Milford chronicle., 1921-11-25
MARYLAND SCHOOLS
FACE WINTER CLOSING
SOMERSET co. BUDGET so CUT LITTLE
MONEYGS AVAILABLE WITH WHICH
TO:BUY:FUEL FOR BUILDINGS.
BOOK FUNDS ARE LACKING
TEACHERS ARE REDUCED TO PRIMITIVE
METHODS, SINCE TEXTS CANNOTBE
BOUGHT FOR PUPILS.

The recently organized School and
Home League of Crisfield, Md, COM
nosed of the mothers and teachers OF
the community, find confronting them
many hard problems for which they
are trying to find sOlutions4 These
school conditions are greatly handl-
Gaping the teachers and pupils IN
their educational work, not only in
Crisfeld but throughout Somerset
county.
The parents association finds it i'm
portant to relieve the financial stress
which is confronting the public
schools in Somerset county. When
the County Commissioners made the
budget for the current year the pub
lie school appropriation was so ma
terially reduced as an economy meas
ure that the school system and finan-
ces are now in a crippled condition,
with no possible relief in sight un-
less through the efforts of the Parents
and Teachers League.
Winter Closing Likely
The Commissioners so cut and
slashed the school budget and so Grip
Dled the system that it is said to be
highly probable that the schools Will
he forced to close during some of the
winter months because they have no
money with which to buy fuel. Ihe
sum of $4,000 was taken from the
usual amount of appropriation Tor
fuel and with coal selling at $l5.5O a
ton the allotted funds will not heat
the schools all winter.
Knowing the seriousness OF the sit
uation, the Parents League appoint
ed a committee at its last meeting,
and efforts, it is said, will be made
nv d number of citizens to raise funds
to carry the school work on until
sDring. with the understanding that
they will be reimbursed by the County
Commissioners when the next years
school budget is passed upon.
Another condition which the asso-
citation will undertake to relieve is the
shortage of books now existing in the
Somerset county schools. The sum Oh
$500 was cut from the book appro-
priation, and no funds are in hand
with which to purchase any addition
al texts. Many of the pupils are com
pelled to buy their own text books.
It is known that in some OF the
classes with the number of pupils
ranging from 40 to go they have but
two books from which to study, the
teachers having to write the daily les
sons on the blackboard for the pupils
to CODY. as in the days before the or
ganization of the free educational sys-
TEN.
Never since the Inauguration OF the
free public schools of Maryland, it is
said. have such conditions existed. In
a school at Crisfield the pupils have
been asked to go from house to house
selling candy, the profits from the
sales being used to pay the Janltor'
Field Day Eliminated
Again. the small sum of $3.50, the
YEARLY appropriation for Field Day,
was completely eliminated from the
budget so the county will not enjoy
the annual athletic events from which
the children, it is said, derive much
physical benefit. This year while the
other counties of the State are cele-
brating their Field Day events and
competing for State athletic honors'
the Somerset boys and girls will be
barred from entering, since the ath-
letic allotment was refused.
The graduates this year will have
to pay for their diplomas, still an
other unheard of thing in the public
high schools, brought about by rea-
son of $3.50 being refused as diploma
allotment.
People of that county are endeav-
oring to find ways and means by
which disruption of the county
school system can be averted.