Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-14
Records Explain Delay in
Construction Program of
Elementary Buildings.
GROUND is PURCHASED
WITHOUT APPROPRIATION
Unspecifed Funds Drawn Upon to
Get Projects Started in
Three Localities.
BY CHARLES B. DEGGEs.

WaSh1ngCOnS ScnOOl DuuoAIlS PIOSA ohA
were wasted when the Board OF Educa-
tons repeated efforts to get tunos Ior
three needed elementary school sites
met with failure at the hands OF the
District Commissioners and the Bureau
of the Budget.
Hence, the Horace Mann School at
Wesley Heights will not be ready Tor
occupancy until years and A months
after the School Board first endeavored
to secure its site, and the Crosby Noyes
School, Tenth and Franklin streets
northeast, and the Lafayette School,
Broad Branch road and Northampton
street, will not admit their first classes
until years and 4 months after the
board undertook to build them.
The official records which contain
these facts, show further that no
specific appropriation ever was made
for the land for these three schools, but
that the sites were purchased out OF
unspecified funds on the initiative of
school and District officials. The
School Board, the records show, tried
vainly for three years to get its requests
for sites for these three schools past
the Bureau Of the Budget and before
Congress.
Other Projects Speeded.
BY way of contrast and illustrative
of the speed which may be attained in
school house construction in the Dis
trict when sites do not have to be
bought, are the recorded stories of the
Whittier and the Congress Heights
Schools additions. These structures,
the first providing accommodations for
800 pupils and the latter for 100, will
be in use approximately two years aft
er the board first sought them.
The Board of Education initiated ef-
forts to secure ground for the Noyes
and the Lafayette Schools in May, 1925,
and for the Mann school in MAY, 1926.
It's submitted estimate of $25, 900 for
site for the Noyes School was forwarded
by the Commissioners and eliminated
by the Bureau Of the Budget the first
year out. The same request was killed
by the Commissioners in 1926 and by
the Budget Bureau again in 1927.
In May, 1928, owners Of the land at
Tenth and Franklin streets northeast
made an attractive offer to the District.
The same month the Commissioners
ordered the purchase and in August Of
that year, the deal was completed, an
unspecified fund in the 1929 appropria-
ton act being used for the purpose and
no specific authority ever having been
given by Congress.
The purchase of the Lafayette School
Mann School History.
Efforts to buy the Mann School
ground in Wesley Heights were launched
by the school board in May, 1926, when
an estimate for $4,000 was submitted.
The Commissioners eliminated the item
and 1t was resubmitted by the school
authorities the following year, when
the Bureau of the Budget eliminated it.
In May, 1929, the board again sought
funds for the purchase of this land,
but the Commissioners struck the re-
quest from the list A part of the site,
sufficient to accommodate the first unit
of the proposed building, was purchased
out of an unspecified sum during the
Summer of 1929. Title to the land was
taken by the Commissioners in August
following the onwer's offer to sell in
July.
Now 1t was in the Winter of 1929-30
that The Star conducted a survey of
elementary school needs in the District.
The vast number of makeshift school
house accommodations from part-tinne
classes to isolated frame portables with
outside unheated toilet facilities were
listed. Following this array of pub
licity, the Bureau of the Budget under
took to speed up school construction.
Among the buildings it inserted in the
budget estimates were the NoyeS and
the Mann Schools.
The appropriation bill for 1881 was
under consideration by the Budget Bu-
reau in December, 1929, and items OF
$4,000 each were placed in the bill for
the construction of the first four-room
units of these schools. The Noyes
School item was approved as it stood by
Congress, but the House and Senate,
also by that time aroused to the needs
in Wesley Heights where five portable
schools were being used, increased the
Mann School estimate to $4,000 to
provide for an eight-room structure.
Money Available in July.
Money for these projects became
available last July.
With its site in hand, the school au
thorities sought construction money
for the Lafayette School in May, 1929,
when it submitted an estimate for
$185 900. The Commissioners elini-
mated the estimate and the Budget
Bureau not only restored it but in
creased 1t to 100000. The House and
Senate, however, eliminated the combi-
nation assembly hall and gymnasium,
which the sum included, and appro-
priated $4,000 for the eight-room
school.
Last May, the School Board tried to
get $4,000 for the Acknowledgements
SUM, but the Commissioners elimi-
mated the item.
Money for the Mann School became
available, along with the funds for the
Noyes and the Lafayette Schools, last
July.
Having completed the preliminary
sketches, the municipal architect began
the working drawings for all three of
these buildings last August. Specifica-
tions for the Lafayette and the Mann
Schools were begun last october 2, and
those for the Noyes building were begun
two DAYS later. After a series of pre-
liminaries, involving the approval of the
plans by the School Board, the Com
missionerS and the fire chief, contracts
for the three structures were executed
as follows: Mann School, December S,
with completion scheduled for next
June Is; Lafayette School, December
%, with completion set for June is, and
! completion scheduled for June !. Each
of these schools will be occupied next
September 81.
Congress Heights School.
The first construction money for the
addition to the Congress Heights School
was sought by the School Board in May,
| 1929, when the School Board Subm1tted
an estimate for $4,000. This item was
forwarded to Congress where the House
eliminated the funds for the assembly,
gymnasium.
This item was restored in full, how
ever, and the $4,000 was appropriated,
becoming available last July.
The House itself inserted an item q