ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY New York State Colleges OF Agriculture and Home Economics AT Cornell University Cornell University Library LA 238.M33 Report of the school survey made in Mari 3 1924 013 059 815 REPORT OF THE SCHOOL SURVEY MADE IN Maricopa County Arizona BY THE COUNTY TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION AND THE ARIZONA STATE TAX-PAYERS' ASSOCIATION REPUBLICAN »^^^pp PRINT SHOP PHOENfX. ARIZ. REPORT OF SCHOOL SURVEY, MARICOPA COUNTY, ARIZONA CREATION OF COMMITTEE At the beginning- of last year, the Maricopa County Teachers' Associa- tiorr appointed a committee to survey the schools of the county. During the school year ending June SO, 1916, this committee visited almost every school of the county. One or two schools were deemed too Inaccessible. All possi- ble information was obtained from these by correspondence. With these ex- ceptions all schools were visited by two or more members of the committee, and enough time was taken to determine accurately the condition in the various districts. In order to find out about the finances of the various dis- tricts, all vouchers from all districts for the past three years were segre- gated and tabulated. The following report is a brief resume of the findings of the committee with some suggestions as to possible means of bettering the schools of Mari- copa County. HYGIENIC CONDITIONS The committee found unhygienic conditions existing in many schools of the county. Some of those conditions are due to poor construction of build- ings, some to poor upkeep, some to poor equipment, and some to failure to make the best use of buildings and equipment at hand. Too little attention has been paid to providing a comfortable and hygienic working condition for school children, and in most cases the condition could be Improved by a little care and expense. Many class rooms are too small, the wrong shape, and overcrowded. Proper attention is not paid to lighting, heating, and ventila- tion. Cross lights are common. The blackboards in many classrooms are so poor or so poorly kept that there must always be undue eyestrain. The janitor work Is in many cases poorly done. Poor washing facilities are the general thing in smaller schools, and frequent in the larger, better equipped schools. A large percentage of classrooms are not provided with adjustable seats, and children over or undersized for their grades are sitting in seats which force them into uncomfortable and injurious positions. Cloakrooms are often poorly located and poorly kept. Some schools have none. SCHOOL BUILDINGS School buildings of the county range all the way from good to very poor in the above respects, but in practically all some improvements could be made. In the newer school houses more attention has been paid to proper hygienic conditions, but there still seems to be a tendency to plan school buildings in a haphazard manner or too much for the outward appearance. The standard classroom should be the fundamental thing in the construction of a school building, and school architecture should be made to conform to that. It would probably be advisable to have all plans passed upon by some cen- tral authority before buildings are constructed. The same central authority might be given power to suggest and require improvements in the buildings already in use. Accepted authorities are agreed upon many of the above points and some standard should be worked toward by all schools. Classrooms should be oblong in shape, about 24 feet by 32 feet by 13 feet. The rows of seats should be lengthwise of the room. This will place the class in the best position with reference to the teacher, and will prevent foreshorten- ing of work placed by the teacher on the front board. —2— The lighting should be from the left only and the glazing (glass area) should not be less than one-fifth the floor space. Wide spaces between win- dows should be avoided as they cause cross lights. Nothing but opaque shades should be used and these should be adjusted from the bottom, so that as much light as possible may come from above. For the same reason windows should run well up toward the ceiling. If there are windows on the right, they should be completely shaded. Rooms to be light and cheery should be light in color, preferably tan or buff. Walls should have dull finish. Smooth plaster and gloss paint should be avoided. Blackboards should be black and kept clean. Otherwise chalk marks on them are indistinct and eyestrain results. Only dustless crayon should be used as chalk dust is injurious to the lungs. For the same reason erasers should be cleaned once a day out-of-doors. HEATING AND VENTILATING During a large part of the school year in the Salt River Valley, heating and ventilating is not a problem, as school may be held with all windows open, but for that very reason too little preparation is made for the time when artificial heat is necessary. Schoolrooms heated by a common stove, should have that stove jacketed, with a supply of fresh air introduced into the jacket directly from out-of-doors. A vent for foul air should be provided near the floor, either into the flue or directly to the outside. A thermometer should be kept in each room and the temperature kept not less than 60° or more than 70° The teacher should not trust to his judgment in regulating the temper- ature of the room. SANITATION If running water is not available and pupils must wash at the pump, all waste water should be drained away to a cesspool, to the garden or to some other spot where it cannot collect in a pool or mudhole. Individual cloth towels or paper towels should be provided. Paper towels are preferable. Common drinking cups should not be allowed. A sanitary drinking fountain or paper cups should be provided. Rooms should be swept with a. brush broom, and some disinfectant sweep- ing compound should be used on all floors. Furniture, moldings, and other woodwork should be wiped with a moist cloth, preferably moistened with some disinfecting solution. Feather dusters should not be used. All classrooms should be equipped with adjustable seats, or contain at least enough adjustable seats that all pupils may be seated in seats that fit. Care should be taken that the pupils are so properly seated. Cloak rooms should be large enough and with