Evening star., 1941-06-05
Disconfinuance
OF Recreation
Activity Denied
Many Projects Listed
By Principals Not
Dropped, Probe Told
BY JOHN W. THOMPSON.

District recreation ofYicials today
denied that many activities listed
by high school principals as having
been discontinued in schools were
actually discontinued.
Testifying before the Recreation
Subcommittee of the House District
Committee, the recreation officials
F. Hunter on the curtailment Of
recreational activities and the op-
erations of their department.
Supt. of Schools Frank w. Ballou
told the subcommittee the activities
had been curtailed as the principals
had reported, but explained that
many of these are supplementary
education" activities rather than
recreation.
Il don't blame them for doing it,"
he said. Many of these are beyond
the scope of recreation"
DR.. Ballou pointed out that the
old Community Center Department,
when 1t was separate, conducted
many activities that were educa-
tional rather than recreational. He
added that the bill for a nine
member recreation board for the
District would leave these supple
mentary educational activities to
the school board.
Hearings on Two Bills.
The subcommittee is holding
hearings on two bills to revise the
recreation setup of the District.
One is the nine member board plan
and the other would establish
three member department.
Recreation officials testifying were
Acting Co-ordinator Milo F. Chris
tiansen, H. c. English, assistant di-
rector of community center activities.
tor of Community Center activities.
Chairman Hunter said the list of
curtailed activities prepared by the
principals was so lengthy 1T would
almost seem a discontinuance of
community center activities"
On questions by Mr.. Hunter, Mr..
English denied the Boys Club activi-
ties, public speaking classes and
some others had been eliminated
this year at Anacostia .Junior-Senior
High School. He admitted the
speaking classes had been discon-
tinued after the man conducting
them left the employment of the
Recreation Department.
Objects to Area Program.
DR.. Ballou objected, however, to
consolidation of programs in areas
rather than in the schools which the
children attend. He insisted children
would not go out of their own area
and that the individual school
should be the center of community
activities.
Miss Baker declined to admit the
theory that boys of Terrell Junior
High School could not attend BOYS
activities at Dunbar High School
for fear of being beaten up" In
previous testimony the subcommit-
tee was told the boys south of M
street could not 60 to Dunbar.
Miss Baker said 81 per cent of the
boys at Terrell were from north of
M street.
DR.. Ballou said that, despite the
advantage of superior facilities at
Dunbar, the idea of mixing boys of
different ages in activities away
from their own school tends to
break down school spirit
i,,ly
that cannot be overlooked DR.. Bal
lou said.
Denies Women Ignored.
Questioned by Chairman Hunter,
Miss Baker denied women had been
ignored" in the recreation program.
She admitted, however, that in the
consultations of the Fairgrounds
and Community Center Department
in 1899, she and Miss Maud Parker,
q recreation official, had taken SAL
ary cuts.
Irving c. Root, superintendent of
National Capital parks, corrected a
statement made in his previous testi-
mony that profits from cafeterias
operated by the Welfare and Recre-
ational Association were used to bal
ance losses on recreational activities.
The recreational activities, he said,
were separate from the cafeterias.
The tourist camps operated by the
association, he said, balanced losses
in swimming pool and tennis court
operations.