The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1920-12-16
SCHOOLS DURING 1919s2O AND THE AID.
OPTIONAL COST NECESSARY TEACHERS SALARIES HAD
ALL THE SCHOOLS BEEN OPEN THE WHOLE YEAR

Everyone in Garrett county knows
that all the schools of the county were
not open during 1919-1920 the whole
of the school year of 1913 days. This
fact is generally recognized in vague
sort of way. In this article of The
School Bulletin it is intended to give
the facts upon that phase of our school
activities in such a way that the in
formation bearing upon that point will
be set forth in an orderly and sys-
tematic fashion. With that informa-
ton before US, presented in that style,
we can reason more intelligently upon
how long the schools throughout Gar
rett county were open during the last
school year.
All of this information has direct
bearing upon questions of this type:
What becomes of the money that is
levied for a school and the school isn't
open at all during the year? What
becomes of the money that is levied
for schools that open late and close
early? These questions arise from as
suming certain form for the levying
of money, it being assumed that
money is levied for particular school.
This is not correct. Money is not
levied for particular schools, but is
levied for particular items of expense
in connection with the administration
of all schools in the county insofar
as any phase of their cost is con-
cerned. The answers to the questions
given above are found in the annual
report published by the Board of Ed
ucation, for in it will be found what
became of all the money that was pro-
vided for the schools of the county.
Public officials, like individuals, should
cut their garment according to their
cloth insofar as this is possible.
In the summary given in the first
part of the published annual report OF
school expenditures during 1919-192O,
we find the following paragraph: 1.-THE
schools of the county were open IT,
223.5 days; whereas the schools would
have been open 33,003 days had all
the I'll teachers kept their schools
open the whole of the school year of
1913 days" This information is cor
rect when we consider each teacher as
a school. This same phase should be
set forth in another way which we
propose doing in this article, as was
forecasted in the article published in
The School Bulletin last week. We
plan to consider here each school by
itself, no difference how many teachers
may have been in that school, count.
ing the school as one instead of the
number of teachers it may have had in
it. In this way we secure 129 princi
pals of all the schools.
If all the schools of the county had
been open the whole of the 1913 school
days that constituted the school year,
we secure the product of 24,897. The
facts are that the schools of the coun-
ty were open 17,223.5 days. The
schools, therefore, as whole through
out the county, were open approx
mately 60 per cent. of 1913 possible
days. In other words, all the schools
of the county were open approx
mately 1873 days out of possible 1913
days. That is, if the entire school
system of the county had been leveled
up so far as equalization of the length
Of the year is concerned, they would
all have been open 1873 days, no school
less than 1873 days and no
school more than 1873 days. This num-
Der of 1873, therefore, represents the
average number of days that all the