Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-09-23
WHAT HARRISBURG HAS DONE FOR ITS
SCHOOLS is TOLD BY DR. F. E. DOWNES
City Superintendent Tells Facts at Big Educational Mass
Meeting at Tech Which formally Opens Celebration
City School Superintendent.


What Harrisburg has done for the
development of its public school sys-
tenn in the past fifteen years was in
terestingly told last evening by DR..
Frederick E. Downes, city superinten-
dent of schools, at the big educational
mass meeting and public school ex-
hibition which marked the formal
opening of the great Municipal I'm
provement celebration in Technical
High school.
DIR. Downes' talk was in the nature
of a comparation between the schools
of to-day and of fifteen years ago.
Attendance of scholars and the increase
in the years, the improvement in the
salary rates, the expenditures and the
various important events in the school
history were Interestingly brought out.
In concluding his talk DR.. Downes
touched upon the need for a new high
school, wide extension of evening in
struction, introduction of manual work
for boys and girls in the grammar
grades and the Inauguration of a more
comprehensive and effective scheme of
physical education.
Fifteen Years
DIR. Downes said in part:
In the school year 1S99-1900 the
average daily attendance in the schools
was $500; in the year 1914-15, 1862,
an increase of 40 per cent. in fifteen
years. The number of high school
students increased from 615 to 1879.
or 124 per cent The number of
teachers increased from 100 to 30S,
or So per cent. The average salary of
male teachers in 1900 was $S3.10; in
1915, S131.15, an increase of 5S per
cent. The average salary of female
teachers during the same period in
creased from $49.2S to $3.50, or so
per cent. The total amount paid for
teachers salaries increased from
500. 9.202.S2 to $260,012.71, or 1872 per
cent. The total expenditures for
schools fifteen years ago was
4,661.s3; last year it was s451,-
036.41, an increase of 144 per cent.
The assessed valuation has increased
los per cent. during this period; the
value of school property, now ST.
450, 200, "a per cent; the number of
school buildings IL per cent; and the
number of school rooms So per cent.
The average number of pupils per
teacher, based on the total of teach
ers, was 81, in 1900, as against 81 in
1915. n reduction of 27 per cent.
Manual Training In Schools
In November. 1900, manual train
ing for boys was introduced in the
Central High school. The work was
optional and was taken that year by
40 students. The introduction of
this work. the demand for Ii on the
part of students, and the success of
1t, led four years later to the estab-
lishment of the Technical High school.
In 1901. a school for delinquents
was organized in the Harris building.
system of physical education was
also worked out by the Superinten-
dent and adopted during the same
year, and the Cameron Annex was
erected at a cost of $4,000. In Sep
-
Training School was established, with
eleven students. September, 1904, the
Technical High school began its work
in the old Dewitt building, the site of
the present structure. The total en-
rollment for the year was 81. During