New-York tribune., 1922-09-06
1000 i'm TIig!!ll
Schools May Be
w. itllout Seats
Crowded Condition i'm Cify's.
Educational Institutions
Probably VIII Be Worse
Than That of Last Year
New Registration To-day
Enrolment May Exceed
100000, With Only TO-.
600 Additional Desks

=
O'Clock, the city is again faced with a
shortage Of seating facilities equal to
1t not worse than that which obtained
last year. While little more than
10000 additional seats have been pro
vided for the elementary schools when
they open on Monday, there in all prob
ability will be offset by the new resis-
trations. In the high schools present
indications point to conditions even
more acute than last year. About 1000
additional seats are provided in the
face of an enrolment of approximately
$4,000 new pupils,
According to the figures of the Board
Of Education, the high schools at their
close last June, had about 10000 pupils
on part time out of total registration
of 10000. This year, the officials will
not be surprised if the enrolment ex-
ceeds 100, ,000-the greatest in the his
tory of the city.
Brooklyn Building Bought
To meet this increase the Board has
purchased a building in Brooklyn
which has been made over and will be
known as the Brooklyn Technical High
School. 1t will be ready for use on
Monday and provides for about 1900
seats. Also as means of Immediate
relief the Institutional Synagogue,
116th Street, west of Lenox Avenue, q
building of twenty-four rooms, and the
Bronx Jewish Institute, 171st Street
and Fulton Avenue, providing. about
500 seats, have been leased by the edu-
cation authorities.
In the face of existing conditions,
I, oxroun~ fbasn foni1;tioo autiralV
inadequate. Many of the high schools
undoubtedly will have to adopt double
and perhaps triple sessions, and it is
possible that half their pupils will have
to be on part time. Even so, it is feared
that the congestion may be serious
enough to necessitate the turning away
of number of applicants. The DE
Witt Clinton High School, at Fifty
ninth Street and Tenth Avenue, alone
will have an enrolment of about 5000
boys, the largest number any high
school in the city ever has had.
10000 Increase Expected.
In the case of the elementary
schools, the Board of Education figures
| show that at the close of school last
June, there were 10000 pupils on part
time and while the education authorl-
ties do not expect the abnormal M
crease III enTollHeils SitiCll eoohA P'S.S,
last year, they admit that there VIII
be an increase OF at least 10000.
To offset this a number of new
buildings will be opened on Monday
which will provide for 1920 additional
sittings. This number may be con-
sidered doubled in consideration of
the fact that they will be used in two
sessions with the result that they
really provide for approximately 10000
extra seats. This will reduce the part
time pupils to about 10000 which still
leaves a condition almost as serious
as last year. 80, -,
ing program has not yet been com
pleted was explained yesterday by Dr.
j. A. Ferguson, chairman of the Com
mittee on Buildings and Sites of the
Board of Education, as being the re-
suit of the extraordinary conditions IN
the labor and material market. He
said the contractors had been unable
to get promises of date OF delivery
of materials and that material dealers
make no secret of the fact that they
give their preference to commercial
orders.
Forty Under Construction
There now are, he explained, forty
buildings under construction and IN
various stages of completion which
eventually will provide about 2b,ou0
more seats. Under normal labor and
material conditions a few OF them
might be completed within the next
month or two, he said. 1t Is even pos
sible now that they may all be ready
for use by the opening OF the next
term in February. -,
Within the next month the board will
advertise for bids on ten other large
buildings for which plans have been
completed and which will have capac-
ity of $4,000 seats. Even this will not
complete the 1921 program which calls
for $4,000 seats.
The 1922 program will be started
within short time, DR.. Ferguson de-
clared, and will provide for 10000 ad-
ditionai sittings. The 1923 program
which was adopted only last Thursday
calls for more than $4,000 seats. This
is expected to care for all part time
and double session pupils and iuturs
growth up to the year 1925.
The building program Tor the nigh
schools is equally pretentious. There
are now under construction two new
high schools in Brooklyn, the Thomas
Jefferson and the New Utrecht, each
with capacity of about $500 seats
Contracts have been awarded recently
for the new Julia Richman High School
in Manhattan, which will also have
$500 seats for the second addition to
the Curtic High School in Richmond.
Plans for High Schools
There are also in course of prepara-
tion plans for the George Washington
High School on Washington Heights,
Manhattan, the Girls Commercial High
School, Brooklyn, each with Seats for
$500, for eadditions to the Erasmus
Hall High School, Brooklyn, and for
two additional wings to the Richmond
Hill High School, Queens.
The 1922 and 1928 programs call for
NsssSYSSlSE R5ssS 5lsy