Altoona High School - Horseshoe Yearbook (Altoona, PA)

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PAUL H. REYNOLDS President The Board of School Directors for the School Dis- trict of the City of Altoona is composed of these nine men and is authorized by the laws of Pennsylvania. This Board is responsible to the voters for securing funds to run the schools, for spending the funds, and for seeing that the educational program is adequate. This year they controlled an educational system of 11,000 students, 600 professional and non-profes- sional employees, and had an operating budget of 52,504,722 - During the past several years the Board has con- cerned itself chiefly with physical improvements to the school plant. A continual program of improve- ment is now under way, which includes the installa- tion of new heating plants, replacing old lighting with modern fluorescent lighting systems, and paint- ing the interiors and exteriors of various school build- ings. Recently the Board authorized the purchase and erection of a modern flood lighting system of the athletic field to permit night games. DIRECTORS Wm H Burchneld Charles W. Clugh Walter H. Grove Park S. Hite Wm F Lehman Ias. K. McNeal, Ir. Frank Marsh Roy L. Thompson 12

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In the world today we witness a terrific struggle being waged between two opposing philosophies of government-communism, as characterized by the Union of Soviet Republics, and democracy, as characterized by the United States of America. I am deeply concerned for the outcome of the contest. I note an appalling apathy among eligible voters in our country for their responsibilities and duties as American citizens. This indifference on the part of our citizens has resulted not only in corruption and inefficiency in our democratic form of govern- ment, but it has enabled certain opportunist in- dividuals to capitalize on these conditions and to spread their pernicious principles of govern- ment among our citizens. When our forefathers established the Ameri- can form of democracy, they recognized that only through the development and maintenance of a thorough system of free public schools could that form of government which they had established be made to function in the manner which they had envisaged. It follows then that you, the graduating class of l95l, who repre- sent the highest level of development of that free public school system, have a definite re- sponsibility to use the skills, the knowledge, the ideals which you have attained through high school not only to make a living but also for the service and improvement of that govern- ment. If the people are to remain the sovereign power, if the will of the people is to be the law of the land, if an act of the government is to be an act of the peaple, then it is absolutely essen- tial that you be concerned about and show a willingness to participate actively in the re- sponsibilities of American citizenship. To do so will truly substantiate Seventy-five Years of Progress.