In contrast to this, the new program at Public School 89 is in no sense an effort to relieve part-time by giving the children as nearly as possible a five-hour traditional school day until a new building can be built.
The sole purpose determining the new program now in use at this school is that of securing a six-hour day and much richer opportunities in a study-work-and-play school with a coördination of the activities of all child-welfare agencies.
By making the following improvements at Public School 89, the increase in capacity and additional facilities can be made permanent—a gymnasium and swimming-pool, two rooms for branch of the public library, equipment for science laboratories and auditorium, wardrobes for sixteen classes, permanent playground, and drawing and music studios. With the exception of the playground, the above will cost approximately $35,000.
The cost of the site and the proposed new fifty-one unit school-building, to relieve Public School 89 and two other buildings, will provide the funds for similar changes in ten schools after the plan at Public School 89. These changes would make possible a permanent increase in capacity of not less than two hundred classrooms, since in the more modern schools a less expenditure will secure greater capacity. Since a fifty-one unit building adds accommodation for only forty-eight traditional full-time classes, the satisfactory accommodation of sixteen additional classes at Public School 89 would justify the expenditure of one third the cost of the new building and site upon Public School 89, or approximately $170,000. But, as has just been pointed out, it is not necessary to spend anything like this amount.
Under the old program there were only forty classes, but one class was very large and was divided into two sections with two teachers in charge. The number of pupils attending this school is increasing rapidly, and therefore a program for forty-two classes is planned.
The forty-two classes in the New Program are divided into two duplicate schools of twenty-one classes each. In the following programs these duplicate schools are designated as the “X” School and the “Y” School.
The X School: Twenty-one of the classrooms are used for the desired academic instruction in the regular school subjects,—arithmetic, language, reading, history, and geography. The five remaining classrooms are used for the special school subjects,—science, drawing, and music. In addition to the twenty-six classrooms, the school has a manual-training shop, a domestic-science laboratory, a small auditorium, five cellar playrooms, and a kindergarten. Because the special rooms are not yet equipped (January 9, 1915), for the time being they are used for additional regular class work. Since there is no library or librarian, and since the manual-training and cooking teachers are at the building only half-time, two extra special teachers are in charge of the playground.
The X School has the following activities and facilities for carrying them on:—
| Type of work | Facilities used by each type of work |
| Academic instruction | 21 classrooms. |
| General exercises | Auditorium. |
| Play and physical training | Playground, playrooms, pool, gymnasium. |
| Special work | 2 manual-training shops, 2 science laboratories, 2 drawing studios, 1 music studio, 1 public-library branch. |
The twenty-one classes are divided into three divisions of seven classes each, as follows:—