special Committee of the School Com
mittee complain in their published report ''that
the matter had been prejudged; that the hear
ing was mere farce; that the citizens acting
through proper representatives were to have
summary leave to withdraw" &c.
The Council did have a prejudice against tear
iiiB uOWn HAL uOLcu SCilOOl nOuStS anu
ing mammoth new one, but as they listened a
whole evening to the representations and argu-
ments in favor of that course, tits hardly fair to
say that the matter had been prejudged, merely
because they were of the same mind after the
hearing.
The audience did not know that the hearing
was mere farce. If it was so to the actors, they
kept their countenances throughout with re-
markable gravity, and imposed on the Council
who listened to them in all honesty and SIM
plicity.
If it be true that the Special Committee of |
the School Committee were the citizens acting |
through their proper representatives, then in
deed the Council should have given up their in
dlvldual notions on the subject, and set their |
committee at work to get up West End
school house regardless of expense. But as
the school committee were not elected by the |
citizens and as the Council were, the common |
impression is that the Council are the Repre- |
of the citizens, and must nse their |
own Judgment in such matters and act upon |
their own responsibility.
The suggestion in the Report of an appeal to |
the people is timely warning to all those |
Councilmen who are anxious for a reelection
and are conscious of the need of the aid of the
Special Committee in obtaining it,
And the positive prediction that the matter
cannot end until the the improvements impera-
lively demanded are obtained, ;" whether it is
an original prophesy of the Special Committee
or is an extract from Zadkiel's Almanac for
1879 is of equally fearful significance.
COMMON COUNCIL.