The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-01-28
BOARD OF EDUCATION.
Annual Reports Read at Last Nights
 Meeting.


 the reading of annual reports of com
 mittees and officials of the departmen
 preparatory to submitting them to tht l mayor. An extensive report was reaG | by Superintendent Kendall touchins upon all the phases of school work ir ! New Haven and making some valuable suggestions. The report will be printed
 in pamphlet form
 The committee on schools in its report
 made among others the following rec
 concentrations. That leave of absence
 of Mabel J. Bromley, teacher in the
 Welch school, be extended for the re-
 malnder of the present school year; the
 appointment of Miss Crittenden, teach
 CT in room No. 2 Strong school, to take
 the place of Miss Jessie W. W. Smith, who was obliged to give up her position 1 on account of i'll health; that Miss Crit tendens salary be fixed at the rate of $500 per year, to date from January 30;
 that the salary of Florence Watkins be 1 increased from $425 per annum to $475 per annum, to date from January ], 1899, the regular increase not having
 been given at the time of the regular appointment of teachers, owing to an oversight that the salary of Miss Anna E. Morris of the Washington school be increased from $500 to $625, to date from January 1, 1899. Miss Morris has been placed in charge of the individual helping room at the Washington school. The report was accepted and adopted.
 The annual report of the department to the mayor, as required by the char ter, was read last night and will be at once transmitted to the mayor together with reports of the superintendent of the finance committee of the board, of the committee on school buildings and with the usual statistics. The report of the board follows: The transfer of our schools from district to city govern ment was effected without friction and with no radical changes of policy. The fact that the appropriations for all branches of our local government are due in the hands of one central body whose duty it is to decide what propor- tion of the public money can be devoted to the education of our children and that it is no longer possible to appeal to the sympathes of the few who formerly attended a district meeting when called to vote an appropriation, for a new building, or to make good deficit, necessitates the exercise of the strictest economy on the part of the board. We must live within our means. We can no longer accumulate a floating debt, and this is as it should be. At the same time, with an increase of from 300 to 400 children per year in the schools, the ex- penses of this department must neces- sarily increase each year. Accommoda- tion must be provided for these new pupils and teachers hired to instruct them. Unfortunately our grand lisc does not increase in the same ratio as the number of children to be educated. It has been pointed out before that pro vision should be made for building at lease one school house of twelve rooms each alternate year. AS no such provi- sion was made in the appropriations for either 1898 or 1899, it would seem as if a special tax must be levied for this purpose in the near future. The erection of new grammar school build ings being almost fixed annual charge on the city they should be paid for from it's annual income, and not as heretofore, from borrowed 
 The board appreciates that the cost of our schools is very large and that there is a demand for retrenchment, but the problem of curtailment without injury is a very complicated one. It would be poor policy to try the experi- ment of taking from our courses of in- struction one or more branches unless we were positive that the change could be made permanent. Some things, no 1oubt, have been added from time to time which were not strictly necessary, out having once been incorporated as part of the system it seems well-nigh impossible to drop them, especially as ,ur schools are not conducted on more scale than those of neighbor- ng cities
 Many argue in favor of dispensing with the so-called frills or luxuries of as, for instance, music and lrawing, but on the other hand there . Ire a large number who consider these . branches of vital importance. All agree n this-that our primary and grammar schools are of the first importance, and f hat their efficiency must be maintain d, no matter what may become of the nigh schools.
 Nevertheless, our high schools are a fixed fact, and all talk of entirely abol- shing them seems waste of time.
 Perhaps the most difficult problem hat confronts the board is how to pro- tide for the pupils who will demand dmittance to the Hillhouse school in September, 1899. The superintendents eport clearly shows that the Hillhouse building is wholly inadequate to our present. needs Its overcrowded condi- ion, lack of ventilation, poor light in many rooms and consequent loss of ef- ciency in both teachers and pupils are onstant causes of anxiety to the board, nd no remedy seems to be in sigut. Tarious plans for limiting the number f pupils have been suggested, but they ave all been open to the objection of or have seemed to be so rbitrary as to be impossible in sys- em supported at public expense. No natter how much we may desire to do 0, we cannot divorce ourselves entirely rom the prevailing public sentiment of