The evening times., 1899-03-18
THE INVISIBLE REPORT.
Efforts to Delay Action on School
Building Disclosures.

Building Disclosures.
Although two of the District Commits
sioners profess to be unaware of the fact,
the much discussed report of the commit
tee on buildings and repairs Of school
trustees which involves the responsible
ty OF the District government for badly
built schoolhouses, has reached the Dis
trict Building. 1t was mailed by the Sec
retary OF the Board of School Trustees last
Thursday afternoon. Enquiry at the Dis
trict Building this morning failed to
disclose the fact that any such report had
been received at the Office of the Secretary
to the Commissioners.
Both Commissioners Wight and Beach
made positive assertions that they
had not seen the report, and
one laughingly remarked that the doc
ument probably exists only in the mind
! of newspaper writer's At that time, new
ertheless, the report was at the District
Building. and was among the papers OF
Commissioner Ross, who is not at the
District Building today. 1t was stated
that he had gone to New York on per-
sonal matters
The letter of Mr.. Falck Secretary of the
4 oard of School Trustees, transmitting the
report, was at the District Building late
yesterday afternoon. Attached to it were
letters from Francis r. Lane, Principal of
High Schools, enumerating the faults found
at the Western High School, the Conduit
School, the Chevy Chase School, and the
Gross, Johnson, Hayes. and Bruce School
Buildings. The report itself could not be
located. Ii was not with the letter of
transmi,tal, and no one at the District
Building seems to know of its existence.
Ii may be that Commissioner Ross took
the document TO New York with him, al
though this could not be verified The
letters of Superintendent Lane contain da-
ia similar to that given in the Harries re-
port, and to very large degree formed
the basis of the latter paper.
Each of the schools adversely reported
upon was built and inspected by different
persons. The Western High School was
! built by Baldwin G. Peake, contractors and
| builders, and was inspected by Perry Mil
! Ter; the Chevy Chase School was built by
Pavarini Greer, in 1897, and inspected
! by Superintendent Garrett; the Reservoir,
or Conduit Road, School, was built by
William f. Beers & Co.. and was not Off
cially inspected; the Johnson School was
| built in 1886 by Columbus Thomas & Sons
| and inspected by c. w. Warnecke; and
! the Hayes School was built last year by
| J. Nj. Dunn and inspected by John G.
| Bright.
/ 1t has been the custom to detail special
| inspectors at every new public school
-, iiuNe iHS lue couIse Vi eTectlon
| They are paid at the rate of 81 day out
| of the amount appropriated for the work
! by Congress. When the Reservoir School
! was built small Congressional appropria-
! tions prevented the appointment of a spe-
/ cial inspector and one of the four in
| spectors of the corps attached to the Office
Of the District Inspector of Buildings was
| detailed to watch the construction. He did
| this in connection with his other duties
In view of the amounts involved in the
erection of the new school buildings, and
/ particularly on the new Western High
! School, the Connecticut Avenue School al
! Chevy Chase, and the Hayes School at
! Fifth and Streets northeast all of
which were erected last year, figures show
| ing the expenditures in detail are inter-
! esting at this time The figures in con-
nection with the Western High School
| are as follows: