The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-27
THOSE UNT|DY SCHOOLS,
Director McElroy, Who Has
Visited Sixty of Them, Is
Mortified.
The Old School Boards, He Says,
Did Nothing but Fight the
Teachers.

II am prepared to corroborate all that
Mr.. Comte said in his address to the
Finance Committee of the Board of Super
visors with regard to the wretched condi-
ton OF the school buildings of this City"
said Andrew McElroy, chairman of the
Committee on Buildings and Grounds of
the Board of Education, yesterday.
"There are over seventy school buildings
in all, and of these not less than sixty that
l know of from personal observation are in
a shameful state. Some are much worse
than others, to be sure, but I should say
upon each of these buildings to bring them
into habitable state. Many of them are
very old, and the memory of the Oldest in
habitant can scarcely reach back to the
time when they were painted and white.
washed. They are in such bad sanitary
condition as to be actually disease breed
ing. | would mention the Irving Primary
School as notably SO.
1.-THE Redding School and the Lafayette
are not only in very bad sanitary shape,
but the stairs are so narrow and badly ar
ranged that | consider them little less than
fretraps. They ought to be remodeled at
once, or supplanted with new and better
buildings. Then there is the Cooper
School, on Greenwich street, between
Jones and Leavenworth. The sidewalk has
never been filled in there, and in rainy
weather the basement fills up with water
deep enough to float boat and remains
there until the dry season, endangering
the health of everybody in the school,
The sidewalk should be filled up and a
concrete bulkhead built around three sides
of the building.
''How does it come that the school
buildings of this great city are in such a
shameful condition? There is nothing to
explain it except absolute neglect on the
part of the Board of Education. If these
schools were ever Visited by any person
whose duty it was to keep them in habit
able shape they must have appealed to
him so strongly that he would never have
rested until some improvement was
effected. But the mem perS of the school
board, I am told, never did visit them
They seem to have considered their obi
cations to the people who elected them
as fulfilled when they came up here and
put in their spare time fighting the school
teachers"
81 can Join with Mr.. McElroy in most
all that he has said remarked Director
Scott. 't0ur first effort was to restore the
salaries of the teachers cut down by our
predecessors. | know that the condition
of very many of the schools is very bad |
think, with Mr.. McElroy, that if fire
broke out in either the Redding or Lafa-
yette schools during school hours the re-
suit would be very serious. There is need
of a wholesale housekeeping, and this
board is disposed to see that it is done if it
is possible. We believe also in allowing
the children not only plenty of fresh air
while they are in the old buildings but to
provide them with room on the outside in
which to stretch themselves and to grow.
We will need money, of course, to do this;
the lack of it is very substantial handi-
can of course