CHAPTER VII

A VISIT TO A CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL

PRELIMINARY PROBLEMS

1. "Get yourself ready" for a delightful visit with Mrs. Cook, of the United States Bureau of Education, to a progressive consolidated school in the West and secure also a bird's-eye view and the concrete detail necessary for a close study of many aspects of the consolidated school in succeeding chapters.

2. If possible, visit a consolidated school within your reach.

I. LOCATION AND HISTORY

After the preceding discussions of the practical problem and the social and administrative setting of the consolidated rural school, the reader will be interested to visit with us such a school.

The "crossroads" village of La Porte, Colorado, contains a blacksmith-shop, post-office, and store combined, and a few houses, and is located about three miles north and west of the city of Fort Collins, the seat of the Colorado State College of Agriculture. The village does not present a dignified appearance from an architectural standpoint, although it has a distinguished history, for at one time it aspired to be the capital of the State, an honor which it lost by but one vote to the neighboring city of Golden; and it was for some years the county-seat of Larimer County. While the village itself, judging from its present appearance, has degenerated somewhat from those illustrious days, the surrounding country has not suffered a similar experi

It is one of the most productive sections of northern Colorado. Orchards line the roadways and apple-laden hay-racks pass the visitor on the way; small fruits, sugarbeets, alfalfa, and grain are raised in abundance, and stock

and dairy products help to make a thrifty and prosperous community.

Near the village trading centre in the midst of farms and orchards located in the open country is the Cache La Poudre Consolidated School. Less than four years ago five oneteacher schools and one three-teacher school in four different districts served the educational needs of the farm people living in the vicinity of the village of La Porte. About that time the State College of Agriculture near by was moved by the spirit of better country life and appointed a "rural-school visitor" as a member of its faculty. The visitor in December, 1912, on the invitation of the principal of the school at La Porte, spent several days visiting and interviewing the people in the homes of the neighborhood and collecting statistical data on attendance and financial conditions and possibilities, from the schools and from the county superintendent's office. According to the investigator, the buildings were in bad condition, four of them unfit for use; the majority of the teachers were such as you usually find in country schools of this kind; the attendance was poor and the schools in general woefully inefficient.

A Survey and Publicity.-The result of this survey of the districts seemed to the majority of the leaders in the community to justify immediate consolidation. The weeks following the survey were devoted to a campaign of education for the community during which meetings were held in all of the districts involved and the matter of school consolidation enthusiastically agitated. In April, 1913, an election was held to decide the question and the majority voted in favor of the new plan. In June bonds were voted for a $26,000 building, the corner-stone of which was laid July 2, 1913. In the following September the new building was opened to the children of the combined territory of the four districts immediately surrounding it and was named from a near-by river, the Cache La Poudre. The consolidated district is approximately 25 square miles in area,

contains 170 families and 325 census children. The school building, while not in the geographical centre, is strategically located with reference to the population. The visit here described was made when the school was in its third year.

II. THE SCHOOL PLANT AND TRANSPORTATION

Rarely does one find a more beautiful natural site for a school building than that selected by the trustees in charge. Majestic old cottonwoods are lined in rows at each side and at the back of the building and massed at one side in the rear near the playground. In the background, less than fifty miles to the west-seeming, in the clear atmosphere of the November day, not more than ten-is the main range of the Rocky Mountains, capped in the distance by three of its highest peaks. From the athletic field, from the front entrance, from the west and south windows there is, at all times, for the delight of the nature-lover—and all country dwellers, especially children, should be naturelovers-a magnificent view of more than one hundred miles of perpetually snow-covered mountains.

As the visitor enters the building from the road he may notice among the tall trees at the left swings and other play equipment. Still at the left and toward the rear of the building is the manual-training shop. At the right are more trees, a larger playground, the athletic fields, and the superintendent's cottage. Surrounding the school grounds are farms and orchards-apples and small fruits being important products of this section.

The building itself is a substantial brick structure of two stories with a commodious basement. The latter is almost entirely above ground, and the schoolrooms proper must, therefore, be reached by a number of stone steps leading directly to the wide hallway. In the centre of the hallway a staircase leads to the upper floor. On either side are two classrooms for the elementary grades. Ascending

the stairway one passes on the landing and at the rear of the building a small sunny sewing-room whose sashed windows shut it from view from the stairway and at the same time proclaim its purpose to the visitor. Continuing to the second floor there are two small rooms at the front. One serves as library and superintendent's office and one as the teachers' retiring and rest room. The high-school assemblyroom occupies one entire side of the upper floor with the door entering it near the head of the staircase on the left. On the right are the laboratory and a large classroom.

The assembly-room is lighted from the south and west. The side nearest the hall has a movable wooden partition. This can be so raised as to form, with the hallway, an auditorium of reasonable size. The school owns a supply of folding-chairs, and comfortable seating arrangements can thus be provided for the various recreational activities of which the school is the centre.

The rest-room is furnished with a couch, rug, table, and chairs, and is comfortable and inviting. The library is not large at present but the books are well selected and will form a nucleus for a reference and circulating library of more pretentious size when circumstances permit. The laboratory is supplied simply with the usual apparatus for chemistry and physics, a separator, and an eight-hole Babcock milk-tester.

The basement contains two large rooms, one at each side of the front entrance. These serve as lunchrooms and stormy-day playrooms. One side is assigned to the boys and the other to the girls. Adjoining these rooms are the toilets, which are of modern sanitary type and are kept clean and wholesome. The floors in the basement are of cement, and the rooms here are all light, dry, and “airy.” At the rear of the building and near the foot of the inside stairway is the kitchen, equipped with individual cookingtables and closets; cupboards for supplies, sink, water, oilstoves, and other necessaries.

The outside manual-training shop, previously mentioned, is a commodious frame building remodelled from one of the old schoolhouses. The benches are of simple home-made variety and the equipment is adequate but not elaborate. This shop is made to approximate as nearly as possible the better type of workshop of the ordinary farm. It is heated with a stove and contains two rooms.

The superintendent's home is also a remodelled building, being one of the best of the old abandoned frame schoolhouses. It has large, pleasant rooms, a screened porch along the front and rear, and a bathroom. This "teacherage" is part of the school property, built especially as the home of the superintendent. No rent is charged, its use being allowed by the board in addition to the regular salary paid.

The school board has also a three-year lease on a small orchard, house, and barn which adjoins the school grounds. This is subleased to the eighth-grade teacher, who is a married man and who occupies the cottage and cultivates the ground. During the year preceding the time of visiting the school this teacher sold almost enough from the land to pay the rent in addition to supplying his own table. In addition to these two residences controlled by the school board, four rooms in the basement of the main building were finished and set apart for the janitor's residence. So the district really houses three of its employees with their families. The janitor receives $45 per month, house room, light, water, and fuel. He lives in the building throughout the year and is responsible to the board for its proper care at all times. According to the rules of the board published in pamphlet form for general distribution, the "janitor shall be the assistant executive officer of the superintendent to help carry out all the rules and regulations of the board and superintendent so far as they may apply to the buildings, grounds, and discipline. When school is not in session he shall be in complete control of the building, subject only to the orders of the school board."