The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-05-07

CT, AS IOuB ab no LakeS bHe plhCe and assures the duties of our former principal, he should teach and by SC doing, we are enabled to give the pupils in the high school physical education which has been denied them for some time, and also elirn- mate some of the stagger system that exists in our high school. Per- haps that is one of the motions of the board that was not for the chil- dren's benefit.
 There is complaint that MT. Brown can not attend to his sue perintendent duties and also teach Nearly all of the school planning and buying of supplies takes place during the school shutdown and there Is no teaching then. He will have two hours each day for time to attend to the supervision. Just what that supervision amounts to I cannot tell as all needed repairs are reported by the janitor and are taken care of by men hired to do that. If at present he visits dif- ferent class rooms very frequently, 1t is not 50 reported by the teachers and pupils, and his own monthly report has never shown over three classroom visits in c month.
 While he was president of the State Teachers Assoc ation, he had plenty of time to be absent Q good many days from Thomaston, and to 20 to conventions and be gone for e week at Q time, and still the school went on. But some soy that he cannot find time to be in the high school building four out of six hours Q day. There is c girl in the high school office who attends to all the detail clerical work, answers the phone, and assumes consider able of the duties that our former principal used to attend to, I still ask to be shown why our Superin- tendent does not have time to teach, at least he should be willing to give 1t Q try, and if the school super vision suffers, then 1t is up to the Board of Education to admit that 1t was wrong and take the blame.
 Before signing off I would like to call attention to the Americans edi- torial again and I will also use the Seth Thomas Clock Company as an example, and call to their attention the fact that since 1929 that fac. tory found that 1t had to make one foreman do where there had been three or four, and the employees took 0 30 per cent cut in pay, and this had to be done so the company might survive and carry on, and business to-day Is not where these foremen are back or there is any change in the three or four men in place of one, and the 30 per cent cut has not been restored.
 Do the poor teachers who cannot help but feel underpaid, realize that there are more men in Thomaston with families to support who receive less than the $l,600 that the teach- CTS receive, and 1t is out of the earnings of these men that the tax money comes to pay the teachers.
 Again referring to the editorial, T don't know who wrote 1t but l would say that 1t is the same ex- cuse that Superintendent Brown gave at the board meeting, so he might have dictated it for them. l wonder if he did? It seems the same.
 In closing I would say that as the Republican-American correspondent has reported the meeting, garbled up as they usually do. I would like to correct them on one thing that refers to o member of my family. I would like to state that my daugh- ter is not looking for Q teaching job in Thomaston and would not take one if it was offered to her, and that fact is known by the entire school board. But the American correspondent did not have any other dirty mud at hand so they used the insinuation that I had an axe to grind.
 They did not say though that some of the board members who were among the losing gang "have relatives who are teaching, and have been in the past on the slde that made their positions secure TOT them. Is 1t possible that they don't know this?
 Tn letting our married teachers e we are only following . policy thai has been in force in most of thi towns of Connecticut and has beer forced on us by the needs of slngls girls who are educated to teach and have no ether way Co earn { living. While . married woman | supposed to be able to receive some thing from her husband, and W have let one married teacher gs whose hufband has not permanent position: We gre not asnamlea a