The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-11
FILE PETITION
 FOR MORE PAY Local Teachers Place Mat ter Before Board of
 Education.
HIT AT MERIT SYSTEM
Creates Ill Feeling -sched- ules for High and Gram
 mar Schools.

After two months of agitation and gathering Of data the New Haven Teachers league presented lengthy petition to the board of education at the meeting held last night in which they give the reasons for asking an increase in pay. The board took no action on the petition last night, put referred 1t to the committee on schools. The chairman of the committee stated that there would be a meeting of the committee early next week to consider the petition.
 From the data presented in the petl- ton it would seem that the teachers have many arguments in their favor. They assert that it should be no longer said of New Haven that she, among the | twenty cities of her size in the United States. stands next to the last in the salaries paid to high school instructors and third from the foot in the average of salaries paid to elementary school teachers. Neither should it be said that she still pays her teachers accord ing to standard of living that no long, CT pertains and that her teaching Iorce | is thereby weakened"
 They further assert that the city can well afford to pay its teachers at least upon the same basis as the citizens pay to the carpenter, the plumber, the bricklayer and the painter Indeed, the welfare of our schools demands that as high value shall be placed on the teachers services that all teaching of an inferior quality shall be eliminated and the highest standard of efficiency shall prevail
 According to the table prepared and incorporated in the petition the cost of teachers preparation Is placed at $2, TOO. In compensation she gets $SoV for the first years work, The maxi mum attainable is s1ooO for grammar school teachers, and $2,0OO for high school teachers. The new schedule pro- posed by the teachers is as follows:
 For grammar schools;
 I Minimum <. {. .. .......s.,,.. S4oV Maximum for kindergarten,
 grades I to VI. assistant in | Maximum for grades VII and
 VIII; unclassiied rooms; un-
 graded rooms .. ......,......''. Sl'oVo
 For principals of buildings of less than 12 rooms, grade maximum and s1O for each room: for 12 rooms, s1,O0o and permanent assistant; for more than 12 rooms, s1 ,oO0 and S1O for each room over 12, with a permanent assistant
 Tn the high school they ask for this schedules:
 Max Min. | Men ....'''s'.'''''''' Si,ooo @-'Soo Soo Wcme :. .. ............ SfoO $'ooV Men (manual work) ........ SSo0 SloVV Women (manual worlO .... s66 $l,2Vo
 They say that while living expenses have advanced teachers salaries have in the meantime been actually reduced In A canvass of the teachers It was found that 12 teachers save little, 20 teachers, nothing and IA teachers have to get help.
 A strong plea is made for the grading of teachers as removing source or dissatisfaction. The teachers take the opportunity for rap at the merit sys- tenn in the following words;
 "We have already referred to the merit system in relation to teachers salaries. We are supported in our view of this system by former Superinten- dent Kendall who, in his report for 1897 dealing with the salary list, said it was impracticable for the board of education to pay teachers what they are worth. judging each case on it's own individual merits He added, It Is needless to say that such an ad- iustment of salaries would cause a great amount of i'll feeling and no su- perintendent, and I believe no board of education, could feel safe in his or her estimate of the work of each individual among a, corps of nearly 400 eachers; tl erefore in every city of this size there is uniform graded list of salaries !"
 In conclusion the petition says:
 Superintendent Beede has more than once advocated an increase in the sal aries of the New Haven teachers; Su- perintendent Dutton and Superinten- dent Kendall made similar recommen- dations several years ago; MT. Whit ney. pr. Spang and Colonel Ullman of the board have publicly expressed themselves as heartily in favor of it, and there is every reason to believe that the. board of finance will this year grant the board of education whatever your honorable board asks for, and will grant it as cheerfully and as will inely as they have done for the past two years"