New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-09-08
Seat Shortage Grows as
Opening Day Gets Near
e.; Bronx Building Not
10 Be Ready in Time
I37 New Teachers;
$4,000 New Pupils
Latest Registration Indi-
Gates One in Eight
Will Be Without Seat


history OF the Board of Education will
he witnessed when the public schools
onen their doors next Monday, accord
mo to the indications shown in the
.drst day of registration. The forecast
20 be drawn from Yesterdays registra-
tiou is that one child out of every eight
in this city will be without a seat on
full time through the indifference and
neglec. of Mayor Hylan and his Hearst
Tammany controlled administration.
II seems certain now that the worst
fears OF the educational authorities
will be exceeded. Instead of 10000
pupils being placed on part time in
stfuction in elementary schools there
will be at least $4,000, and the prob
sbilty IS that this number will have
reached the 100000 mark by the end of
December. The total indicated elemen-
xtary school attendance during the new
term will be slightly in excess of
$4,000.
Shortage of Teachers
Added to this, there will be an even
more alarming condition in the high
schools. The forecast shows that there
will be IN increase of 16.2 per cent in
attendance, as compared with last year,
or approximately an increase of IL 900
students. This will bring the student
body in the high schools to the unpre-
cedented total of $4,000. To meet the
increase provision has been made for
1S7 new high school teachers, or one
teacher for every eighty students.
How inadequate the increase in the
teaching staff really is can best be
illustrated by the fact that if an av-
erage Of twenty-eight students were
allotted to each teacher the number of
new teachers ought to have been more
than four hundred.
For the eleven thousand new high
school students the Hylan administra-
ton has provided one small addition to
a school This is P. S. SO, in Queens.
which has been allotted to the Far
Kockaway High School. 1t has accom-
modations for 348 students.
during last term high school teach
eis were nearing physical breakdown
asa result of the tremendous strain to
which they were subjected. This strain
Will be increased during the new term,
and, according to experts in educa
uonal matters, it will be miracle if
tnere is not complete collapse in the
morale Of the teaching staff. In fact
'als is predicted freely in the teachers
circles.
To Use Unsafe Buildings
Teachers will be compelled in some
cases to continue their tasks in build
l,ngs condemned as unsafe more than a
decade ago, and as in the case of the
notorious Julia Richman High School.
IN building that is fire trap. Out
fageors sanitary conditions in this
school, as revealed in the report of
WE'VE women's non-partisan civic
elubs last June, still are the same, and
no effort has been made to better them.
despite glowing promises of Mayor Hy
Ian made last June.
New registrations are piling high
and reaching avalanche proportions.
combined figures for the day elemen-
'ary and high schools will approx
mate 500. 900 pupils, for which there is
. teaching staff of 22,741. In the
..ifuant, vocational and training schools
mere mere will be sufficient pupils to bring
'ae total of day pupils up to 100000.
AZ developed yesterday that one of
ths nine new schools which were ex
psesed to open on Monday and provide
Total Of 1851 new seats for ele-
lanensary purposes, and 348 seats for
T,gh school purposes will not be ready.
ms Is the new P. S. 81, at Crotona
avenue and 180th Street, the Bronx.
y has a capacity of 1885 pupils. 1t
was SAID that delay in getting ma
'erials had interfered with it's COM
pletion.
Board Faces Problem
!, AT meeting of the Board of Educa-
ioh last night the building program
lor l922 was amended to include
algn school building in the eastern
p part OF the Bronx, somewhere in the
sSileihity Of West Farms and East lS0th
atreet 1t was decided the building
should be designed to provide for $500
100000.
Slce-President Ryan and commit
zee were assigned the task of arrang-
Mns the program for Open School
week, beginning October 10, when the
'snoois will be thrown open to the
'arshts ,r and others for inspection.
me board encountered an important
ss .sI case in tne form of letter from
- seephen A. Graves, custodian engineer
2 'uDiic School 42, the Bronx. Graves,
(COntir.od