Johnstown High School - Spectator Yearbook (Johnstown, PA)

Page 13 text:

Enm thr Binh Svrhnnl Glam IQPIII Supt. H. J. Stockton What we have longed for and hoped for during the past several years is now within our power' to reach forth and grasp. The Board of Education have decided to submit to the voters a request for the authorization of 52,000,000 for erecting new schools as outlined in the School Building Pro- gram of 1917. Careful and conservative figures show that the district is 2,500 pupils behind in its building program. As the enrollment increases the conditions are aggravated. The enrollment increased this year 350 pupils or ten rooms. The normal increase of enrollment is 2 to 3 per cent, so that on a 10,000 enrollment, such as we have, an increase of 200 to 300 a year may be expected. Our increase of rooms should keep pace. 1 If I were asked what interest a high school pupil should take in this matter, I would say he has both a present and a future interest. Every high school pupil has a present in- terest in that bond issue provides for a new high school. It will also provide for several new grade buildings, and for a complete junior High School system that will benefit the younger brothers and sisters of High School pupils. It ought to be characteristic and from my experience is characteristic of the High School pupil that he enthusiastically supports better educational opportunities for brother and sister. The older brother or sister is a kind of second father or mother in this respect. The possibilities of a new high school ought to ire every boy and girl to the highest pitch of enthusiastic ardor. The present building served its purpose well in its day but it now belongs to a past era. In the first place it is crowded beyond all reason. The conversion of every possible room into class rooms has largely served to stave off the in-

Page 12 text:

THE SPECTATOR I Bvhiratinn The Spectator takes pleasure in devoting a part of this number to a question of vital import- ance at the present time-the Bond Issue for the Johnstown School Building Program. We hope that the importance of this project will impress itself on the mind of each and every reader.

Page 14 text:

6 THE SPECTATOR I itiation of a new building operation. Let us enumerate the expedients that have been resorted to, usually with reluctance, to find more enrollment capacity in the High School. Two assembly rooms were gained by equipping the physics and chemistry lecture rooms with desks. Three assembly rooms were gained by arranging for seating in the biological labor- atories. Three basement assembly rooms in the original build- ing were gained by removing the manual training to the new south wing. Later, manual training was removed to the Casino and four more new assembly rooms were gained. By cutting off an end of the original mechanical drawing room a new assembly room was gained. By ejecting the High School Spectator from its office and by transferring the dental dis- pensary to the Swank Building two small class rooms have been gained. By taking out a boys' toilet on the 400 floor and a girls' toliet on the 100 floor, two new assembly rooms were gained. By substituting desks for tables in the cafe- teria, additional assembly rooms were improvised. By re- moving the School Board and administrative offices to the Swank Building, rooms 209 and 307 were gained for assem- bly purposes. The auditorium is daily used for class room purposes. In all, since l9l2, by utilizing every possible room for assembly and class purposes, we have added twenty-one rooms. These expedients have permitted an increase of 600 pupils to the enrollment. In many cases the improvisations have been wise. There should be economy of space in school buildings. But a High School should have something else besides class rooms. To drive out all manual activities, for instance, tends to make a one-sided school and over-empha- sizes books as a medium of education. There should be, also, plenty of unused space to permit of Hexibility of pro- gram and school activities. Every teacher should have a definite home room where she may accumulate the neces- sary accessory and illustrative material that will make her teaching more interesting and more concrete. The day is A