The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-02-25
COUNTY SUPT. PARkER|
MAKES REPORT TO-
SCHOOL BOARD

Members Board of Public Instruction
Polk County, Florida:
Dear Sirs-I take this method OF
making my report and also making a
few recommendations to you that 1
think should be considered before
the beginning of the next school
term.
Taking into consideration the great
interest that is manifested in the
schools Of Polk county now as com &.
pared with what it was a few years
ago, feel sure that the Board as a
whole, will agree with me when say
that a new epoch in thehistory of
the schools of Polk county has fair :
ly begun. We all note from our Wis i.
its to the schools that the spirit of
CO operation and love for the school
on the part of the parents and pu-
pills alike. has been firmly implanted.
How the old dilapidated buildings
have been changed to neat and at i.
tractive buildings. School rooms kept
neat and clean, with pictures on the
walls and in a number Of schools,
excellent libraries have been pur :
chased. School yards have been
cleared Of stumps and rubbish and
have been planted with beautiful
shade trees, grass. and flowers. These
with other improvements too numer-
GUS to mention, bear out the asser
tion that the people are taking
greater interest in the schools than
ever before
We also note the work in the va
rious grades Of the schools, the work
of improvement has in no way af /.
fected or interfered with the work
of the scholars in their studies, but
it has really proved great factor in
making the work more efficient. As
a rule, the teachers and scholars are
striving to make their schoo! the
best though in some schools Gas we
may expect when there are as many
schools as there are in this county,
few of which are not altogether
satisfactory. However, I have made
special note of all schools in this
condition and hope that we may
overcome this small difficulty next
year.
The four senior high schools un
der the able supervision OF the pres
ent principals. ! am glad to state,
are satisfactory ip every respect .
The most needed improvement in
these schools is the establishment of
departments of Domestic Science.
Manual Training, and also a depart
ent whereby a pupil not desiring to
complete the high school course.
may take thorough business
course, making the school NEE. the
needs of the pupils and not simpi,
forcing each individual pupil to take
the same course regardless of his or
her desire. Sill
In the rural schools I find that
too much work has to be undertaken
in the average fiye months to get
the best results and as I have stat
ed many times before, we cannot ex
pect these schools to reach any
marked degree Of efficiency or even
meet the requirements as prescribed
in our course of study, until we can
give a longer term OF school. he
lieve that since SO much improve
ment has been accomplished by the
individual school, and. believing as
I do, that more will be done in the
future, and, in view Of the fact that
over one-half of the schools ara n
nancially able to maintain their
schools from two to three months in
addition to the regular county ap-
preparation, from their subdistricL
funds, wish to recommend that Wa
give to each school a six months
term, to be paid for from the gen.
eral school fund and each school
making an average Of 80 per cent OF
the enrolment during the first six
months. that we give them one al
ditional month. or in other words.
that we guarantee another month to
such schools, to be paid from their
respective district funds when the
district has suchfunds available, anc
those schools whose districts are
small and financially unable to
maintain the number Of schools 10
Gated within their boundaries. that