Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-21
The New School Year.

1ne pubic ScnooI year winch opens
tomorrow finds completed construction
providing additional space for 760 new
pupils at the Park View School and
the Buchanan School; the new A. j.
Bowen School replaces an abandoned
building while much-needed conbina-
ton assembly hall and gymnasium has
been added to the congested Eaton
School in Cleveland Park. But as en-
rollment figures this Fall are expected
to exceed the peak enrolment figures
Of last year by some twelve hundred,
and as Congress failed to provide addi-
tional teacher personnel, except for two
specifically designated schools, one of
which will not open until February,
there is small hope seen for reducing
the congestion that has beset the school
system since the war. On the other
hand, congressional meddling with edu-
cational policies in the schools, as ex-
emplifed in the new kindergarten pol
icy, will undoubtedly add to the difl-
culties OF school officials in providing
SUFFICIENT teacher personnel to reduce
the size Of already large classes. Con-
ditions will vary with the different To-
calities. In some there will be room
to spare, In others the overcrowding
will be acute.
The new additions to the Park View
School, providing fifteen new rooms and
increasing the capacity Of this institu-
ton by 500 "sittings." should bring
4oout the permanent abandonment in
that location Of the five portable school
buildings that now occupy playground
space across the street from the main
building. The policy Of the Board Of
Education In regard to these portables
will be watched with interest. They
should be permanently abandoned, in-
stead Of being stored or Immediately
transferred to some other section. AS
long as these unsatisfactory buildings
are kept available for use. their replace
nent by permanent buildings will be
delayed.
Since the war they have been
shifted about continually from one
place to another and, despite Repre-
sentative Simmons threat that these
propaganda buildings" viii be kept in
use untn the city stops growing, the
reasonable view Of the matter is that
an adequate and consistent building
program, anticipating future growth of
population in outlying sections and en-
larging facilities elsewhere, would lead
to the permanent abandonment Of a
type Of building unsuitable for con-
tinued use and, in some respects, haz-
ardous to the pupils forced into them.
Instead of providing new teachers for
the elementary school system-and more
teachers are needed-Congress or more
properly the conferees. decided on the
expedient Of transferring Kindergarten
teachers, Of whom, they decided, there
were too many, to the lower grade posi-
lions. AS originally interpreted, this
move was seen as giving the elementary
grades the seventy-odd additional teach
ers that would come from the kinder
garten system. Instead, however, the kin
dergarten teachers are being used merely
to MI vacancies occurring in the grades.
The result Is complete failure by Con-
gress to supply the growing demand for
more teachers in one department of the
schools. while drastically reducing the
number in another department.
The school year now beginning will
witness the most encouraging progress
IN school building since the so-called
nve-year program" was adopted. Thir-
teen separate projects will get under
way. The largest is the new Theodore
Roosevelt High School. to replace the
Business High School, and others in
clude the four-room "extensible" type
Of buildings intended to eliminate port
ebles IN neighborhoods that ordinarily
would not justify permanent construc-
ton.
The public school system has been
laboring for many years to catch up
with the demands Of the new Washing
ton. Within the course of the next
few years school facilities should be
provided that will anticipate the greater
demands Of an increased population by
exceeding current requirements. Not
until then will the schools be able TO
reach that degree of efficiency that
parents expect and demand as modern
right.