Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-05-18

six cities spend less than Harrisburg,
1t was shown.
Cost of Administration
| The study of supervisory cost In
cluded an investigation of the costs
OF administration in the same group
or cities. Tabulated returns indi-
Gated a range per capita costs on the
basis OF total enrolment, from 24c
In Sommerville. Mass. to S2.1S in
Houston, Texas, the average of the
entire forty-siX cities being SSc
The cost in Harrisburg is $1.O1 or
nine of the forty-siX cities spend less
per capita for administration by su-
pervisory officers than Harrisburg.
This, DR.. Downes claimed, is due
without question to the large num-
Der of elementary principals en-
ployed in the city, owing to small
school buildings, the total amount
of the salaries of these officials, over
and above that credited to them as
teachers, being charged to the cost
of administration.
Supervisors Duties
Declaring that the time of super
visor of special subjects, such as
music and drawing, should be de-
voted largely to control and over
sight, rather than actual classroom
| teaching, DR.. Downes stated the SUI
|
recting teachers rather than pupils.
At present supervisors of music and
drawing are engaged most of the
time in regular classroom teaching
and have little time to devote to the
principal duties that should receive
their attention.
Above the Average Here
Harrisburg is the only city of the
| fifty-si& replying to the QUESTIONABLE
, of the University of Pennsylvania
investigators reporting four super
visors of music, and was one of the
six having three supervisors of
drawing. This is due to the fact that
Harrisburg has been operating un-
der system of basing the number of
supervisors needed on the number
| of regular teachers employed. For
ty-three of the fifty-six cities reply
ing to questions only have one super
visor of music, and thirty-eight only
| one supervisor of drawing.
Closer Supervision
District or group supervision will
| be the> most economical method
which can be used in Harrisburg
DR.. Downes continued. To support
this he says: Harrisburg now has
thirty elementary school buildings
with capacities ranging from two to
| twenty-four regular classrooms.
| Eighteen of these buildings contain
! less than ten rooms each, and it
would manifestly be impracticable
| to have a separate supervising prin-
| cipal in each. On the other hand
| there is danger in spreading general
supervision over too great an area.
| Where a supervising principal has
| charge of more than one building,
| the buildings should be as compact
| as possible and one such supervisor
| should not be required to have more
than from twenty to thirty teachers
| under his immediate control and
| direction. In fact in most of our
progressive school cities we find that
| the principals in all schools of twelve
or more classrooms do no regular
teaching, their work being entirely
supervisory in character. For the
past three years our plan in Harris
burg has involved the supervision of
teaching by one man of from forty
five to sixty rooms in from four to
seven buildings spread over a wide
area.
More Power For Principals
school principals" the report
continued, should have authority
both to direct classroom teaching
and to deal with discipline. They
should have wide power in hand
ling all the varied executive prob
lens that arise. Administrative and
supervisory functions are often so
related that the performance of one
function involves the per-
formance of the other. BY
our present plan the gem
eral supervisor is made responsible