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the basement, together with the extra classroom for special activities. Two could be used for domestic science, as is done now, 1 for a manual training shop, 1 for a print shop, and 1 for a drawing room. A new building could then be erected on the lot to the rear of the school. This could contain simply special activities, such as an auditorium, a gymnasium, a chemistry laboratory, a physics laboratory, a music room, a metal shop, and woodworking shop.

The cost is estimated as follows for Plan III:

New building of six units and auditorium and gymnasium..
Repairs to existing building..

Purchase of lot.....

Total.....

$128,000

2,000

2,000

132,000

This new building could be added to as the need arises. All the children in the school could use the special activities in common, although the jurior and senior high schools could have a separate organization from the elementary school. There would be a new building with vocational and industrial facilities, as called for in the bond issue, although they would not be used exclusively by the 152 children in the high school, but would also be used by the children. in the other grades. Furthermore, there is no duplication in equipment, such as two auditoriums in schools across the street from each other, or two cooking rooms, etc. If, however, there is any objection to housing the 11 grades in one school, either one of the other plans can be carried out.

THE PURVIS SCHOOL.

There are 318 pupils, or 8 classes, in the Purvis school. This is a good building, clean and well lighted. There are 8 regular classrooms, but no special rooms or auditorium or gymnasium. There is a good-sized playground. If reorganized, however, on the workstudy-play plan, 4 of the rooms could be used as classrooms and the other 4 used as a drawing room, cooking room, nature study room, and shop. A portable auditorium, well made and completely equipped, could be obtained for $2,500, f. o. b., and a gymnasium, fully equipped, for the same price. The lot to the north of the school should be purchased for extra play space. The total cost would be as follows:

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THE RISLEY SCHOOL-COLORED.

There are 664 pupils in this school. The building is an old, bareframe structure of eight rooms. There is no equipment except oid worn desks and seats, which have been discarded by the white schools. On the basis of 40 pupils to a class, there are 17 classes, or 9 more classes than there are classrooms. The school is so crowded that it is on double session, one group coming in the morning at 8.30 and staying until 11.30; the other coming at 12 and staying until 3 p. m.

In other words, each child gets only three hours' schooling, and under great handicaps. For example, at the time of the investigation the teacher in the first grade was trying to teach 72 children in the morning and another group of 72 in the afternoon. And yet, in spite of the very great handicaps under which they are laboring, the teachers and principal are conducting the school in a spirit which deserves the highest praise. It is remarkable how clean and neat this old building is kept. In fact, the effort on the part of both children and teachers to make the best of a very bad proposition is pathetic. There is a very evident desire to build up a strong, progressive school. Such a spirit deserves not only commendation and encouragement but also the school accommodations and equipment. which will give the children and teachers the opportunity for growth that they desire. Obviously, the proposed allotment of $37.500 for this school would be utterly inadequate for the erection of a new, permanent building for the Negro children. It would accommodate a little over two classes on the traditional plan, or four on the workstudy-play plan, when, as a matter of fact, there are even now nine classes in excess of classrooms, not to mention the fact that there are no modern facilities for the children and that most of the rooms in the old building are unfit for use. The expenditure of $37,500 would hardly begin the construction of a permanent building for Negro children. It is obvious, however, that the present deplorable conditions in the Risley school must be relieved and modern facilities provided for the children. Therefore, pending the erection of a permanent building the following recommendations are made:

This school should be made into an 18-class school. This would provide for 720 pupils. There is only one room in the old building that is fit to use as a classroom, but at least five could be used for shops and other special activities. It is proposed, therefore, that in the old building one room be used for a classroom, one for a manualtraining shop, one for the printshop, one for a library, and one for a music room, or any other combination of special activities desired. The equipment for the two shops would be approximately $2,000. There is already a portable building for domestic science. It is further

proposed that a portable building of the modern type, which includes an auditorium, gymnasium, etc., be erected, to consist of the following units: Eight classrooms, $8,000; auditorium, $2,500; gymnasium, $2,500; nature-study room, $1,000; drawing, $1,000; total, $15,000. These units can be combined so as to make a whole building with a corridor in the center, heating plant, showers for boys and for girls, a store, toilets, etc. The whole building, together with the equipment for the special activities in the old building and repairs, would come to $25,000 approximately. It could be erected near the present building and still leave room for play space.

Total estimated cost of proposed building program for Brunswick.

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11. THE BOARD SHOULD ADOPT A COMPREHENSIVE BUILDING

PLAN FOR THE COUNTY SCHOOLS.

CONDITION OF BUILDINGS.

