The San Francisco call., 1899-01-23

OASNSNNS'
From the foregoing it will be seen that
the pruningknife of the Board of School
Directors is at work and one by one the
schools are falling before it. Twelve
schools and their staffs of fifty teachers
are known to be marked for the un-
assigned list.
1t is matter of wonder that some of
these did not go long ago, especially the
Hearst Evening, which has twenty nupils
distributed among three teachers, and the
Mission Evening has twice as many chill
dren and only four teachers In the John
SWEET and Fairmount a congestion of
educators and minimum of pupils were
also found.
In every school of the city there will
be a sweeping consolidation of classes,
and even where the school is not on the
abolition list some of their classes are
marked for discontinuance and the revo-
luton of economy goes yet further, for
even where neither school nor class has
lost its status teachers will go out, their
work being carried on by principals and
vice principals.
The John SWEET Grammar, the Horace
Mann Grammar, the Lincoln Grammar
and the Adams Cosmopolitan have each
principal and two vice principals. Deep
cuts will be made into these positions and
In some cases the vice principals will be
scheme will level many distinctions
among the city educators.
The Horace Mann Evening School will
escape, but several of its classes will go.
One of these is Miss Gorham's book
keeping class. The closing of the other
two evening schools in that neighborhood,
the Mission and Fairmount, will fill the
Horace Mann to a saving capacity. 1t is
the intention of the Directors to discon-
tinue every evening school that can be
spared. and possibly all will be tenn
porarily closed
Director Head has been energetically
visiting around and he is determined
that retrenchment shall go down the line
until every school has had touch Of
condensation. Even the high schools
have not escaped notice, ana some OF
their classes are singled out. The Poly
with teachers, and their number will
grow smaller in consequence.
There will be deep cuts among the lit
tie schools in the suburbs. In some cases
one school will be bodily merged into
another, and not only the salaries Of
teachers will be saved, but school house
rent.
The Mission High School will lose one
class, the Cliff House School of one class,
taught by Miss A. Mclaughlin, will be
transferred to the Darlington School at
Point Lobos and Twenty-fifth avenues.
A public meeting will be held this even
ing in Superior Court, Department 6, at
the City Hall, by the citizens who oppose
the closing of the Normal School. Those
tuition claim that the pupils are deprived
of the latter half of their years tuition,
and that by the shutting down of the
school only the janitress wages-A0 per
months saved. 1t is not believed, how
ever, that these arguments will have any
effect on the directors, as they appear to
have made up their minds The two
teachers, Miss Fowler and Miss Fitzger-
ald will in all probability be assigned to
other schools. AS for the pupils, they
may all take the teachers examination,
and so secure certificates just as soon, if
not sooner, than If the school was con-
tinued.
Many of the principals have been slow
in the simple work of reporting on the
conditions of their respective schools and
furnishing the requested data for reclassi-
fication. This delay has not had the eff
feet of pleasing the Board of Education,
and the delinQuents will be called upon to
hasten in language somewhat severe. AL
ready about Seventy-five teachers have
been slated for the unassigned list, and
the positions of fully twenty-five more
are trembling in the balance.
Nor will the reforms strike only the
classes. A number of well-paid employees
of the department are now earning their
last months wages in that institution.
Said Director Holbrook yesterday:
when we finish our work, if anybody
can find any idle people drawing fat
money around the San Francisco school
domain they will have to search with a
magnifying glass. l can tell you that
there are some more surprises to fol-
low"