Middletown Transcript

MIDDLETOWN SCHOOL
Proposed Loan Only Hope of Improving Education-
SPEAKERS URGE IMPROVEMENT

Should New Castle county bond in the sum of $1,000,000 for school purposes and the Delaware School Auxiliary Association add $250,000 thereto, Middletown would be assured of a new schoolhouse costing approximately $300,000. The proposed school building would sit in 10 acres of land near the southern boundary of the town, which have been acquired by the Middletown Board of Education.

Eight hundred enthusiastic residents of the town, including 200 children, thronged the Opera House Monday night, when educational matters were discussed at a meeting held by the Parent Teacher Association. After welcoming the audience Mrs. John B. Cleaver, president of the association, asked Frederick Brady to preside. Rev. Percy L. Donaghay pronounced an invocation.

Wilbur H. Jump, superintendent of schools in New Castle county, spoke on school consolidation, which he said is popular in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. He stated Indiana has made the most rapid progress, having 600 consolidated schools, which are endorsed by 90 per cent of the patrons and interest 4,000,000 persons. Referring to school consolidation in Delaware, he mentioned the combination of Armstrong Corner, Grove Cottage and Mill Lane with Middletown and suggested that other school districts be brought to this centre. He told the advantages of school consolidation, including larger faculty and better school program. He said Middletown had 52 high school pupils last year and has 85 this year.

E. S. Jones, describing the Middletown schoolhouse, stated it was built 93 years ago for a few scholars and now is crowded by 315 students. He declared its sanitation and ventilation are bad. Saying the future of the State and nation depends on the quality of citizenship, he advocated putting the best safeguards around children.

Miss Marie Lockwood said Delaware's health conditions are alarming and its death rate is high. She stated tuberculosis is prevalent and 21 to 40 per cent of the children are sub-normal. She held that if school buildings contribute greatly to tuberculosis Delaware should have the best schoolhouses the State could afford.

Olin E. McKnight, principal of the Middletown school, exhibited stereoptican views of the antiquated schoolhouse, originally an academy, showing its crowded class-rooms, low ceilings and defective sanitation and ventilation.
"Where are the fire escapes?" a woman asked.
"The stairways are the only fire escapes," the principal replied.

Mr. McKnight pleaded for a new schoolhouse for Middletown.

NEW BUILDINGS NEEDED

George L. Medill, president of the New Castle County Board of Education, said it realizes the need of modern schoolhouses and equipment in various parts of the county, but could not spend a large sum to remodel Middletown's old schoolhouse because the building is leased from the trustees of Middletown Academy and the grounds are too small. He stated the Board hopes to call in the near future on the taxables in the county to vote on a proposed bond issue of $1,000,000. He said Middletown, Delaware City, Richardson Park and Rose Hill need new schoolhouses and Middletown should have the largest.

Should $1,000,000 bonds be issued and the Delaware School Auxiliary Association add $250,000 thereto, he stated, Middletown would probably receive one-fourth or one-fifth of the aggregate sum and erect a schoolhouse of Colonial design, containing 14 rooms, with auditorium and gymnasium, and costing about $300,000.

Architect Wallace E. Hance, who has drawn plans for the proposed schoolhouse, said they call for a two-story building, with heavy brick walls and a slate roof, the structure to be fireproof throughout and to be well lighted and ventilated. He announced that the State and County Boards of Education had approved the plans.

Mrs. H. B. McDowell, Mrs. George Wiggins, Jesse L. Shepherd and E. M. Rickards expressed hope that Middletown would get a new schoolhouse, and 200 children voted unanimously in favor of the project.

Representative-elect Alexander P. Corbit said the question is how much can New Castle county afford to spend. He estimated that a new schoolhouse for Middletown would cost the same amount as eight miles of good road and thought the former is as necessary as the latter.

BOND ISSUE FAVORED

P. E. Strickland, a member of the county Board of Education, stated some school buildings are worse than cattle sheds. He favored the proposed bond issue and urged all who were present to advocate it.

Eugene H. Shallcross, also a member of the county Board of Education, praised the school law. He said Delaware, formerly 32 on the educational list, now has an up-to-date school system and should not go backward. He declared the strongest objectors to the school law are persons who know the least about it. He thought the Legislature will slightly amend but not repeal the school law. He stated if $1,000,000 bonds were authorized they would be issued when needed and cover a period of four or five years, one-twenty-fifth being redeemed annually.

George B. Miller, president of the State Board of Education, requested that school teachers be given a fair deal in social life. He pleaded for the retention of the school law and a chance to make it workable.

OLD AND NEW SCHOOLS CONTRASTED

Dr. R. W. Cooper, director of the educational bureau of the Service Citizens of Delaware, contrasted old and new schools and held that the schools of the past are not suitable for the present. He said schools have changed the same as churches and the country. What was known 40 years ago and what is known now are not comparable, he stated. Forty years ago the colleges taught three professions; now they teach 80. Boys from 15 to 20 years old went to school 40 years ago, but not now.