NEGenWeb Project
Resource Center
Schools


668

STATE SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT

the last half of the last year, pupils may largely fit themselves for college entrance before they take up their normal training work.

A. H. WATERHOUSE.   
Superintendent.     

FULLERTON.

     The Fullerton public schools have during the past five years been holding their own as to school census, but as to average daily attendance, however, a decided growth has been made. It is to be noted, also, that the most rapid growth has been made in the high school department, due largely to the fact that so many of Nance county's boys and girls are taking advantage of the free high school law.

     The school grounds contain one entire block, and a new $33,000 grade building is now under process of construction. This building has ten school rooms, a library, an office, a supply room, and a gymnasium 36x70 feet, at either end of which are large locker rooms, toilets and baths. Each room will seat about forty-five pupils, and is lighted from one side only. The building is provided with the vacuum system of steam heating.

     In the fall of 1908 the board of education added normal training to the course of study, which has proven very popular with the high school students. In 1909-10 there were thirty-six who enrolled for this work, of whom twelve were seniors, every one of whom are now teaching in the rural schools of Nance county.

     But one course besides that of normal training is offered to high school students, which is preparatory to the state university. The equipment as to apparatus and reference books for both these courses is very good, with a liberal school board which Is determined to make it one of the best in the state by judiciously adding to it a little more each year.

CURRY W. WATSON,     
Superintendent.     

GENEVA.

     There has been a steady growth in the Geneva schools each year. The enrollment for the year 1909-10 was larger than any preceding year, amounting to 586. And the year just begun promises to bring tip the enrollment close to the 600 mark. In the past three years there has been added to the teaching corps one teacher in the grades, two in the high school, a music teacher and the domestic science teacher.

     There has been a marked increase in the enrollment of the high school since the twelfth grade and normal training were added. The enrollment for 1909-10 was 156, which is much larger than ever before.

     There are forty-two non-resident students in attendance this year who have free high school certificates.


CITY SCHOOLS

669

     The buildings and grounds are well kept and the play grounds have received special attention the past year, there being placed on the boys' grounds turning poles and a tennis court, for the girls' swings and sand piles. Sanitary drinking fountains were placed on the first and second floors last summer and are proving very satisfactory.

     There is a library in the rear of the assembly room for the students immediate use. They also have access to the city library, which is directly across the street.

     The course of study is much the same as is given in the high school manual, practically the only difference being the completion of algebra before taking up geometry.

     Domestic science, domestic art and manual training are rapidly growing each year, as is shown by the crowded condition of the classes. This work seems to appeal to the parents as well as the pupils.

     The normal training department has been very popular since its very beginning. There are thirty-three in this course this year. A school journal is being published each month by the students, which takes up the important things that are done in the school and keeps those posted who never visit the schools.

     Athletics look brighter this season and the boys are beginning their practice for basketball with great enthusiasm. The girls are greatly interested in their gymnasium exercises.

     The plan for the teachers' meetings this year is to have the medical inspector give a short talk on the sanitary conditions of the rooms and information that will be valuable for the teacher in her work and two teachers visit each month some good school for two days and give a complete description of same. These meetings are held once a month.

R. W. EATON,         
Superintendent.     

GENOA.

     In 1907 Genoa was only an eleven-graded school with seven teachers, with two in the high school. In 1910 Genoa had nine teachers, with four in the high school. We are now a fully accredited twelve-graded school, doing the normal training work successfully. We now offer four years of Latin, two of German, one of physics, one of chemistry, two of European history, one of United States history, seven semesters of mathematics and seven of English. Our gradates (sic) earn from twenty-four to thirty-two credit points, upon graduation. The normal training graduates get a second grade teachers' certificate in addition to their university credits.

     Genoa has now a small floating indebtedness of less than $1,000 Seven years ago, with two saloons, she had over $6,000 standing out. She voted out the saloons, added a new grade and more teachers, bought more supplies and equipment and made many improvements


670

STATE SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT

on the grounds and buildings. In face of all these added expenditures she was able to nearly wipe out her indebtedness. This is another refutation that saloon money is needed to carry on the public schools.

     The present school census numbers 363, enrollment 350 and attendance of 275. Our high school enrolls nearly 100, with about thirty free high school pupils..

     Normal training has proven very popular. None but the very best students of the junior and senior class elect to carry it. Over twenty graduates of the normal training course have been teaching successfully in the county, earning from $40 to $50 per month. The patrons are very well pleased with this practical turn in making quick use of an education.

CHAS. M. SUTHERLAND,    
Superintendent.     

GRAND ISLAND.

     Previous to 1882-3 the Grand Island schools were an aggregation of schools rather than a system. There wag no organization or course of study. The school population was 1,074, of whom 612 were enrolled during 1882-3, with an average attendance of 512, with a teaching force of nine. There were seventy-one pupils enrolled in the high school under one teacher besides the superintendent, with an average attendance of thirty-nine.

