The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-08-29
SCHOOLS FOR ALL.
Mr.. Poland Points Out the
First Duty of the City
to the Children.
THEN LET US HAVE REPAIRS
The Urgent Localities Are Near
West Hoboken, Northern Green
vile, Near Brunswick and Mer-
GER Streets, and West Of Bergen
Avenue.

Superintendent Addison b. Poland, OF
the Public Schools of Jersey City, has re-
turned from Massachusetts, where he has
spent his summer vacation. He Is look
ing we'll and is in excellent spirits. He
has given much study to the inside work
ing of various institutions of learning in
the Bay State, and his contact with stu
dents of educational matters in several or
the towns and cities of his earlier home,
noted as centres of culture, have filled
him with an enthusiasm which augurs
well for a successful scholastic year i'll
our schools.
Nearly all the teachers have returned
from their summer trips buoYant with
life and hope, and eager to resume work.
The boys and girls are pretty tired OF idle
ness, too, and will go to work with will
The public schools will open on Septem-
Der 16. There will be no changes IN any
of the departments. But one resignation,
of minor Importance, awaits the action OF
the Board of Education at its next meet
ing.
During the vacation months some of
the schoolhouses have been renovated
u.
has done his best with the limited funds
at the disposal of the Board, but the
amount was too small to admit of any
general improvement. There is scarcely
a schoolhouse in the city but needs some
thing in the way of kalsomining, paint
heating, while number are totally unit
for use.
LAFAYETTE's TARDY SCHOOL.
The new school house in Lafayette, for
which $4,000 was appropriated nearly
two years ago, is not yet ready for occu-
pancy. Work upon it is progressing
slowly, and, when finished, an extra APP
priation of at least So, 600 will be required
to furnish it. 1t is q tWo-story and base
ment brick structure, has twenty rooms
and will accommodate nearly a thousand
pupils.
But SO, 600 have been appropriated by the
Board of Finance for all school repairing
during the coming year, commencing De
cember l. Under the new charter, how
eveI $4,000 of liquor license moneys will
be at the disposal of the Board for the
purpose of erecting new school houses to
accommodate the excess of pupils who are
debarred from instruction because OF in
sufficient accommodations.
ALL WANT THEM.
Each district is clamoring for new
school building. The Fourth, in mass
meeting of citizens called shortly after
the passage of the new charter, deputed q
delegation to wait upon the Board of
Education, and demanded first recogna-
tion. A petition with one thousand sig
natures from the Sixth district reached
wants of that section. All the districts,
in fact, are looking for new school build
With view of ascertaining the drift
of opinion as to what Is likely to be done,
/ called upon Superintendent Poland.
MR.. POLAND's VIEWS.
"In the first place." said the Super
intendent, II think the city should seek
to provide new accommodations SO as to
afford all children an equal chance to be
educated.
ga course of systematic repairs can then
be instituted so as to bring all the school
rooms up to the highest sanitary con-
ditions and convenience for the higher
grades of school work. We are at present
working in very cramped Quarters-con-
solidating classes, and all that sort of
business.
sIf the law appropriating some S5O, 900
for the building and furnishing of new
school houses could be so strained as to
enable the Board to apply any portion of
the same to repairing the schools we now
have, it might, perhaps, be the best use to
which portion could be applied. The
law, however, would appear to debar the
using of single cent for this purpose.
s'In locating the proposed new buildings,
district lines, which are purely arbitrary,
and are not recognized in school admins
tration, should be ignored. and the build
ings should be so placed as to accommo-
date the largest number, irrespective of
district.
-Four buildings are imperatively
needed. One should be located in the
northern end of the city, near West Ho-
boken, so as to relieve Schools Nos. z, s
and 10.
Zone should be located in the northern
end of the Greenville section somewhere
in the vicinity of School No. IS, on Ton
nellie avenue. This would catch the over
flow of School No. IA, one of the most
crowded buildings in the city, and one
which was obliged for time to exclude
ali children below seven years of age,
although the law places the beginning of
the school age at the fifth year.
Another school house should be built
somewhere in the neighborhood of the in
tersection of Brunswick and Mercer
streets, to take the places of Schools Nos
II and 10, two old and dilapidated engine
houses. A new building in this vicinity
would relieve the excess of pupils of
Schools Nos. 2, 3 and and the annex to
No. 3.
"a new building is sadly needed west
of Bergen avenue, about half way be
tween Schools Nos. 6 and II, SO as to dis
continue Schools Nos. . and IL altogether
No 9 school, on Tonnelle avenue, is a
mere rookery 1t is q rented building
dark, cold and forbidding in aspect 1t is
divided off into partitions no higher than
the teachers heads, and reminds one of
an old stable with old-fashioned horse
stalls. 1t should be abandoned
as soon rs possible. Near by is School
No. Is, in Marion. Two or three rooms
in d ramshackle sort of hotel building
are occupied, which are shared with
several tenements. 1t is impossible to
heat one of the rooms in winter time, and
the others are unfit to educate children
in. A new building is more sadly needed
here than in any other section.
One sufficiently large to do away
with the two last buildings
described, and at the same time relieve
the etwo large schools Nos. and.11, of their
present overcrowded condition, can be
b1iIt for $4,000 A school house so To-
Gated would accommodate the pupils from
the southern section of the Fourth dis
trict and those from the northern section
of the Fifth"
The *. or L. Owned Hoboken Last Night.
Tank Lodge No. 1, Knights of Lush.
owned Hoboken last night Preceded by
the band of the Sons of Veterans the
rniqhts marched and countermarched
through the principal streets OF that city
and were yociferously cheered by their
felloW townspeople. Among those who
narsded with the knights were Council
man Bruggenlan, Police Commissioner
,.,l .fI,ar oifpy Off1pia1S