Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-19

| Supreme Court the possibilities for read
justment becam apparent and the teachers
| felt uneasy lest radical changes might be
| effected in the school syst.m.
| During the weeks over when the process
| of selecting a new sips: intcn,lens was
| stretched. following The unexpected resig-
nation of Mr.. Stuart from that position,
| the teachers have been aroused to a high
| pitch of uncertainty, ind faction has run
| rife through the ranks The boards choice
| has now keen announced, hut the selection
has not served to allay the approximations
of the rank and file. For one OF the first ex-
preSsions of the new superintendent was OF
his belief that under the reorganization act
1t would lie nece ssa1y to appoint anew every
worker in the school system of high and
low degree.
From Pillar to Post.
The dictium of Superintendent Chancellor.
apparently Endorsed by the board of educa-
ton, has served to bring the une ainess Of
the teachers to a climax and those VINO are
now in the city are vainly trying to secure
assurance as to their status. They are call
ing in numbers upon the controller of the
Treasury and asking his opinion to
whether, If they must be reapponted, they
will lose any of their years pay, or wheth-
err their appointments will date financially
from the first of July. The controller, al
though he has been quoted saying that
he might hold that the teachers pay is
year, naturally declines to render formal
opinion in advance, and refers l,iS question
ers to the District building.
At the District building the teachers who
inquire TO their status IRE reminded that
the Commissioners have no jurisdiction over
school matters save SO far as estimates are
concerned, and are referred back to the
controller or to the board o. education At
the Franklin building they get no comfort
A Lack Of Legal Learning.
The board of education meanwhile is in a
peculiar predicament in the matter of legal
assistance 1t is minus a lawyer. 1t con-
tains no member of the bar, the Supreme
Court having with evident care omitted to
appoint a lawyer upon the board. The
president of the board has requested the
Commissioners to designate some legal
person of authority to whom knotty ques-
tons may be referred for answer, but the
Commissioners, falling to see their respon-
sibility in the premises-Congress having
taken the schools out of their charge-have
not thus far granted the request. Thus the
board cannot obtain line on the matter
of the teachers status and is compelled
to work along somewhat in the dark as to
the meaning of the undeniably complex
statute under which 1t Is now acting.
This is not-a merely academic question,
for on 1t hinges perhaps the payment of a
good many thousand dollars. Certain prac-
teal questions have already arisen, begin
ming with that relating to the six days pay
of Secretary Conner, who, the controller
decided, could not draw pay for the time
that elapsed between the close of the old
fiscal year and the date of his reelection
by the board. Then comes the question of
the superintendent salary. He took the
oath of Office on the 18th of this month,
he draw a full 5000 during the first year
of his service? The controller alone can
answer that question.
The Salary Question.
Then. closely following, comes the ques-
ton, do salaries of the new white assist
ant superintendent of schools and the re-
named colored assistant, So 600 each, begin
on the list of July or the 18th of Au-
gust the date of their designation by the
board? This question is more significant
than that relating to the salary of the
superintendent, for one Of these two off,
GERS, Mr.. Montgomery. occupies the same
position under the old board of educate
and if his pay begins August Is teachers
who are named next Tuesday may find
their pay curtailed during the year by the
equivalent of more than seven weeks The
salary of the new director of intermediate
instruction, Mr.. Stuart, s., 200, is newly pro-
vided, and 1t Is quite possible that the con-
troler will rule that it began August 10
and not July l. he being a new officer not
heretofore designated by the statutes of
the board.
Until the pay roll for the first month of
service covered by the officers already
named Is submitted to the controller and
he has rendered his opinion no one can
know just where the teachers "are at" and
that is why they are now besieging both the
Treasury Department and the District
building between visits to the Franklin in
search for enlightenment.
Faction Troubles, Too.
But the worries of the teachers are not
all financial, as already suggested. Many
| Of them feel that there is ample evidence
already that the old spirit Of faction which
caused so many. awkward issues in the
| past again rules the roost at the corner
! of K and 18th streets. The new superin-
| tendent, although supposedly unfamiliar
with the local situation, had not been in
| Office forty-eight hours when he announced
eight names as his first slate of selections
| for his administrative staff. The first name
/ on the list caused both qualification and
| disappointment to large number of teach
| ers. The selection of Mr.. Hughes as as
| sistant superintendent for the white schools
| was hailed with delight by those teachers
and citizens who have in the past approved
| Of his course and praised his work as d.
| rector Of high schools, and have Endorsed
| his stand In the matter Of certain factional
| troubles in the schools. But 1t was serious
| ly deprecated at the same time by fully as
| many teachers and citizens who deplored
| the evidence 1t afforded that school politics
| would soon be rife. Whether rightly or
| wrongly the fact remains that feeling
| exists In many quarters that Assistant
| Superintendent Hughes, while director OF
| high schools, was largely responsible for
| much of the Generalization that existed In
| that branch of the local educational system
| 1t was also known that his canvass for the
| assistant superintendent, prior to Mr..
Stuart's resignation, had been strenuously
| pitched In q key of antagonism toward
/ certain school officials, and that his can
/ didacy for the chief position itself. when
| 1t became vacant, was continued in the same
| aggressive spirit of opposition to and de-
| nunciation of those officials
| Reasons for Anxiety.
This matter is mentioned as explanatory
| of the feeling now pervading the school
| ranks that the new superintendent has
| espoused the cause for which his chief as.
sistant has been for several years pub
ncly understood to stand in the Local