     In the fall of 1882 the schools were organized and the first course of study formulated and adopted, that for the high school consisting of an English and a Latin course, and the first class graduated in June, 1883.

     There were at that time an eight-room building, the Dodge, a small wooden building and two rented rooms used for school purposes.

     The growth of the schools has been steady and not phenomenal in any way at any time. At present there are seven buildings, five brick and two frame, including the new high school, a fine twenty-room building of splendid appointments, built and equipped in 1906-7, at a cost of $70,000. Five of the buildings are steam heated and lighted with electricity. All have ample grounds, three of them standing on full city blocks. The census of 1909-10 showed a school population of 2,655, of whom 2,043 were enrolled in the schools with an average number belonging of 1,643, and an average daily attendance of 1,559. The enrollment would have been much larger but for the fact that there are five parochial and private schools in the city.

      The number of teachers employed during 1909-10, including the superintendent, was forty-nine, of whom ten were employed in the high school. The number enrolled in the high school during 1909-10 was 276. Of this number twenty-five were enrolled under the free high school law.

     The course of study below the high school is that of the common schools, including in addition music and two years of German,


CITY SCHOOLS

671

the latter being optional, and covers nine grades. It is the aim of these schools to give the pupils the broadest opportunities possible for preparation for life and with that end in view the high school has six four-year courses of study:' English, German, Latin, college preparatory, normal and business.

     A course in normal training has been maintained each year since the law providing for that work went into effect. During the year 1909-10 seven seniors and fifteen juniors were enrolled in the course. Of the seven seniors who graduated, all, I think, are doing excellent work in the country schools.

     The high school library consists of 1,025 volumes, not including any texts, and contains reference works for all of the departments.

     In connection with the high school three literary societies, the Abbottonians, the Barrinians, the Dodonians and a Young Woman's Christian association, have been maintained much to their benefit and profit.

R. J. BARR,            
Superintendent.     

GREELEY.

     In the fall term of 1907, the Greeley school consisted of one brick four-room building containing about ninety pupils, one one-room frame building in which were lodged about eighty pupils, one poorly equipped room in one of the old store buildings, in which forty-five pupils took up their daily work. The superintendent's office was a room in one of the store buildings in the main part of the town about five blocks from the school. The total number of pupils in the high school numbered twenty-nine.

     During the year this school district erected a $16,000 building and the next year the pupils were more conveniently housed. The eleventh grade had been given extra work the previous year so that in the fall term of 1908 the students were able to take up a strong twelfth grade course. During this year the school work was improved until the Greeley school was qualified to be placed upon the four-year accredited list. A library and physical laboratory were added and the high school literary society purchased a $375 plane, paying for it during the next two years with money raised by giving musical enterfainments, school plays and box suppers. Three teachers were added to the faculty and the school was tentatively approved as a normal training high school.

     The school grounds were improved by adding trees and planting blue grass se that new the Greeley school will equal in appearance that of the average high school of the state. During the school year 1909-10 the average daily attendance of the high school was sixty, and the entire enrollment of the school was 300. The non-resident tuition collected amounted to about $600.

M. W. RYAN,          
Superintendent.     


672

STATE SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT

HARTINGTON.

     The Hartington schools have just closed a very satisfactory year's work with an enrollment of 326 and an average daily attendance of 229, a high school enrollment of sixty-one, with fourteen nonresidents attending under the free attendance law. These figures, while they do not reach those of 1908-09, when the enrollment swelled to 366, still show an increase over all preceding years.

     In comparing the enrollment with the school census of the district, which now reaches 545, it is to be remembered that the town also supports a parochial school which enrolled 204 pupils during the past year.

     The graduating class of 1910 consisted of twelve members, nine of whom are preparing to teach. Normal training was introduced during the past year with a class consisting of eleven young ladies, including nine seniors.

     In point of building and equipment the school stands above the average.

     There is, besides two buildings, standing outside the corporate limits, a main building containing seven class rooms, an assembly room, a physical and chemical laboratory and a library. This building is of brick with stone to first floor and was erected in 1896, after the old building had been destroyed by fire. It is steam heated, well ventilated and appropriately furnished.

     The high school library is furnished with sectional cases and consists of about 1,000 volumes, most of which have been procured during the past four years. It is classified according to the Dewey decimal system and furnished with complete card catalog and charging system.

      While the present building is satisfactory it is now taxed to its capacity, and at the last annual meeting the board was authorized to secure a block of ground adjoining the present site at an approximate cost of $3,000, as a site for a new high school building, which the district hopes to erect in the near future; the grounds meanwhile to be used as an athletic field and children's playground.

     The school maintains a literary society and an athletic club; the former gives bi-weekly programs. Both organizations are largely under faculty control and are represented annually in N. E. N. Declamatory association and in the N. E. N. Athletic league, Considerable interest is manifested in both organizations.

