The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-05-07
Board of Education Refuses to
Give Up Authority.
Plan Was to Give Chief Engineer
Domain Over JanitOrS.
SCHOOL FOR NEGROES.
Cp-tO- Date Building to BE
Erected in North Topeka.
Teachers Grateful for the Raise
in Salaries.

In salaries.
An effort was made by ]. w. Gleed.
at a regular meeting of the board of
education which was held last night,
to place in the hands of Waldo G.
Holloway. chief engineer of the city
schools, the absolute power to dis
charge the school janitors at his dis
erection and also employ them The
effort was not a successful one and
the handling of the janitors will re-
main. for the time being at least, just
as it has in the past, namely, by the
board itself on the reports of the COM
mittee on buildings.
There are twenty-eight janitors in
the city schools and their salaries ag-
gregate over $1,000 a month, so the
power that it was proposed to place
in Mr.. Holloway's hands was not a
small one. There was not the slight
est suggestion from any member of
the board that Mr.. Holloway would
abuse such power if he had it, but
more than majority of the MEM
bers believed that the powers of reg
ulating the employment and dis
charge of janitors rested properly
with the board. 1t was the unanimous
sentiment, however, that the janitors
should be given TO understand that
they should take their directions for
their work from Mr.. Holloway and
that it would go hard with any of
them who refused to perform such
work as Mr.. Holloway thought neces-
sary.
The matter came up after Mr.
Nicholson, from the finance commit
tee, had reported a new scale of
wages to be paid the janitors for the
next school year. which had been
agreed to by the members of the COM
mittee. The new scale as fixed. and as
adopted without discussion, provides
for an aggregate increase in the SAL
aries of S122 a month but the pro-
portienate increase among the jani-
tors is considerable because one jani-
tor is dropped from the high school
force and his salary divided up
among the others.
When this scale had been adopted
Mr.. Gleed came forward with his mo-
ton that Mr.. Holloway be empowered
to discharge any Janitor at any time in
his discretion. He declared that the
only way the janitors could be made
to do their work properly was by plac-
ing the power to remove them in the
hands of the man who gave them the
orders for the work expected of them.
This motion presented the opportuni-
ty for one of those free for all dis
cussions for which the board is famous
and of which none of the members were
slow to take advantage. After discuss
ing the pros and cons of the PROPOSE
ton for about an hour it was discovered
that the board not SO long ago had
accepted an ella DOrSte set OF rules con-
corning the duties of janitors and these
rules were specific to the effect that
the janitors should obey the instruc-
tions of the chief engineer concerning
the cleaning up of the buildings and
methods they should use in the ac-
complishment of other kinds of their
work
An amendment to the GIeed motion
offered by Mr.. Nicholson requiring the
chief engineer to report to the build
ing committee recommendations for the
discharge and the employment of the
janitors was adopted, but the original
motion was then laid on the table, so
really no action was taken with the
matter.
Frank E. Mallory, the president of the
board, hit the kernel of the argument
of those who were opposed to the sug-
gestion of Mr.. Gleed when he said that
he was opposed to one man power in
affairs of this kind and that it was
lust as REASONABLE to delegate the alb
solute power Of employing and remov-
ing teachers to the city superintendent
as it was to give the proposed power to
the city engineer.
THE people hold US responsible for
the conduct of the schools" said Mr..
Mallory, land the employment of teach
ers and janitors as we'll is an import
ant part of our duties. If some of the
janitors are negligent Mr.. Holloway
ought to report them and the board or
the building committee will see that
they are discharged or disciplined. This
Is the way 10 ndQQie InaI matter ana
1t is the way that it has been handled
In the past"
During the course of Mr.. Nicholson's
talk on the question he suggested that
q good many janitors had come into
their places through political pulls, al
though he insisted that not much work
of this character had been done during
the last two or three years. He said
that those janitors who thought they
had political pulls were apt to disre-
gard the directions of the chief en-
gineer because they felt that he could
do nothing to them.
Mr.. Holloway took occasion to say
that he had always got along we'll with
the janitors but that some of them had
hind them which was stronger than his
authority and therefore they paid lit
tie attention to the directions he gave
them. He said that the number of
the janitors who acted in this wise was
small.
Lots and lots of discussion on the
proposition was INDUCED in but no
definite action was taken. From the
general tone of the remark of all the
members 1t is evident that the board
through the proper channels will up
hold Mr.. Holloway in the handling of
the janitors and those who resist his
authority will be summarily dealt with
by the board.
Mr.. Holloway was directed by the
board to prepare a list of janitors to
be employed in the schools for the
next school year and it is likely that