Evening star., 1933-01-24
Commissioners Told to Inves-
tigate Charges of Insani-
tary Conditions.
HOUSE subcommittee
TAKES QUICK ACTION
Heating System Declared Menace
to Health and Building Is
Held Unsafe.

The District Commissioners today
undertook to investigate reported in
sanitary conditions at the George
Truesdell School, in accordance with
instructions given DR.. Luther H. Reich
elderfer, chairman Of the Board of
Commissioners. by Chairman Clarence
cannon OF the subcommittee of the
House Appropriations Committee.
Mrs. H. P. Clarke, president Of the
Truesdell Parent-T Teacher Association,
complained during the hearings yester-
day on the 1894 school budget that the
25-year-old combination brick, frame
and stucco structure actually menaces
the health of its pupils. So strikingly
did Mrs. Clarke present her case that
Chairman Cannon Immediately sum-
moned DR.. Reichelderfer.
Items Stricken Out.
In ordering the Commissioners to in
vestigate the school conditions and re-
port back to the subcommittee, Repre-
sentative Cannon virtually ordered the
District heads to defend their act in
eliminating for three consecutive years
the School Boards requested item for
new addition to the Truesden School
which would replace the antiquated
section of the school.
In 1881 the Board of Education asked
for $4,000 to build an Groom and
combination assembly hall-gymnasium
at the Truesdell School This proposed
structure would have completed the
new section of the school. The Com
missioners, however, eliminated this
item from the 1882 bill which then was
being prepared so that neither Con-
greSS nor the Bureau OF the Budget
gave it any consideration The next
year the board asked for S180,O00 for
the same purpose. the sum TO be appro-
priaeed in the 1888 bill. Again the
Commissioners eliminate the item
Recently, when they were considering
the 1884 estimates, the Commissioners
once more struck out the School Boards
request for relief at the Truesdell
School. This year the School Board
had asked for only S95 900, which would
build the eight class room addition. The
request for the assembly hall-gym-
nasium was omitted.
Among conditions complained against
by Mrs. Clarke and Mrs N P. O'Con-
nell, chairman of the TrueSdell Schools
Parent-Teacher Associations Legislative
Committee, was the effect of the hot
air heating plant in the old school.
This plant embraces two coal-fred fur
naces placed in the center of the ground
floor of the building. Immediately ad-
jacent to these furnaces are two former
play rooms which. because of congestion,
now are occupied by classes every day.
AS the custodian of the building stokes
the fire just outside the class room doors
great volumes of gas, smoke and coal
dust make habitation of the two rooms
practically unbearable. The colored
fireman of the building was overcome
by the fumes last week, and at one time
last year the entire kindergarten class
was dismissed because of the fumes, it
was declared.
Mrs. Clarke also complained to the
District Subcommittee of the House
that the building itself is unsafe by
virtue OF its frame construction, which
includes wooden stairwayS and wood
beamed attic. The heating plant. Mrs
Clarke said. is not adequate to heat
the girls toilet room. hence, a gas
fired radiator was installed to augment
the plant. This radiator. the Parent
Teacher Association president said, once
blew up" and at another time was
found with its flame cut off and the
gas flowing from the jets. The gas
cock is so situated, less than a foot
from the floor, that children may turn
it on.
Located on Ingraham Street.
The present George Truesdell School
is situated on the south side of Ingra-
ham and east of Ninth street. The
original portion of the school is the
frame, brick and stucco. four class
room structure which was erected in
1908 at a cost of s26,300.
The rest Of the school is mod
ern, brick flreproof structure, and
the addition which the school authori-
ties have sought for the past three years
would be erected on the site of the an
tiquated 25-year-old portion and thus
complete the modern school The old
portion at present houses three first
grades, one second grade, and fourth
grade class. Congestion has made it
necessary to transfer the sixth grade
pupils out Of the school entirely. The
kindergarten classes which formerly were
housed in the old structure have re-
treated to two small auxiliary rooms in
the new portion of the school.