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Show MINERSV1LLE P-T A MAKES SCHOOL BLDG SURVEY By Leah Foerster Committees eons isting of large groups ox interested citi-I citi-I zens have gone into our schools : and surveyed them - with a thoroughness unequalled in the I hislory of our school district. A group of Minersville citizens has made a comprehensive sur cy of the Minersville public school. With this report, the survey of our county schools by citizens of each community is completed. The question has been asKed, Why thould we have citizens of each community make school surveys when the School Board has already retained engineers to make a technical survey of the buildings and appointed a three-man committee of educators educat-ors to determine our school building needs? "These men are professionals," they say, "where as we are just laymen in this field." The true purpose of a local j school survey is to acquaint the I people with the conditions and needs of our schools. There is nothing in the world that beats "seeing for believing." As one teacher said, when a survey group exclaimed over the holes in the walls in her classroom, "I guess I just got used to them." It takes a group of people to see such a condition and decide whether or not such a condition should continue to exist. If anything is to be really successful, it must be understood under-stood by the people, and the job will be done. Now that we have gone into our schools, we will be more willing to accept the recommendations recom-mendations of a professional survey committee because we know what they are talking about. It's time, too, that we realized real-ized that the schools in Milford do not belong to Milford; that the Minersville public school does not belong to Minersville and that the schools in Beaver do not belong to Beaver. They belong to all of us. For that reason, we've got to concern ourselves with all the children in Beaver County, not just the ones in our own town. We are all taxed to support all the schools in Beaver County and no line can be drawn there. When we stop to realize that almost three-fourths of our children chil-dren are going to poor or unsatisfactory un-satisfactory schools, that should be enough for us to set everything every-thing aside until we have brought our schools up to standard. stand-ard. There -is absolutely nothing noth-ing that can substitute for a good education. There is no sacrifice you can make that will equal the one you are asking of your children by allowing them to go to poor schools. You had better by-pass the newest thing in electrical appliances or a new piece of modern furniture or that new gun. Don't condemn con-demn your children to go to these unsatisfactory schools for years to come. Your children simply can't get by in this world of the future with what we are giving them now in the way of an education. And now you are going to that had no doors on them and came under the category of junk. She pointed out that the seventh and eighth grade room was in a terrible condition, and needed "the works" in all respects. re-spects. The band room came in for the same criticism. The steps leading to the shop room were cited as being in poor condition con-dition and the shop room needed need-ed a complete job of renovating renovat-ing and a new set of equipment. Mrs. Frieda Wood talked . about equipment and supplies in class rooms. She reported the lack of textbooks and deplored de-plored the fact that the children could not be taught .. properly when there was little or no epuipped in some department. She cited the science department depart-ment as. a good example of this condition. Mrs. Wood mentioned men-tioned desks that were 'old and needed repair; old sewing machines ma-chines in the Home Ec department, depart-ment, and sinks with no overflow. over-flow. She described the 'faculty room as having an overstuffed set that should have been dedicated dedi-cated to the junk pile long ago. (This makes the third couch and chair set condemned to the junk pile in our county schools). She also reported that the chairs in the recreation room were 26 years old. It was also reported that the school "had an improved heating system and lighting system, and that in some instances worn floors had been replaced and covered. Mrs. Wood read a report of (Continued on Back Page) read a local report on one of the schools in our county and j you will be reading about con- t ditions that you had no idea existed ex-isted in the Minersville 'school. This school was built in 1915 and has had plenty of hard use. This building has not only been used to educate lively, youngsters young-sters 'for the past 40 years, but has provided a recreation center cen-ter for the townspeople. The survey of this school was presented pre-sented by a fine, alert committee. commit-tee. The first report was made by DeWayne Carter, Beaver County Coun-ty Commissioner. Mr. Carter talked about the outside appearance appear-ance of the building, which he felt was fairly good. He pointed point-ed out that more space was needed for the. playground area and that the equipment was "in a poor condition in some respects re-spects He stated that a fence on the west side and south end needed to be replaced in' order to keep out the livestock. He felt that landscaping of the school grounds should be done to present a pleasing appearance. appear-ance. Mrs. June Pearson talked about a room to room survey and reported that an overall paint job was needed. She said" that the first grade room was very conjested and closet space must be of first consideration. There was a room that had cracked plaster and windows that let in cold and dust. One room, however, had new desks, floor coverings, and a good blackboard, but the room was in need of plaster repair and paint. But here again need for closet space was indicated. Mrs. Pearson talked about lockers in the boys' rest room HERE'S MORE ABOUT PTA Continued from Page One the rating given the Minersville public scnool by the Emergency School Building Commission in 1953. Under the scoring system used by the Survey Commission, a school could receive a maximum maxi-mum of 1,000 points if it were an excellent school. The Minersville Min-ersville school received a rating rat-ing of 515 points. According to the Survey Commission Com-mission a school with a rating 500 or above was recommended as being used as a temporary expedient ex-pedient for a few years, but plans for abandonment in the near future unquestionably should be mada. (Three years have elapsed since this report was made). Notes pertaining to this building build-ing were to the extent that classroom class-room size was generally good but physical conditions within the classrooms were fair to poor. The soft wood 'floors were listed as in very poor condition con-dition and hallways generally in poor condition. Classrooms were particularly inadequate in the matter of windows, doors, bulletin boards, closets, built-in cases and cloak-room areas. Toilet rooms were listed as poor. No lunchroom facilities were available in this school. The room used for indusUial arts instruction was listed as small and poor for the purpose for which it was used. Home Ec facilities, on the other hand, were listed as fair in physical adequacy and condition. The stairways leading to the woodwork wood-work room (shop) were reported report-ed as hazardous and it was recommended rec-ommended that they be rebuilt. Karl Truman, school board member, presented a comprehensive compre-hensive study of taxes and assessments as-sessments in the county ' and gave comparisons of the scale of teacher salaries and student . education costs in the state and nation. Mr. Truman also commended the Committee for Better Schools on their activities and reported that the Board had sent a letter to the chairman of this committee stating that the Board did appreciate the work done by the committee and the interest they had created in the problems that confront the schools. The people of Minersville like to think things out for themselves, and when they saw the necessity of making a survey sur-vey of their schools, they did a good job. And what they found they will think over in relation to the future welfare of their children. And like the rest of us in Beaver County, they want only the best for their children, and they will make the necessary neces-sary sacrifice to accoro'ish this end. |