Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-09-13
FIRST SCHOOL WEEK
Superintendent and Principals
Have Busy Time Assign
ing Pupils.
SOME OF BUILDINGS STILL CROWDED
Lack of Play Grounds for Linco.n
and High School
Buildings.

| The first week of the school seas IN
OF 10000 has been passed and the
teachers and others connected with
the management of the public insti-
tutlons of learning are breathing
signs of relief now that the worst as
considered past. 1t has been an ex-
ceedIngly busy week. and there has
been little time for the casting up of
accounts To ascertain just how mat
ters have stood. 1t appears that
there has not been a marked increase
IN the enrolment for the first week
this session over the corresponding
period of last. but the fact that there
has been no truant officer in the field
is considered to have something to do
with it, and steps have been taken TO
remedy this difficulty, now that the
office has been filed.
y matter that has given much con-
Germ TO Supt. Hayden during the
week has been that of relieving over
crowding al some of the schools and
assigning more pupils TO some that
have not had the usual enrolment.
The difficulty has been found to eX-
list i'm the central part of the city,
and was caused largely by the COM
pletion of the high school, and the
consequent vacation of the rooms IN
the Lincoln school. Strangely enough,
instead of causing a scarcity of pu-
pills there the opposite has been true.
and so many pupils have been desir-
Gus of enrolling there. that many
transfers have had to be made.
Boun diaries About Same.
The boundaries of the territories of
the different schools this year are the
same as last, except changes were
made in the lines between the HaVv-
thorne and Irving schools TO ALLOW
pupils that were nearer to the lat
ter to attend there. BY these changes
the rooms at both schools have been
comfortably filed. Washington
school, which was thiDly attended last
year. has now n good enrolment in
all the rooms. At Lincoln school en-
rollment was unusually large. eX-
cept in the first and second grades,
while at the Eugene Field school the
reverse was true. This has been
equalized by a transfer of first and
second grades to the Lincoln build
ing and of the fourth, fifth and sixth
=
At the Horace Mann building the
boundaries are. the same as were es-.
tablished year ago, and the enroll
ment is largely increased. There are
now six rooms well filed, and the
prospects are that in another year
one. and perhaps both of the remain
ing rooms will be put to use.
Improving Grounds
The dressing of the grounds about
the high school and Lincoln buildings
is progressing nicely. The driveway
is about completed and the rubbish
of every description is being cleaned
away, and the surface put in condi-
ton for n top dressing of black dirt
and seeding next spring. There will
be no play ground adjacent TO either
the Lincoln or the high school, owing
to the lack of room. There are near
ly 1000 pupils in attendance at the
two buildings, and the space outside
available for the purpose would not
afford an adequate playground for half
of that number. AS il will not do to
allow the pupils to play in the streets
the school management has been
forced to resort to indoor recesses.
Lack of outdoor freedom is counter