The Gary American

150,000 Institution Seeks Site For New Building

BALTIMORE.- (CNS) - Seven proposed sites for the new $150,000 Maryland Training School for Colored Girls are being considered by the board of managers of the institution.

One of the principal questions to be decided by the managerial board is that of whether the institution shall be operated by a colored superintendent and staff. This question, according to Judge Thomas J. S. Waxter, judge of the Juvenile Court, is one which should be given careful consideration. It is, he said, one of the recommendations for the proposed school made by the Child Welfare League of America in a recent survey here. The league recommended also that the institution be conducted on the cottage plan.

This, according to Judge Waxter and Dr. Finney, chairman of the board, would increase the expense of operation, but in the fact that it would afford closer supervision of the delinquents and offer better facilities for domestic training, it would be ideal. No decision on whether the Cottage or single building plan will be adopted has been made.

Many institutions of the same type in the southern states, Judge Waxter said, operate under the supervision of a colored superintendent with a colored staff and these, among others, will be visited by members of the board.

The new training school on which construction probably will start in the fall, will take the place of the Melvale School for Colored Girls. Funds for construction were provided by the last legislature. It will receive $18,000 a year for maintenance, plus $180 a year for each committed inmate. A building for feeble-minded colored children will be added to the Crowtisville State Hospital, relieving the new training school from the burden of caring for mental cases. This will cost $265,000.

The two colored members of the board are Mrs. Bertha Hurst, widow of the late Bishop Hurst, and Mrs. Mason Hawkins.