sufficient hooks that each pupil may hang up his hat and wraps, which should be hung up to dry and air. These rooms should be well enough ventilated and lighted that wraps will dry and freshen. School supplies such as pencils, books, etc., should not be used in common. Diseases are spread in this way. School yards should be kept clean. Covered metal receptacles should be provided for refuse from lunches, etc. This refuse should be burned daily. All school yards should be provided with shade trees where there is water enough to make that possible. Horses should be tied as far as possible from the school building. A screened manure pit should be provided, and all stables or hitching racks should be cleaned and the manure placed in the pit at least once a week to prevent breeding of flies. Sanitary water-flushed toilets should be provided where possible. Many of the rural schools cannot have these, as they have no adequate water system. If a pit toilet is used, the pit should be dark and tight so that flies cannot enter and breed. The stools should have tight, hinged covers for the same —3— reason. Quick-liirie or wood ashes should be provided and sifted iiito the pit da,ily. All toilets should be properly screened and cleaned as carefully ^s the school rooms. . • ,. v„ , Tiie committee found the janitor worlt to be poorly done in many cases. Frequently one of the school children is hired to do the work, for a sma,ll sum. The classroo^ns are swept, but no other work is done, pftep the work is poorly done when the pay is adequate. . A , janitor's work should incjud^ many things besides, the sweeping of the class rooms. It_ should be a .janitor's duty to keep the entire school plant and grounds in good condition at all times. We recommend that each school board hire their janitors by written contract similar to the one attached: JANITOR'S CONTRACT I hereby agree to accept the position oif janitor of the. School District No. . Co., State of Arizona. In acceptance of said position, for the sum of ( ) dollars per month for nine (9) months, thirty days each, and ( ) dollars per month for the three summer months. I agree to perform the following duties to the best of my ability. Sweep the building once a dAy. Clean the futniture and woodwork once per day in sanitary manner, as directed by Board. Sweeping and dusting must be done by 8:45 A. M. Wash the blackboards once per week. Clean the erasers thoroughly at least twice per week, doing this work outside the build- ing. Wash the windows at least twice per school year. Keep the outbuildings and toilets perfectly clean at all times. Have buildings lighted and in good shape for entertainments by the school when required. Keep the "grounds clean and free from weeds, and all refuse at all times. Irrigate trees ahd plants as often as hecessaJry. Fumigate books and buildings at any , time demanded by Board of School Trustees. Have the fires built and rooms warm one-half hour before school opens in the morning. And perform such other duties relating to keeping scTiools, grounds and biiildings in condition, as directed by School Board or teacher in charge. If at any time I neglect to perform my duties as agreed to, I shall forfeit my contract. Janitor. Trustees of School District No. FINANCE The committee, surveying the finances of the schools, endeavored to check up the expenditures of each district in the county and ascertain as to each school what the cost per capita was for administration, teaching, janitor, supplies, fuel, light, power, equipment, insurance and census. They also tried to determine what each special department such as domestic science, manual training commercial, agriculture, etc., cost per pupil served during the year 1913, 1914 and 1915. With three exceptions, they found that not a district in the county had kept a record that would enable any one to even approximate what the relative cost of the different items was nor what the cost per pupil was. The only other source of information was to take the vouchers issued by the several districts for the three years and try to segregate them so as to ascertain for what purpose the money was expended. After weeks of labor the districts were each so checked, but at best the results were very unsatis- factory to the committee as the vouchers were so drawn in many cases as lo Show little or nothing as to what was received for the money expended. After months of the most painstaking and careful investigation the com- mittee unanimously agreed that in their judgment not a cent of money had been dishonestly spent or appropriated but that in many cases it was not wisely spent and beg to submit the following recommendations for the safe- guarding and saving of the school fund. INTEREST We found that practically every district in the county was paying interest at from eight to twelve per cent about nine months in the year on vouchers for which there, was no money in the county school fund. This item of interest was often covered up, for it had been paid by increasing the amount of the voucher so as to pay not only the charge against the district but also the interest or discount the bank would charge for cashing the same. Some districts had paid the interest by issuing a voucher direct to the bank and marking it interest. This extra expenditure, for which the school received nothing, ranged all the way from a few dollars up to two or three) thousand dollars per district and amounts to several thousand dollars per year for the county. At the same time that the districts were paying interest there was often in the state school fund thousands of dollars unappropriated and the same condition prevailed in the county treasury. Thus it is self evident that the taxpayer was paying interest to the banks for money which he had already paid as taxes and which the banks had and which the county and state authorities had failed to apportion to the school districts. We would, therefore, recommend that all money in the state school fund and all money in the county treasurer's hands belonging to the school fund be apportioned to the districts on the first of each month and that the time for taxes going delin- quent be changed from the first Monday in November and April to the first Monday in October and March. This would save the county thousands of dollars per