The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1890-06-19
OUR SCHOOL HOUSE CON-
DEMNED BY THE STATE
BOARD OF HEALTH.
Ohio State Board Of Health. }
Secretary's Office.
Columbus, o., June ), 1897.
rO the SchOOl Rnnrti of IOyan q.

, dent of Public Schools, l made
an investigation ot your publ,
) school building and found theit
the following conditions;
The building Is an old struci-
ure erected in 1861, built of brick
of box .iIape, three ST, ries high
il addition 20 The basement. Or
iginalIy the upper floor was &
hall unpartitioned, but many
years ago 1T became necessary
10 divide this hall into foul
school rooms, and, this not suf-
ficing, two school rooms were
fitted up in the basement. Al
the present time there are fifteeE
schools ana fourteen school
rooms, one class and teacher he
ing Obliged TO occupy cloak
room, and an enrolment of $50
pupils with an average attend
ence OF 9496.
The rooms sre all heated with
stoves, one or two being placed
in each room. Ii is unnecessary
10 say that such a method OF
heating school rooms is always
unsatisfactory, those near the
stoves suffering with heat, while
in cold weather those in a distant
part Of the room are constantly
complaining Of cold.
There are no provisions for
ventilating any oil The rooms; 9
small amount of air is taken
from The rooms by the stoves.
and doors and windows in mild
weather, also afford some relief
from foul air. Or the day OF
my visit the air Out of doors was
quite warm and fires were moi
burning. The windows were
wide open, but in spite of this
nearly all Of the rooms had a bad
odor, exceedingly unpleasant on
coming in from the open air.
This odor affords a lair test of
ventilation, and no room is fiji for
occupancy in which il can be de
tected. If the air Of your school
rooms is impure with windows
open what must be its condition
when these are kept closed The
foul atmosphere of these rooms
is in part due 10 their overcrowd.
ed condition.
The Isl c primary room is 30x
22x13. equal to $3.50 cubic feet
of air space. There are so pu-
pills in this room, which allows
but about 107 cubic feet of air
space for each scholar. The Isl
D primary room in The basement
is 29x2lxS' 5" equal 10 5.176 Gu
bic feet Of air space. With so
pupils Il, this room there is a ell
bic air space per capita Of about
lob. Other rooms are somewhat
less crowded, but as each child at
minimum shOul.l have not less
than from four 10 five hundred
cubic feel Of air space. it will he
seen that vOur schools are very
much over crowded. l need moi
state that such over crowding in
ventilated rooms is highly preju-
dicial 10 health and also affords
favorable conditions for the prop
agation of contagious diseases
should they once be introduced
into the schools.
The lighting of many Of The
school rooms is very bad. In
some rooms the light is directly
in front-the worst possible ar
rangement IN quite a number it
is from the right and rear instead
of left and rear as it should be.
In many Of The rooms the black
boards are placed between the
windows, and 10 make matters
worse, they are finished with a.
rejecting surface, making it i'm
possible in many points of the
room to see the work on the
boarl. There is probably a suf-
ficient amount of light admitted
TO all the rooms except those in
the basement, but in many Of
them il comes IN the wrong d.
IeciiOn.
The basement rooms are little
better than cellars and in every
respect are unfit for occupancy.
They are lighted @ by four small
windows 3Ox32 inches, and the
rooms are dark even on bright
sunny days. One room i, so #.
long and. although the sun was
shining brightly. il was with the
greatest difficulty that work on
the front black board could be
read from the rear seats. The
teacher informed me that on
dark days ii was quite impossible
10 see work on tins board. and
she was in The habit of having a
bright fire burning in the stove,
which stands near the end black
board. and then opening The
stove door so the scholars could
see by fire light. The Youngest
pupils occupy these rooms and
they are given daily exercises to
copy on their slales from the
black boards. These eyarcicec