St. Paul daily globe., 1895-12-24
THE EXPENSE OF 1T.


Cost of Administering the Several
Departments of the City Gov
ernment.
The Public SchooIs-The limit set by
law upon the amount of money that may
be expended for the public schools of the
city, IN any one year, is 31a mills per
dollar of valuation of property for taxa
tion purposes, plus the citys distributive
share of the state school fund. OF this
amount, the proceeds of p mill tax may
be used within the year for building pur-
poses. The entire tax may, however, be
legally used for current expenses. Under
the present valuation, 3ls mills tax would
produce $431. 723. The amount received
from the state apportionment is now
about $4,000 per year; so that the maxi
mum limit of yearly expenditure would
taxes were promptly paid. This limit is
slightly enlarged from miscellaneous
sources.
The school year. by the city charter ex-
tends from Sept. 1 to June 80. The city
comptroller, who is official accountant of
the school board, annually makes up
statement Of the receipts and disburse-
ments for the schools running from July
81 to July 81. The statistics of attend
anCe, and teachers salaries, are kept by
llle SCuOOl DOdTu lOT lHe SCHOOl year.
Other statistics, relating to cost of main
tenance. heating and lighting of build
ings, are kept by the board for whole
calendar years ending Aug. 81. These
practices. to some extent confuse the
school accounts and statistics, when an
effort is made to take a view of them as
a whole and make computations founded
upon them to some extent inaccurate.
However, it is quite possible to construct
out of this partial chaos tables showing
t1n 60 rNxrt, of01,, 4I,N,, A.
cording to the comptroller's statements,
excluding balances carried over from
previous years, the receipts for the
years ending 1894 and 1895 have been as
follows:
1894
Proceeds tax collection certif-
Gates ........................ 5000, 900 90
State apportionment t........... 72,564.45
lax receipts. .......,..... ........ l94, 4ll.31
Miscellaneous. .......... ........ 1,12S.35
$46s, ,1O4.11
1895.
Proceeds tax collection certifi
Gates. ............. .Sl9S, oO0 w
State apportionment.. nt............. IA, $50. so
Tax receipts. OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. 222, 701. 04
Miscellaneous ................... 1890
s496, 1882. IA
For the same years the operating ex-
penses of the department were as follows:
1894.
Teachers wages. ................ $345, 729. 80
Other employees wages. s......... 49, $50. .08
Fuel and supplies. ................ 36,767.79
Repairs and betterments. ....... 1882 81
Miscellaneous .................. 1851
SAT-, 456. OF
1895.
Teachers wages. ............... s342, ,197. 20
Other employees wages 5000 SS
Fuel and supplies. SO. 906. 81
REPAIRS and bettermentS % 40 "a
Miscellaneous Observation-Disclosures. 1907
$451, ,37S. 90
To ascertain the entire current ex-
penses of the schools for those years.
should be added the foregoing figures for
each the interest on the $3.50, 900 outstand-
ing bonds issued for the erection of
school buildings, amounting to $33, 500 per
year. This would make the total current
expenses for the school year ended July
81, 1894. .................... $3.50, 956 .07
and for that ended July 81. 1895 4S4, SIS. 90
The average number of pupils enrolled
and the average daily attendance, in the
respective years, was as follows:
1894. 1896
Average enrolment. ....... SIG 1882
Average daily attendance. .14919 1891
The average cost per pupil in all schools
for the respective years was as follows:
1894. 1895.
Per average enrolment :. .$27. As $26.71
Per average daily attend
ance. ........ .............. 1928 91.O9
In the year ended 1894 night schools
had total enrolment of 1,261 pupils,
causing total outlay of So, ,239.75. The
above figures for average daily attend
ance for that year exclude night scholars;
so that the actual cost per pupil, based
upon average attendance, was a few
cents less than that given in the table.
in the year ended 1895 includes day schol-
arS only.
The school board has stated the total
cost of day schools, for operating ex-
penses, for the year ended 1890, at $685.,
345. and the average daily attendance at
1924. This would make the cost per
pupil, per year. based on such attend
ance, S44.2S, the reduction per pupil, in
four years, having been $13.19.
The schools of the city are divided into
kindergarten, primary, intermediate, and
high. For some years there has also been
maintained a school for manual training
and another for manual instruction.
The number of school buildings owned
by the city is now a, containing 464 class
rooms. Of these, however, four, namely.
the Logan, Tilden, Quincy, and Mattocks
schools, containing together twelve class
rooms, are located in districts so sparsely
populated as to have total enrolment
Of but II pupils, and an average attend
ance of but 65 pupils. These four schools
will receive more detailed notice further
on in this report. During the past year
one new building has been erected, and
two others enlarged, at a total cost of
SAG, 1876.
Two Of the school buildings, viz: the
Central High School and the Manual
Training School, are exclusively devoted
to high school instruction.
The remaining forty-two buildings are
devoted to kindergarten, primary, and In
termediate instruction, although in two,
viz, the Cleveland and HUMBOLDT, a
small amount Of space is assigned to
high school work. In the Maxfeld, nor
NAL instruction is given. Kindergarten
instruction is given in twenty y-seven
schools.
HIGH SCHOOLS.
In the school year ended 1895 the aver
age enrolment and attendance of high
school pupils in the four schools giving
that grade Of instruction, were as fol-
lows:
Average Average
Enrolment. Attendance.
Central High ,...., SS2. 766.
Manual Training -. 1913 1882
Cleveland 85 4.5
Humboldt ......ss .. 100. 1913
Total ............1, ,22a3 1,O69.s
The total expenses of high school in
year, in each Of the four schools, was
as follows:
Total oper- Cost per pu-
ating cost. Pill per year.
central H1gn ....$43,o95 "A $56 80
Manual Training. IL, 1876 45 116 03
Cleveland -. -. 1850 90 SO 90
Humboldt -. 3,40O 90 43 90
Total cost high school instruction, $685.
740.S9; average per pupil, $62.43.
In the above tables only teachers sal
aries have been included for the Hum
boldt and Cleveland schools; all the 9TH
er expenses, including attendance, repairs
and heating and lighting the buildings
have been charged against the lower de-
partments. Interest on bonds has not
been taken into the estimate for either
of the schools, although of the city bonds
outstanding, $4,000, bearing an annual
interest of $500. were issued for erec-
tion of the Central High School build
ing. This interest account distributed
among the pupils Of that school amounted
to about S3 40 per head: and brought the