The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-08-30
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
 > ID OPEN SEPT. 70; BIG ENROLMENT
Committee Makes Prepara- tions for Housing of Teachers = Records
 Show Big Increase

All records for attendance are ex- pected to be broken when the 1920g session of the Birmingham public schools opens Monday. September 20. pr. J. H. Phillips. superintendent of schools, has received numerous in quiries of late from parents and pu- pills wanting to know when the schools would open. Every school in the city, both whiteA and black. will open Sep. tember 20.
 Figures obtained from the school census recently completed show that there has been an increase of 4,799 pupils of school age in Birmingham within the last two years. The in- crease is expected to show itself in the enrolment of the different schools at the opening. With the exception of the Acipco community school there will be no new schools to open this year. Anticipating a possible shortage of housing accommodations for teachers, pr. Phillips has sent out request to all who have accommodations for one or more teachers to notify him at once. Eight hundred and fifty teachers will be employed in the public schools this year. Many of them come from out side of the cityNand will consequently require boarding places.
 NOTIFY CLERK
 Dr. Phillips stated that 6 committee will be appointed the first of the week in order to make arrangements to ac- commodate the teachers. However, persons having suitable space will save Ia pptnn init taa NV rntifVinsr the clerk of the board of education.
 The city institute for teachers will be held beginning September 1S and continuing up until the time the schools open. All teachers who expect to teach in the city school will be re- quired to attend the institute. As a result many teachers will need room and board commencing the date the in- stitute opens. The institute will be held at the Central High school.
 Some interesting comparisons in re- gard to enrolment and average at- tendance have been made by Dr. Phil >lips using the figures for the 1910 and the 1920 census as a bisis.> The com parison shows mu-h higher percen- tage of children attending school in 1920 than in 1910.
 The school census showed an in- crease from 39,536 to 55,9l4 school chil- dren in the process of ten years. This is 40 per cent increase. Figures ob- tained from the records show that the enrolment of the schools in 1910 was only 22,36S, as compared with 34,071 in 1920 This is 52 per cent increase. The average attendance in 1910 was 15,517. while in 1920 it was 25,050. This is a 61.5 per cent increase.
 COMPULSORY EDUCATION The figures show that the enroll ment increase in the ten years is greater in proportion to the increase shown by the census figures The av- craze attendance is still more favor , ble, In other words, the enrolment and attendance of today is much larger than in 1910, Dr. Phillips points out that compulsory education is part ly responsible for the increased en- rollment.
 Our investigations show that tAe number of children of school age in the city who do not attend some school does not exceed 300" said pr. Phillips. Neither the new Central High school or the Woodlawn High school will be completed in time for use this year. Dr. Phillips has received large oil painting of the proposed Wo6dlawn school. The pai1ting is by 4 feet in size and is being displayed in a show window of Loveman, Joseph & Loeb. The plan for the building was drawn by <W,B. Itner, supervising architect of St. Louis.