Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-05
PORTABLE SCHOOL
FIGURES DISPUTED
BY HEAD OF BOARD
Challenges Statement Only 8
Will Remain When 1882 Bud
get Program Is Completed.
ENROLMENT INCREASE
IGNORED, CARUSI SAYS
But He Praises Bureau and Con-
gress for Efforts to Rid City Of
Frail Structures.

When it asserts that only eight port
ables would remain when pending school,
house construction and the projects car.
ried in the 1882 budget are completed
the Bureau of the Budget overlooEs the
fundamental issue in public schoo
buiIdlng here, DR.. Charles F. Carusi
president of the Board OF Education
declared today.
Every school building effort in recent
years and at present. DR.. Carusi pointed
out, has been and is being expended tc
relieve congestion which already exists
while little or no consideration is being
given to the annual increase in schoo
enrollments.
at the same time DR.. Carusi expressed
his appreciation of the efforts the
Budget Bureau and Congress are max
ing to rid the National Capital OF the
frail wooden structures which hundreds
of the city'S children have been attend
ing for the last dozen years or more
The consciousness of the Budget Bureau
officials of the existence of portables and
the resultant evils of this type of school
house accommodation, the School Board
president asserted, is indicative of CO.
operation between school authorities and
the bureau which must result in good
for the school system.
Says Schools Quickly Filled.
But we cannot overlook the fact that
in building school houses now we are
providing generally facilities for enroll
ments which already exist and which
in some cases have existed for several
years." DR.. Carusi said. THE funda-
mental question of school building here
seems to be whether we are going tC
build only to relieve congestion OF
whether we shall attempt to build fol
the future"
He pointed out that in most cases q
new school house is filled to capacity
within month or two of its completion
and part-time classes are set up during
the buildings first year of operation
He said 1t appears to be necessary fol-
the school authorities to show virtually
full buildings enrolment actually In
need of building before an appropria-
ton Is made for the new construction.
ION that basis and through that sys-
tenn of appropriating for new schools,
DR.. Carusi declared, 1T is not accurate
to assert, as the Bureau of the Budget
did in its summary Of the 1882 budget
estimates, that upon the completion Of
all buildings now appropriated for and
those carried in the 1882 estimates only
eight portables will remain in service
1t is true, perhaps, that, as tht Budget
Bureau observes, the 1881 appropria-
tons construction would eliminate 90
portables, 88 part-time classes and 95
oversize classes, and the construction
carried In the 1882 estimates would
eliminate an additional IL portables, 2t
part-time classes and 81 oversize classes
If the enrolment remained unchanged
during the years these new building;
are being constructed.
Increase Passes 5000.
But fixed numbers are not a part Of
Washington's school system. The en-
rollment in 1927, for instance, was more
than 1,750 more than 1925, and that iI
1928 was 1.341 more than 1927. In 1926
the enrolment increase over the pre-
viouS year had jumped to 2,124, while
on November of this year we had 3,11l
more pupils in our schools than we hac
on the corresponding date last year. Ir
the face of that trend, we are coming
to believe we must anticipate an annual
increase of 5000, and this number Is not
considered at aIIdn the Budget Bureaus
table of portable, part-time class and
oversize class elimination"
Commenting upon the attitude of the
Budget Bureau and Congress toward the
makeshift school accommodations which
have been in use in the District in recent
years, DR. Carusi paid tribute to the
steps it took last year to reduce port
ables by carrying one of the largest
building budgets ever sent to Congress
This budget estimate represented an in
crease over the building fund request
submitted to the bureau by the Com
missioners on behalf of the schools
The comment upon the continued elimi-
nation of portables, he said today, is
evidence of the Budget Bureaus con-
tinued interest in the relief of Washing
tor schools.