Show MEETING OF consolidation question discussed john W smith prominent salt lake lahe county educator delivers deliver s Con convincing vincin address ro co consolidate or not to consolidate that is the question that confronted the school trustees of sevier c county at their meetings in the richfield school building thursday judg ing from the opinions that were c expressed it would not be a surprise if the jestion in the affirmative naturally there were some cho vho dissented disen ted for the speakers em cm ed the fact that a few districts will be compelled to make seeming fless in older to future benefits conferred by consolidation consoli dilion and rid therefore the movement v will ill encounter some teles tire the principal speaker was as john W smith luperi superintendent nten dent of the public choals of salt lake county he give an extemporaneous talk on the public schools of his county chich hive have been operated under the consolidation system since 1904 owing to the fact that he be arrived near the close of oe the meeting he devoted most of his time to answerl answering rg questions asked by the trustees mr smith is a pleasing talker and his remarks are characterized by a frankness thit that is indeed a rarity in discussions of this kind lie ile did not claim perfection for the consolidation system since perfection can only be approximated in matters of this kind ile he steadfastly maintained manta ined however that consolidation is a great improve mint mant mi nt on th old w wiy ay iy of c id school affair As a ite he assumed that all children sheild have equal advantages arid and that property should be tied uniformly in order to provide thebe ile he main gainel that ti tt sans sainta rule be observed by tha co chantie antie that la ib taken for pr antei by the public at large camly tle te wealtny class should be made to contri contribute nute lovarda bovard the education of the children of parents w h larl arc not so fortunate after ns na had given iven a brief history of the con plan the speaker told of th the dirking of tha plan in sit silt lake cownty he saidi said that the education baird met this year on an all average of about once each month although it held frequent meetings at the beginning of tire the school ear until the work in the schools was well under way silt lake county is pacing its clerks 75 per month for his services a bookkeeper an ana distributor of supplies it also his a treasurer a hanker who ho pays for the privilege of handling the coin tys s fund in reply to a question qu the speaker said that he be would secure a treasurer for tars anis county on similar ir terms the element of politics he remarked cedhas has not entered into tile the question selecting members of the board of education in salt lake county only able educators men who are qualified for the work ark have been elected to these positions the school elections are held in december Dec embar at a time when there are no political issues before the people arid and the members of the board are elected by direct vote to illustrate tire the mode of procedure in abolishing school districts mr smith called attention to an instance where the tha board tried to ascertain the will of the p ople in regard to closing tasir school the work done in this school hal ha 3 been inferior the v not co consent dasent to having thir children attend I 1 3 halal in one of the adjoining districts the following year they vers nera asked to try the experiment sine that time they hue petitioned to have their school closed since the silt salt lise cod cm ity se schools were the county his has increased the of its teachers teacher ia per year ani at the same time ll 11 has s brought a saving to the district of 25 2 per 5 icar car on each teacher we have a uniform system that makes it more pleasant for the teacher to work than did the old system said the speaker before consolidation we wa had tha teachers handling anywhere from 2 to 83 85 children in a dais claas and with eight grades grade now we have an average of 33 pupils to the tea tri acher chir arid and only to grades which makes it possible sible for the teacher to do better work inexperienced teachers are not permitted per mittel to supplant experienced perien ced ones and consequently there are always plenty of good teachers who want to work idour in our district before consolidation some districts had school fur six and all d others for nine months now every school in the county pens on the same day in n september and closes the samo same day in june before consolidation 40 children out of every were not in school now we have 12 in school where there were acre but before so it has helped in the matter of attend ance consolidation his been found to be much boic oie than t the lie other way after working for fifteen years to establish high schools wo we had bad one cla class with seven pupils after three years of consolidation we had a high chool attendance of consolidation is 13 cle cheaper aper besides the saving in salaries we siv sabe e money in buying and hauling our coal and we receive nearly a year interest on our school money mone under the old system this money mone drew no interest and ne acro often cor belled to pay interest on overdrafts before mr smiths arr arnal lal county superintendent jensen bloke it at lenigh on the aci lings of the proposed s system and adduced figurea showing sh owin that consolidation in sevier county would me mein lucin in a saving in dollars ind and cents at the forenoon session mr mir jensen called the trustees attention to the coming text bool book co convention mention and ad ased them to collect all the old tet looks in antion for the exchange changa ex he referred to the ta tax avy alvy and urged that som of the money be invested in a school librara |