East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1919-09-03
81 PER CENT OF LAND
SENDING G. PER CENT
OF YOUTH TO SCHOOL
Annual Report Shows Country
Districts Shrinking and City
Taxpayers Pay Heavily for
Education as Result.

Eleven of the 100 school district,
in Umatilla county contain 81 per CEN
of the assessed valuation of lands II
the county but must raise school taxe,
ia educate So per cent of the children
of school age, the annual repoI. anl
summary of County Superintan6 ent
OF Schools w. w. Green shows. IN
order to do this, these il district
are required to raise 81 per caise OF
the total special school tax ley in
tho entire country
he rural school is rapidly l1s;na
prestige and its students. are drie$!ng
to the city schools. the report .ndi-
Gates The fact that 81 per cent Of
the total number of children in the
county attend classes in one-tenth %
the districts proves that the smaller
d'stricts are becoming depopulated of
scnool children.
I he county school fund at present
totals $4,000. which represents IL
fniil levy throughout the county for
educational purposes. This is an av-
eroge of SO apear per capita leyy. a
erage OF $40 per capita levy. A
the means for making a more equl--
able distribution of school taxes. p!
county school fund and 29 mills
levy would be the rate.
The total special district tax Iexy
Of schools in Umatilla county is $251.-
s04.25. which is equal to less than a s
Tnill county levy, the report further
shows. The tax in the IL chief dis
tricts is about two-thirds that am
cunt. being s169,997.s5.
showed 69f2 children of school age
in Umatilla county. 1892 of whom at
tead in the IL districts mentioned.
The number of boys and girls is very
nearly equal, the boys numbering
3493 and the girls 3449. The balance
is heavily in favor of the fair sex
when it is teachers that are consid-
cred, for there are but 39 men against
213 women, a total of 252, in the
county
The manner in which some school
districts are being depleted of their
children and yet are maintaining a
district in spite of there being not
enough children to warrant school
is shown by the assessors report. Dis
tricts and 4. for example. present
Interesting cases The former con-
tains eight children of school age. has
taxable property valued at s649,030
and has C mill levy. 1t raises $3.50
AZ for its school. The latter has 102
children of school age, has a valua-
tion of $722.72s and has the same
levy. g mill It raises $433.63. That
district has slightly more than 81 a
year for the education of its 102 chill
dren. provided they all attend in that
district. District No. II, which has 33 |
takes the prize with s69.4S |
tax for SCHOOLS out of an assessed val |
uation of S99.190.
Salaries in the schools of Umatilla |
show much the same trend as
elsewhere in the county. upward, but
not yet in the class of other profess
sions. The male teachers receive AMI
average monthly stipend of s136,S1
and women teachers receive an aver
age of sS5.SS monthly. Assistant
teachers in buildings of more than
one room are paid s94.5O a month, the
averages show.
Eighty six teachers in the county
Turing the past year held standard
FORMAL school certificates and SO 9TH
RS held certificates based upon grad
iation from standard colleges and
Thus nearly one-half
he instructors were certificated. The
this year is to be very
much higher, as special efforts have
,een made to obtain as far as pos
;ible graduates of standard normal
schools with two or more years of ex-
,erience.
Two hundred and thirty-one stu
lents completed the eighth grade dur
ng the year and there We're ia stu
lents enrolled in grades above the
ighth.
The II districts which bear the
reater part of the educational bur
len for the county are as follows,
With the number of children enrolled