year which they are now paying as Interest. BUILDING FUND We found that several districts had built school buildings and paid for them out of county funds. They did this by having some lumber company or contractor erect the building and get his pay in the form of rent. For a two thousand dollar building the district would pay two hundred dollars or more per month as rent, until the building was paid for including interest on the deferred payments. This we believe to be both illegal and a waste of money. It is illegal because the law provides that each district shall pay Cor its own school building. Deprives taxpayers of benefit of competitive bidding on con- tract for a building. By paying for it in the form of rent, the building is purchased out of the county school fund. Thus the district which builds its own building may be compelled to pay not only for its own but a portion of the other fellow's building. This method of building is also a waste of money because no contractor will, erect -a building as cheaply and take his payment in monthly Installments as he would if he received his money when the work was finished. We would therefore recommend that the practice be discon- tinued and if necessary, that legislation be enacted to absolutely prohibit the same. ATTORNEY FEES We found that several vouchers for relatively large amounts had been drawn in favor of attorneys. Investigation showed that some districts were in the habit of paying exorbitant fees to attorneys for advice in drawing teachers' contracts and in issuing bonds. In some cases these fees were five per cent of the bond issue thus wasting fifty dollars out of every thousand raised for the purpose of erecting a school building. This expenditure is also illegal and a gross waste of public school money. It is illegal, for the school law provides —5— that the county attorney shall be the counsel for the school trustees and shall receive no extra fees for the same. It surely was money wasted, for other districts drew, teachers' contracts and issued bonds for large amounts without paying a cent for legal advice. "We would therefore recommend that the county superintendent issue no warrants for attorney fees, but refer all school trustees to the county attorney for any legal advice they may need. SCHOOL CENSUS We found that the county is spending annually about two thousand dollars for taking the school census. The returns from this census serve no purpose except as the basis for apportioning the state school fund. This apportion- ment could be just as equitably made on the basis of the average daily at- tendance of pupils. Not only is Maricopa County spending this money but every county in the state is doing the same and thus wasting from fifteen to twenty thousand dollars annually and getting nothing in return. Inasmuch as the school law compels the trustees to have this census taken, we would recommend that the association try to get legislation that will eliminate the taking of the school census. SCHOOL SUPPLIES One of the most extravagant wastes that the committee found was in the purchase of school supplies. This was caused in two ways. First, trustees have allowed agents to sell them useless apparatus at exorbitant prices. We found several tellurians rusting in the closets (where they should be) which had cost from $35 up, useless Visagraphs in the same condition, together with charts of all descriptions. Second, trustees often in buying useful and neces- sary supplies have allowed agents and school supply houses to sell them goods at several times their value. Globes that should cost $10 were purchased at $25 and $30; maps worth fifteen, at seventy-five and one hundred dollars; seats worth three to four dollars at seven to eight dollars; erasers, chalk, paper, etc., at the same ratio. We would recommend that all trustees before buying any supplies and equipment consult with the county superintendent as to the need therefor and real market price of the same. ACCOUNTING SYSTEM But the greatest need that the committee found was some form of an ac- counting system to be used in every district. At the present time, with two or three exceptions, there is none being used which is worthy of the name. We be- lieve every taxpayer has a right at any time to find out what each department of education is costing not only per school but per capita for the students bene- fiting by the same. He also has the right to know how the cost of the depart- ment in different schools compare. This is true of grammar schools, high schools, normal schools and colleges. The committee tried to ascertain these facts for the grammar schools and high schools of the county, but after weeks of checking and inquiry were obliged to admit that with the exception of one high school and two grammar schools it was impossible to tell anything about what the money was spent for. We found several vouchers drawn similar to the following: The County Treasurer will pay to the order of the Bank the sum of $12,000 and charge to the ac- count of School District Number Clerk. President. Who could tell what the money was spent for? There were no entries in any book either at the county superintendent's office or which the trustees had, to show for what the money was spent. The voucher contained no information which would help in the least. We would therefore recommend that this asso- ciation try to get legislation compelling trustees to issue itemized vouchers —6— only, to prohibit the county school superintendent from honoring any voucher that was not 'itemized in detail. We would also recommend that legislation be secured requiring trustees of the several districts and the county school superintendent to each keep a set of accounts similar to the one devised by Mr. C. P. Lee for the State Taxpayers' Association. TEXT BOOKS Another great waste of school money is caused by the crude system that the state has for the distribution of books. When a school wants books, it sends an order to the county school superintendent, who in turn and after the usual lapse of time, sends the order to the State Superintendent of Public In- struction, from where, after due deliberation and much consideration, it is sent to the business firm which handles the books for the state and if they haven't them in stock, the order is sent to the