The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1907-03-15
BETTER SCHOOL FACILITIES
High School Building and Ware
School Discussed and Both
We're Found Favorable.

schools of this city for the past year
or two has been a matter of much
comment and what was to be done
to relieve the situation has never
been reached in a conclusive man
ner until Saturday evening, wheI
about fifty taxpayers assembled III
the auditors Office in response to ar
invitation by President Winsor, oil
the board of education, to come to.
gether and discuss the proposition
with the members of the board.
AS a result of that gathering
more, perhaps, was learned of the
real condition of the schools thar
had even been guessed by those who
had given the matter little thought
In previous meetings of the board
for perhaps a year, the question has
been gone over thoroughly as to the
best ann to alleviate the condi.
lions, in which the ward school was
of a high school building on the east
side of town. The latter would re
quire the issuance of bonds and to
create an additional debt the board
did not want to assume the respon-
~sibiiity without first having it pre-
sented to the taxpayers.
The concensus of opinion after the
discussions We're finished was that
the high school and the ward school
should both be erected.
The meeting was characterized by
an earnest discussion of the propo-
sition in hand, and the speakers de-
veloped that they We're intensely in
terested in keeping Mitchell's stand
ard of schools up to the highest
notch. Among the speakers were
Prof. 3. j.. Quigley, T. j. S%pangler,
Geo. A. silsby. j. S. Daniels, A. E.
Dean, w. E. Upton, President Win
sor, o. T. Litchfield, G. l. Miltimore,
g. G. Bras, T. M. Wallace, H. e.
Hitchcock, T. c. Burns, R. NJ. Gett-
man, w. b. Rowley, H. R. Kibbee,
l.. E. Stair, Prof. F. H. Hoff, j. G.
Markham.
1t would be interesting to print
the comments of all these speakers,
but with the exception of two or
three they were in much the same
tenor-being in favor of erecting a
high school building to take care of
the present and the future growth
of Mitchell.
1t developed through the course
of the various expressions hat the
plan of building a ward school in the
second ward would not relieve the
congested condition in the high
school, where there are but 104
seats to accommodate an enrolment
of 1S9 scholars with an actual at
tendance Of 169, and there seems to
be good reason for the absence of
the other twenty. 1t was thought
possible to build an addition to the
west side high school building, but
then this would simply spoil the
architectural design of the structure.
An addition to the east side school
building was also thought of, but
this was found not feasible. Again
it was suggested that the east side
building might be moved to the sec
ond ward, but that would not re-
lieve the conditions.
The high school building is filled
from garnet to basement with schol-
ars and the Methodist church is util-
lied to take care of one of the pri-
mary grades. Over at the east side
building there is an enrolment of
225 children and one of the teach
Iers is given the impossible task of
teaching 66 pupils in one room. And
yet that teacher is supposed to meet
the requirements Of training those
young minds. The teacher cannot
do her duty and the pupils are not
getting the instruction that they are
entitled to. From the second ward
there are 100 pupils that go to the
west Sue nigh SCQOOl W1Iu
a ward school of four rooms over
there. with some taken from the east
side building, those four rooms
would be filled to the limit in a very
short time, and after the pupils had
been taken from the garnet and
basement and the class removed
from the Methodist church, the con-
gested condition would not be re
loved an iota.
Taking into consideration the fact
that there is every reason to believe
that Mitchell will continue to grow it
appeared that the room in the
schools would be growing Tess ev-
cry month, and the only thing to be
done would be to farm out the
classes into buildings around town
That would not make much of g
showing for a progressive school cen.
ter, such as Mitchell holds out as al
inducement for people to move into
our midst.
The financial side of the PROPOSE