The Washington herald., 1920-02-06
NEED TEN MORE
SCHOOLS In D. G.
Inquiry Shows 100 Rooms
Required to House
Pupils Now.
COSTS BLOCK BUILDING
Bids Exceeded Appropria-
tions for Construction
And Materials.
COSTS BLOCK BUILDING

In order adequately and properly
<fo house the school children of the
District at least ten more sixteen
}Toom buildings will be needed.
This will only take care of the
present large school population ana
will not in any way provide for in
l crcases
\ These new buildings generally
should be in the Northwest, the
Eastern sections In the series of
PARTICLES published in The Washing
ton Herald it has been shown just
Where some of these buildings
Should be. In some cases. where
} the school population is very thick.
the buildings will have to be as
large as twenty-fOur and even thlr-
ty-two rooms.
5000 Pupils Crowded.
The need for ten sixteen-room build
inEs is based on the figures that
! there are slightly more than 5000
children in the local public schools
To-day in diversified classes and 5000
In the seventy-nine make-shift port
ables. Allowing forty children to a
class this would call for leo class
rooms or ten sixteen-rOom buildings.
pr. OF course. a smaller number OF
tW"nty-four-room buildings.
II is freely predicted that unless
some sort of relief is provided for the
school building population this year,
the school officials will face an almost
hopeless task i'm the coming years.
phey may have to fact the situation
fOund necessary in some of the States
OF forcing children to remain away
from school.
Conditions ApDarent
Anyone in doubt as to the need
of a number of buildings right now
can find out the very crowded condi-
tiOns by visiting any school or sew
erai school buildings. The conditions
can be seen first hand. OF course.
classes may be found here and there
which are not even Up to capacity.
but they are far away from the
crowded places. Where il has been
possible to relieve conditions by send
ing children to other buildings in the
same section II has been done.
II would not be necessary to ap-
prCDTiate all of the money for these
buildings this year. Authority could
be given to enter into contracts for
the buildings. with comparatively
small amount to start the building
operations. and the fun expenditure
two years or more. as il would take
pract ically that time to complete the
buildings. taking into consideration
the time necessary to draw the
plans and enter into contracts.
Some provision has been made for
new buildings. but the commission
erS could not open contracts be-
cause the bids exceeded by 100 per
cent in most cases the appropria-
, tion. Efforts are to be made at this
, session of Congress to have these
appropriations increased.
High school Need Greatest.
The High School situation is par
ticularly bad. Classes are much
overloaded and children are using
every available bit of space in the
present buildings, including assem-
bly halls, corridors and laboratories.
In some cases il has been necessary
To abandon studies both for lack of
teachers and lack of space.
There is no question of the short
age Of teachers. There are not
enough to teach the present classes.
and the small salaries are weekly
taking more Of them away from the
system. Substitutcs-that is salts
factory subStitutCS-many times
cannot be obtained.
II is nothing to see in almost any
division these days children from
the Eighth grade schools handling
classes while the regular teacher is
ill at home. 1t has even been nee
eSSary to admit into some of the
schools women who have never be-
fore had any experience whatever
in teaching. But usually one day is
enough for them. and they leave.
Il 81 hi
make better teachers than this class
of substitutes What is needed is a
regular substitute corps. regularly
employed. These teachers when not
needed for substitute work could be
used as coaching teachers. and the
funds used in maintaining them
would be wisely spent.