Omaha daily bee., 1896-02-05
PoTTAwATTAMIE's SCHOOLS.
Directors VIII Meet to Consider som
NHe,pI


Needed Chnnges.a
Prof. Paulson, superintendent of the county
schools, has issued a call for a general meet
ing of all the directors of the various town
and township schools OF Pottawattamie
county to be held at the office OF the county
superintendent on Saturday, February 15
Two meetings will be held one at 10 o'clock
In the forenoon and one at 2 o'clock in the
afternoon, and it is expected that ma
jority of the $50 directors of the county
schools Will be in attendance.
There will be number of important mat
ters discussed at the meetings Superinten-
dent Paulson has some plain business mat
ters to talk over with the directors and
then all OF the men who are expected to be
present at the meeting have a common in
terest In the question of notifications Of the
state school laws which will be discussed.
One OF the apparently minor changes in
the law, and still one that means much to
the farmers who are members of the town
ship boards, is the time fixed by law for
holding the annual and monthly meetings
of the boards. Under the law these meet
ings are held on Monday. The directors are
unanimous in asking that the meeting time
pc changed to Saturday as that will inter-
fere less with their duties in other lines
Under the law as 1t now stands the school
directors receive no pay for their work. AS
result they have little or no interest in
the work other than to secure position for
some daughter or neighbor's daughter, as
teacher, and the schools really suffer by
the system that has grown up in this ie-
spect. The directors will probably ask the
legislature to amend the law so that men,
bers of the school boards shall receive pay
for the actual time devoted by them to the
work or the schools. There will probably
be little opposition to the adoption of this
proposed amendment by the directors.
The question of allowing women the right
to vote on all school questions will probably
be discussed at the meeting with the senti-
lnent now in favor of asking the Legislature
to amend the law in that respect. Under the
present law the women may hold any sci col
office, but are not allowed to vote for school
officers.
Superintendent Paulson also wishes to have
general talk with the directors on several
subjects pertaining to the interests of the
school system of the county. He has just
returned from trip through the county, in
which he visited twentyseven schools. He
found about two-thirds of the number with
good teachers and the buildings in good con-
dltion. In eight or nine of the districts the
teachers were not up to the standard and
the buildings were found in very poor
condition. Superintendent Paulson found a
number Of instances in which three diff
ferent teachers have been employed at the
beginning Of the school year to teach the
three terms Of school. He considers this a
most pernicious practice and will use every
effort to have it discontinued.
The directors have an answer to make to
the complaint of the superintendent that
| some of the buildings are not kept in good
repair and are short on Dictionaries charts
and school supplies of that kind The direc-
tors assert that in many of the districts of
the county where the school buildings are
located along the main travelled thorough
fares the tramps and movers make the build
ngs stopping place for the night burn the
| furniture and carry eff the maps and charts.
| This condition is found to exist in number
! Of localities and the directors have given up
! trying to keep the school houses in proper
condition 1t is useless to lock the doors,
| for in that case the unlimited guests simply
break the windows and effect an entrance in
that manner. So the directors have allowed
the buildings to remain unlocked and have
instructed the teachers and pupils to carry
all their books and effects from the build
ing every night.
All of these matters will come up for dis
cussion at the meetings to be held on Sat-
| urday, February 15. t,