Evening star., 1940-01-04
School Construction and Site
Purchases Cut to 81 ,247 900
New Abbot and Anocostio Structures
Approved by Budget Bureau

New Abbot and AM
Approved by Budget
Some 5000, 900 in school building
projects are sacrificed for speedy
completion of the new National
Guard Armory and the new Central
Library in the 194l budget estimates
transmitted to Congress today.
Budget Bureau officials in allow
ing only $1,247,000 in building and
land purchase items said the esti-
mates had been curtailed to allow
funds for the other two projects.
1t is understood the armory is be-
ing rushed to be ready for the
1941 presidential Inauguration cere-
monies.
The Board of Education did not
fare so we'll in being allotted sl3,-
259 ,4O2-a decrease of more than
100000 under the 1910 appropria-
ton. An increase of s470,000 in op-
Grating expenses was more than
swallowed up in the $4,000 net de-
crease in building and land purchase.
High lights of the estimates briefly
are:
/. Appropriations for new Alb
bot Vocational School, new Ana
costa Junior High School. an eight
room addition and assembly hall to
the Syphax Colored Elementary
School, and plans for colored SEN
ior high school at Twenty-fourth
street and Benning road NE
2. Funds for purchase of land
near the Rose Lees Hardy School
and for an elementary school site
at Thirteenth and Van Buren streets
N. w.
20 Teachers For New Schools.
3. Twenty teachers and a libra
rian for new schools being con-
pleted during the coming year. Also
one clerk.
4. Three new school officers, in
cluding principal. presumably for
the new Calvin Coolidge Senior
High School soon to be completed.
S. More than s222,00O to furnish
and equip the Coolidge and the new
Thomas Jefferson Junior High
School, on which construction has
just been begun.
6. A slash of nearly 100000 in
the boards request for buildings and
ground repairs, making it less thar
the 1910 appropriation by $25 900.
7. Recreation left as set up il
the 1910 bill under the joint con-
troll of the Board of Education anc
the Commissioners, with budget ol
$3.50 ,000-less than the present ap.
preparation by $1,000. This item
generally appropriated to provide
equipment for Fairgrounds, is ex.
pected to be made up by the rec
reation department out of main
tenance funds, it is understood.
8. Elimination of the trouble.
some legislative rider which limited
the salary of the public schoo
librarians to the average of tht
public librarians doing the same
type of work.
Two Other Riders Retained.
8. Retention of the riders pro-
viding for teacher vacancies to b,
filled by teachers of special sub
jects and those not now doing
classroom work and also of tht
rider forbidding deficiency in the
fuel, heat and light item.
Tn nnv,rnnfinto yvyifI, tho h1,i1Siy,f
cuts, it was recalled that tn
schools have benefited by eight P
w. A. projects recently completed
including the new Bunker Hill
School just completely occupied
Monday. In addition the nev
Banneker Junior High for coloret
pupils has just been completed ant
the Coolidge and Jefferson will b.
coming along soon. Funds are pro
vided in the 1941 estimates to be
gin repaying P. w. A. the loans il
which the schools got S1,000,00
worth of construction.
Long-sought projects were amoni
those retained in the program. TIL
new Abbot which will be built il
Brentwood Park NE, just back o
the Columbia Institution for tn
Deaf, was nearly approved last year
but, together with a new Wilson
Teachers College. was thrown ou
in the long conference that dead
locked the budget until July Is
two weeks after the beginning O
the present fiscal year. The pres
ent Abbot School is at Seventh
and o streets NV. in the oil
Washington High School Building
School Operates on Double Shift.
The new junior high if approved
by Congress will be life saver tt
the Anacostia community. Seized
uled to be built at Seventeenth ane
@ streets Sc. on land already ac'
quired not far from the presen
Anacostia Junior-Senior High
School, the new building would re.
lieve troublesome congestion
which has had the school on dou.
BILE shifts for the past two years
Although the junior-senior building
is the only one of it's kind in the
city and new school, the rapidly
growing community east of the river
has engulfed the school to the point
that space intended for other pur.
poses has had to be drafted into
use for classrooms and administra.
tive offices. This item is of short.
est standing in budget preference
but is regarded as one of the most
acute problems by observers.
Plans for the colored senior higl
school at Twenty-fourth and Ben
ming road will start the ball rolling
toward satisfying a growing demant
for a secondary school in the ares
which has just seen the compile.
ton of a large colored housing prof.
ect.
In addition it would provide the
colored division with something
it has sorely needed for years.
belt line high school. At present
the three colored senior highs
Armstrong, Cardozo and Dunbar