New-York tribune., 1915-03-22
Neighborhood Association
Leads Fight on Board
of Education.
DECLARES EXISTING
BUILDINGS BARBARlC
Shows That Sale of Old Sites
Would Provide for All Cost
and S166, 900 Over.
BY HENRIETTA RODMAN.

second Street, west OF tlfth avenue
The association asks that three
wretched old school buildings in the
neighborhood shall be abandoned and
a modern, we'll equipped school built
on a West Twentieth Street site which
the Board Of Education has owned for
seven years and left unimproved.
Through Knowl,on Durham, presi-
dent, and Edward fl. Pfeiffer, execu-
tive secretary, the association issued a
lengthy report last night urging mod
ern public school on the West Twen-
tieth Street site, the funds TO be OBJ
tanned by vacatng the three old build
ing and selling the sites.
"Each of the three old buildings was
built prior to 1862" says the report,
which is TO be brought before the
Board of Education on Wednesday.
"Not one is freproof or partially So
Eighty per cent Of Chelsea's classrooms
are crowded beyond their legal capac-
itv. Wardrobe and drinking facilities
are INADEQUATE and toilet facilities bar
barrie. 80.
"Since the sites Of the old public
schools are valued by the city's real
estate bureau at s600,000 and the pro-
posed new school would cost only s434,
600. by vacating these outworn build
ines and selling the sites sl66,OOO
would be realized for other school pur-
poses" ..o
The report is accompanied by photo
praphs to prove the associations con-
tentions that the present school build
ings are out of date.
The PEOPLES Institute, Woman's Mu-
nicipal League, Y. NJ. C. A., Association
for Improving the Condition of the
Poor and the parents, taxpayers and
business organizations of the commu-
nitv are backing the demand for the
new school.
Apparently its only opponent is DR.:
Maxwell, the City Superintendent OF
Schools. He is quoted as saying that
tbe population of the neighborhood IS
decreasing, and that children would
have to travel nearly mile to the new
school.
The Chelsea Neighborhood Assocla-
tion denies the accuracy Of both state
ments.
Good luck to the children OF Chelsea
and more power to its neighborhood
association!
Assemblyman Nicholas Nehrbauer' OF
Queens, has introduced a bill when de-
serves the attention Of Mr.. Nenroauer
constituents. -.
In II he places marriage with i'm
moral conduct and inability to teach as
SCHOOLS.
Such an attack upon marriage IS an at-
tack upon the system OF morailty lor
which marriage stands.
if~ Mr.. Nehrbauer's bill should be-
come a law its result would be nun
drods of secret marriages, with the sc-
companying dangers.
Tbis hill menaces the welfare of the
schools. of women and the stability OF
marriage itself.
There is very interesting evening
school, 34, in The Bronx.
The principal is Edward u: StryKer'
who. by the way, is an educator.
One of 34's interesting departures
from orthodox school work was the
establishment of civil service ciass.
Graduates of this class are now IN
nositions in the railway mail service
the War Department, the custom
House the Police and Fire depart
ments, the Typographical Bureau OF
The Bronx and in NUMBER OF CLERK
ships in city and borough Offices. Inc
school is on the mailing list OF the
federal, state and municipal civil ser
vice commissions and keeps IN close
! touch with the work.
an the workshop" Mr.. Stryker told
me, "an innovation was undertaken
which has proved a great success
There were number OF youths VINO
congregated on the street corners and
made trouble for the shopkeepers and
the police. We worked among them
and have succeeded in getting most OF
them interested in the shop work.
"They are regular in attendance and
having the social atmosphere or the
school around them all the time, are
gaining in self-respect and command,
ing the respect of their comrades ana
the teachers. Two of them, working to-
0ether. have built fourteen-foot lap
streak rowboat, most of the material
being furnished by themselves. think
This idea makes one of the strongest
claims for the existence OF shop class
from the community as well as the III
dividual point of view
Presidents of fourteen associations
Of teachers have signed resolutic n
disapproving the proposed plan that
the regular day school stats shall
carry on the vacation schools.
They added:
1--WE do not oppose summer school
activities; on the contrary, we believe
their discontinuance would be a grave
mistake. The problem is: What should
the work during the summer be, and
who should do the work."
A reception by the ungraded teachers
Of The Bronx in honor Of Miss Eliza.
beth T. Farrell, inspector of the un.
graded classes, will be held at Public
School 4. Fulton Avenue and 1850
Street, tomorrow evening.