Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-21
TEACHERS ARE ON
PERMANENT ROLL
Appointments for One Year De-
cIared to Be Illegal.
FORMER ORDER VACATED
Board Adopts Recommendation for
Appointments without Term"
CHANGES IN TEACHING FORCE
Text of the. Opinion Delivered by At
torney Mcnamara, Special Coun-
sci of the Board.
FORMER ORDER VACATED
CHANGES IN TEACHING FORCE

According to an opinion filed
yesterday by Assistant United
States Attorney Stuart Mcnamara,
special. counsel for the board of
education, the appointment of
teachers in the schools of this city
for a period of one year, as recently
recommended by Superintendent
Chancellor and ordered by the
board of education, is at variance
with the provisions of the new law.
Upon being informed to this effect
the superintendent amended his
recommendation, advising that all
officers and teachers hitherto ap
pointed "be appointed and contin-
ued without term
Several mooted legal questions connected
with the government of the local public
schools under the new law were the SUBJ
jects of an official opinion rendered by Stu
art Mcnamara, assistant United States at
education, at a meeting of the board late
Yesterday afternoon in the Franklin build
ing When the attorneys views were made
known Superintendent Chancellor recon-
mended that the officials and teachers of
the school system who had been appointed
and continued for one year be continued
without term
Mr. Mcnamara. says that the law auto
matcally continued the appointments of all
<La SCtr icf n
that the reappointment of these teachers
for a year was illegal; it upholds the board
in the dropping of Mrs. l. G.. Myers, as
sistant superintendent, and 1t decided That
Messrs Swartzell and keene severed their
connection with the school service by their
own action in declining the positions ten
dered them, the board being upheld in its
contention that it had a right to transfer
them from their old positions to others.
Communications Read.
After the meeting had been called to Or
der by Admiral Baird, and the minutes of
the last meeting read and approved, COM
munications to the board were read. Three
letters of precisely the same tenor but diff
ferently worded, were read. They were from
John L. Love, formerly teacher in the M
street High School; Mrs. A. j. Cooper, for
merly principal of the M Street High School,
and James B. Clark, formerly supervising
principal of the tenth division, who have
been deposed.
These letters, which have been given in
full in The Star, asked the board to rescind
its. action in the cases of the writer's. and
stated reasons for the request me pro
tests were referred to the attorney Tor the
board Mr.. Mcnamara.
letter was read to the board from ]. r.
Keene in which he calls attention to his
transfer from the position OF supervising
principal of the seventh district TO the prln-
cipalship of the Petworth School, and IN
1vh,ch he declines the new position offered
by the board.
Opinion of the Attorney.
The opinion of Stuart Mcnamara. attor-
new for the board, was next received, and
without a word of comment it was ordered
filed for future reference. The full text of
the opinion follows:
"In compliance with verbal requests OF
DR. Chancellor, l am addressing you COM
munfcat ton of my opinion of the new act,
approved June 20, 1905, in its bearing upon
a few concrete cases referred to herein. l
am asked first, whether, by operation OF
the act Mr.. Myers who prior thereto was
the assistant superintendent, Is oivorceu
from that position and the school service
generally? This question induces q brleI
consideration of the act, Its purposes and
the intent of Congress in its passage.
.'It is plainly manifest that the purpose
of this act was twofold-the increase of the
pay of the teachers, officers and employees
and the partial reorganization OF the man.
agement of the public schools. The matter
of increased salaries is not material In this
connection, but we are here concerned with
the reorganization feature of the act.
1.-The old school board was totally abol-
ished.. A new board was to be created, CHS
eled along different lines. The old board
was composed of seven members; the new
one consists Of nine. The old board held
forth for seven years; the new board has
moving scale of terms of three years at a
oil nd infn Nv
Commissioners of the District, and the new
one is appointed by the justices of the Dis
trict Supreme Court. Salary was provided
for the former board; the new one is to
serve without compensation. Certain other
differences might be enumerated to show
that the conflict between the old and the
new boards is SO irreconcilable that the old
board must be considered as having been
completely superseded and extinguished by
the new.
Under the old board there were certain
appointees, including the superintendent,
assistant superintendent and director of
high schools. Did these positions fall with
the extinction of the old board? The act
which abolished the Old and created the
new board specifically provided, in section 3,
that the new board should appoint a super
intendent This undoubtedly was provis-
ion for de novo appointment. In the same
section 1t is provided that the board shall
appoint, on the written recommendation of
the superintendent, one white assistant su
w
this position Of assistant superintendent is
not the same as the Office of assistant SUI
perintendent under the old board. To this
new Office have been added the duties which
under the old law belonged to the director
of high schools. The act also throws around
the position certain other duties in regard
to the unification. as far as may be practi-
cable. of the educational work of the white
schools, ETC., as set out therein. AS the new
board differed from the old, SO the new
Office of assistant superintendent differs
from the former Office of that name The
former office. being a dependency of the old
board, shared its fate.
The law on this matter il familiar:
Offices created and filed by an author
ity which is itself dependent upon and SUBJ
servient to higher power as in the case of
municipal Offices and officers appointed by
local boards, are vacated by the termina-
non OF the power which ated them as
py the repeal of a municipal charter or the
aDonshment of local board (Mechem on
PUBLIC Omcers. 407; Duer vs. Dashield 81
Md, 660.o %
TO meet this contingency the new art
provides that the board shall appoint the
assistant superintendents, fixes their sal
aries and their duties.
with the cessation of the Office 4ho a.
cumbent was simultaneously severed from
the school system. When the board of ed
ucation proceeded under the new act to an
point an assistant superintendent for the
white schools they could have appointed