The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1912-11-15


which our school house easily ac-
commodated, but which gave one
teacher. Mrs. C. B. Buxton, plenty
to do. There was then some specu-
lation as to what would happen if
the school got a larger attendance,
and / did hear the suggestion that
another room be built onto the
school house and another teacher
hired. This in the face OF the fact
that the district was still in debt.
At this juncture someone hatched
the idea of div ding the district and
building another school house on
the other main road in the district;
and l. as resident and property
holder in the proposed new district,
was approached Ky one Of its pro-
moters as to how | stood on the sub
ject.
1t was put up to me, not for the
betterment of school facilities. but
as a speculative idea--that it would
increase the value of property in
the vicinity and make it more sale
able. objected to it on the ground
that we could not support school
rightly if we did succeed in getting
set off from the10ld district.
The new district idea gained such
support that in April 1910 the
county superintendent called q
meeting Of the people in the district
to hear the pros and cons Of the
matter; and as is usual at such
times. each side put forward its
m ost fetching arguments. Of
course division for speculative pur-
poses was not the one used on this
occasion.
Miss Sweeney decided that she
did not want any more weak dis
tricts, and the people on the other
road decided soon after that they
would not send their children to
school in the old district any more.
The next move proposed was that
five families on the east side should
withdraw and be set off into the
West Sound district. This was met
with petition, signed by almost
every person left in the old district,
and so killed.
The next idea entertained and
proposed was to move the school
site, and Miss Sweeney again called
a meeting to hear the pros and cons,
and still she maintained that it
would be worse than useless to do
so, as the school house now is as
near the geographical and population
center Of the district as is possible
to place it. At that time she made
a trip over the by-paths travelled by
the pupils. and found them in a sat
isfactory condition.
Out of this idea Of changing the
school site came the final or present
ldea-that Of forming new dist
rict in such way as to absolutely
disable the old one.
The proposed boundary of the
new district is within less than ten
rods Of the present school house and
takes in more than four-fifths OF the
arabic ground in the present dist
riot. The avowed intention is to
break up the present school district.
This was the petition with the ~
names which was turned down by
Miss Sweeney as not for a moment
to be considered, and which was put
before the county commissioners as
an appeal and "railroaded' through
to a decision without the people IN
the affected district having WORD
| of warning as to what was going on:
AS soon as it was known what nao
been done q meeting was called Dy
the clerk Of the school board and g
committee appointed to get the
matter before Judge Joiner at tne
earliest possible moment. a funo
was raised BY subscription 70 gee
the matter through. and general IN
dignation was freely expres.ed. Inc
committee Vas advised by the coon-
tv superintendent that legal actlon
was unnecessary. and they are rest-
inc, awaiting the result q gee st,s