The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1901-09-13
NEW JERSEY SCHOOLS.
Asst Supt. Belts interesting Resume
for Pan-American.
Continued from last week. J

Continued from last week.
the State In his will he gave the
school an endowment of $50, 900. The
number of pupils enrolled was 149, and
the cost of maintenance s., 780.
The Manual Training and Industrial
School for Colored Youth, located at
Bordentown was established in 1894, and
was under the care of separate Board
of Trustees. In 1900 it was placed under
the care of separate Board of Trus.
tees. There were enrolled last year 118
pupils, and the cost of maintenance was
So ,954.
The entire State is divided into school
districts, each city, town and township
constituting a separate district. There
are two classes of districts, viz. munich
palities divided into wards and munich
palites not divided into wards. The first
class includes the cities and large towns.
In these districts members of the boards
of educations may be appointed by the
Mayor or elected by the people. The
amount of money to be appropriated
locally for the support of schools is de-
termined by the Board of School Esti-
mate, consisting of the Mayor, two
members of the financial board in the
municipality and two members of the
Board of Education. The second class
includes the townships and small bor-
oughs. In these districts the members
of the boards of education are elected
and all appropriations ara made by di-
rect vote of the people. By the law
boards of education are made bodies
corporate, and are not a part of the
municipal government.
The Legislature, recognizing the value
of manual training, passed law in 1881
providing that whenever a school dis
trict established a. manual training
school or added manual training to the
course of study pursued in the public
schools of the district, the State would
appropriate each year an amount equal
to the sum raised in the district for that
purpose; provided that the total annual
appropriation by the State to a district
shall not exceed S., 600. Under this law
two cities have established manual
training schools and twenty-four dis
tricts havesadded manual training to
their courses of study. The total
amount appropriated by the State last
year for manual training was $4,000.
The State gives to each school annual
ly $l0, provided such school raises like
sum to be used for the purchase of ap-
paratus or to maintain library for
the use of the pupils; also to each coun-
ty sum not exceeding $100 annually,
upon like conditions, for the purpose of
providing pedagogical libraries for the
use of teachers. One thousand five
hundred and one schools and all the
counties, with one exception, have es-
tablished libraries under the provisions
of this law.
| In order that the health of the chill
dren may be protected the law provides
| that all school houses shall have at least
| eighteen square feet of floor space and
two hundred cubic feet of air space per
pupil that the light area must equal at
least twenty per cent. of floor space;
that there must be an approved system
of ventilation and that must be admit
ted only from the left and rear of class
rooms In order that these provisions
of law shall be obeyed, all plans for
school houses must be submitted to the
State Board of Education for approval.
Each district is also authorized to
employ medical inspector, whose duty
it shall be to look after the sanitary con-
dition of the school property, to inspect
the pupils and to give instruction to the
| teachers.
The Constitution provides that the
State shall provide free education for
all children between the ages of five
and eighteen years, but the Legislature,
recognizing the value of kindergarten
and higher education, has provided that
children between the ages of four and
twenty years may be admitted to the
public schools.
Funds for the support of public
schools are derived from five sources,
viz. State school fund, State fund,
State school tax, interest of surplus
revenue and local tax.
The income of the State school fund,
as has been heretofore stated, amounts
to 5000, 900 per annum.
Appropriations from the State fund
are made for the several institutions
under the care of the State Board of
Education, the expenses of the Depart
ment Of Public instruction, the salaries
of County Superintendents, manual
| training, school and teachers libraries,
and for the support Of public schools.
The appropriation for the last item is to
reduce the amount of the State school
tax, and, by law, cannot be less than
100000. The State school tax here
after will be two and three-fourths
mills. For the current year it is
.00256, and the appropriation from the
State fund, as part of the tax for the
current year. is 35 per cent. of the tax.
or over 100000, so that the actual State
tax for school purposes paid by each
l