The Construction of Consolidated Schools
Not only does the school building reflect the internal needs of the school organization which it houses, but there is also a close relation between the school and the distribution of the population in the community. A sparsely settled community invariably used to have a one-room school, because the distances which pupils must travel are such that it is difficult to bring together enough pupils to justify a larger building. The one-room building is likely, however, to offer only the most meager educational opportunities. There is only one teacher. There are no adequate provisions for the pupils who are supposed to be studying, because this one teacher in the one room must be hearing a class recite on some subject at practically every period in the day. The one-room building does not satisfy the progressive community. The device which has been adopted is that of consolidating a number of one-room schools and transporting the pupils through the necessary distances to make possible large schools with separate rooms for pupils of different ages. A consolidated school has facilities which are impossible in a one-room school. These facilities cannot be described without discussing the course of study and also the building and equipment.
The following quotation gives an example of such a discussion:
In Harrison County, Miss., about 8 miles out from the Gulf and in a typical south Mississippi rural community, may be found the Wool Market consolidated school, the subject of this brief study. Three medium-sized one-teacher schools—Coalville, King, and Oakhead—were brought together two years ago to form this school near the Wool Market post office, on the Biloxi River.
The new house, built by private subscription at a cost of about $2,000, was located within 2 miles of all the children in two of the old districts, while a transportation wagon was used to bring in from 25 to 30 pupils from the Oakhead district, about 3 miles from the new schoolhouse. The territory of the new school covers 27 square miles and now has within its bounds 134 children of legal school age.
Each of the teachers in the abandoned schools, having from 30 to 40 recitations daily to cover the eight grades of the elementary and grammar grades, had no time to do high-school work, and on that account had no high-school pupils. As a result of those conditions the patrons who were able financially to bear the expense sent their children out of the community to school as soon as they were ready for the high school, at an annual cost of from $150 to $200, while the larger number were forced to turn aside to take up life’s duties and responsibilities with only the meager training obtained in these little schools. Such conditions obtain in three-fourths of the schools in the South. The Wool Market consolidated school, now serving the same territory, has 23 high-school pupils—16 in the ninth grade, 5 in the tenth grade, and 2 in the eleventh grade—and 20 pupils in the music and expression classes under special teachers.
The aggregate average attendance for the original schools was 60 pupils, according to the records, while the average attendance now in the consolidated school is 110 pupils, with an enrollment of 125. There are only 9 children of school age in the district not in school. In the old schools the number was too small to form an attractive social center and to justify the employment of special teachers, but the new school is fast becoming the center of all social activities of this larger community, employs special teachers in music and expression, and has in the faculty teachers qualified to give instruction in practical agriculture and domestic science. In the interhigh-school contests last spring the Wool Market consolidated school, though only two years old, captured a fair share of the medals in declamation and recitation, while the girls’ basketball team claims the county championship.
The school is located on 5 acres of land, which are used for playgrounds, school garden, and practical agricultural demonstration work. Dr. Welch, the community physician, lectures to the school once a week on hygiene and school and home sanitation; and Mr. W. A. Cox, a trustee of the school and a practical farmer and horticulturist, gives the school weekly lectures on agricultural, horticultural, and allied subjects.
After trying the consolidated school two years the patrons and other citizens of the Wool Market community voluntarily levied a tax of $7 per thousand on the property of the district to support the school for an eight or nine months’ session.
COMPARATIVE STATISTICS
Cost of the three teachers in old school per month $128 Aggregate attendance in the three schools 60 Average cost per pupil per month $2.13 Cost of the three teachers in the elementary and grammar-school grades of the consolidated school per month $150 Entire cost of the one transportation wagon per month $50 Average cost per pupil per month in same grades $2.22 Cost of the four teachers in entire school and of the school wagon per month $280 Average cost per pupil for the elementary and high school $2.54 The Wool Market school, with its four teachers and adequate high-school advantages, costs the community only 41 cents per pupil, or a total of $45 per month more than the three little one-teacher schools. To send the 23 high-school pupils out of the community for their high-school education would cost the community at least $1,000 more than this entire school cost the community and county for eight months. Mr. W. A. Cox, referred to above, is authority for the statement that the value of land in the community had increased during the two years as a result of the good school from $10 per acre to $25 per acre.
| Cost of the three teachers in old school per month | $128 |
| Aggregate attendance in the three schools | 60 |
| Average cost per pupil per month | $2.13 |
| Cost of the three teachers in the elementary and grammar-school grades of the consolidated school per month | $150 |
| Entire cost of the one transportation wagon per month | $50 |
| Average cost per pupil per month in same grades | $2.22 |
| Cost of the four teachers in entire school and of the school wagon per month | $280 |
| Average cost per pupil for the elementary and high school | $2.54 |
What has been accomplished in the Wool Market school can be done in almost any community in the South. This and similar instances that might be mentioned lend strength to the contention that adequate school advantages can be provided for the country children in the community near the farm home.[33]
EXERCISES AND READINGS
A new school building with twelve recitation rooms is to be built. Shall the windows of the classrooms open to the north and south or to the east and west? Shall the lockers for coats and hats be in the general corridors or shall there be a cloakroom off each room? How high shall the blackboards be from the floor? How many sides of the room shall be supplied with blackboards? How high shall each step be in the stairways? If the building is designed to accommodate six hundred pupils, what rooms besides the recitation rooms shall be provided? How big should the auditorium be? Should it have a large stage? Shall the toilets be in the basement or on each floor? Is it legitimate to spend money on a teachers’ rest room? Where should the principal’s office be?
Is there any difference between the kind of school building to be recommended in San Antonio, Texas, and Minneapolis, Minnesota? What color should the walls of a classroom be? How much playground space should there be around a school building designed for six hundred pupils?
Should school buildings be frame buildings? Should doors open into the building? What is a fire drill, and why is it required?
Report of a Study of Certain Phases of the Public-School System of Boston, Massachusetts, made under the auspices of the Boston Finance Commission, Document 87 (1916), pp. 185-213. Reprinted by Teachers College.
Strayer, G. D. Score Card for School Buildings. Teachers College.
Terman, L. M. The Building Situation and Medical Inspection. Denver School Survey. Published by the Denver School Survey Committee.