Evening star., 1948-09-13
$4,000 Pupils
ToEnro|I al
Schools Today
District, Two Counties
Begin Registration;
Glasses Jummed

in Washington, Montgomery
County and Arlington County.
Registration figures were not
available Immediately, but expected
enrollments were: District, $4,000;
Montgomery County, $1,000, and
Arlington County, 10000. In each
case, an increase in enrolment over
last September was anticipated.
With these openings today, all
public schools in the Washington
area will be in session. Schools in
Prince Georges and Fairfax Counties
and in Alexandria opened last week.
Also opening today were the six
schools operated by the Seventh-d
Adventist Church in the Metropoli-
tan Area.
Accurate Estimate Delayed.
In the District, uncertainty as to
how many nonresident students
will return to school now that they
must pay tuition prevented an ac-
curate prediction of enrolment.
School Superintendent Hobart M.
Corning said enrolment probably
will exceed last years total, but said
he could not be more definite than
that.
He did say that some 1000 more
elementary children were expected
to enroll than last year, however
Evidence that enrolment in the
. kindergarten and first grades was
on the increase was apparent at the
Logan Elementary School, Third
and G. streets NE, where halls
were jammed with parents trying to
enroll their children.
Mrs. Catherine L. Pinkett, princi-
pal, said that it looked as If enroll
ment would 60 up to more than 900
before the day was over. Last year
it was about TOO. The school elm
mated part-tim classes last year,
but a return to the part-time ap-
peared inevitable, Mrs. Pinkett said
1900 on Part Time Last Year.
Logan was one of 18 elementary
schools which found enrolment this
morning so large that part-time
classes must be set-up.
Eleven other colored grade schools
we're forced to hold part-time classes
last year. School officials were ex-
pecting those II to be on part
time again this year, but said not
too much of an increase in part
time classes was expected in the
colored schools right away" Last
year more than 1900 boys and girls
were on part time.
BY the time registration is COM
pleted, however, this picture may
change.
Last year, five white elementary
schools were on part time. Stanton
Elementary School is planning TO
hold part-time classes in the first
grades because of increasing en-
rollment to bring this total to six
this. year. More than 1900 children
are expected to be affected m the
six schools.
The other schools expecting to
60 on the part-time plan-in the
lower grades only-are:
Cardozo on Triple Shift.
Beers, Congress Heights, Patter-
son, Kenilworth, Kimball, Bruce,
Cook, Crummell, Douglas Simmons,
Morse, Langston, Walker, Jones,
Birney Annex, Garfield and Payne.
Cardozo High School, which
found more than 1900 students re-
porting but which has only ca
pacity of l,04O, went on a triple
shift.
At the colored high school, classes
will begin all hour earlier than
usual and run an hour later. BY
dividing the students into three
sections and having some come
early some later and staggering
three recesses, all will get a full
time course.
Beginning of Expected Trend.
The increase in elementary chill
dren is the beginning of a trend
forecast by school officials which
will see some $1,000 more grade
school children enrolled within the
next five years than at present.
This is a Nationwide problem,
however. The 100000 children
over the country entering school for
the first time this fall will, with
rare exceptions, have to do the
best they can in bulging classes.
But to most of the youngsters, this
will be nothing new as they are
used to shortages and crowded con-
ditions.
A large share of these children
are the first of the so-called war
babies who are entering school for
the first time.
Freshmen on Small Side.
At Central High School older high
school students found the freshmen
slightly on the small side. Central
will operate as a junior-senlor, SIX
year high school from now on as a
result of the turning of Powell
Junior High School into a voca-
tional unit for the Bell Vocational
High School students.
These new junior high students
found it was not too complicated
coming to Central, however. Jack
De Viney, president of the Student
Council, and Miss Pat Moran, vice
president, were StaIloneQ az ueSh
in the lobby to give help and infor-
mation. At an opening assembly
Lawrence G.. Hoover, principal,
started their orientation as he ex-
plained how they would be inte-
grated into the school organization.
At elementary schools over the
city mothers-and in some cases
fathers-accompanied their S and
year old offspring to school for
the opening day. The children who
had not registered previously did so
and by noon most of had been as
signed to their classes and had met
their new teachers.
Some Children Reluctant.
Here and there a reluctant child
had to be dragged crying into the
building, but most seemed curious
and pleased, if slightly awed, by the
new world they were entering.
Montgomery county students were
welcomed on their return to school
today by three officials of the county
in radio broadcast over station
WGAY at 1915 o'clock this morn