| Show THE BOARD OF EDUCATION the board of education met in regular session may owing to the absence of president scott mr colbath acted as chairman the following members responded to roll call snow duke armstrong newman young and lett the sub joined report by young of the finance committee will be issued as an address to voters to the voters of salt lake city the territorial law approved march 13 1890 consolidated the twenty one independent districts included n athin the boundaries of the municipality into one district under the direction and control of this board of education the board which was elected and organized in july last was confronted at the by difficulties due partly to the largely increased enrolment of school children and partly to the uncertainty that the revenue within the control of the board would meet I 1 a necessary expenditures with schools made free and attendance made compulsory and with a rapidly increasing population the enrolment and attendance will be greatly increased so that one half of the school year haa had scarcely expired when the board found itself in the predicament that with wih a total school population of and an enrolment of more than 60 per cent of that number there were accommodations in the school buildings tor for scarcely more than three thousand pupils under such circumstances there wat wa t but one course open to the board under its statutory duty to provide instruction for all and that was to rent buildings to accommodate the overflow at the present time pupils enrolled outside of the he public school buildings in structures of varying unfitness aggregate nearly three eighths of the whole number even under these circumstances rooms are an fn generally ene overcrowded at the great areat risk m many in atances instances of the health of the children under the provisions bf the law the resources and liabilities of the former districts became the resources and liabilities of this board the taxes levied by those districts made payable to this thi board b by thelah the law amounted to nearly Dearly of which sum we have received an additional sum of has been paid under protest and may be recovered through the courts under actions now pending while was not paid and cannot be collected under the deciL decision sion of the territorial supreme court our other resources have been from the territorial rit orial school fund and from the old districts district a representing their cash balances on hand making in all of this amount we have expended in the maintenance of the schools and 62 for rents the completion of school buildings furniture and apparatus and in the settlement of the liabilities of old districts the latter then amounting to lo nearly the law of 1890 authorizes this board at its discretion to submit to a vote of a district or city whether bonds bands of the district shall be issued and sold for the purpose of raising money for purchasing school sites for buildings furniture apparatus pa ratus improving the grounds and for liquidating any indebtedness incurred for such purposes we now ask you for authority to issue and sell bonds to the amount of for the purposes named we believe that it would require much more than this amount to place t the he schools in the condition demanded d by your necessities and rendered fitting by our prosperity but we content ourselves wi with asking for the amount which in the light of the following statements we believe to be reasonable the increased density of population in the centre of the city in all directions render rendar necessary the purchase of many building sites some of which will be costly many of the present sites are inadequate and must he be added to or sold and larger one purchased most of the present buildings are inadequate and nearly all were built without those accessories to health and comfort usually found in such E i structures now and proven to be invaluable by experience peri ence enoe A large number of buildings I 1 will be necessary to provide for the present overflow to accommodate primary pupils in their own neighborhood to provide instruction in the hi high h school grades and gene generally r a ng 11 to enable me the board to inaugurate a and successfully conduct a system of efficient and graded schools apparatus and furniture will be needed while the improvement of grounds and other improvements of a permanent character will require an additional outlay it is our intention to use the bonds at such times and in such amounts as may be necessary to provide for the needs of the schools in view however of the fact that the V courts have decided the law which authorized the board to use the taxes assessed hy by the former districts of this city in 1889 to be invalid the board has determined to reimburse those who have paid the taxes thus levied if authority exist under the law or to seek legislative sanction to do so in order that the inequalities of that levy may be adjusted and the burden evenly distributed the additional eap exp expense e use th that at will be placed on the people of this city by reason of the issue of these bonds will be trifling viewed in the li light ht of the advantages to be derived from As adequate and efficient schools that expense will consist of an annual tax one tenth of kofl 1 per cent at present valuation or 1 on each 1000 of taxable property of the amount thus raised 30 will annually be paid in interest and and will be set aside each year as a sinking fund thus in twenty years the entire debt will be paid a id 1 the burden will be light and will be 91 distributed tri buted among those who will rea reap the advantages by building we shall ha save from to per annum in rents in explanation of our now saki asking for whereas we recently asaf asked for but it may be added that upon mature consideration the board now favors favor the proposition formerly advocated by one half of the members of asking for the larger amount believing that the smaller amount will wili no more than relieve the immediate present necessities of the schools that we expect to reimburse those who paid the tax of 1889 that out of a total borrowing power in the municipality fityo of the amount we ask for is not disproportionate as between the schools whose only resource for permanent improvements is from the sale of bonds and other municipal improvements which are largely made by individual property holders by local taxes and finally we believe that we should be recreant to our trusts and unfaithful to the highest interests of the community should we not do our share towards securing to the public schools safe from any contingency whatever a fund sufficient to meet their present and actual necessities we therefore confidently submit our request to the voters of this city and earnestly urge every voter who desires that the public free schools of this city should be made reasonably capable of meeting the demands made upon them to be present at the polls on the day of june to vote bonds yes H HT T DUKE buxe GEORGS W SNOW T C ARMSTRONG JR WM J NEWMAN JOHN N PIKE B R W yoube D li U COLBATH H C LETT ten thou thousand satia copies of the address have been ordered printed for distribution among voters |
