The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-09-12
THE BOARD OF EDUCATION.
IMPORTANT SPECIAL SESSION HELD
 LAST EVENING.

teassess in snt Of the RatabIe Property in N Ihe District--Report of Superintendent II B 'urtis Accepted.
 gk special meeting of the board or | e ication was held last evening, all | nmbers being present.
 . . was voted to open a new room In
 o Quinnipiac school The salary Of II Whitehead of Bristol R. l., who vS recently appointed instructor In " dwork in the Boardman manual training school at salary of N,l0O, was increased to $1.200. The committee on special instruction had understood that he would accept $i,l00, but he re- fused it. It was voted to buy three pianos, one for the manual training school, one for the Skinner kindergar- ten and one for the Day kindergarten. The amended report of the finance com mittee was accepted.
 The report of President Avis in behalf of the board of education to the New Haven city school district was adopted. Following are some extracts from 1t: At the close of this year the board of education is pleased to report the schools in their usual prosperous con dition. The rapid growth of the dis trict, however, has taxed the schools | to their utmost and in several sub-dis- tricts 1t has been necessary to rent rooms outside for the relief of the great pressure in some of the buildings.
 In speaking of the condition of the | high school at the present time the re- port says: When the present high school building was erected 1t was in- | tended to accommodate about 400 pu- pills. To-day there are in the school about 750. The loss and gain during the year usually balance, so that this will be about the number during the year. It will be found by reference to the course of study prepared for the | report this year that 654 recitations are required each week in the high school, | and these should all be given if the | school is expected to do its best. But they cannot all be given in thepresent building. It will be necessary to drop
 
 or 2,8S0 for the year, or rent rooms and l hire teachers to do the work outside, which the board has already done to | take care of the commercial class for the coming year. The situation grows worse every year, and next September taking this years figures as basis, the building will not seat the pupils. Year by year the room that was origi- nally intended for other uses and can not well be spared has been taken and partttioned off for the accommodation of classes and to increase the seating capacity of the building. The assem- ply room, halls, principals office every thing, in fact, that could be used, has been laid under contribution until there is nothing left to draw upon for the ac- commodation of classes and to increase the seating capacity of the building. If this school, the continuation of the New Haven system, the link that joins the system to the normal school and colleges, or if it's pupils do not wish to go further, has within itself the means for culture broad and liberal enough to fit them for almost any walk in life, is to be maintained, it should be kept at it's best and should not be allowed for want of proper support to destroy the symmetry of an educational system second to none in New England.
 The attention of the district is re- spectfully invited to this vital matter. The high school building, as was re- ported at previous meeting, was con-. demned by the fire marshal for not being provided with the necessary es- cape in case of fire, and the district ap- propriated the necessary amount to make such changes as were necessary. This work has been done and the build ing is now in satisfactory condition. Two years ago the district voted to au- thorize the issue of bonds to the amount of $17O,OO0 for the purchase of site and for the preparation of plans and the erection of a new high school. This at that time was supposed to be the bal ance of the bonds authorized by the legislature G50O0OO unappropriated It was afterward discovered, however, that by previous votes of the district $39, 900 of that amount had been at diff ferent times appropriated for other pur- poses, leaving a balance of $131 ,000 for the high school. A site was secured in York square at a cost of $40,3O0, leaving for the preparation of the plans and the building $89, 700.
 In accordance with the vote passed at the last regular meeting of the dis trict the board has caused plans to be prepared for the new high school and submits them for your approval The proposed building will meet the re- quirements for many years to come, if erected.
 The following indebtedness, which ap- pears large, will be greatly reduced. as soon as the board begins to receive taxes due on the list of 1893, which, by operation of the new law, cannot be collected until after November of the present year.
 The problem of providing finances for the successful operations of the schools is growing to be a serious and difficult one, and the board respectfully invites the attention of the district to few facts in relation to the growth of the district in population, and It's apparent growth in rateable wealth as shown by the grand list.
 In 1880 the taxable property of the dis trict was assessed at s45,S27, ,s07. There had been a down trend from the year 1876, when the grand list was more than $5s,ooo,ooo. In 1879 1t touched bot tom, and in 1880 1t began to rise. From 1880 to 1894, a period of fourteen years, \
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