Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1908-07-02
SCHOOL PATRONS
register PROTEST

The plan adopted to prevent over
crowding in the high school by utiliz-
ing vacant space in the other wards
has aroused quite storm of protest
from patrons in the first ward, who
censure the school directors for admit
ting nonresident pupils when to do
so they have to crowd town pupils out
of the ward in which they live and
oblige them to attend school in an ad =
joining ward.
a member of the school board, who
belongs to the committee that has the
matter of readjustment in hand, was in
| terviewed Friday and asked wheth-
er there is any probability of the ac-
tion taken at the last meeting being
rescnded or in other words whether
it may be regarded as final that the
first ward grammar school is to be
transferred to the third ward, occupy
ing the room vacated by Miss Bloom S
grammar school, which in turn is to
be transferred to the vacant room in
the fourth ward. The reply was that
the action taken would undoubtedly
stand The board would be glad, the
director said, to adopt some other solu-
tion to the problem, if a good one
could be suggested, but uP to the rres-
ent there seems to be no other way
out of the difficulty,
There are two points, the director
said, that the public is not well in
formed on. One of these is that the
time has arrived when a fifth teacher
is indispensable in the high school re-
gardless of the number of resident
pupils l5 Is tho employment Of tlis
instructor. needed TO teach the resident
pupils thas neoes3itates the adJitiou-
al .oom
a iazsu years ago there were only
ninety pupils IN the high schaol with
the same number Of teachers eWploy-
ed rs no present. The number of
high school pupils siuee then hps been
gradually increasing until there are
now 100 resident or town pupils Eli
mnating the 50 non resident pupils
that are expected to attend, the school
board believes that it would be i'll ad-
vised to try to get along any further
without employing a fifth teacher and
occupying another room. The classes
are uuwieIdy and full justice can not
ha d2ns--' ass4call-se vii 4 9Lcsclerz
employed as many non resident pn Jilss
as desire to attend can be taken care
of and they will add considerably to
the revenue of the district, more than
counterbalancing the cost of the addi-
tional teacher.
Another thing that the public does
not understand, the director stated, is
that n conjunction with the proposed
changes in the grammar school the
borough will be redistricted TO make
it as convenient as possible for the
pupils. To illustrate, it has been learn
ed that while the first ward grammar
school has fifty pupils the same room
of the second ward has only twenty
seven. In redistricting, as relates to
the pupils of the latter grade the line
between the first and second wards
will be shifted so as to equalize the
number of pupils in the grammar
schools Of these two wards. Thus it
follows that in all instances where
practicable pupils will be assigned to
the nearest schools. In all the propos-
ed changes, the director said, the school
board has acted on the advice or with
the concurrence of the borough super
intendent
The director explained that the
finances of the school district are IN
excellent shape. In addition to en-
ploying fifth teacher for the high
school, he said the salary Of the prin-
cipal will undoubtedly be raised-from
$500 to probably 81, 100 Bloomsbury,
which employs six teachers in its high
school. has just raised the salary of
its principal from $1,000 to $1,000. The
fifth teacher which the board has de-
cided to employ in the high school
here will receive $40 per month.