The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1913-01-24

HIGH SCHOOL INFORMATION
Facts Furnished BY the Secretary o.
the Board of Trustees


To the editor of the Banner-From
time to time during the next thirty
days we hope to give you some infor-
nation regarding our High School
and its needs. How better provision
may be made for the same.
Let it be understood from the start
that the School Board do not propose
to force a new high school building
upon an unwilling people. But do
you know that the increase in pupils
in our schools during the last few
years has been largely, not an in
creased attendance in the grades, but
rather in our high school. That the
present day demands upon high
schools to give a practical course as
well as a classical course have been
carried out in our own school so far
as our limited room permits. That is
one reason why our high school has
doubled in numbers, and why we need
a new building.
Do not let anyone side track you.
The district as a whole realizes the
fact and at their last regular meet
ing instructed the Board to inyesti-
Sdlt SlNGSy pldnSs tlNs nat 10 W nat
they have been trying to do and to
give you an idea as to what one man,
who has had considerable experience
in the construction of modern high
school buildings thinks, | will quote
from a letter dated October 90, 1912.
Now regarding your problem at
Bennington have made the follow
ing deductions:
You want building to accommodate
about three hundred pupils and to be
so designed that it can be enlarged
at any time without destroying the
architectural symetry, proportion and
beauty or in any way effecting the ad
ministratiye axis.
If my deductions are correct and al
so taking into consideration what you
said regarding an assembly hall |
would recommend building with
eight class rooms seating 40 pupils
each, chemical and physica. labora-
tory suite with ampitheatre lecture
room, commercial room large
enough to seat 80 pupils at the regu-
latlon commercial desks and having
a banking counter built in and in di-
rect connection with typewrting
room, also a drawing room whore
both free hand and mechanical draw
ing could be carried on and all three
rooms so arranged that it would be
possible for one teacher to control
them. There should be a school IL
brary properly arranged so that if
the school directors desired to meet
there it would not in any way incon-
venience the administration of the
school,
The basement should contain sani-
taries of both boys and girls entirely
separated, together with the heating
and ventilating apparatus, sloyd
room, room for either domestic sci
ence or advanced sfoyd work, recre-
alton room or gymnasium with suit
able locker rooms properly equip
ped, suitable store room for general
supplies in basement connected with
lift to each floor so that the dirt may
be kept in the basement
OF course there should be a princi.
pals Office fitted with a fireproof
vault for the school records and pro
per sanitaries Also a teachers or
emergency room similarly equipped
The clock system telephone, bells,
stairways, exits, lighting, etc, shall
be in accordance with the best accept
ed ideas of modern school construc-
ton.
Such, without going into detail, is
my understanding of about what you
would need in Bennington.
A building such as | have describ-
ed with an assembly hall on the first
floor accommodating too would contain
about 1880 SO. #. on the ground and
$4,000 cubic feet"
We need your cooperation
II H. Webster.