Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-05-28

| extravagance. the facts seem to your
committee to have been good ground for
| the Commissioners to have largely in
| creased their estimate for repairs, in or
| der that the buildings might be put in
t proper condition.
TO merely save the school buildings
| from deterioration is not enough. Their
| value as educational agencies may be
| largely enhanced by keeping them in the
best condition
THE day of the bare. ill-used. gloomy
| forbidding school house. stripped even of
| the common decencies of environment. is
| past Every school should be a model of
| neatness. comfort and propriety Any
| other condition about a child's schoo!
! home makes for harm rather than help.
Prompt Consideration Urged.
Your committee has not undertaken to
| classify In detail the requests of prin-
| cipals but suggests that the repairs be
taken UP in the order which will secure:
First. the safety of the children. giving
| especial attention to the suggestions
| made by the chief of the fire depart
ment. in his recent reports on the hre
| condition Of the schools: second. TO the
comfort and general welfare of the pu-
pills and. finally. to the protection of the
property of the schools.
Under the first point your commit
tee strongly urges the erection of outside
exits from second floor school rooms In
the johnson annex. Potomac Threlkeld.
Bennng whtel. Garfield and Birney an
mex buildings. In every one of these
buildings it will be necessary to use all
of the rooms during the coming year. and
this will only be possible in case these
exits are provided
Your committee also calls particular
attention 10 the changes requested in re-
gard to the location of the toilets in the
Brookland school. and urges that they
be made.
Your committee is impressed with the
fact that many of the school buildings
are in need of coal and ash vaults. In
many cases, the children's play rooms
have to be used for the storage of coal,
while the throwing of ashes in out-of-the
way places has brought the criticism of
the fire chief. There are numerous re-
quests for benches in playrooms, show
ing the lack of these necessary items.
Neglect Is Charged.
"The neglect to provide all such essen
| tails in school buildings at the time Of
construction seems little short of GRIM
inal. and your committee urges that the
| board of education request the Commits
| sioners of the District of Columbia not
only to see that such necessary items are
embodied in new buildings which may be
erected. but to provide the same for all
of the present schools as speedily as pos
sible.
Owing to the failure of the boards es-
Central High School building. the serious
condition of that building is especially
called to the attention of the Commits
sioners In the opinion of the school Of
ficials no school worth repairing is more
in need of repairs.
Your committee further suggests that
the repair acquisitions be forwarded at
once to the Commissioners, with the re-
quest that the matters be taken up i'm
mediately. in order that repairs to be
m RI "a ali he LOTT cd
before the 18th of September In this
connection. your committee further adj
vises that the Commissioners be requested
to have all changes in plumbing complet
ed by the above date
Oyster Blames Commissioners.
THE only fault have to find with this
report is that it is not strong enough"
stated Capt Oyster. 1T calls attention
20 the poor condition of the school build
ings. And the District officials are con-
tinuing their bad work.
Certain repairs were regarded as nee
essary in the Blow School. They prom
Used to make the repairs in January,
promised again in February. said it would
be attended to at once in March, and the
repairs are not done yet Then followed
the Langdon annex. which was construct
ed with no exits. To be sure. they have
now promised to give us some exits there
And recently the Gage School has been
found to have the same defect.
One Commissioners. who is member
of the schoolhouse commission, signs a
report sent to Congress recommending the
abandonment Of the Central High School
building. In a private hearing before a
congressional committee recently he tells
the committee that the Central High
School building has just been remodeled
and is not in need of the repairs we asked
for. The Commissioners certainly are not
with the people. The only way for us to
get what want is for us to get be-
hind the people and ask them to help us
IF we can't get this work done we
want new Commissioners. They certainly
have shirked, the responsibilities of the
schools for the past ten years. and they
ought to be ashamed to face the people
after building the additions they are con-
structng now"
He continued by calling attention to the
appropriations made by Congress for the
schools, saying that the board is thank
full to Congress for the provision for
money for portable school buildings and
for the $4,000 to be used in making the
schools fireproof and safe for school chill
dren in the event Of fire
Report Unanimously Adopted
After further discussion of the report of
the committee regarding repairs. it was
adopted by unonimous vote.
A report regarding the appropriations
Aoi ZIG S1iicOio iCoCii'iy iiouo pS Soii-
gress was presented by Mr.. w. V. Cox.
chairman of the ways and means COM
mittee. At the beginning he presented
the following summary:
Estimates submitted by the board,
81 100. 40: approved by the Commissioners
S4.12o.oin amount appropriated by the
House, S,.319, 331; amount appropriated by
the Senate, S3,379.S 37: amount appropri-
ated, on adoption of conference report,
s. 697. 49,
! All the salaries of teachers requested by
| the board, il was stated. We're allowed
except seven positions at 81 900. for teach
ers who had not yet reached the highest
grade in group a. class 6. at 81 500. but
who were TO be promoted to the $3.50
| class on examination. The Burleson
amendment 1t was explained, prohibited
the promotion of teachers to the $1,%U
grade before they reached the $3.50
grade.
| The appropriate for night school sal
| aries il was stated, was ST.. $50. or 81 11S.-
! 10 less than paid out in salaries in the
present year. That this decrease Will
| seriously handicap the night school work
was the statement Of one member of the
| boa I'd
The provision in the bill providing that
unexpended balances of funds appropriate
| ed for schools can be used for erection
| and maintenance of portable school
| houses, it stated. will give the
| board about So 600 for that purpose.
| The committee regretted that the estl-
! mates of the board for ma king the schoof
| buildings tireproof had been cut S2ll 600.
| The appropriation. it was stated. is di-