The Oskaloosa herald., 1917-02-15
THE CONSOLIDATED
IsUPT. OF ROSE HILL SCHOOL
GIVES HER REASONS.


/ Ed Herald: An election on the cues.
ton OF formingEa consolidated indie
pendent district is called for Friday,
Feb. 16, 1917 at Rose Hill. Therefore
the Herald is asked to give space to
! the following article:
! Sometimes newspaper article that
under ordinary circumstances would
pass unnoticed is given under import.
ance. Such is the case of an article in
recent edition of Wallace's Warmer.
Reply to Mr.. Collingsworth." is the
title of the article and G.. E. Lasley
of Van Buren, Co, Iowa, is the author.
First allow me to introduce Mr.. c. ].
i Collingsworth, with Whom | am per-
sonally acquainted. Mr.. Collingsworth,
superintendent of the Mondarnin, Har-
rison Co., Iowa public SCHOOLS. Mr..
Collingsworth's article, The Consoli-
dated School, was published in Wal
lace's Farmer, Jan. 10, 1917. To this ar.
ticle the aforesaid gentleman from
Van Buren, Co., took exception, wordy
but not deep. But the point with us
here at Rose Hill is that some persons
may take Mr.. Lesley's article serious
lily and shat would be something he
surely never intended anyone to do
First, let us take up Mr.. Lasley's
question, But from whom does MI.
ColIingsworth get his information?"
and then he answers his own question
by saying, ne gets it from the sccre-
tary of the school board, who is a
resident of the dirty little town in
which the school is located" There
nation on consolidated schools which
evidently the gentleman from Van
Buren, does not know about. One is
very inexpensive, a post card request
will bring it to you. 1t is the Iowa edu-
cational Directory. Send to either Co.
Superintendent or State Superintend.
dent of Public Instruction for it and
you will receive a small book, but
much valuable information.
The other source is more expensive,
but far more satisfactory, viz. go and
see for yourself. Go however, to the
district of established schools, schools
that are in their consolidated buildings
fully organized schools, SO that you
may see just the kind of work the pu-
pills are doing.
These two, with his own experience
we're the sources of Mr.. Ceilings
worth's information. Not the secretary
of any school board, although a secre-
tarys report ought to be reliable.
Mr.. Collingsworth went to Mondam'
in in 1901 Reading from a report of
that year there were ID pupils doing
the high school work. 5 This small
school developed with the aid of pro
81 essive community, until it became
a splendid consolidated school, There
are SO Sections of territory, seven
acres of grounds with II room build
} ing. hack routes, II teachers, and an
accredited high school.
Mr.. Collingsworth knows what he
is talking about when he speaks OF
routes for the Mondaimn school has
rem ride miles. The first child enters
the hack on this route at 6:45 a. m
Early, yet, but even then, not person
III the Mondamin district wishes to go
back to the old system. The other
MondOmin routes are a and 81 miles
and the children enter the hacks at
1925, 1880 and 7:45 a. m. This sounds
early, but as you all know in every
rural school some children get to
school as early at 1880 and s o'clock,
while there are others who do not get
ca school until 10 o'clock. ConColida-
ton helps both.
The next little joke of Mr.. Lasley's
would be serious indeed, ii we did not
have a copy Of Wallace's Farmer of
Jan. 10, copy of the directory of 1916
and section 2794-a G) Too bad for
the inexact that reliable information
is so easy to obtain But to the joke.
Mr.. Lasley seriously informs us that
81 out of a total of 10 consolidated
schools had expressed a desire to go
back to the old system also, that the
lew makes it next to impossible to go
back to the old system, "as you have
to have the approval of the county sup
Icrintendent and the state superintend-
ent to your petition to dissolve, and
that is almost impossible to get" 1t
Is just as easy, should a district care
to dissolve, as it is to organize, and
the steps are identical. You do not
have the approval in either case of
the state superintendent unless your
district is in more than one county and
the county superintendent fail to
Iagree. But to tibet first statement, 81
schools, he says, want TO go back. We
SHALL quote Mr., Collingsworth for he
took the 1856 directory as the basis
of his statements. IF each family,
whose children are being transported
to the consolidated schools of the state
send on an average OF five children in
the hacks we would have 1,60S famil-
les represented. This means 3,216 faith