Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-04-04
OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

EDITORS INDEX The question
What have you in the way of school fa-
cilities? is generally asked by anyone
contemplating emigration to newer
country. And the question is very
pertinent one. There is no surer test
of the public pulse than the number
and efficiency of the schools of q COM
munity.
Our county is divided into 50 school
districts, SS of which have a good,
healthy organization. and in all of these
a school will be maintained for at least
months during the current school
year. In half the districts, school for
from six to nine months will be kept.
The average term throughout the
county, for the school year ending May
31st, 1887, was 2la weeks as against the
average of the State, % As. Yet we
are among the newer counties. We are
warranted in believing that the term
for the current year will be at least "a
weeks.
On the 31st day of May, last, we had
10 school houses with 80 rooms and i'm
Ill of these, and more, schools were
being conducted at one time during the
month of December.
During the school year of 'S7 the
county paid to teachers, as salary, the
sum Of Sl5,754, as against $S,0l4.50 for
the preceding year. Rapid as has
been the grewth of the county, gener-
ally, the increase in expenditure for
school purposes has exceeded it, and
this fact, alone, is evidence of the great
interest that is taken by our people in
everything that pertains to education.
We have school property to the esti-
mated value, including buildings and
grounds, of $S7 1886. We have built
during the past year SO school houses,
at cost of S44 1862.
We have few school-houses i'm this
county that have cost less than $500,
while we have many that cost from $500
TO 81 200, and these in country districts.
We have buildings for school purposes
that cost from $500 to $4,000. Nor
are these expenditures lavish, in the
sense that they are extravagant. These
buildings and just such as these are
needed by the communities in which
they have been built. The average sal
airy for male and female teachers was
S35 per month, while the average for
the state was only $37.
1t will be seen from the foregoing
facts and figures that, while we are
ranked with the newer counties of the
state, and while the eastern portion OF
the state is more densely populated and
is far wealthier, we maintain an aver
age term at an average salary. Moth.
/ ing could be said showing more plainly
the lively interest taken in schools, and
the broad, liberal views of our people
on the Importance of extending to every
child in the county, good school facili.
ties.
Out of a total school population of
less than $500, $500 we're enrolled, and
1926 in daily attendance. Wherever an
remuneration of the school population
has shown the number of children OF
II oShOOl dSC W OC OCCus Iflo lISU SJcD
has been the organization of a district
and the next, the building of school
house.
Nor are our teachers, as body, less
deserving of praise for the lively inter-
est they manifest in their work.
Everywhere, an attempt has been
made to do better work, each teacher
striving to excel himself or herself, and
but one result could follow, satisfaction
on the part of patrons, with the work
done. Our teachers very generally at
tended our last Normal Institute, and
have taken great interest in the month.
ly meetings of our association, some
travelling as much as thirty miles I'm or
der to attend these meetings. Their
spirit is shown by their unanimous en-
dorsement of the plan for an eight
weeks, instead of four weeks Normal
III. s. Lands, Co. Supt.