The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1877-12-04

The following communication should
have appeared in our columns yesterday
morning:
Editors IntslllGencer
In view Of the fact that attention Is
being called, through the press, to needed
reforms in the management OF The public
schools, tax payers will be interested in
the follOwipg;
The public schools Of the city Of
Wheeling are closed during the school
term Of each year, including the Christ.
ma and April weeks, legal and other
holidays granted, about twenty days, the
cost Of which to the tar payers, for ser.
vices not rendered, 10 about as follows:
s Principal teachers 1t % per day for 20
Fnsp;i aSIHiI 1t Ss IL pr day.. SO SO % %
q Assistants A and div, at 81 IS per day
20 1I t5SG and di1r at !; IS per- Jay W.
German teachers at 81 IS per iRy ior 20
JahiIOn al q per day for 20 dSys.,....... 100 90
Tota.."..."...................,..o.,. $50 %
The Board Of Education, at the last
meeting, instructed the Clerk 10 borrow
money 10 pay the teachers, &C., and at the
same meeting ordered the schools closed
the day after Thanksgiving, thereby do.
mating 10 the parties named above two
full days pay, including Thanksgiving
day, amounting 10 the snug snm OF three
hundred and eighty.eight dollars.
Is II not about time this back and for
ward pay, at the public expense, should
stop, and these public servants, like other
people, be paid only when they have
earned the same. That's the way every
man employing others manages his own
business. The evening school teachers
are thus paid and all others, in justice 10
this tax-ridden community, should be
paid only for actual services rendered.
REFORM.
IYhtting, Dee. /, 1877.
We publish the above not as'particu-
larly endorsing It, but rather as the view
Of the writer, and Of, no doubt, number
of other citizens and Taxpayers. For
ourselves, we do not find fault with a
weeks vacation in the public schools dur
ing the holidays. We did, however, find
a great deal of fault with those who last
year stopped the schools in order to at.
tend the Centennial. That was a wrong
towards the many children who were
compelled to remain behind, for the ben.
eft OF the few who were able 10 take the
trip.
School management Is a legitimate sub.
lect Of public watchfulness. 1t is very
expensive system 10 keep up, and it is
better to err in the way Of jealousy as re-
Gards any OF It's shortcomings rather than
by Indifference to allow it to gradually
assume an inefficient relation to the pub
lie. Five days in the week is certainly
lenient amount Of teaching, especially
when we count, as our correspondent
does, the extra days in which there is
no school. We do not see why
day should have been missed after
Thanksgiving. There Is no necessity Tor
school people taking one day more than
other people take on such occasions. Five
good square days teaching should be put
in every week, making allowance for
such holidays as other people enjoy, and
an extra allowance, over and above 9TH
er people, during Christmas week.
The old fashioned way OF teaching
school was 10 exempt only half a day in
the week, Saturday afternoon, or else
every other Saturday, and only two days
in Christmas week, and we arc bound to
say that this old way has not been much
improved by the modern style.