Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-06-18
SCHOOL NECESSITIES

tons as to next year needs III our puDllC schools. Last year the average number belong ing was . per cent of the census. On this basis 1t will be necessary to provide for 1922 children next year. The number will probably be con- siderably in excess of this because the new law gives the board of education better means of compelling the attendance of children between the ages of eight and fourteen years. During the past year the compulsory education law has not been rigidly enforced although both Judge Thomas and Judge Pratt have rendered every assistance i'll their power. The school rooms were so overcrowded that no more children could be accommodated, and the lack of any specific officers whose duty it is to look after truancy cases rendered enforcement difficult The legislature has remedied this second defect and the people should see to it that there is ample school roo mprovided to accommodate the citys rapidly increasing school population without overcrowding.
 The most economical method of providing the necessary school room would seem to be the erection of a one room addition to the North Globe school, and the construction of building somewhere on Mob hill or Pascoe hill to accom- mOdate the large number of small children that otherwise have to go to the East Globe school or to the Central school. Both these buildings have been greatly overcrowded the past year and these two improvements would relieve the congestion and would avoid the necessity of having so many small children cross the rail road tracks to reach the Central building
 It is difficult to secure site for a school building and this difficulty increases with every year of the city's growth. It would have been wise economy to have set aside ample grounds not only for schools but for parks, boulevards and other public purposes, when land was cheap. This opportunity is gone, however, and 1t would be wisdom now to secure the absolute ly necessary school sites without any delay Already the wisdom of securing the excellent sites in East Globe and on Noftsger hill has been demonstrated, and in very few years, ad ditions to the buildings now on these grounds will be needed to accommodate the rapid in crease in population With the four sites now owned by the district, ninety nine year lease on the North Globe site, and the purchase of a site centrally located, somewhere east of Dev ereaux street, there will be reasonable provision for many years growth.
 There are two other school matters that need the immediate attention of the community. The mode of heating our school buildings is waste full in the extreme Last year twenty-two stoves were operated burning more coal than would be required to furnish far greater comfort fol at least two years if some rational more of heat
 ing were installed An actual comparison of the figures shows that 1t took more fuel to heat the Central building alone this last year than was used during the school year 1906-7 to heat a fourteen-room building, (the Central has only ten rooms), situated on the shore of Lake Su- perior. The latter building had to have fires during part of every month from September to June inclusive, and for over five months, had to be heated against zero weather--oceasional thirty degrees below. There can be no question that the saving in fuel would, in few years pay for steam heating plants in our three large buildings. The gain in comfort, health and freedom from interruption of school work would fully repay the cost even if we ignore the economy in fuel. This wasteful system should not be allowed to continue another year
 The other matter, even more yitaliy import ant to the physical and moral health of the chil- dren is the matter of sanitary closets and toilet rooms. The unsanitary outdoor closets may have been a necessity when Globe was a strug- gling, struggling mining camp, but now with our congested population, with 500 children as sembling daily at a single school building with the city owning its own water system, the time has certainly come for more modern and metropolitan treatment of this problem. Prop erly equipped sanitary toilet rooms are not only conducive to health, but they furnish an ele- mentary education in decency. An extensive experience with both methods proves that the physical foulness of the outdoor closet is by no means it's worst feature as compared with