The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1921-05-27
GRADED SCHOOL,
FINALS NOW ON
Senior Play Tonight - Schools
To Labor Under Handicaps
Another &Year Pend
ing Building

The 1920-21 session of the Elizabeth
City Graded JSchools terminates this
week and teachers and students are oc4
| cupied with the exciting details that al
ways attend the staging of the COM
mencement exercises. The play, 'Home
Came Ted" will be presented at the
High School auditorium tonight, Friday,
May 27, and the operetta, Princess
Chrysanthemum," colorful and spright-
" musical presentation, will be rem
dered by the seventh grade pupils on
the night of Tuesday, May 31st. The
Senior Glass of 1921 took the final ex-
aminations of the term, and the other
High School exan4inations fare under
way this week.
The commencement speaker for this
year will be Hon. Francis D. Winston,
of Windsor. Judge Winston will de-
liver the graduation address on the
night of Thursday, June 2, when the
largest class in the history of the
schools will graduate. There are A
members of the Senior Glass of 1921,
as compared with a total High School
enrolment of 275 pupils
The enrolment of the white Graded
Schools during the past term was also
the largest ever recorded. For the
grammar school, the figure is 571 pu-
pills, and for the primary school, 611
pupils. These added to the High School
enrolment give grand total of 1,457,
pupils, taught by ~ teachers, of whom
eleven are employed in the High School,
including the Domestic Science and Bus
mess teachers, fifteen in the grammar
school, and sixteen in the primary de-
partment.
The work of the schools this year
has gone on under the usual handicaps
ers to fully meet the needs of the large
enrolment. An additional difficulty
that of employing teachers to fill Nnex-
pected vacancies during the term-was |
encountered for matrimonial reasons. |
Five teachers married during the sesr
sion, and their places were filed with |
considerable trouble.
The relay plan of alternate classes, |
adopted as a necessity measure to en-
able classroom space in the primary |
grades to serve double the usual num- |
Der of pupils, in an effort I'd meet the
problems incident to the general over
Supt. Sheep states that the teachers in
these grades were able to complete the
prescribed amount of work, however.
though scarcely as efect1veIy as under
a normal schedule. The relay pan pro-
vides for one set of pupils to attend
school during the morning, and another
group in the afternoon in the same
room, with another teacher. The school
day was thus broken up, and the work
more or less disorganized.
There is little hope for any solution
of the problem of overcrowding until
the new school building program can
be carried out. This cannot possibly
be done before the school term of 1922
%, and hence the schools will labor
under much the same handicaps during
the coming session that they have in
the past.
It is now believed that the increase
N the High School enrolment will be
around 40 pupils, on account of the
arge number coming in from the sew
enth grade. 1t is considered more than
likely that no out-of-town pupils can
oe admitted to the High School next
7ear, since there will almost certainly
oe too little room for the students of
he city. A general increase in the
;eaching staff of the schools will be
necessary, according to present indica-
ions.
Deplorable sanitary conditions at the
primary school building will positively
,e corrected before the beginning of
he term of 1922, states Supt. Sheep.
The Superintendent and the School
Board are of the opinion that the poor
rainage is mainly due to defective sew
r connections and bad drainage. The
Jity Sewer Company will be called up
N to assist in whatever putting down
f new sewers that may be found nee
ssary, and in general correcting de-