The Washington times., 1917-11-08
COMMUNITY
.BUY|NGPLAN
IS DISCUSSED
At PARK VIEW
Constituency May Decide to Use
School House as Distributing
center-McGrath's Duties So
Heavy Assistant Is Needed.
ny BILL PRICE

The development of the public
school house as a center Of commun-
ity activities has reached q perfection
Rt the Park View School. in this city
probably unequaled In any other part
OF the country.
To the already large variety OF ac-
tivities, mostly of a social nature, the
community constituency is to. pass
upon the question OF collective buy
ing Of the staple necessities Of life
and the use Of the school house as a
distributing center.
John @. McGrath, for many years
president of the Park View Citizens
Association. from which he recently
retired that he might give all his
spare time to the work of community
secretary, recently sent out an In
quiry to the people OF his section
asking whether they were interested
In community buying. The answers
were almost unanimously affirmative,
and a meeting is to be held to discuss
the subJsck
school Work L. Foremost.
Il do not yet know what we will
do about the matter" Mr.. AoGrath
said to The Times today. There
have been suggestions that the school
house be used as q sort Of community
store, but to this most of us object,
and the Board Of Education would
also object. Our people are pleased
with their community work generally.
but we DO not propose to interfere
AZ AV,NN
of the school children
Their interests are foremost with
us. I think II likely, though, that we
to purchase In packages and bulk.
using the school as a distributing
point at hours when educational work
is not going on"
Mr.. McGrath's work as community
secretary u becoming so heavy that
the people are preparing to give him
an assistant There is allotted to
that community, under the last ap-
preparation Of Congress, $500 q year
for payment Of a community secre-
tary. Because of his employment In
the Government service in the day
time Mr.. McGrath is unable to accept
but $500 of this annually. leaving $500
that might be paid an assistant.
Some idea Of Park View activities
at this schoolhouse may be gotten
from an enumeration of the schedule
of some OF the things going on there
five nights each week.
There is free Instruction. furnish
cd By teachers assigned by the Board
of Education, every Monday, We'd
nesday. and Friday evenings. in mil
Iinery, cooking. sewing, English and
buEfnesa mOthodR
SAal1 Charge Is Made.
During the week instruction may
be had In bGsketry, photography,
dramatic art, rhythmic dancing. mod
ern dancing, music. French, italian,
and Spanish, the teachers charging
10 to 20 cents an hour for classes suf.
fIciently large to warrant undertak.
ing the work. Glasses formed for any
particular branch OF instruction arc
assigned to rooms by Secretary Nc.
Grath, and they arrange with the in.
structors about the fees There are
q number of dancing classes.
Social clubs, composed OF people OF
all ages, meet on Wednesday and
Thursday evenings, and the Junior
Social Club, composed of nearly 100
young people, meets Friday nights
There is dancing at these meetings.
The Red Cross meets on Wednesday
evenings, the ladies assembling TO ar
range their work and to discuss af.