Evening star., 1923-01-16
BOARD G|RDS LO|NS
! FOR FINISH FIGHT
TO Meet Commissioners;
| Ready for Court Action
if Necessary.
DEMAND BEAUTY COURSE
But Dispute Involves Question. of
School Officials Right to Di-
rect Expenditures.
DEMAND BEAUTY COURSE

Mandamus proceedings may be in
stituted by the board of education
to compel the District Commissioners
to grant the appropriation of $331.25
for supplies for the girls at the o
Street Vocational School taking the
course in manicuring and shampooing.
Whether legal action will be taken
depends upon the outcome of the
conference between a committee of
the school board and the Commits
sioners. which will be held in the
apartment of Commissioner oyster at
2400 10th street this afternoon at
$3.50 o'clock.
Headed by James T. Lloyd, the
school boards committee will go into
the conference sanguine that the con-
troverSy over the appropriation for
the supplies for the so-called beauty
culture course Will be adjusted amica-
bly, and thereby obviate any further
action. The committee, however, will
funds for the beauty supplies, already
twice fatty turned down by the Com
missioners, be granted.
Two Alternatives Open.
II the city heads again refuse to
grant the appropriation, 1t is the
intention of the committee to recon-
mend to the board that II take one
of two StepS-compel the Commits
sioners, through court order, to grant
the requisite funds, or have the Cap
per teachers salary and school-reor-
gantzation bill amended so as to more
clearly define the boards authority
10 direct school expenditures.
The dispute hangs entirely on the
question whether the Commissioners
or the school board is vested with the
constituted power to direct the eX-
penditure of school funds. Both the
city heads and the board maintain
that the organic act of 1906 gives
them authority to direct the school
expenditures.
In a memorandum which the board S
committee will submit to the Com
missioners, it will point out that
section of the organic act gives
them the power to direct the school
expenditures.
public schools of the District Of Co
lumbia is hereby vested in the board
of education"
The board shall determine all
questions of general policy relating
to the school, shall appoint the ex-
ecutive oficers hereinafter provided
for. define their duties and direct ex-
penditures."
Cite Their Authority.
The Commissioners cite as their au-
thority for turning down the requi-
sition, paragraph 3, section OF the
organic act. which reads:
''All expenditures of public funds
for such school purchases shall be
made and accounted for as now pro-
vided by law under the direction and
control of the Commissioners of the
District of Columbia" These words.
the boards committee will contend.
do not vest in the Commissioners the
power to veto or prohibit expendt-
lures directed by the, board. The
words, according to the committee,
cannot mean that the city heads have
authority to prevent such expendi-
lures altogether.
will emphasize that the power vested
expenditures, undoubtedly means that
the school governing body shall de-
eide what expenditures are to be made
for school purposes and that its au-
thority shall be ample and complete
in this regard.
If the school board is to determine
all questions of general policy relat-
ing to the school as authorized Dy
Congress in the organic act, the COM
mittee will point out that it must
have the authority to direct eXpendi-
lures in order to carry out its pro-
gram or general policy; and its au-
thority in this respect is final, as the
court decided in the case of the United
States ex rel. Nalle VS. Hoover. 81 Ap-
peals. D. c. 800, where Justice Van
Orsdel, speaking for the court, said:
I'VE concede 1t to be the duty OF
the court to construe this statute
(act of June 20, 1s06) literally. so as
to give the board as broad discretion
AS possible in carrying out its OBJ
1ects Public policy demands that,
in the management and control or the
public schools, final administrative
authority shall be somewhere vested.
Here, it is vested in the board OF edu-
cation OF the District"
show Their Viewpoint.
The board committee takes the
position that it is evident that the
words "all expenditures of public
funds shall be made and accounted
for as now provided by law under
the direction and control of the Com
Inissioners of the District of Colum-
bia" mean only that the board of
education shall make its expenditures
and account for them through the
organization. which is under the di-
rection and control of the Commits
sioners of the District of Columbia"
and this the board of education does.
II the words had any other mean
would be inconsistent with itself be-
cause II provides that the board shall
direct expenditures of funds for the
public schools and in another that
Gno commissioners snail 90 SO.
Besides Mr.. Lloyd, the committee
consists of Daniel j. Callahan and
william l.. Houston. The conference
will be held In Commissioner Oys-
ter's apartment because illness pre-
vents him from coming to the Dis
trict building,
Members Of the boards committee
made 1t plain that no spirit of open
hostility exists between the board
and the Commissioners as a result Of
their refusal to grant the aprpopria-
ton for the beauty course supplies.
The controversy, they maintain, is
due to an honest difference of opin-