New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-29
City Has Plenty
OF Teachers:
Needs Schools
Problem of InadequateForce
of Instructors Vanisshcs
With 80 Pct. Increase
in Salaries This Year
Board Is Optimistic
Hopes to Overcome Delay in
Construction by Plan of
Distribution of Scholars

open September Is tnere Will De teaCn-
ers for every boy and girl of Gotham S
$4,000 school population. There will
be no dismissal of classes due to lack
of instructors, as was necessary last
year, because of wholesale resigna-
ton among the teaching forces. In
stead, there actually will be a surplus
of teachers this year, assuring an ade-
quate supply of substitutes.
The school system this year has rid
itself of its most serious obtacle. An
inadequate teaching force during the
last four years or more, caused by
rising living costs, which forced hun
dreds of instructors to abandon their
professions for the more lucrative
salaries in other kinds of work, has
been replaced through legislation
which, beginning August 1 last, added
an average of 80 per cent to teachers
pay.
As result, many of the 1,o4o who
withdrew from the teaching force dur
ing the last school year; are already
on the eligible list for reappointment
to their old or similar positions, and
many out-of-town teachers have been
attracted to the city's schools by the
increased compensation. The school
quite different from what they were
this time last year.
Construction Is Big Problem
Chief among these problems is the
construction one. Fourteen new schools
and additions were to have been ready
for the opening Of school this Sep
&,,- y l
ing materials, the difficulty of procur-
ing labor and the increased costs of
materials, which made it necessary in
almost every instance to reaward the
contracts on 4 basis of cost construc-
ton have made it impossible for all
save four to be completed in time.
Only under the most favorable condi-
tons Will these four be finished by
September 49, it was said yesterday at
the office of Building Superintendent
c. B. J. Snyder.
While the building problem is one
which is not expected to interfere
greatly with the seating and instruc-
ton, inasmuch as the superintendent
of teachers and classes is made up
without reliance upon uncertain build
ing conditions. it means that numerous
districts Of the city will be denied
their own schools for months to come.
School officials say this is an i'm
portant factor II attendance, which
can be eliminated only through strict
enforcement of the attndance law
AS an illustration of the construc-
ton delay, Public School SO, 1O9th
Street and Third Avenue, twenty
six-room building, was to have been
completed August IA, when the time
limit set by the contract expired. To
ate the foundation for this building
has not been completed. Other schools
January or February are still in course
Of construction.
An addition to Public School 6, the
Pronx, which was to have been COM
pleted last October may not be ready
when school opens.
Expense Is Nearly Tripled
AS an indication Of the effect of ris-
ing prices alone upon construction, q
building the contract for which was
awarded last FEBRUARY on basis Of
8 st % 7cents per cubic foot will now
cost from 81 to $1.04> per cubic foot
under the te rms of a new contract.
The one addition and three buildings
which the Department of Education
hopes to have completed by September
10 will provide accomn odations for
1881 pupils. Contrasted with this new
supply of seats, there are at least
10000 additional Tegistrants to be
cared for and who will Of necessity
have to be assigned 10 other schools or
given instruction at part-time classes.
1t is expected that the growth in the
school population since the closing of
schools last June will result in as
many pupils being placed on part time
y, r. ,.t loo
This does not mean, however. that their
instruction will be cut short. An AIDE
ouate supply of teachers will care for
this condition.
LAST year was the first year that we
really rot started on a comprehensive
building program" said Eugene A..
Nifcnecker, director of research. ref
erence and statistics of the Depart
ment Of Education. The plan decided
opu nWas a pretentious one, but the
difficulty Of obtaining materials and
labor has delayed construction. We
are not so far along as we hoped to be-
Enough Funds Provided
"The PRINCIPAL problem Of the de-
partment, therefore, is one of accom-
modations for the pupils in the differ
ent localities. The city has given us
all the money we can use, and there is
no dissatisfaction on that score.
The fluctuating school population of
the various districts Of the city is a
problem in itself. Years ago the lower
East Side was the the center Of school
congestion, but with the building Of
the bridges over the East River and
the subways to the Bronx the conges-
ton there was Immediately relieved.
1t is ever necessary to follow the popu-
lation in the planning of buildings for
the d ferent districts"
Mr.. Nifenecker said he expected far
fewer pupils to drop out this year than
last. Twenty thousand left the schools
last year from one cause or another,
many Of them quit to go to work. The
compulsory continuation schools au-
thorized by the Lockwood law have been
enlarged. and these alone are expected
to augment the number of pupils at
tending school next September by
10000, Mr.. Nifenecker said.
Attendance Is Compulsory
Under the law all physically able
children up to eighteen years of age
who have not graduated from a high
school course or have not hade the
equivalent of q high school course at
some other school, are required to at
tend the continuation schools for at
least four hours a week
While the school system here was
not required to inaugurate the classes
last year, this was done with the result
that some 5000 boys and girls, many
of them employed, received instruction
at hours arranged to suit the nature
of their employer. 1t is mandatory
upon the employer to see that those in