The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-15

be the capacity when the addition to the Gibson school Is completed Central school will accommodate S60 children; Kennedy school will accommodate 24O children; Gibson school will accommo- date 240 children now, and when the ad- dition is completed will accommodate 3SO children. This will make total of 9SO children the three schools will accommo- date when the next term begins, leaving 1044 children unprovided for In this con nection it is well to consider the fact that the Board of Education' of Bfrming- ham has passed a resolution forbidding any children from outlying suburbs not a part of Greater Birmingham, attend ing the Birmingham schools, which has been freely done heretofore, on the pay ment of a nominal tuition. This will be a great hardship on many other sub urbs, but especially so on Woodlawn- There are very many children rom Woodlawn who have been accustomed to attend school in Birmingham where the schools promise to be very much crowded this year, and this step was necessary in order to relieve, this condition as much as possible.
 For fear some of you have forgotten what I told you in previous communi- cation about the happenings at meet ing held in the armory some weeks since I will repeat what I wrote then: "Profes- sor Clayton called on to answer statements of MT. Buckshaw that the school cost per capita In Wood lawn was greater than elsewhere in Ala bama 4 said the Woodlawn school buildings were not to be compared with those of Birmingham, either as to size. possibilities of enlargement, equipment or economical management; that Birmng ham employed high-priced experts in diff ferent lines that Woodlawn could not af- ford' Now, these words are from the former superintendent of schools in Wood lawn, and one high up in knowledge that pertains both to what is a modern school building, as well as how they should be managed He went even further than this and said that when W oodlawn be- came a part of Greater Birmingham he felt sure that these three schools would be disposed of in some way, by sale or demolition, and larger and more modern
 
 take their place.
 What great stress the administration has made that there are 2O24 children of school age in Woodlawn, when, according to the figures above, there is now &C., commodation for less than one-half of them! What is to be come of themf Birmingham says she cannot accommo- date them. Suppose the mayor and aldermen had taken the $25OO they are preparing to spend on city hall, and either built large modern addition to Central school or an independent struc- ture immediately adjoining it? They have raised the hue and cry that there was no ground that could be purchased for this purpose. They know this is\not true, for MT. J. B. Chamberlain offefed his property for that purpose, appreciat- ing as he did that the greatest necessity was for a more centrally located school building, and not two additional ones, poorly planned and constructed and built to accommodate the wishes of some of the aldermen, to boost property they owned close by, being thus able to pub fish to possible buyers that they were In a block or two of the school. The claim was made at the time that it was too far for children to walk to Central school. Hfthough the boundary lines have been changed since their construction, I do not believe that now a child would have to walk more than a mile to Central school from the farthest corner of the town. But no; these two schools, the Kennedy and Gibson, must be built so as to en- nance the value of property owned by some of the aldermen
 Recurring again to the city hall, now under contract, what possible object any set of men having the affairs of Wood lawn in charge could have had in wishing to erect such building and that, too, on the eve of becoming part of Greater Birmingham. cannot imagine. and when