The number of houses" in the above table includes rented buildings and rooms in buildings, in most cases, located near some school that needs relief from its overcrowded condition. As a rule these rented rooms are not well suited for school purposes and are used only as temporary relief for such schools as need additional room, and only until suitable additional school buildings can be provided. While our schools occupy one hundred and eighteen separate buildings, yet they are organized as seventy-seven separate schools. Twenty-four of these schools occupy two or more buildings. In most cases the buildings occupied by any one school are located upon the same lot or upon adjoining lots. In 1874 only four of the fifty-seven schools then in force had more than twelve rooms. The general belief then was that a school of twelve rooms with about six hundred pupils was sufficiently large for one principal to control, and besides it was thought that a greater number of pupils should not be brought together in one building or in the same locality. At that time no single building contained more than twelve regular school rooms. Since that date there has been a growing tendency towards increasing the size of schools when practicable rather than multiplying school sites. Under this policy nearly all of our original twelve room schools have been increased to schools having eighteen, twenty or twenty-four rooms, and all new buildings are planned, and located with the view of eventually increasing the capacity of the school to that of an eighteen or twenty-four room school, as future necessities may demand. With our system of grading and promoting, a large school has a decided advantage over a small one. The larger the school the greater the number of classes, hence the intervals between classes are less, thus enabling the brighter pupils to pass more frequently into higher classes. The patrons of our schools quite generally understand this and therefore prefer to send their children to the larger schools. For this reason together with the desire on the part of the parents that the children of the family be not required to attend separate schools, the plan of locating small primary schools in various sections of the school district and making them tributary to larger central schools, has been practically abandoned in our school system. The above table shows a constant annual increase in school facilities. The Board has appropriated annually from one hundred and fifty thousand to two hundred thousand dollars for new school buildings (not including the New High School). This amount has met the needs fairly well in most localities, except in the central western portion of the city, where the growth of the city has been much greater than in any other section within its limits.. In the territory west of Grand avenue and between the Wabash Railroad on the south and the Natural Bridge road on the north, a new city has grown up within the last ten years. While there has been a general growth in all directions, the extent of the city's growth in this central section has been phenomenal. The increase in school facilities in this section, as compared with that of other sections of the city, has by no means kept pace with the growth in population. Our four mill tax is not sufficient to meet fully the needs of our public Educational system. Many of the cities and towns in the State have voted additional tax for school purposes. The St. Louis schools are being supported at a less annual cost proportionally than are the schools in many other portions of the State. We need an additional halfmill tax at least for building purposes. |