The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-06-18
.SCRIMPED CASH PREVENTS NEW.
 SCHOOL WORK
BOARD OF. EDUCATION MUST ASK CONTRACTORS ON NEW BUILDING TO WAIT
 FOR PAY.

The board of Education finds itself in peculiar circumstances, thanks to- the false economic ideas of Mayor Wilson. When the board of Apportionment all lotted the money to be expended by each board, last February, in It's en- deavor to reduce the appropriations so as to make for g. 15 mill tax rates it cut out the entire requisttion of $19,00o for school repairs By so doing the board of Education has found 1t neces- sary to use part of the: one mill tax appropriation for that purpose. This one mill appropriation has always been used in the past for new school
 By so dividing the one mill appro- priation and making it serve for re- pairs asSwell as new schools, the board of Education is in "a predicament. About two-thirds of all the work on new school buildings to be. done this year will be done with anticipated ap- proprfations of next year. The new. buildings are absolutely necessary. Consequently the board is contracting for new buildings with the under- standing with the contractors that the work would not be paid for until next year, appropriations are received
 Before the board of Apportionn1ent made it's final appropriations, both the mayor and members of that board were consulted concerning the serious congested conditions. which confront the schools. They were shown par ticularly the conditions at the Grand street school. the Bostwick avenue school and the Nichols school. These schools were absolutely in need of immediate attention. This fact was impressed upon the mayor as we'll as the members of the board of Appor- tionment and yet when the final ap- propriations were made the $19,000 re-
 Syyfo iNv cG Nrr a yyfap emphatically aSreed with sthe members of the board of Education. as did mem bers of the board of Apportionment, that the conditions would need imIne- diate attention.
 A member of the board of Education said this week: 'I see that the mayor makes reference to the slowness with which the board of Education gets at the new school problem. He should
 stop and think of the disadvantage to which he put the board when he in- structed the board of Apportionment to cut out that reQuisit1on for repairs. as feel sure he did. The board of
 to build new schools and two-thirds of
 the work that will be done this year,
 which work it is absolutely necessary
 to start this year, will be done in an
 ticipation of next years appropria-
 tions. We haven't the money with |
 range with the contractors who under
 take the building of new schools to
 wait until next years appropriations become available. The work has got to be done whether we have the mon ey. or not If we wait until. the ap- propriations are available before we
 begin the work then the schools wont be finished before two or three years. As it is now the Bostwick avenue school will not be in readiness until a | year from now, nor win the other schools that are so much needed. The mayor is unfair in making such ref erence to the board. o. e-- .:,-=. l. Two sites have been considered flor the Nichols school but as soon as it became known that the, city was a prospective buyer the prices on the property advanced something like g, : 000 One site which could have. been thought for $5O00 has been advanced to $7,0OO: Another site was advanced in similar proportion. The board has de |. cided to await their time before mak- ing the purchase to see if the prices can't be reduced. If necessary con demnation proceedings will be resort ed to-