It will be necessary for the school board to adopt a comprehensive building program for the county in order that the present and future needs for school housing may be met. If the attendance law were enforced and all the children of school age were enrolled in school, there would be neither buildings nor desks to accommodate them. There are no buildings for white children suitable for school purposes, except those at Community and Brookman, and these will need some changes and additions. For colored children the county has made even less provision. With some repairing, provision for proper lighting and heating, and the addition of toilets and pure water, the schools at Sterling, Clayhole, and Pennick can be made habitable. All others at present in use should be abandoned. Fortunately many of these do not belong to the county, so the loss will be negligible. With the exception of the buildings named above those now in use are insanitary, uncomfortable, and inconvenient. In all of them cross-lighting or insufficient lighting or both endanger the eyes of the children. On cold days they huddle about the stove on benches, unable to use their desks or properly prepare lessons or participate in recitations. Without exception the stoves are unsightly, rusty, with pipes and chimneys in bad condition. Most of the stoves are placed on bricks or in boxes filled with dirt, old papers, and the like. Fuel is generally supplied by the children themselves, who bring it from the woods near by. The community school is the only one provided with

pure running water and drinking fountains, and there is no provision for washing hands in any school. Only three white schools and one Negro school are equipped with sanitary toilets. None of the schools have oiled floors and no provision is made for proper sweeping. In the rural schools the children do the sweeping at noon and at recess. returning immediately to breathe the dust stirred up thereby. Any disease which happens to break out among any of the children is almost necessarily communicated to the others.

The schools throughout the county are without teaching equipment. At least one white school and five colored schools have no teacher's desk or chair. With the exception of two schools there are no globes, maps, or illustrative material. The classrooms are not equipped with blackboards of a kind or quantity sufficient to be of practical use. In several schools, both white and colored, there are no usable blackboards at all. A few yards of black cloth or a few feet of painted boards do not serve the purpose for which blackboards are intended.

The need for buildings is immediate, but the carrying out of complete plans may extend over a period of years. Not only should the minimum needs of comfort, sanitation, and convenience be provided, but the buildings used should be a lesson to the community in artistic housing. Buildings may be attractive without additional expense. Care and thought in planning them are all that is necessary. In this connection it is recommended that a committee of the board visit. the schools maintained by the Tennessee Coal & Iron Co., near Birmingham, Ala. These schoola are splendid examples of good taste and practical efficiency in arrangement and cost. They provide auditoriums, playground facilities, home economies, school gardens, supply closets, and the like, in addition to the provisions ordinarily considered necessary in school buildings.

Fortunately at this time the county is in financial position to make such plans as are contemplated herewith. In formulating a building scheme, however, the board must not fall into the error of multiplying the number of small schools. Unless the consolidation of schools and the transportation of pupils at public expense are entirely out of the question, no one-teacher schools should be retained or new ones erected. This recommendation is in line with the best modern practice. A few reasons for consolidating schools even when substantial buildings must be abandoned to do so are given below:

ADVANTAGES OF CONSOLIDATION.

1. The school plant, experimental plots, auditoriums, buildings for country training and home economics, room for playgrounds, and teachers' homes can be furnished to country children in consolidated schools but can not be supplied to one-teacher buildings.

2. The consolidated school is the only one in which a modern course of study can be offered to rural children. When the responsibility for teaching all the elementary grades falls upon one teacher, only the elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic can be taught, and even under such circumstances the teacher's time must be divided among too many subjects and classes. Schools preparing for rural life should include among the subjects taught agriculture, farm and shop work, home economics, physical education, music and the like. Teachers prepared to present these special subjects and modern facilities are necessary. It is apparent they can be supplied economically only through consolidating small schools.

3. Professional supervision can be secured only through consolidation. The difficulty of organizing and preparing courses in oneteacher schools makes supervision of greater importance in the country than in the city, but it is practically impossible for supervisors to direct the work of teachers when the latter are separated by long distances.

4. Teachers in small schools in the county are hearing from 20 to 36 recitations per day. That means that each recitation is from 5 to 15 minutes in length. Children in the primary and first grades have the attention of the teacher from 30 to 60 minutes during the school day-children in the upper grades only little more. The teachers must hurry from recitations in arithmetic or geography to those in reading or history. They have no time to give to thoughtful preparation, careful assignment, or supervised study. The children are left to their own resources during the greater part of the school day without direction or individual attention. Under these conditions the recitation becomes a mere repetition of the textbook.

5. Indifferent organization, inadequate supervision, and poor methods of teaching are reflected in the school attendance. Children need the inspiration which comes from numbers associated together and the incentive of competition in order to attend regularly and work well. Where consolidation has been tried out it has invariably resulted in increased enrollment and better attendance.

6. Unless schools are consolidated it is not possible to build cottages and provide satisfactory living conditions for the teachers. This results in securing only untrained and inexperienced persons.

7. State superintendents, county superintendents, farmers, and business men testify to the fact that land values increase in the vicinity of consolidated schools. It is also true that better and more progressive farmers are attracted to commuities in which the superior advantages furnished in consolidated schools are available for their children.

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