Evening star., 1932-12-22
.SCHO0LROOM need
SHOWN in SCHOOLS
BaIIou Reports on Lack Of
Facilities in Districts
Public Institutions.

The DStrlct pubic school system
now is 176 elementary classrooms, e.
Junior high school pupil accommoda-
tions and 1882 senior high school pupil
Accommodations behind, according to
Supt Frank W. Ballous annual school
house accommodations report, submitted
to the Board of Education late yes
t.rday.
These figures indicate progress made
in the attack on the accumulated
shortage in the elementary schools,
which last year were 204 classrooms
ton, however, Is worse than 1t was a
year ago, when, with accommodations
for 12,40O, these buildings were housing
1857 students, to stand in need OF
new accommodations for 2,117 students.
At the same meeting of the School
Board. college boxing loomed as the
center of a warm controversy when DR..
Ballou, backed by DR.. Stephen E.
Kramer, his first assistant, announced
he would not approve Of the use OF the
Mckinley High School gymnasium for
a series of boxing bouts to be given by
Columbus University. The two school
men based their objections on the con-
tention that boxing is associated in
the public mind with prize fighting" I"
while Henry Gilligan. School Board
member, upheld boxing as "a fine.
clean. manly sport" DR.. Ballou said
further that the School Boards Com
mittee on Community Use Of Buildings
the membership of which is composed
OF the three women members OF the
report.
Demanded Explanation.
The question of boxing came up when
Mr.. Gilligan asked what disposition
would be made of the application of
Columbus University for use of the
Mckinley High School gymnasium for
a bout between college athletes. DR..
Ballou replied that the question would
not be reported to the board, and
when asked what would be the ruling
he asserted it would be "unfavorable." !"
Mr. Gilligan insisted on a reason, and
the superintendent replied that he
would not recommend it. The board
member demanded further explanation.
and DR.. Ballou and DR.. Kramer said
that boxing" was too much like prize
fighting" and that they did not want
it introduced in the public schools. Mr.
Gilligan won a point, however, in get
ting the board to vote favorably on a
resolution requiring the Community
Use of Buildings Committee, including
Mrs. Philip Sidney Smith, chairman;
Mrs. Henry Grattan Doyle and Mrs.
Mary A. Mcneil, to bring in a full re-
port. whether it be unfavorable or not
At the close of the meeting Mrs.
Doyle told reporter for The Star that
the matter had been only Informally
discussed h
been reached. She smilingly advised
the reporter to wait little while and
see what happens before you get ex-
cited about this" She would not ex-
plain her position further, however.
News Of November l.
The schoolhouse accommodations re-
port, which the board received yester-
day, presented congestion data as of
November l. in accordance with similar
reports Of previous years. Under 'ele-
mentary schools" the report showed
that % classrooms were needed to elm
mate a3sr, portable schools still in use. II to
eliminate Undesirable rooms, 80 to re-
duce oversize classes, 38 to eliminate
part-time classes in the first and
second grades, and l to eliminate part
time classes in the upper grades. The
report showed further that if the
school authorities would abandon the
five remaining schoolhouses of the
group recommended for "early aban-
donment" in 1903, an additional 81
rooms would be needed. These would
be 8 for the Bradley School, IL each
for the Force, Lincoln and Webster.
and 20 for the Jefferson School. These
"a rooms have been needed since 1890,
when the total was reduced to that
figure from 90.
The remaining frame one-room port
able schools are shown in the report to
have been in use en- November l, as fol-
lows: Fillmore School, 2; Keene School,
2; Benning School. /; Kenilworth, 3
theSe were accommodating the Kenil-
worth School pupils who were awaiting
completion Of the new building which
would replace the old structure con-
demned more than a year ago.: Ketch-
am School. /; Garrison School, 6;
Cleveland School, 4: Bates Road, 2,
and Giddings School, 2. According to
divisions, the white schools were using
IA and the colored schools were using
g. Last year the number of portables
was 30.
In the white high schools the capac-
ity is given in the report as 300, and
the actual enrolment is 1883. Thus
the need in terms Of pupil-accommoda-
tions was 1863 on November of this
year Last year the white high-school
capacity was 600 less than this year by
virtue of the fact that old Business
High School, having a capacity Of only
900. was in use. while this year the
Roosevelt High School, accommodating
1.500 has replaced it. The enrolment
then was 11,026, giving an accommoda-
tion need for 1926 pupils.
Contest Curb Looms.
In the colored schools, however, with
the capacity of $500 the same this year
as it was last, the enrolment went up
from 1891 to $3.50. making this years