St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1913-02-05
new SCHOOL BUILDING
CONTINUED from page ID

WA4AG the CuduSG 1TOu- d LCA yea
to a nine year schedule was made
in 1895, it was, of necessity, grad
ual cnange as many of the 9tI
grade children could not pass the
examination for the Academy
Therefore the effect on our number;
|, from this change IS most apparent
in the report of two years later
1898.
Comparison of Attendance
In 1898 the nine grades in the vii.
lage had an actual membership OF
644. Do not confuse actual member
ship with enrolment figures. Un-
| fortunately our school reports, made
by several different superintendent
and a constantly changing board Of
school directors, are not consistent
with themselves. The earlier reports
show a table Of the number of child
rem enrolled during the entire year,
while our later reports show actual
membership at the time the report
was prepared. For example, our last
report shows actual membership by
| grades at Summer street school at
the end of the school year June.
| 1912 as 379. Our enrolment for
| the same time at Summer street was
| 426. Enrolment means total num-
Der of children Jhac attended at any
time during the year. Families move
in and out of town. A child is enroll
ed as a pupil after he has attended
any school in town for two weeks
We have $50 enrolled at Summer
street school so far this year and
1865 enrolled at present in all cur
schools. The number enrolled by
the end of this school year will prob
ably be somewhat larger than this.
With the distinction between
membership and enrolment clearly
in mind, we are in position to COM
pare statistics in our school reports
relative to our present conditions
and those of previous years.
Increase of 261 Children
In 1898, after the change from 10
grades to 8, we had an actual mem
bership in our village grades of 544.
We now have in these same grades
COS, an increase in the IA years of
261 children or an average yearly
increase of 18 3-5. The rate of in
crease in the last few years is con-
siderably larger than these figures.
Looking over the whole 20 years
that the town system has been in
use here we find that in some of the
earlier years there has been little
or no increase, while in later years
the increase is large.
We have never had room enough
in all our schools at any time dur
ing these 20 years. We have been
particularly oVer-crowded at the
schools on Summer street at various
times. The congestion at this point |
has at times been relieved by addi- |
tional building in other parts of the
town, but more often by transfer
ring children from this school to |
other schools. We learn from the |
school reports that about once every |
four or five years. the Summer
street schools fill up and run over.
Seventeen years ago, in 1896 we
have the first record of this condi- |
ton, when AT children were en-
rolled at this school during the |
school year. This does not mean
that ATT children attended this
school at any one time.
The report for this year, 1896, |
shows as follows for the Summer
street schools: enrolled, Az; aver
age attendance, 361. We relieved our
over-crowded conditions at Summer |
street in 1896 by transferring the
10th grade to the Academy, making |
a reduction of 81 children.
New SummerVille School
A few years later, however, our
numbers had again increased at
Summer street. This time condi- !
lions there were relieved by the |
building of a new school house Oh |
Portland street in Summerville. This
new Summerville building was com |
pleted in 1900 and contained at that |
time six school rooms and an as
sembly hall. Only five of the six
schoolrooms were used at first, but
this was ample for all our schOol !
children which were east of the
Passumpsic River at that time. When |
the new Summervil1e school was |
opened our numbers were again |
reduced at Summer street school to |
reasonable proportions, but hve
years later we were as crowded as
ever at Summer street. Then relief |
was obtained by sending children
from Railroad street to Summer
vile. This arrangement helped fill |
the new building and relieve the old |
but was rather inconvenient for the
Railroad street children. This trans !
fer of the Railroad street children
from Summer street school to Port
land street was made in 1905 and re-
suited in relieving Summer street of
SO children while Portland street
shows an increase of 1O1. The as
sembly hall in the Portland street
building was divided at this time to
make two additional schoOlrooms.
But children continued to increase
at the Summer street schools and in
1908 the directors were forced to
find further accommodations for
them. The Portland street building
was now over-crowded also.
Children Sent to Paddock Village.
Moving Railroad street children
from the Summer street school had
resulted in several families moving
to Summerville. In 1908 the Sth
grade children in Summerville were
sent to Paddock Village where we
had a little room to spare. This
brought out such a
storm of objection that it was aban-
doned at the end of the year; and