Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1902-09-18
NEED OF A NEW SCHOOL BUILDING

NEED OF A NEW SCHOOL BUILDING
The question of bonding the indie
pendent District of Audubon for the
purpose of building new school build
ing will be left to a vote OF the peo-
Pile, the 22d of this month. In order
that the people may better under
stand the need of the building, l
thought it best to give few facts
through the columns of the papers ex-
planning as best | can the true situa-
tion as | understand 1t and as 1t APP
peals to me.
Two years ago, in order to meet one
of the requirements of a fully ac-
credited high school, the board of ed
ucation voted to add another year to
our high school course, making it
four year course instead of three. To
do this required an extra room and
teacher for, having no graduates TO
leave the school last year, the enroll.
ment necessarily increased until the
school is now oyercrowded. Provis-
ions for the extra room shonld have
been made tkis year but, realizing the
unfit condition of the old building,
the board thought it best to defer the
matter another year and take steps
to build new and more convenient
building next summer to meet the
present demands of the school.
The plan is not to tear down all OF
the old building but only that part
now occupied by the third, fourth,
sixth and seventh grades, being the
old original frame building veneered
with brick. The part now occupied by
the high school and the first and sec
ond primary grrdes is to be left stand
ing and only to be remodeled to make
it correspond as nearly as possible to
that which is to be built to 1t. 1t is
proposed to build new part large
enought to have four grade rooms be-
low and the high school with recita-
tion rooms and superintendent office
and possibly a grade room above.
However, this Is a matter TO be more
fully determined later.
1t is difficult to conceive more in
convenient school building than we
now have. 1t would be very dan
gerous building in case of fire, for
the halls and passage ways are SO ar
ranged as to block the means OF es-
cape in case of any great excitement,
and besides the winding stairs would
be a source of much danger as was
demonstrated a few years ago when
the radiator bursted. The inspector
of high schools, Professor Brown OF
Iowa City, who visited us last winter,
in a personal conversation with sew
eral members of our board made the
statement that in all of his visits in
this state he saw no school building
in as bad condition as ours, and he
urged upon the board to make some
improvements. 1t is fact, as he in
timated, that one of the conditions
necessary to become an accredited
high school is a good, we'll equipped
high school. This criticism of the in
spector of high schools together with
our boast of a more than ordinary
school should appeal to our pride in
the matter sufficiently to cause us to
take definite stand for the new i'm
provement.
AS was said the part proposed to be
rebuilt is an old frame building We
neered with brick, and IL is begin
ming to be in dilapidated condition
and, if not already somewhat danger
Gus, it will be in few years more.
The floors are not well supported, and
in some places they are nearly worn
through, the windows are loose and
rickety, and the walls and ceiling are
in bad condition. The halls must be
used for cloak rooms, and they are
wholly unfit for that purpose. The
outside of the building, too, looks
dingy and uninviting, and is the sub.
ject of much criticism by the causal
observer.
The want of proper light and venti
latiou are two things that are indeed
deplorable, and in themselves are
sufficient to condemn the building.
am confident in my own mind that
many of the pupils attending the
schools have injured their eyesight or
account of the poor light in the rooms
and no doubt that many diseases have
been the result of poor ventilation
Be this as it may the light and venti
lation are inadequate to do the bes
kind of work. There are days wheI
it is cloudy that it is almost impossi
Bile to study on account of insufficient
light; and as for ventilation the onl,
effective means we have to ventilat,
Is by opening the windows, and thi
cannot be done without attending
dangers.
We must have one or two room
J more to relieve the crowded condition
of our schools. The two roomed build
ing on the east of the main building
built few years ago, already cuts OF
much of the light from the third
sixth and high school, and to add to /
would make 1t worse. / question tn
advisability of ward school in tow
of this size, and particularly so sine
our grounds are so centrally located
: A ward school with the necessar
grounds would cost little less thai
what Is proposed, and the running eS
pense would be quite little more.
1t might be well to explain that il
view of the fact that no class coul
be promoted into the high school las
: spring we were able to promote onl
one class from the primary room
hence there are more than the usua
: number of pupils in that grade. Thi
(; makes it necessary to have half-da
sessions for the primary pupils unit
cold weather keeps out enough to er
able us to combine the two section.
However, in the spring when the me-
. pupils come to school, the room wi
become crowded again and it will b
J necessary to make a division of tn
l room as we now have it.
+. P. Hooker.
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