Evening star., 1935-03-24
COLORED SCHOOLS
HELD LACKING IN
ROOM TO EXPAND
Even With Grimke Addition
Congestion Would
Exist.
FIVE LEFT WITHOUT
SPACE AFTER THIS YEAR
Officials Unable to Use SIS, 900
Appropriated for Purchase.
of Land.


School. If all of them should become
realities before next September, the
Grimke School and four other schools
in the immediate vicinity would barely
have rooms enough to care for present
enrolment. The problem of housing
new elementary and high school stu
dents would remain acute next Fall.
The Board of Education has asked
for Public Works Administration
funds to build an eight-room addition
and an assembly hall-gymnaSium at
the Grimke School The sum sought
is $19o,000. Land is available for the
construction, and Garnet C. Wilkin-
son, first assistant superintendent Of
schools, declares the need there Is
the most pressing in the city.
1868 Pupils Crowded Out.
The Grimke School, now housing
eight classes, seven of which are
larger than the limit considered
safe" by leading educators, also has
nine additional classes totaling 1858
pupils crowded out of the institution.
These elementary classes occupy nine
rooms in Cardozo High School, in the
block bounded by Eighth, Ninth and
r streets and Rhode Island avenue.
Affected directly by this overcrowd-
ing of Grimke and Cardozo, especially
the latter, are also the William Lloyd
Garrison School, Twelfth street be-
tween r and S streets; the William
Henry Harrison School, Thirteenth
street between v and w streets. and
the Grover Cleveland School, Eighth
and T streets. '
Most Of the score or more Of con-
struction projects for which P. w. A.
money has been asked will AFFORD
some relief for nearby overcrowded
schools. Such Is not the case at
Grimke.
All in Colored Belt.
All five schools involved are in the
colored belt, surrounded by some
10000 to $4,000 colored citizens. To-
gether the four grammar schools have
an enrolment of 2.78l. Not count
ing the overflow classes at Cardozo
nor the kindergarten classes, there
are 81 classes. OF these, 48 are above
the limit of IS fixed as the maximum
number of pupils to be supervised by
single teacher. Most of them have
more than 40 and some have more
than so pupils.
The enrolment in the four schools
has jumped from 2,257 in 1882 to its
present high mark of 2,781.
Csrdozo, the old Business High
School for white pupils. is likewise
crowded and with nine classrooms
filled with elementary pupils there is
no space left to take care Of the chill
dren who will be ready for entrance
this Fall unless the unprecedented
thing occurs and more seniors gradu-
ate than freshmen enter.
The Grimke School was formerly
the old Phelps Vocational School, be-
ing taken over as an elementary
school last Fall. Anticipating the
change, Congress appropriated SOS 900
Tor four-room annex on July /.
1884. The contract has not yet
been let.
Two Projects Linked.
In addition, purchase of land for an
elght-room wing was authorized and
in the current appropriation bill for
the District s55,0o0 was provided for
the purpose, but with such conditions
tied to it that school authorities have
been unable to touch it, Congress
made the Grimke Schools SIS, 900 con-
tingent upon the expenditure of
$105 900 for the purchase of a site for
the Jefferson Junior High School in
southwest Washington. Why the two
unrelated projects were linked together
Is known only to the author of the
bill. The jefferson Junior High site
purchase has been pending for the last
seven years and $4,000 is still needed
to carry out the purchase. That means,
probably, that Grinke School will have
to wait for another jefferson appro-
priatlon before it can touch the money
already authorized for its expansion.
Efforts are being made now, it is
understood, to have the condition re-
moved because of the imperative de-
mand for more space for colored
pupils.
Cardozo High School, meanwhile,
is accommodating $50 business high
school pupils. These children could
and would use the nine rooms oc-
cupied by grammar grade pupils If
they could be transferred elsewhere.
Lack Recreation Facilities.
II all the plans were carried out.
however, the schools in the congested
colored area would have only rooms
enough to house its present enroll
ment. With the enrolment increasing
steadily every year, the problem of
overcrowding would be solved only
for a single term at best. No future
increase could be taken care of,
The same five schools also are
wholly without adequate playground
and recreational facilities. Being old
type buildings, erected flush with the
sidewalks, the pupils have the choice
of playing on the streets and side
walks or not playing at all. No plans
for expansion along this line have
been made.
1.-THE Grimke and the neighboring
schools" Wilkinson pointed out, were
regarded as the hardest pressed in the
entire city when the so-called five
year plan was adopted In February,
1925. That was 10 years ago. Today
the same thing is true. This area still
represents the hardest pressed and one
of the fastest growing sections Of the
fyazsdxaln