The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-08-23
BOARD is FREE.
State Normal Board Declares
independence.
Will Again Assume the Management of
the Schools, Regulating Board
of Control.

the state normal board rescinded the
resolution adopted at its meeting on
April 90 by which it voluntarily placed
the state normal schools under the
financial control of the board Of con-
troll. The step was taken after long
debate and in spite of the opposition
of Director Norby and Secretary Olson.
The resolution canceling the former
agreement was carried by the votes of
Directors Ankeny, Mitchell, Clark,
Nye, Phelps and Hammond. Until
some adjustment is made, the normal
school board will exercise complete
control of the five normal schools.
The resolutions adopted Saturday
| were as follows:
Whereas, The board Of control has
refused to cooperate with the state
normal board in the financial affairs of
the state normal schools, and
Whereas, An opinion has been since
given by the attorney general of the
state that the act providing for the
| creation of the board of control does
not apply to the state educational in
situations, be it
Resolved, That the state normal
school board hereby rescinds the reso
luton of April 20 expressing the desire
of the board to come within the provi
sions of the law creating the board of
control, and we hereby decline to re-
cognize, and this board denies the
authority of the board of control to in
terfere with or direct in any manner
the state normal schools or the man
agement of the same.
The trouble has been brewing be-
tween the two boards for some time,
and was brought to head Saturday
by the report Of a committee appointed
to confer with the state board of con-
troll. The report was in part as fol-
lows.
The committee has made repeated
| efforts to arrive at a thorough and
satisfactory understanding with the
board of control in matters pertaining
| to the financial management of the in
! situations.
Its recommendations and sugges-
tions, as well as those of the normal
/ board as regards the financial affairs
of the normal schools, have been dis
regarded by the board of control Not
only this, but the board has attempted
to exercise supervision over the presi
dents and faculties not warranted by
law and to assign to them duties not
required by statute. 1t has also at
tempted to prescribe what course of
study shall be adopted in the normal
schools, how necessary text books shall
be supplied to the schools and in vari
GUS other directions to exercise a con-
troll and supervision which belong ex-
clusively to the normal board.
Director Mitchell in commenting. on
the report of the committee said that
the board of control had refused to
permit manual training to be taught
in the schools and had attempted to
NEEDLE with the salary and working
hours of the teachers. The normal
board, he said, must either give in en-
tirely to the board of control or with
draw from the jurisdiction of that
board.
The board of control was held up as
business failure by Director Phelps
of the Duluth normal He produced a
letter from the board of control direct
| ing him to purchase coal for the nor
NAL at So. So per ton. Mr.. Phelps said
! he could secure the same quality of
West Virginia screened coal at So. % a
ton, saving about 5000 on the 800 or
more tons of coal necessary for his
school. In other ways the Duluth
school had been practically dead lock-
ed, he said, the furniture for the
school had not been purchased, insur-
ance on the building had not been pro-
vided and about all they had got out
of the board of control was wagon
load of printed forms.
Director Nye of Moorhead asserted
that he could save 90 per cent on the
present coal estimate and that he could
buy coal 10 cents cheaper at Moorhead
| than the contract price of the board of
control He also stated that the board
of control has allowed &c., 900 insur-
alice on some of the buildings to lapse
and made no effort to reinsure.
| Another grievance was the fact that
the board of control had ignored the
recommendation that the resident d.
rectors be appointed purchasing agents
of the schools. 1t was not right either,
it was asserted, that the presidents of
the nor NAL schools should be burdened
with a lot of clerical work
At this point in the discussion Di-
rector Norby moved that committee
be appointed to confer with the board
of control and attempt to secure an
amicable arrangement. The motion
was voted down. Ankeny, Mitchell,
Clark, Nye, Phelps, Hammond voted
no ; Olson and Norby aye.
"The board of control had no init
nation of any trouble and no request
for any conference was made by any
members of the normal board, said
w. E. Lee of the state board of control
last evening when asked regarding the
action of the normal school board
In regard to purchasing coal at adj
vanced prices he did not feel called up
on to give an explanation The board
advertised for bids, had rejected them
as too high and made contract with
another firm at a figure considerably
lower than the lowest bid submitted.
The members of the board decline to
~ Il 14c&D
| future action of the board, but init
mated that if would he mora S.t;sfoo