St. Tammany farmer., 1915-08-14


not question the legal right Of youF
honorable body to pool the tunds
of the entire parish as is now done,
but we do claim that it is an In
Justice to some of the children OF
the parish, inasmuch as the present
method prevent. all Of them from
getting a full session, which some
could realize under different meth
cd. We, therefore petition " your
honorable body to allow to each
ward the distribution OF Its own
funds, and to this end We desire our
director, the Hon. c. B. Wills, to
exert every effort to convince you
that it is Just and equitable to every
body concerned and to the best IN.
terests Of the parish public scnool
'''' R. B. PAINE, 7'
Secretary.
ERNEST PRIETO,
Local Trustees.
Moved by DR.. Farmer and second
ed by Mr.. Kahl that the petition be
received and made part Of the rec
ords of the meeting. Carried.
At this time Mr.. G. B. Wills, scnooi
director from the Fourth ward, maze
strong plea to the board to change
the method of distributing the gen
eral school funds SO that the money
should hereafter go to the various
wards in proportion to the amour
paid by the sane wards, instead OF
pooling the funds and giving each
ward the same length OF schools.
After being shown that il the pro-
posed change he made, some wards
would get three months of school,
even when they were paying just as
many mills for school tax as those
wards do that would get nine
months, he very graciously with
drew his request. In doing so &
stated that if it was question OF
the greater good to the greater num-
| Der that decided the method of dlvl-
sion. he was satisfied to have the
same method of distribution con-
tinue.
Moved by Mr.. Millar and seconded
by DR.. Farmer that the chair appoint
committee to wait upon the man
agement of the st. Tammany 4 New
Orleans Railway & Ferry Co. and
try to get q better schedule for a
car to bring the school children tc
the Covington school. Carried.
The president appointed Messrs
Millar and Wills.
At this time the superintendent
asked permission to make state
ment regarding the reference in the
petition from Vaudeville concerning
the Vaudeville school teaching in
Covington.
Moved by Mr.. Millar and second
ed BY Mr.. Parker that the following
verbal report Of the superintendent
ba written out and made q part OF
the records of the school board. i
II is. in substance, as follows:
Schools for the year 1914-15 be-
gan with four teachers In the Mande-
Vile school. The principal taught
tha eighth and ninth grades and
had eleven pupils attending IN those
grades, for which he was receiving
$500 q month.
"When Mr.. John NJ. Foote, as
sistant rural school inspector, visit
ed this school with me. he found MT
NTH, the principal, trying to DO nign
school work. This was impossible
because he could not give 4O-minutf
recitation periods, as the state board
requires, could not teach any OF Tn
sciences. such as botany, physiology
zoology physics, or chemistry, and
even history, in such q way as tn
state department would be able tc
accent and give credits for; no.
would any college in the land, OF
standing, be willing to give credit
for. In other words he thought
that the time spent by the pupils In
these grades was about lost becaus'
the grades would have to be taken
over again should the pupils desire
to graduate from any high school
I say he could not do these thing
because the Vaudeville school Is not
eoufpped with the necessary labora'
tories and library for research work.
because of the above conditions
inst outlined, Mr.. Foote recon-
mended that the high school pupils
Of the Vaudeville and Abita schools
be given permissionto come to Gov
ineton High School, where they
would be- given access to the labora-
tory facilities. This change was made
and later this school board gave u
approval to the change.
Now just as soon as the e1gntr
and ninth grades were taken from
the Vaudeville school we had taker
the work from the principal, unless
we gave him some of the grammer
grades and he objected to doing
that grade of work. Besides II he
had not, we would have been givine
more teachers for the Mandeville
pupils than we are giving for the
same number of pupils in any other
school.
'.Mr. Smith was given work In tn
Covington school and the next teacn
er in Vaudeville was offered the
principalship, but she rejected 1t un
less her salary was given a large in
crease. This I was not able to give
because the money had all been ap
propriated and the appropriation was
in excess of the income. Besides al
this most positively feel that her
work was not increased $500 ?
month. Each teacher had charge Of
the discipline Of her own room, and
this teacher, il she had been appoint
ed principal, could not have visited
other rooms for supervision at all,
as she had classes to teach every
period. It would have been giving
her an increase in salary because
she had consented to wear title o