The San Francisco call., 1898-04-06
MADE CHARGES OF PARTIALITY Class Line Said to Have Been Drawn in the
 Schools.
Superintendent MeClymonds Has a Scheme That Is
 Not Feasible.
MT. Girard Says if All Were Treated Alike Crowding Could Be
 Relieved.
Oakland Office San Francisco Call

sos Broadway, April 5.
 The charges made last night by Coun- cflman Girard and MT. Wheeler of West Oakland that there is discrimination be- ing made among the school children by Superintendent McClymonds has aroused general interest and brought to the sur face much that has been smoldering for years.
 MT. McClymonds is bent upon removing the Tompkins school from a thickly pop ulated district south of Seventh street where 1t has healthy surroundings and fine playgrounds, to a lot at Ninth and Castro streets, where it will be impossible unless by purchase to have any play ground. The cost of this move is conser- vatively estimated by the Board of Edu- cation at $15 900 for the land and $5000 for removing the school. Practical contrac- tors, however, assert that to cut the big school in three pieces, move it the long distance it would have to go, rebuild it and put it Tn good condition, would cost at least $20 900. It is also said that to buy enough ground for an adequate play ground would cost $40,000 more, and the argument is made that after all this eX- penditure the people whom McClymonds would benefit would be at a greater dis aQvantage than at present.
 MT. McClymonds stated that he did not know why parents north Of the steam W school south of the track, and ridiculed the idea that it was because they did not want to send their children across the track four times each day. McClymonds showed with figures and diagrams that there are now 500 children south of Sev- enth street, of whom 400 attend the Tompkins school. The school is capable of and large enough to accommodate 500 children, and the nearest school north of Seventh street is overcrowded. Nicely monds would therefore, take the school north of the track and have the 400 chll- dren walk from seven to twelve blocks four times day across the track rather than have the congestion from the Cole school cross the track to fill up the Tomp- kinS school.
 This idea of MT McClymonds irritated Councilman Girard, who was for several years on the Board of Education You pretend not to know why people do not wish to send their children south of Sey- enth street to school" said Girard. You know very well why it is, but you don like to say so. North of seventh street is an aristocratic district, while south are ians and Irish, and you want to pander to the people north of the track and ig- nore the rights of the humber class to the south" MT. McClymonds attempted shown but MT. Wheeler said that he could prove it, and that there are at this time a few ''aristocratic" families south of Seventh street, who have been given permits to attend the Cole school, in stead of obeying the law and attending the Tompkins school, where there IS yet room for 200 children.
 Wheeler said he could present the names of fifteen children to whom Me Clymonds had pandered by letting them attend the Cole school. The superintend- ent denied this, but the argument of Cir ard Brosnahan and Wheeler, added to the practical experience of MT. Cuvellier, who has four children in West Oakland, had so much effect that out of the whole Council MT. McClymonds only received one vote.
 There Is the greatest satisfaction ex- hibited in the Tompkins school district to- day over the fact that the school is not to be removed.