Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-03-02
ROOM FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN
What is Said Officially in Response to q
Call for Light
The Number of Buildings, the Number
of Rooms and the Number of Pupils
to BE Provided For.

To the Editor of The Evening Star:
= Having noticed that the United States
Senate has, at the instance OF Senator Gal
hnger Of New Hampshire, called upon our
District officials for information with re-
gard to public school accommodations, In
this District; and having also received a
copy of report, furnished by the acting
superintendent wish to call the attention
of your readers to some Of the facts which
can be gathered from said report.
understand that the report refers to the
school enrolment in December last. As
you are doubtless aware, the attention of
our people has been called, frequently Of
late. in public prints and at public gather
logs. to the alleged incapacity of school ac-
commodations in this District.
:! It has been said thst thousands of chill
dren have been shut out from school in
struction. because of lack of school &C.
accommodations.
If your, readers will examine the Senate
MIS- document, No. 81, Sd session, Fifty
third Congress. they will find the following
facts:
= 1. That we have about 116 school build
2. That there are about 74s school rooms.
But each day 1872 Of these rooms are used
twice; once for halliday schools; thus re-
g. That these. sos rooms furnish about
$4,000 seats.
:, 4. That the average enrolment is about
$4,000.
'. 5. That the number of vacant seats is,
therefore, about 1900.
8. That there are several rooms reported
as unoccupied
Z, That the number allotted to each room
Is hfty-six, which was formerly sixty.
8. That every applicant for admission Is
received into the schools.
0. That it Is evident that judicious su-
pervision and management could find the
present buildings sufficient to accommodate
1900 more pupils than are now enrolled.
10. That the number of halliday schools
Is about 152.
II. That there are vacancies equal to 279
schools.
II. That by proper management every
halliday school could be a whole-day
school, and then there would be room for
l2I more schools. or for 7,1O4 seats then
vacant
Yet there is said to be demand for sew
eral hundred thousand dollars for new
school buildings. Let us. the taxpayers
have some light upon this dark view of
school affairs. TAXPAYER.
At the Office of the superintendent Of
public schools 1t Is said the information
implied in the above communication is
misleading. A Star reporter was informed
that the number of school buildings Is not
ZIG. That number must include several
small rented buildings used for normal
purposes. machine and carpenter shops, and
not intended or used to seat any consider
able number Of pupils. The total number
Of school buildings. including the three
high schools, and twenty county schools. Is
%. Some of these county schools are very
small affairs, and school officials think they
should count very little in the statistics of
capacity. All the larger county schools. at
Brookland, Tenleytown and Giesboro, are
represented as being crowded beyond their
capacity. That at Brookland has five
teachers for four rooms. necessitating two
hall hat ot Tan1 tNxx
has four teachers for three rooms and that
at Giesboro' three teachers for two rooms.
The returns made in the report quoted
were for December. a month which school
authorities say always shows serious in
terruptions in attendance. In that month.
as Star reporter was told, many children
this year sta!d out to go to work. The
holiday season also reduces attendance
considerably. The whole number of school
rooms, owned and rented. is 534. The an-
rollment of pupils in all schools. white and
colored, is 33,624. The capacity is about
1000. as estimated.
The everage number of pupils to school
(based on the whole enrollmenD is stated
in the official reports for the past year as
follows: High schools Ito teacher. exciud-
ing principaD. $50: grammar schools. city
eighth grade, 47.S; seventh grade. P.I;
sixth grade, 1876; fifth grade. 500. Primary
schools. city-Fourth grade 500; third
grade 51.1; second grade, Sill; first grade,
$50. County schools-White. 49,; colored.
SOL.
The Question of Capacity.
But school officials argue, the question
of capacity is not one to be reduced to one
general average of the number of pupils in
a room. Superintendent Powell states this
matter in a recent report as follows: IF
the growth of the schools could be re-
stricted to prescribed localities, the in
creased accommodations given us would to
a large degree. prevent us from getting
into a worse condition year by year, but
even then We should not get relief for the
localities whose school accommodations are
of a poor character, and for which we have
year by year asked for better and more
healthful appointments. The school terri
tory of the District embraces more than
sixty-four square miles: large portion of
this territory Is suburban and is growing
rapidly, so that in one year frequently
there Is developed in each of almost a
dozen places urgent need for more school
room, and unless this want is supplied
within one or two years the lack of &C
commodations in many places becomes a
hardship to the people residing there. In
all the outlying parts of the city proper,
except Georgetown only. beginning on the
Potomac river and passing around to the
Eastern branch. and in all the suburban
settlements from the Potomac, near the
Conduit road, around to Giesboro' point
excepting Mount Pleasant, the neighbor-
hood Of the old Schuetzen Park and the
village of Anacostia, there are most ur-
gent demands for more school room"
THE growth of the schools, as already in
timated, is In so many localities that the
erection of one or two buildings gives but
small relief. The building provided for the
southeast the coming year will be filled as
soon as done, and because of the rapid
growth Of that section of the city will but
partially relieve the Wallach, Towers,
Cranch and Tyler schools. 1t will be neces-
sary to continue double schools in many of
the rooms of these buildings, and also to
place double schools In the new building
when 1t Is occupied.
I'VE have now to extend the halliday
system to make 1t include thirty-two third
grade schools and eight fourth-grade
schools. Before new buildings hereafter to
be provided can be made available these
numbers will be greatly enlarged. 1 must
still insist that halliday school for any
scholar above the kindergarten grade is not
advisable and not profitable. and for a pu-
Pill above the first or second grade is well
nigh farce. To give lad twelve years of
age opportunity to attend school three and
a half hours day, knowing well that he
will spend the rest of his time on the street,
Is robbery Of the boys time and danger
to society. If the boy could be profitably
employed in some educating as well as re-
murerative industry, the case would be
very different
''As was indicated last year in the annual
~rA 81 I--s~- 49,