The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-01-06
H O COMMISSIONERS.
Reports of officers and Suggestions
of Members.
Superintendent Tarbell Advocates a New
High-School Building and P~ronounces
the Accommodation Inadequate.

The Board of School Commissioners met last
evening in regular session, with all the members
present but Messrs. Brown, Cary and Thompson.
The Secretary's report for December was a fol-
lows: Special fund, S5,275.66; tuition fund,
S12,S01.77; library fund, 5000 &c; total, $ls,-
1919.
The Treasurer made the following report for
the month: Special und-Overdrawn Decem-
her, SIS, 669.73; paid on vouchers, $5,275.66;
total, SIS, 945, SO; receipts. Qoan, etcl, $20,o4l;
balance on hand Jan. 1, S11, O55.6I.
Library on hand Dec. l.,
S4,s36.7O; receipts. $53.3 80; total, $4,89O.63;
paid on vouchers, 1865. &c; balance on hand Jan.
/, $15,320.4S.
Tuition Fund-Balance on hand Dec. /,
50, 594.49; receipts, $lS.75; total, 81, 603.2 %;
paid on vouchers, $t2,s57.o2; balance over
drawn Jan. l. $s.253.79; total balance on hand
Jan. l, $7,066.69
The amount OF bills drawn since the last meet
ing is $2,224.58. Bills paid during the same
time aggregated S14 1928.
The renting of several pieces OF echoOl prop
erty for other than school purposes was reported
by Mr.. Browning.
Mr.. vOnnegut, under the head of miscellaneous
business, made "a vigorous plea for the resump-
ton of the night-school system. The matter
was referred to the proper committee to report
at the next meeting.
superintendent Tarbell submitted his annual
address to the Board OF School Commissioners,
as follows:
SUPERINTENDENT TARBELLs REPORT.
To the Board of School Commissioners:
BY section 6 article vi of the rules and regula-
tions, it is made the duty of the superintendent
of schools, sat the first meeting of the board in
January of each year." to "report to the board
an estimate of the probable number of additional
vided before the month of September in the
same year, specifying the localities in which the
school accommodations are Inadequate"
In compliance Herewith, [ cal your attention
to the following statements and suggestions:
In the extreme northeastern part OF the city
the new buildings, Nos. % and 27, have render
ed the accommodations entirely sufficient for
some years to come.
Likewise, in the northwest, No. II ia ample for
the wants of it's district for a still longer time.
Having made these exceptions, I may say that
additional accommodations are needed in every
other part of the city.
We have now in the High School building two
rooms of grammar grade pupils who belong In
NOR. 2 and 3. In addition to this No. 2 has one
school in an office or class room not intended for
a school room, nor at all fit in size. lighting or
ventilation, for the use of a school. The sam
facts exist at No. 8. An additional room Will he
needed at No. 2 to accommodate those pupils
who will enter in the spring; there being now in
the lowest room at that school 119 halliday
pupils, the room above this numbers 81, and the
next so.
From Nc. 4 we have been obliged to send
pupils who could not Nc accommodates in the
oVer-crOwded rooms; the lowest room has 116
halliday pupils, and L see no way hut to open a
room in the basement to accommodate those
seeking admission in the spring.
AT No. 6 we already have two rooms of pupils
in the basement.
From No. 7 we have been obliged to send away
an entire class, from lack of room.
No. 8 has a school in the attic, and a..other
must be nut into the basement in a few ceeks.
schools, one being kept In the offuA, entirely I'M
Mt for a schOol-rOom, and a rQJin must be rented
near by in which to omen IN additional school.
Nos. IL, % and % have been relieved of sur
plus pupils by opeSJHg a school in old No. s, a
building the beard had determined TO abandon.
rms scho"! cow mas ninety-three pupils
II vic nf flaGa faRta tnaka tho fOllONuinay
Recommendations, and | make them with sole
reference TO orr needs. not considering the
question of the financial ability of the board to
make the necessary expenditures:
l.. A new hIgh-schoOl building.
The present building is one that is entirely
suitablemess for the work. 1t has $50 seats for
pupils, but is not adequate to the instruction of
that number. 1t is evident that if there are one
hundred seats in a room and a class of ninety
pupils Is put into it, the remaining ten seats can
not be used by n fragment OF another class.
There are hut sixteen rooms In which pupils can
recite, and. if twenty-five constituted a
division for recitation purposes, but 400 can be
Instructed at once. This is the real capacity of
BY means of the half day system we are now
using two school rooms ana TWO class rooms for
grammar grade pupils, and at the same time
teaching over 500 high-school pupils.
1t will have been noticed that the present
pressure for seats is mainly in the central part
of the city. IL seems to me that relief con be
most readily and economically effected by con
solidating the 9TH and 9Th grades, so far as need
~ - N'Fa - ~ ""t - ~ NV hAlh"1NApOlh lliAi
Ing and the same grades from Nos. 6, Z and IL at
No. s,
On the grounds Mt No. 8, there should, in my
judgment, he erected "A new eight room building,
which should receive the upper grammar aud
lower high-scnool pupils from the southern part
of the city.
BY these consultations some Improvement in
efficiency, and considerable economy in expense
would result, hnt especially would we secure for
Nos. 3, 3, i, 6, z, 8 and l3 the relief they need.
No. IL should be made a twelve-room building.
We now need ten rooms, and the school pOpula-
ton of thar part Of the city is likely TO increase.
II Nos. 5 and Is were disposed of and IA gond
eight-roon house erected in their stead, the
schools would be more popular, the grading
could be improved, and at least 81 900 per
annum could be saved in the current expenses
of the schools. 1 present herewith n map show
ing the residence of each pupil in both schools,
from which the feasibility Of this consolidation
can be judged.
These seem to me to be the immediate wants
of the schools. But it should be borne in mind
that our schools have doubled in numbers in the
last ten years, and that the average annual in
crease in attendance for that time has been 500
pupils, or some nat more than enough TO fill an
eight-room building. Respecttully submitted,
II. S. TARBEIL, superintendent.