Evening star., 1924-09-20
ARTICLE III.


Tho junior high schools of Wash
| ington. which now have passed the
experimental stage and form a per-
manent and integral part of the pub
lie educational system, will this year
for the first time alleviate in a mark
ed degree the congested conditions in
the senior high schools. Expanded
gradually since their introduction in
1919, the beginning of the 1924-1925
scholastic year will find seven junior
high schools in operation, each dra W
ing a quota from the student bodies
of the overcrowded senior high
schools.
A survey of the prospective condi-
tlons In the senior high schools from
standpoint OF congestion shows that
each of the seven institutions will
fcarry virtually the same sized stu
dent body during the Forthcoming
scholastic year as last year, when
the peak enrolment reached 1850
Such situation is unusual Every
year since the war has found the
senior high schools with larger stu
dent bodies than the preceding year
X X r
The number of pupils eligible to
enroll this year in the senior high
schools has not decreased. The nor
NAL increase of 1000 is confidently
anticipated. But the junior high
schools. now functioning on a larger
scale than ever before, will swallow
up this increase, leaving the senior
institutions to struggle along with
the same oversize and unwieldy stu
dent bodies that characterized the
last term.
A more propitious time for the
junior high schools to step in and
play the relief role for the veteran
senior institutions could not have
been planned by school authorities
Without such institutions, the over
crowding problem in the senior high
schools would have been more Sc
rious this year than in the past.
Despite the fact that the senior
high school enrolment is not expect
ed to show any material increase, all
of the institutions, with the excep-
ton of Eastern and. Mckinley. will
be forced to adopt again this year the
makeshift staggered hour or dual
shift system of operation, to accom-
modate their respective student
bodies.
Eastern, the newest of the seven
senior high schools, it is believed,
Will not have a capacity enrolment
for several years to come Nc
ed, plans to stave off the adoption
of emergency relief measures as long
as possible. Frank c. Daniel, princi-
pal of the school, expects to accom-
plish this by increasing the size of
the various classes.
A high school class of 80 pupils
is considered the standard and ideal
size. Many of McKinley's classes
will have 40 pupils or more. Indi-
N-i1 i,,ct l.o
a certain extent.
Mckinley experimented with the
dual shift and staggered hour meth
DDS of relieving congestion several
years ago, but was forced to aban-
don it entirely because of the inter
ference complex in the manual train
ing and other shops. Ey increasing
the size of tho classes. Mr.. Daniel
hopes to remedy the congestion prob
lem until Mckinley moves into its
proposed new building
The shortage of high school accom-
modations would have become in
tensified this year had not the junior
high schools come to the relief. No
additional accommodations for high
school pupils have been provided. Ad-
ditions are under construction at
Western and Dunbar, but it will be
six months and longer, perhaps.
before they are completed.
Statistics compiled by school au-
thorities show that on November /.
1920, there was an accumulated
shortage of accommodations for
1854 high school pupils This was
increased in 1s21-1e22 by a growth
in enrolment of 1857 pupils, and