The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1927-02-11

commissioners to make a SIX mll
levy every year on all the taAande
property OF the county and pfoVluSo
that the money be divided among Tue
different districts according 10 0qe
number of census children IN each. II
requires each district clerk 10 IdAe
an exact school census IN the hon1ii
Of September each year, and file Two
copies of same with the county sup
erintendent-one for her office ana
one Tor the state-with the S"oIh
statement that same is correct.
In 1928 and "a and '25-and
don't know how many years oeIore
that-Plentywood padded her nsG.
know OF nothing in the law making
it the responsibility Of the County
Superintendent or anyone else to
check up on the clerks lists-a sworn
statement is supposedly rellaole-ouC
in 1925 my keen little clerk ncldei,0r
ally detected on Plentywood's list Cne
names of children who she knew old
not reside in the district. ms led
to an investigation which headed oil
the graft for that year 1t also
aroused suspicion that the same KIND
of trickery might have been pracuced
in past year. The school board was
asked to investigate, but refused TO
90 so. Mrs. Redmond and then
made the investigation ourselves. To
catch the repetitions and Implications
we catalogued every school family IN
Sheridan county. As our lnvestlga-
ton proceeded and we saw how Plen-
tywOod had listed for apportionment
some children under six and some
past twenty-one, some who had NOV
ed out Of the district years before,
some who had never been heard OF,
even by their own parents, some both
as boys and as girls, some two OF
three times, and some from other dis
I trlcts-ln one instance, every child
from another district-Our indigna-
: ton knew no bounds. AS a result OF
; their false reports they had received
thousands of dollars which rightful-
, ly belonged to the others districts
Shame! Some of those districts are
{ poor, with district levies more than
, twice that of Plentywood's.
could find nothing in the law tC
. tell me how to proceed in a case OF
, this kind. First we figured to the
? penny how much of each of the 9th
. er district share Plentywood haC
/ received, and asked her to write tim,
= warrants for the respective amounts
This she refused to do. Then l de
n clded that since the money had beer
: unfairly apportioned by myself, il
: the first place, because of misinfor
nation, | would be logically within
Il my rights to make the adjustment
: myself when correct information
: came to hand. This | did by return
: ing to the other districts from Plen
: tywood's share in 1926 what she ha
: got from their share in '23 and "a
! | did not know at the time l did this
: that | was backed by a former attor
!, ney generals advice to county super
intendents, but my attorney advise
! that such is the case. 1t is unfol
- tunate, | think, that our present al
torney general is not of the sam
u opinion, as this method would hav
made a fair adjustment without cos
le ing the school districts anything
70 either time or money. Court prc
II ceedings cost both. They are inte1
= esting and educational, however, an
II l guess if No. 20 can stand fifty SON
70 suits, each of the other districts ca
y afford to bring one.
Of Different members of the presel
h board have stated that we remove
r. names from their lists which RICH
te fully belonged on them. This is u
true.
n Mrs. Redmond and l stand reaC
AT to give under oath reason for reno
an al of every name stricken off.
ce l shall be glad to hear from al
is of you any time concerning this ma
elf ter. My interest is still with you
re your school affairs.
le- Sincerely,
tie y EMMA CRONE.