Omaha daily bee., 1899-04-04
PLAN NEW SCHOOL HOUSES
Board Of Education Fixes Size Of Pacific and
Davenport Buildings,
STRUCTURE ON CASS SITE UNDETERMINED
Architects of the buildings Chosen
Supervisors of Construction AFTER
Fight and Their Compensation
FiNed-Othcr Proceedings.

The Board of Education at its regular
meeting last night decided that the new
Pacific school shall contain sixteen rooms
and the Davenport school ten rooms. 1t
failed to agree whether the present Cass
school should be torn down and sixteen
room school erected in its place or whether
an eight-room building should be built in
| connection with the present school; there
| fore the Cass school question for final de-
cison was laid over until the next meet
| ing.
The board also determined that the archi-
| tects who have been employed to draw
plans for the High school and the three
grammar schools, Mcdonald and Latenser
respectively, shall also act as supervisors of
construction. Their compensation for both
plans and superintendent is to be per
cent of the cost of construction of the
buildings. The attorney of the board was
authorized to enter into contracts with the
architects on this basis provided that the
contracts shall terminate whenever the
board is dissatisfied with the work. These
| and other matters were decided upon in
meeting full of discussion and contention
Size of Grammar schools.
The first of these various matters to be
| considered was the size of the grammar
| schools. 1t came UP in the shape of
| report from the committee on property and
! buildings which recommended that the
| present building on the Cass site be torn
| down as soon as the school term closes in
| June and that siXteenroom building be
erected in its place; that sxteen-room
| school be erected on the new Pacific school
| site and a ten-room building on the Davcn-
| port site.
In connection with this report Chairman
| Cowie made a statement of the manner in
which the committee proposed to raise
enough money to build school buildings of
this size. The total cost, he said, would
be on the basis of $4,000 a room, or total
of $13S, 600. or $4,000 more than the bonds
voted by the people for these schools. Ac
| cording to the bond proposition that had
| carried, these $1OO 900 bonds must be dis
| tributed as follows among the three schools:
| Cass, $35 900; Pacific, $4,000; Davenport,
| $90, 000 The Davenport school allotment is
| ample continued Chairman Cowie, and an
additional $4,000 would have to be raised
for each of the other schools. This extra
| sec, 600 could be found in the $4,000 due the
| board from the city for the Dodge street
Jail site and one-half of the $21 900 premium
paid for the school bonds, the other half
to be spent on the High school.
| ArOuses Discussion.
This report aroused a considerable amount
| of discussion, which was rather ne-sided,
however The only opponents to the report
| were Hess and Van Glider, who centered
| all their opposition on the proposition to
| tear down the present Cass school. Van
| Glider objected to the destruction of the
school at all, while Hess was not satisfied
that the building need be torn down ana
| a h,- 10 iratn 10
argued that an additional eght-room build
| ing could be erected on the site, which, in
connection with the present building, would
| be sufficient to accommodate all pupils that
| would apply for admission to the school.
| This would be especially the case, Hess in
! sisted because of the fact that a railroad
| Is about to enter the part of the city in
which the school is located.
Superintendent of Buildings Banker,
when called upon, did not approve of the
eght-room addition. The old building Is
badly lighted, unsanitary and unfit for
school purposes, he said.
A motion to lay the whole report over
| was lost, but a compromise the board
deferred action on the Cass school, The re-
port was adopted however, as far as it
referred to the Pacific and Davenport
schools. The Cass school will be talked
about at the next meeting of the board.
Later in the meeting a resolution was
adopted which instructed the secretary to
make a demand upon the city council for
| the $4,000 which is due from the city as
| the purchase price of the Dodge school
building and site for city Jail purposes.
Member Hess asserted that this money
could not be used for building purposes and
while the board is getting the cash the
attorney was instructed to look into this
| legal question.
AS a further possible means of raising
| the extra money needed for the construction
of these schools, the committee on buildings
and property recommended that some OF
the unused school district real estate be
placed on the market for sale. The report
was adopted and the committee was in
structed to submit report upon the most
| practicable steps to be taken in the matter.
| Architects Rs Supervisors.
The questions Of whether or not the archi-
tects should also be appointed superntend-
ents Of construction and of the compensation
they should receive also provoked a long
! debate. The committee on buildings and
property recommended that the architects
be appointed supervisors of construction and
be paid per cent of the cost of the build
ings for both duties.
Member Hayward moved as an amendment
that the board pay per cent of the cost
of buildings for the plans and specifications
and that Superintendent of Buildings Banker
be made superintendent of construction. Mr..
! Hayward said that the architects had not
been employed to supe$Intend the construc-
tion Of The Bee, New York Life and other
large buildings, special superintendents of
construction being secured, The method
was found most satisfactory. Mr. Hayward
also asserted that by his plan per cent OF
the cost Of construction would be saved,
amounting to between $4,000 and s. 900.
Hess and other members said the super
ntendent of construction would have TO
frequently consult the architects at SO much
per consultation, the result being a greater
expense than If the architects were en-
ployed as superintendents Mr. Hayward
wanted to know IL the architects We're not
expected to furnish plans so plain that they
could be followed by a practical builder,
Mr.. Hayward's amendment, however was
downed, only Hayward and Penfold voting
for il.
Member Hayward then moved that instead
OF the architects a special superintendent
be employed at a salary of not 10 exceed
$50 month. 1t was argued that a COM
petent man could not be secured at the
figure. MIR, Hayward said he could get a