Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-11-11
TO HAVE THE FACTS.
SCHOOL BOARD WILL PRESENT A
STATEMENT OF IT'S NEEDS.
MANAGEMENT OF The FUNDS GIVEN.
Expenses Have Increased Only as
the Enrolment Has Grown and
Institutions DeveIopcd-Business
Men Comfnend Action of Council.

There is no abatement in the interest
and feeling which have been aroused in
the matter Of whether the City Council
should make an additional appropriation
to carry the public schools OF the city
to the end of the fiscal year. The refusal
OF the Board Of Aldermen to suspend
Rule 32. that the proposition TO appro-
pirate $500 to the schools might be con-
sidered by that body on Tuesday night.
was a topic OF conversation from one end
OF town 20 the other yesterday. some
people condemned the action OF the alder
men, while others approved IT. Comment
upon this subject has not been confined
in by men and women Of all conditions.
Many men who send their children TO
private schools have spoken in most pro-
nounced terms against the action Of the
Council in rejecting the ordinance appro-
prlating the money needed by the public
schools. while other citizens who even
send their children 10 the public schools
have said that both the Council and the
Board of Aldermen have done right.
Il NE RULE ~ QOES lOAN.
1t will be remembered that the latter
body refused 10 suspend Rule 30, and thus
the matter did not get squarely before 1t
on Tuesday night This rule reads as fol-
lows: I'm ali contracts or expenditures
to be made under the authority Of the
City Council. whenever the estimates snail
exceed the appropriations specially made
therefor, or whenever any committee
shall have expended the sum specially
appropriated for its use in the order of
appropriation for the year and in either
case shall require further sum, IL shall
be the duty of such committee having
such matter in charge to submit the fact
to the City Council for instructions, ac-
companied with detailed statement of
the cause or causes which have created
the necessity of such application and the
object for which the same is needed and
no contract shall be made or expenditure
| authorized in either case, unless by a
| specific vote of the City Council first
| making the necessary provision for the
payment resulting therefrom; and no
| debt shall be created. or transfer from
| one special appropriation to another be
made, until such report or statement shall
| have been submitted to the City Council
| by the committee requiring the same
SCHOOL BOARD TO GIVE FACTS.
| In view of the stand taken by the
| Board of Aldermen, the City School
! Board met in special session last evening
| and discussed the situation at some
| length. There were present Messrs. j..
| Taylor Ellyson (chairman), r. T. Briggs,
4 Reuben Burton, James II. Capers. J. G..
| Dickerson, Charles Hutzler, and William
| NJ Turpin. Superintendent Fox and Clerk
| Rady were also on hand and the board,
| after considering what should be done,
! appointed a special committee, composed
! of Messrs. Ellyson and Hutzler, to make
| up at once a report TO the Council, giving
| all the facts and figures to be desired by
that body as TO the School Boards ex-
| penditures in the past, the number Of
teachers, pupils. ETC., and its needs TO
| carry ii to January 1, 1S9S This state
| ment will be submitted TO the Board OF
! Aldermen next Monday night.
| During the discussion which took place
| 1t was brought out that parents are now
| clamoring to get their children into the
| public schools but that the schools are
| overcrowded, and accommodations can
| not he provided for them There are
| about II 300 scholars in the schools. There
| are 172 white and 70 colored teachers, and
this year the city appropriated to the
schools in toto the sum Of $llO,372, as
against s117.6s521, the actual amount II
| cost to run the schools last year.
In the past twenty-seven years the pub
uc-school system of Richmond has grown
steadily and rapidly. During the schoo
year of 1s70-1S71 there were in the public
schools 1856 pupils. The city then gave
si2625, and the schools received S2,l5o.T
from outside sources. The system has
grown year by year, and. of course, be
came more and more expensive TO th'
city. as the following figures will show: