Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-31
SCHOOL BUILDING
IS COMMISSIONERS
JOB, BALLOU SAYS
Declares Board of Education
and Its Agencies Can Merely
Show Construction Needs.
Superintendent SHUNS
ANSWER TO SIMMONS
Makes Statement to Explain Posi-
ton of Various Offices of City
Government in Program.

Authority for the purchase of sites,
the preparation of plans and the award
of contracts for new school conStruc-
ton rests upon various agencies IN
the municipal government which are
responsible solely to the District Com
miSsioners, and not upon the Board OF
Education or school system oncers VINO
have no power to transact Such puSl-
ness themselves, DR.. Frank w. Ballou,
superintendent, pointed out today.
DR.. Ballou declined to answer spe-
cifically the blanket charges of bad ad-
ministration hurled yesterday at both
the District government and the school
system heads by Representative Robert
G. Simmons, but asserted that in fair
ness to the many agencies concerned
q complete public understanding OF the
distribution of responsibilities and au-
thorities should be had.
Can Only Show Needs.
Only such an understanding, he said,
will enable practical corrections to be
made in the involved system under
which new schools are built in wash
ington, and 1t Is for the definite pur-
pose of revealing the retarding steps In
the present procedure that he and his
associates now are making a study OF
current and recent building operations
in the school system.
So far as the School Board and the
school officials go, he explained today,
only needs for new school construction
and requests for relief can be voiced,
In this connection, it already has been
pointed out that too often an actuai
need for a building has to be shown in
existing pupil population before money
items are allowed to remain in bud
cetary estimates
Speeding Up Is Evidenced.
"Once money IS made available" DR..
Ballou declared, the function of trans
muting it into buildings is vested In the
District Building agencies, largely, OF
course. in the Office of the Engineer
Commissioner. The School Board Is
not empowered to make purchases Of
land or to enter into negotiations look
ing toward contracts. That phase OF
District work lies entirely in the hands
of the Commissioners themselves"
At the same time, DR.. Ballou said
that concrete evidence of speeding up
school building construction was becom-
ing available all along the line at the
District Building.
Largely through the efforts of Mr..
Jere j. Crane, our school business man
ager, we are rapidly getting into more
favorable position with regard to buSi-
ness affairs" DR.. Ballou continued.
while Mr.. Crane cannot possibly
undertake to issue orders to the Engi-
neer Commissioner Of the District with
regard to new construction, he can and
he has aided materially in accelerating
affairs among the various municipal
agencies sharing school responsibilities. T"
Increased Enrolment Cited.
DR.. Ballou added that he had been
advised by District heads that Mr..
Crane has omitted no move which he
might have made to speed up school
work.
So far as the Western High School
situation is concerned, DR.. Ballou cited
previously published statements con-
corning the congestion there. The senior
high school enrolment increase of the
past year was out of all proportion to
former years. Steps undertaken as long
ago as 1925, when initial requests for q
site for the Alice Deal Junior High
School were made by the School Board,
would have been SUFFICIENT to care for
the Western High School enrolment
until later had 1t not been for the I'M
usual increase.
Many Transactions Needed.
Delays which cannot be attributed to
the school officials nor to the District
Buloing, DuL simply 70 the great num-
Der Of separate transactions necessary
for the location and final construction
of that building, DR.. Ballou said, sched-
ule the occupation Of that school for
next September. Had it been possible
TO make the Alice Deal School available
for occupancy by February /, he said
the double-shift program at Western
would not have been necessary.
This view Is held also by Stephen E.
Kramer, first assistant superintendent,
in charge of high schools, who more
than year ago limited Westerns stu
dent population to the territory west
Of Connecticut avenue and withheld new
nonresident student enrollmentS until
the third day of each school term. The
latter action was taken when 1t de-
veloped that an ever increasinf number
Of Maryland and Virginia children were
going to that building. At present, he
recently showed the School Board, there
are 2S0 nonresident pupils at Western.