The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1902-07-26

q
of the SCALE of salary be made,
giving third grade lady teachers
$50, gentlemen S33; second
grade, ladies' $50, gentlemen, $4O:-
after five years of satisfactory
| service, an increase of five dol
] lars to the salary of each sex on
the recommendation of the SUI
perintendent. Teachers of the
| first grade should not be paid
less than $50: and to enable us
to get young men of experience
as principals of our graded
schools we should offer $50 for
those positions.
This scale beside offering an
inducement to our home teachers
| for Self-imprOvement would en-
able us to get the best teachers
when it becomes necessary to
employ teachers from elsewhere.
In recognition of long and
faithful service on the part of the
principals of the Dominique
school, the Broussard school.
the MOutOn Switch school and
the Alex Martin, Jr., school,
and on account of special work
done by these teachers during
the past session, I recommend
an increase of five dollars per
month to their salaries for the
coming year.
HOLIDAYS AND SUMNER SCHOOLS.
At present we defray the ex-
penSeS of our teachers at sum
mer schools, costing us from
S4OO to $500 per year. and we
allow pay for the holidays
(ChriStmas) costing the parish
an additional S4OO, to which if
of sickness, church holidays,
legal holidays and bad weather.
about S4OO, we have the sum of
from $1,000 to $1,000 annually
given away for which the parish
gets no return.
1t would be infinitely better to
use this money to increase the
salaries, abolish the allowance
made for attendance at summer
schools, and require the teachers
to teach twenty full days to each
scholastic month, and make no
allowance of pay for any cause
whatsoever. This system would
be more business like and would
enable us to use the money for
which we now get no returns as
a stimulus to our teachers to
elevate their moral and intellec-
tual standard.
SESSION OF TEN MONTHS.
1t should be our aim to give at
least a session of ten months
next session. With the proper
support from the Police Jury we
can have it. In country schools
the attendance is always more
or less irregular and unsatiSfac-
tory, especially where the teacher
is of inferior quality.
The attendance during the
past year was exceedingly poor
throughout the parish and es-
pecially in the country schools.
While we have had a session OF
nine months only II per cent
of the children were in regular
attendance in the parish, and in
some individual schools the
average attendance fell to so per
cent. Our session, therefore,
has accomplished only six months
, Of work throughout the parish,
and only four months Of work
have been done in the schools
whose average attendance was
50 per cent. The cost per child
per month has been excessive in
several schools. We have over
four thousand white children of
school age, and for this reason
the required average Doonthly
attendance should be raised
from twelve to twenty. OF the
four Thousand children of school
age only seven hundred forty
two are in monthly attendance
The children are here, and they
should be made to attend school
regularly, and it is the duty of
this Board to see to it that they
do. When poor attendance is
clearly the fault of the teacher
he should be removed for cause