The Union County Journal

Marysville to Return to Four-Year High School Plan Next Autumn

After 20 years of operation under the Junior and Senior High School plan, Marysville public schools next year will return to the old 8-4 plan of operation. it was decided by the Marysville Board of Education during its regular meeting Thursday.
Supt. H. W. Carr said the change was prompted for two reasons.
1. It will equalize the pupil load in the two buildings, and provide for more efficient use of classroom space.
2. The trend today is away from the Junior High School plan and back to the old four-year high school system.
Several large cities, notable Dayton and Akron, eliminated their junior highs a few years ago.
Enrollment Increasing
Need for more efficient use of classroom space became acute this year with a record breaking first grade enrollment. Next year the problem will be even worse, Supt. Carr said, when the second year of "war babies" starts to school.
Returning to the old plan of operation will permit transfer of the freshman class to the high school building, thus freeing several rooms in the West building for elementary grades. Seventh and eighth graders from the entire school district will continue to go to the West building.
Under the new set-up, in order to handle the pupil load in the elementary grades, the West building will house individual rooms for grades one through eight, plus combination of grades one and two, three and four, and five and six.
In the East Building, there will continue to be six separate grades, as at present.
Changed in 1931
Marysville went into the Junior High School plan of operation in the fall of 1931, when the present Senior High School building was completed and placed in use. From that time until the present, the set-up has been under the 6-3-3 plan, or six elementary grades, three junior high grades, and three senior high grades.
According to Supt. Carr, many educators in recent years have been favoring a return to the old 8-4 plan. They have learned, through experience, that seventh and eighth graders are not quite mature enough mentally to adapt themselves well to the high school type of operation, and do better work when their classes are conducted more after the pattern of elementary grades.
Other action taken by the Board of Education Thursday included:
Other Action
1. Salary increase of $10 per month for Mrs. Poling, cook in the cafeteria in the East building.
2. Granted 2-year limited contracts to Miss Virginia Hoewischer, home economics teacher, Miss Wilma Grisson, second grade teacher in the West Building, and Mrs. Marguerite Ell, first grade teacher in the West building, and 5-year limited contracts to Miss Mary Orahood,
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