The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1905-08-18

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ing these rich districts have an as
sseesment Of only d few Thousand
dollars. This great difference IN
the source Of income has an effect
on the schools, yet the poorer dis.
tricts increase their rates to the;
limit for the support Of the schools.
+ The material aspect Of the schools
thronghout.t the county is good as a
whole and excellent in many dis.
tricts. Thesdlstricts located in the
iron centers have sschoolhouses and
equipments that will rank with the
best in the state. In many places
the trustees and patrons are MAX
ing great efforts to remodel their
schoolhouses and equip them with
modern and useful furniture, books,
maps, globes, library cases, etc.
During the past year District No o.,
including the city of Virginia, com
pleted one of the finest school
buildings in the state, at a cost of
over $4,000. The building is outs
lined to accommodate eight grade
rooms and the high school depart
ment. The entire third floor is de-
voted to large auditorium, COM
plete with dressing and cloak
rooms. The trustees at Eveleth, in
District No. 80, have completed
their plans for the erection of fine
high school building to cost not
less than $4,000 District No. II at
Ely has plans under consideration
for new high school building
which will surpass all old buildings
on the Vermilion Range. District
No. ~ at ,Hibbing, the largest and
richest district in the county, has
equipped their "location" school
buildings with heating plants. Dis
trict No. at Proctor has remodeled
its heating plant at a cost of over
$500. District No. 80 has placed a
hot air heating plant in its two
room building. Many new school
houses have been erected in the ru-
tal districts during the summer.
They are complete for ventilation,
heat and light. The special state
aid to rural schools fulfilling GER
tain conditions is certainly a great
benefit to the people of this county.
Outside the independent district
of Duluth, there are four state high
schools in the county-Ely, Eveleth,
Hibbing and Virginia. The enroll
ment in each of these schools is
about the same-not more than 80
pupils. The schools are growing
and have large grade enrollments
which will soon furnish many pu-
pills for high school work. The
graded schools are: Biwabik, Buh],
Chisholm, Mckinley, Mt. Iron,
Proctor, Soudan, Sparta and Tower.
The enrolment in these schools
varies from 100 to 400 pupils. All
are doing systematic grade work,
| while few have one or more years
of high school work. The high
school work may be beneficial TO
schools where time and teachers
will permit without neglecting the
work of the common branches,
otherwise it is not. Semi-graded
schools are few, due to the fact that
the rural settlements are few and
recently established. The country
schools are increasing very rapidly
more than ten new districts have
been organized during the past
year. .
The educational standard of the
teachers is quite good. In the
graded and high school systems
the teachers are, with few excep-
tons, normal graduates of several
years. experience. In the rural dis
tricts the majority of the teachers
are high school graduates. The
principal difficulty at present is to
secure experienced teachers for the
outlaying schools, many of which
are from 10 to 40 miles from the
railroad. All the teachers that l
have visited seem very anxious to
secure regular attendance and to
give good instruction. Some teach
ers with limited means are doing
excellent school work. The major
ity of the pupils are exceedingly
anxious to advance, and in few
cases this has been detrimental. to
good results. An outline of work
ought to be prepared for the benefit
of theiuexperienced teachers, that
the work may be more uniform and
systematic. Nearly all the rural
teachers received their early train.
ing in city schools, and, naturally,
carry that system of INSTRUCTION
and work into their schools instead
of forming new plans to meet the
actual conditions. ~:
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