     While some opportunity is given for industrial training in the subject of agriculture and while some manual work is given regularly in the lower grades, the subject of industrial education, as a whole, awaits future development, but the generous support always given the school by the community leaves little doubt that ample provision will be made for this phase of education as soon as more room is available.

W. M. FINEGAN.       
Superintendent.     


CITY SCHOOLS

673

HARVARD.

     The growth of the Harvard schools in the last five years as I have known them has been mainly in the high school department. In 1905-6 we enrolled sixty-five, in 1909-10 we enrolled eighty-one. This increase is due mainly to the fact that in the meantime the twelfth grade work was added to the high school course.

     In the year 1909 the school census was 586, the enrollment of the Harvard schools 491, and the average daily attendance 393.

     We have been able to enforce the compulsory education law with very satisfactory results in the schools of our city. It has been an aid and incentive which has in several instances brought good results. In our five rural schools the law has been much more difficult in enforcement, and has not always furnished the desired results.

     The free high school attendance law has been very pleasing to us as a high school. Last year we had sixteen in our high school as a result of this law's possibilities. This is more by ten than we usually had before its passage.

     We have five small school houses in the country and one large central building in Harvard. Every room in the district is well lighted, comfortable, neat and thoroughly equipped. Our school board is generous and progressive, desiring that we have and purchase everything needed for the betterment of the school and the teaching facilities We have maps, globes, charts, slate blackboards, reference texts, dictionaries and encyclopedias, plentiful to the needed extent. We furnish the pupils with ink, pens, penholders, pencils, tablets, drawing paper, crayola, water color paints and text books without any charge whatever. In our central building we use for heating and ventilating the Smead system.

     Our school library numbers 669 of carefully selected volumes.

     Ever since the normal training high school law went into effect Harvard high school has maintained a normal training class. Many of the members of these classes are now regular teachers of Clay county.

     The Harvard high school is proud of the following high school organizations: Boys' Debating society, Girls' Literary society, Boys' Double Quartet, Girls' Glee club, Boys' Athletic association, Harvard High School Orchestra and Harvard School Band. All of these organizations aid wonderfully in maintaining that excellent school spirit of which the Harvard citizens are so proud.

R. V. CLARK,          
Superintendent.     

HASTINGS.

     The growth of the public schools of Hastings during the past few years has been somewhat irregular as the following summary will show. Since 1901-2 the high school has increased more than 120 per cent, while there has been a slight increase only in the grades. The free attendance high school law has, no doubt, had much to do with


674

STATE SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT

the increased number of students in the secondary school. During the year 1909-10 seventy-one non-resident students were enrolled in the Hastings high school.

     The census taken in June, 1909, shows a total of 2,657 children between 5 and 21 years of age. The enrollment for 1909-10 was 2,187 in all grades and the average daily attendance was 1,715.

     Industrial work has been carried on by the Hastings schools for some years. Within the past two years the plan has been somewhat modified and at present two teachers are employed in domestic science and two in shop work. Both of these departments are full with a considerable number on the waiting list. In domestic science the registration for the year 1910-11 was almost 50 per cent larger than could be accommodated. In both shop and domestic science the students spend one-fourth of their time in the work and they receive credit equal in amount to that given in any other study. In both subjects the work is made as practical as possible. In the shop the boys work on articles of use for the school or for themselves.

     Two years ago a system of permanent record cards was put into use through the schools. Two cards, one for the high school student and one for the grade pupil, give the complete school history of the child. By means of these cards very much information of statistical value accumulates and is made convenient for use. Retardation, relation of attendance and promotion and intellectual progress as indicated by per cents are shown in tabulated form and may be studied to advantage.

     Some attempt has also been made to give in tabulated form figures to show how the money of the district is spent and what is received for it. The table showing "Consumption of Fuel" gives the number of tons, total cost, cost per thousand cubic feet, kind of heat and ventilation in each building. A comparison of expenditures and results may easily be made from data given and these comparisons are of great value in checking needless expenditures for fuel. In one of our ward schools this year the janitor used eighty-seven tons of coal as compared with fifty-eight used last year. That this was a needless increase is shown by the fact that in four other schools there was a decrease in the amount of coal used and in only one was there a slight increase. Showing Consumption of Fuel, 1909-1910.

Cost Per

-Kind of-

1,000

School

Heat

Vent

No. Tons

Total Cost.

Cubic Ft

High

Ind. Steam

Fan

176.76

$748.58

$2.441

North.

Dir. Steam

Grav.

86.05

364.42

2.272

East

Dir. Steam

Grav.

66.16

280.19

2.51

West

Dir. Steam

Grav.

87.13

369.00

3.024


PLAINVIEW PUBLIC SCHOOL. Erected 1909.

PAPILLION PUBLIC SCHOOL


Prior Page
Table of Contents
General Index
Next Page

© 2003 for the NEGenWeb Project by Ted & Carole Miller