Evening star., 1935-01-06
Commissioners Reported
Seeking Power to Sc.
lect Superintendent.
CONTROL WOULD EXTEND
TO NAMING OF TEACHERS
Dr.. Johnson Believes Board of
Education Should Be Exempt
ed From Provisions.

Control over the appointment of
the superintendent Of schools is one
Of the several objectives Of the pro-
posed bill to increase the powers Of
the District Commissioners, The Star
was informed yesterday by an au-
thoritative source at the District
Building.
The term of the present superin-
tendent. DR.. Frank w. Ballou, expires
June 30. At present it is expected
he will be reappointed by the Board
Of Education.
The statement of the purpose of the
Commissioners served to stimulate
fears of those opposed to that feature
Of the bill which gives the Commits
sioners veto and directional power
over the Board Of Education and
other citizens boards in the District.
Such step would open the door to
injection of politics and patronage
into the school system. The Commits
sioners have been subjected to heavy
pressure from political leaders to make
political appointments in the District
service itself. fact which the Dis
trict Commissioners freely admit.
Would Affect Teachers.
If granted by Congress, such con-
troll conceivably could extend to ap-
pointments of teachers, principals,
clerks. janitors and school matrons,
now made by the Board of Education
it was asserted, If not by the present
Commissioners, by their successors in
office.
The matter will come to a direct
issue within few days before the
Commissioners take final action on
the bill, which was tentatively drafted
for them by Corporation Counsel E.
Barrett Prettyman. To date, the Dis
trict heads have approved the bill only
in principle.
DR.. Hayden johnson, president of
the Board Of Education, let it be
known last night he believes the Board
of Education should be included among
other agencies which would be ex-
empted from provisions of the bill.
Furthermore, the subject is to be
taken up for action at the meeting
of the Board of Education Wednes-
day Members of the board now are
studying a draft of the bill The
board will resist the efforts of the
Commissioners to obtain any sort of
control over the schools. aside from
the existing authority over the budget
estimates, The Star learned.
Would Curtail Boards.
The whole subject is involved in a
paragraph of the proposed measure,
which would give to the District heads
power to prohibit any action by any
of the various governmental agencies
financed out of District revenues, or
to direct an action by such a board.
The beneficial results of having
citizens boards in charge of special
lied phases of municipal operations
have been stressed by those con-
cerned over the new proposal. 1t is
emphasized that this is the only di-
rect part District taxpayers now have
in the sctual management of their
government. To place the school sys-
TEN under the control of politically
appointed Commissioners, it Is ar
gued. might tend to remove this SEM
blance of citizen representation in
the District government.
When asked about the question of
controlling the appointment of the
superintendents of schools, and pos
sibly other school officials, Commis-
sioner Hazen said significantly:
II believe the Commissioners should
have power to veto actions by the
Board of Education as well as some of
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