Evening star., 1945-01-16
Use Of Schools
|Curbed toSave
Fuel in District
-, -
Citizens Associations,
PTA Affected; Street
Lights to Be Limited

The District Commissioners, in
a move to conserve heat and elee-
tricity, today requested the
Boards of Education and Recrea-
ton to discontinue at once the
use of school buildings for "other
than school activities" outside of
regular hours.
If this request is adopted, citi-
zens associations, parent-teacher
organizations and recreation pro-
grams would be affected.
The Commissioners also ordered
street lights to be turned out Is
minutes earlier in the morning,
called for the second of all double
street lights to be extinguished. and
set temperatures in all District
buildings at So degrees.
Undecided on Comment
School Superintendent Robert L.
Haycock said he is asking the Com
missioners for copy of their or
to the Board of Education tomor-
row WIN MS comment.
What that comment will be
have not yet made up my mind"
he said.
Citizens associations. which meet
at night, would be barred from prac-
tically all of the schools during the
heating season, but it was pointed
out they still could use the 10 or
IL night schools where classes are
held Mondays. Wednesdays and
Thursdays
Parent nt-teacher organizations would
be affected but most of these meet
in the afternoon during school hours
or Immediately thereafter when
there would be sufficient heat
Nearly all Junior and senior high
schools have after-hour activities,
such as clubs with various interests.
1t remains to be seen how much
these will be affected.
Recreation Board to Meet.
A special meeting of the Recrea-
| ton Board has been called for prn.
| tomorrow by Harry Wender. chair
man, to consider the Commissioners
request.
Mr.. Wender said he hoped some
way can be found to keep the schools
open for young people and adults
after school hours.
L look upon closing the schools
in the evening as a very dangerous
thing" he said.> There is great
need to keep our young people oc-
cupied. I don't like to use the
term, juvenile delinquency but we
all know what the consequences
fof closing the schools at night will
be. I don't think We can afford to
take the chance"
Milo F. Christensen, superintend-
ent of the recreation department,
said that As school buildings now
are operated after school hours
without heat and % are used with
a minimum of heat. Many organ
izations have been asked to meet
on the same night and to console
date their activities in fewer build
ings than formerly were used, he
said.
:. Mr. Christensen said that attend
ance at school buildings in the late
afternoon and evening runs between
10000 and 200 900 week. and that
about 80 900 persons, including serv-
ice personnel and war workers, par
tlclpate in the activities. A staff Of
200 workers supervises these activi-
ties, he said.
Would Hit Many Activities.
If the request to close the schools
in the evenings is complied with, he
said, hundreds of organiza tions and
!, activities would be affected. Among
them, he said, would be community
groups, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts,
gymnasium groups, social meetings,
dances, School-Door Canteens for
junior and senior high school pupils.
: auditorium activities, language and
. study activities.
The action in regard to street
lights was estimate to save 696 tons
of coal year.
J The Commissioners emphasized
that police authorities would be
consulted in all instances of re-
ducing street and park lighting
Col. Joseph D. Arthur, jr., assistant
engineer commissioner. in submit
: ting the recommendations of adj
vlsory committee on which the
commissioners acted today. ex-
pressed the view that turning OF
the street lights 80 minutes before
sunrise rather than Is minutes as
at present would not materially
affect the public safety.
In the cases of hospitals and