Evening star., 1951-04-04
Arlington High
Halliday School
Sessions Feared
Boord Points to Need
Of Bond Funds to
ForestoII Crowdinq

SLuQenCS Will pe on ndlI-Qay SeS-
sions by September, 1858, unless
a proposed $4,875,0 900 school con-
struction bond issue is approved
according to the School Board.
A referendum will be held or
the proposal April II.
About half of the requested
funds would be used to build
Wakefield Junior Senior High
School for 1,400 pupils at South
Four Mile Run drive and Six
teenth street.
About 40 per cent of the money
would be used to build three other
new schools and to build three
additions.
The remaining 10 per cent
would buy land and also permit
remodeling of five schools.
Overcrowding Seen Soon.
Unless Wakefield is built. the
board says, children in junior high
schools will be subjected to
crowded conditions and possible
halliday sessions.
In a release providing back
ground information for parent
teacher associations and the gen.
eral public, the board said, "The
2,100 students at Washington-Lee
High School crowd the building
SO badly that classes are even
having to be held in such places
as the rifle range. =.
"AS the present pupils already
in Arlington schools move into
high school and if no more high
school students move into the
county. Washington-Lee will have
2,400 students next year. with a
further similar increase the fol-
lowing year."
Added Space Not Enough.
Construction of Washington
Lees new gymnasium and class
rooms, to be built with money
now on hand, will relieve some of
the present crowding. This added
space, however, will not be nearly
enough two or three years from
now, the statement says.
Present permanent facilities for
Junior senior high school students
were designed to accommodate
4,800 students. The present en-
rollment is 5,455.
The School Board predicts that
there will be at least 6,100 this
fall. and at least $500 by 1928.
CONSTRUCTION of the new Wake
field school is the only answer, -
the board says. unless the pupils
are put on halliday sessions"
Other Schools to Be Built.
The other new schools to be
built if the bond issue is ap-
proved are:
Claremont elementary, at Ches-
terfield road and South Buchanan
street, Is rooms; Nottingham ele-
mentary, at Little Falls road and
North Nottingham street, IA
rooms; and Fillmore primary
near North Fillmore and Seventh
streets. four rooms.
Additions scheduled to be built
at elementary schools if the bond
issue passes would be constructed
at Jackson, 855 North Edison
street, four classrooms and a
multi-purpoSe room; Stewart
2400 North Underwood street, four
classrooms; and major project
at Kemper, for colored students,
at 2035 South Lincoln street.
Remodeling of elementary build
tngs is planned for Custis, TIP
South Twenty-t third street; the
old Cherrydale School, 3700 Lee
highway; Maury, $3.50 Wilson
boulevard: Monroe, 1900 Key
boulevard, and the basement oi
Langston, for colored students
at 1854 Lee highway.
Provision for New Sites.
Land purchases included in the
bond issue would provide addi-
tional space at Jefferson Junior
High School, 816 South Fillmore
street; Madison, 1929 North Stat
ford, and Monroe. Sites would
be bought for new school be-
tween Madison and Marshall
4751 North Twenty-fifth street, to
be built later, and another new
school to replace Page, 4001 Will
son boulevard, which is to be
sold as commercial property.
Dolly Madison Junior High
School, at 2300 Shirley highway
will be converted for elementary
use if Wakefield is built.
Other projects to be paid fol
with bond issue funds would be
resurfacing of floors at Wilson
1901 Wilson boulevard; improve
ment of sewer and drainage IA
cilities at Woodlawn, 4720 North
Sixteenth street, and improvement
of Fairgrounds at Randolph
South Fourteenth and Quincy
streets, and Henry, TOO South
Fillmore street.
1917 Cent Tax Raise Seen.
Approval Of the bond issue woulc
increase annual tax rates an av-
erage of 10.7 cents during the life
of the bonds, the board has esti.
mated.
Last November, a $7.5 millior
proposed bond issue was defeated
in referendum by a narrow mar.
gin.
The November proposal was fol
a two-year construction program;
the present one is designed tt
meet what the board consider;
to be immediate needs.
In the November proposal, the
new junior-senior high school was
to have cost $3.5 million. Addi.
tions to six elementary schools
were planned. The board alsc
would have been provided with
funds to obtain sites for addi.
tional schools needed in 1953-6O
The bond issue now proposed
II approved, will build a Junior.
senior high school about two.
thirds the size of the StriIct,,rt