publishers in Chicago, New York, Boston or some other eastern city and the books are then started on their return trip or circuit. It thus takes from two weeks to as much as three months to get an order filled. The result is that practically every school in the county from the smallest to the largest has become a repository. They have had to do this in self defense tot if they had no extra books and a new scholar should come he might be without tools with which to work until some time the following year. We found that the money thus tied up in idle books often from which the wrappers had not been removed, and which had been paid for out of the state school fund, ran ail the way from $50 per school to $2000 or more. This could easily be corrected if the ones in charge would follow the intent of the law and deal directly with the actual publishers of the books and insist on their keeping a small stock of books with each county superintendent and allow no school to requisition more books than it actually needed and used. This waste became all the more flagrant when we noticed what had hap- pened when the text was changed in arithmetic. All of the copies of the text that had been in the schools,. whether used or not, were simply piled in boxes and stored in closets, basements, etc., and, if ever any credit had been secured by the state for the same, no record of such could be found. The text books in drawing were also found to be practically a dead loss. In most schools they were stored in closets and boxes, covered with dust or discarded after having one or two leaves used. Even in the larger schools which make much of the study, under good supervision, the books were serving little or no purpose. We also found that the state was paying from six to ten per cent of the wholesale price of the books to a business firm for handling the business while at the same time the state had adequate facilities for handling the books with- out any extra expense. From a few scattering reports from outside counties we would judge that the text book waste is as great or greater than in Maricopa county. Thus it takes no microscope to see that many thousands of dollars of Arizona money are annually being spent, due to poor management, with no returns whatever. We would therefore recommend that the free text book law be so worded that it will require the state to buy the books directly from the firm publishing them. This undoubtedly was the original intent of the law, but it says "a publisher" when it should say "the publisher," and the attorney general has ruled that any one who publishes books may act as a middleman for the actual publishers and thus be in a position to get the contract for the school text books. We would also recommend that the County School Superintendent's office be a repository for the books to be used in the county. COUNTY UNIT Maricopa County contains fifty -one common school districts and four union high school districts. The common school districts are managed by three trustees elected by the people for a term of three years, and- the union high schools by a board of five members elected by the people for a. term of five —7— years. lu other words, there are one hundred seventy-three persons transacting the school business of the county. These boards have almost absolute powel in conducting the affairs of their schools. In fact, no authority outside of thi district possesses more than advisory power in the management of the school, i In many instances teachers are selected without regard to the needs of thd school. The constant changing of teachers Is also a menace to efficiencyj From forty to sixty per cent of the teachers in the rural districts are nev each year. Unequal educational opportunities exist. Equal opportunity means equal material equipment. Does it exist? It means equal supervision; supervigiorf now varies from^ a couple of visitations of the County School Superintendent td the closest daily sympathetic supervision of the expert supervisor. It meana equal teaching ability; this now ranges from absolute incompetence to thq highest and most skilful professional proficiency. , The financial burden of the small district is too great for it to add prac-j tical subjects to its curriculum. A few districts have taken steps to remedjJ some of the evils of our present system. Some twelve or fourteen have assoJ ciated themselves for manual training and domestic science and many mord have co-operated through the Trustees' Organization for purchasing suppliesl Co-operative buying has been practiced for three years at a great saying to th^ county. The steps thus far taken along the lines of centralization speak for thd efficiency and the economical side of such a system. The district system waa the original system for all the states. As population increases it is gradualls^ passing away and is now found in only three states east of the Mississippi river. The most common defects of the district system are the following: Improper selection of teachers. Too frequent change of teachers. . Unequal educational opportunity. Inefficiency. Not economical. Not enough practical subjects to hold children in school. Little or no supervision. Poor buildings, improper ventilation and lighting, and unsanitar conditions. With the district system there may be efficient schools but there can nevel be an efficient system of schools. Therefore this committee' wislies to recoml mend to the people of Maricopa County a strong, centralized county unit sys| tern for its schools. In order to further this work, keep in touch with the work and problems county schools, and help in the improvement of these schools, we recommenJ that a committee be appointed by the County Association each year to conl tinue some plan of this survey. The work to be undertaken by the committel thus appointed can be determined either by its own besjt judgment, or th| teachers of the county can definitely fix the work from year to year. JOHN D. liOPBR, Chairman, I. D. PAYNE, Secretary, SAl^A WHITFIELD, C. "w. RANDALL, A. J. MATTHEWS, J. A. RIGGINS, J. W. KING, L. O. DuROSS, ALICE HEIM, G. C. SHERWOOD, MERTON RICE, Committee from Maricopa County Teachers' Association, Assisted by the Aril zona State Tax Association. — J8- Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013059815