The Jersey City news., 1906-03-23


Mr.. Coyle, Chairman Of Sub-Commit-
tee, stated that water supply at the New
High School is not sufficient at present
for utilization of heating apparatus. but
that the trouble is being renedied.
Mr., Barnes reported thar Training
school graduation exercises would be
SPECIAL Committees.
Mr.. Lewis, as Chairman of the joint
Committee of High School and Teachers
Committees, read the following report.
which was adopted, On motion Of Mr..
Ward, with one dissenting vote and or
dered spread in full on the minuies:
70 che Board of Education of Jersey
The Committee on High School and
the Committee on Teachers and Salaries,
OF this Board, appointed on the twenty
nth day of January, nineteen hundred
and six, to which two comTnittees was
referred the petition of Rev. John A.
Sheppard, d. D., and others, rectors of
OF Education to extend to their Parochial
school children graduating the right to
enter the High School on the approval of
petitions, report as follows:
Your two committees met as q joint
committee to consider said petition, copy
OF which is annexed to this report as Ex-
Mbit A., and directed the chairman of.
loners and invite them to meet to the
Joint committee IN conference on the sub
Jeet matter of their petition, and appoint
ed Friday, February 10, 1906, at half
past three o'clock in the afternoon, at the
Board Of Education room in the City
Hall, as the time and place of meeting.
The chairman of the committee, bv LETT
ter addressed to the Rev. John A. Shep-
pard, ID. d., Vicar General, invited him
and the other petitioners to meet the two
committees in conference at the time,
named in respect to their petition.
Copy Of this letter is annexed to the
report and marked Exhibit q.
This letter of invitation contains inti
quires for the information of the COM
mIttees, as shown by an extract from the
letter, which reads as follows
The committees desire to learn from
you and petitioners something of the
methods and grade work in your Paro-
chial schools, and studies pursued and
what record you keep of the work and
advancement of pupils, and of their
scholarship and standing at graduation
from the grammar course, in order to
form some idea of their fitness to enter
the Jersey City High School, and to hear
your views as to what tests or examina-
ton should be required to admit pupils
to the High School, who have not been
educated in. the Public Grammar Schools
of Jersey City"
To which invitation the Reverend DIR.
John A. Sheppard, in behalf of the petit
loners, by letter dated February II,
copy of which is hereto annexed as Ex-
hibit e, replied acknowledging receipt Of
the invitation to meet the joint commit
tee on Friday, February 10Th, and COM
menting on the petition. This letter was
understood by the committee as refusal
to meet the joint committee in confer
ence.
Notwithstanding your joint committee
met at the time named, in the Board
room in the City Hall, hoping that the
petitioners would meet it in conference
on the subject matter of the petition, but
none of the petitioners appeared, whereby
your committee then understood by their
absence, as well as by the Vicar Gener-
ais letter, that they declined to meet the
JOINT committee IN conference respecting
the petition and respecting the matters
of inquiry contained in committees in
yitation.
These inquiries remain unanswered.
The two committees in Joint session
then took up the petition and discussed
it among themselves, and after fully con-
sidering it and the grade work of the
Public primary and Grammar Schools,
and the high standard of the High School
and the requirements for admission to
the High School, deem it unadvisable to
admit pupils to the High School from
private schools solely ON the certificates
of the principals thereof, without exam
ination or some satisfac ctory tests show
ing and egta ablishing the qualifications
and fitness of the applicant to be admit
ted; and considering that the Board of
Education is charged with the RESPONSE
bility of the High School, and with main
tanning it's high character, and cannot
therefore properly delegates its duties to
others not in its employ, and not under
its direction; and not having control over
the private schools, or the right to inspect
them for the purpose of learning their
grade work and the fitness of their schol-
ars for entry into the High School, we
accordingly report and recommend to the
Board of Education that the application
of petitioners to have pupils from Paro-
chial schools admitted on their approval
and without examination be not granted
We recognize that every student or
child in Jersey City, whether from public
or private schools, who has the qualifica-
tions possessed by graduates of our pub
lie grammar schools fitting them to enter
the High School, is entitled to a High
School education in Jersey City. And
every such person who has heretofore APP
piled for admission to the High School
has been admitted.
Applicants from private schools must
as the Superintendent of Schools deems
necessary to show whether they are quail
fled to enter High School
We recommend that the Superinten-
dent be authorized to provide for the ad-
mission of all applicants who are grad
uates of private schools on the basis Of
an examina ton, or to admit such candi-
dates on his certificates if, after inspect
ing and testing their record and school
work in the manner followed in the pub
lie schools Crowded that adj the means
and opportunities necessary to the appli-
cation of such inspection aud tests shall
be afforded hiIn), he is satisfied that their
qualifications are equivalent to those pos
sessed by graduates of the grammar
schools.
The claim has been made in support
of the request of the petitioners that the
plan they ask us to adopt has been tried
in Boston and is now pursued there with
satisfaction to all concerned. Your COM
mittee has inveS tigated this claim. and
has ascertained that the Boston plan diff
fers from the plan now proposed by the
petitioners in the vital point that the
power OF discretion of determining the
fitness or High School candidates from
private schools is lodged in the Board of
Supervisors of Boston, school authority
consisting of the Superintendent Of
Schools and six Supervisors, represented
in our system by the Superintendent of
Schools. The language of the rule Of
the Boston Board OF Education is as fol-
lows
'sGraduates of private schools whose
standards are satisfactory to the Board
Of Supervisors may be admitted by GER
tifcate to the High School.