REPORT
OF THE
State Board of
Education
(Ernest W. Butterfield, Commissioner of Education)
BEING THE
SIXTY-FIRST REPORT UPON THE PUBLIC
SCHOOLS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
___________________
CONCORD.
1920
(p. 55).
RULES AND REGULATIONS ADOPTED BY THE BOARD
(p. 75).
21. Normal Schools.
It is provided, by the laws of he state, that the State Board of Education, besides the general duties of management, shall employ a director and arrange the courses of study for each normal school,
(p. 76).
shall make regulations concerning tuition and graduation, shall direct all expenditures and shall contract with cities and towns for the maintenance of model schools.
To make these laws effective, the State Board of Education has adopted the following regulations and plans.
I. THE STATE BOARD.
The state board of education shall outline the general policy of teacher training in the state, shall plan the development of the normal schools as at present established, and shall consider the location of new normal schools, together with the number needed to meet the demands of the state.
The state board shall make rules and regulations for the organization and administration of the normal schools and for the conduct of the executive officers of the schools.
The state board shall annually consider the budget of expenditures required for the support of the normal schools and shall apportion to each school such sum as may be needed for its use.
The state board shall make provision for such changes, repairs and alterations in the normal school buildings as it finds necessary.
The state board shall enter into contracts with the school districts where the normal schools are located, or elsewhere, for the establishment of model schools.
II. COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION
The commissioner of education shall nominate to the state board of education a director for each normal school.
The commissioner shall be responsible to the state board for the efficient organization and administration of the normal schools in accordance with the rules and regulations established.
The commissioner shall inspect the normal schools and report their condition to the state board.
The commissioner shall recommend to the state board the programs of studies for the normal schools.
(p. 77).
III. DIRECTORS.
Each director shall nominate and report to the commissioner of education the normal school faculty and other employees.
Each director shall recommend salaries for the normal school faculty and teachers of model schools and all other employees authorized and shall contract for their employment when his recommendations are approved by the commissioner of education.
Each director shall nominate, according to the provisions of Laws of 1919, chapter 106, section 9, paragraphs 7-8, a superintendent of the model schools who shall also be a member of the normal school faculty.
Each director shall employ the matron and all other employees of the dormitory and shall be responsible for their efficiency and it shall be understood as the policy of the state board of education that the dormitories shall be made self-supporting except that there shall be no charge for ordinary room rent, heat, light and water.
Each director shall annually present to the state board of education through the commissioner of education before the first of June, a budget setting forth in detail his recommendations for apportionments for the ensuing fiscal year.
Each director shall collect and turn over to the state board of education all moneys due for board and tuition and for such other items as may from time to time be designated.
Each director as the executive of the school shall be responsible for keeping all expenditures of the school and of the dormitory within the limits of appropriation authorized by the state board of education and shall furnish data of all transactions sufficient to enable the accountant of the said board to determine the financial standing of the institution at any time.
IV. SUPERINTENDENT OF MODEL SCHOOLS.
The superintendent of model schools shall nominate all model school teachers and direct their work as provided in Laws of 1919, chapter 106, section 12.
(p. 78)
The superintendent shall nominate all other employees and may remove them according to provisions of Laws of 1919, chapter 106, section 12.
V. ACCOUNTANT.
All accounts for both the educational and dormitory divisions of the normal schools shall be kept by the accountant of the state board of education and to make this possible the directors shall forward, on blanks provided, two copies of all orders placed with the purchasing agent or of all purchases otherwise made by special arrangements, together with vouchers in the latter case. The accountant shall furnish to each of the directors a monthly statement of the financial standing of his institution.
VI. ADMISSION AND GRADUATION.
Students may be admitted to the regular course of instruction and training at a normal school who are in good and regular standing as graduates of a New Hampshire first-class secondary school, approved as such by the commissioner of education, or of an equivalent institution of another state. The admissions shall be upon the certificate of the headmaster of such school and shall be in such form as the director may from time to time direct.
All students upon matriculation in a normal school shall subscribe to the following agreement:
“I, _____, in consideration of free tuition ($100.00 per annum) in the _____ state normal school, do hereby agree to teach in the public schools of New Hampshire for a period equal to the length of my course in this school, unless relieved by the state board for good cause.
Signed, _____ Date. _____”
The tuition at each normal school shall be $100.00 per annum.
Each student on leaving school is obligated either for tuition or for teaching service in New Hampshire equal in weeks to the length of the normal school course.
(p. 79)
If she elects to pay tuition for the whole or a part of her course, she shall pay $100.00 for each year or part year of instruction, this sum to be reduced $100.00 for each full year of teaching service in New Hampshire following the completion of her normal school course.
If she fails to meet the obligation in either form, and is not excused for good cause by the state board on the recommendation of the director of the school which she attended, she shall be given dishonorable discharge from the records of the school and a statement of this action shall be sent to the student, her parents and to the school from which she was admitted and a copy filed with the commissioner of education.
The directors shall keep a record of the obligations of each student, shall recommend action to the state board and shall collect all tuition payments and pay them to the state treasurer,
The tuition for non-resident pupils in the several model school shall be the per capita cost of schooling based on average attendance for the preceding year.
There shall be maintained at each normal school full courses of two years and three years, and admission shall be at the beginning of the academic year. Students may be admitted to special or post-graduate study upon the recommendation of the director but such study shall not entitle the student to the diploma of the school.
All students upon satisfactorily completing either course shall be granted a diploma setting forth the fact.
There may be maintained such summer sessions of the several normal schools as the state board may from time to time direct, and persons in attendance upon such summer sessions shall receive such credit toward the regular normal school diploma as the board may from time to time direct.
The sessions of the Plymouth normal school annually shall begin on the second Tuesday of September and continue for thirty-six weeks. There shall be a recess commencing on Saturday nearest December 20 and April 1, respectively, and continuing until two weeks from the following Tuesday morning.
(p. 80)
The sessions of the Keene normal school shall begin on the third Tuesday of September and continuing for thirty-six weeks. There shall be two recesses coinciding in time with those above provided for the Plymouth school.
VII. DEFINITION OF TERMS.
“Pupils” refers to children in attendance at the several model schools who are enrolled as members of the elementary school system.
“Students” refers to the regularly enrolled members of the normal school.
“Cadet teacher” refers to students in the school when engaged in practice teaching.
“Faculty” is applied to the teaching staff of the normal school proper.
“Model teachers” are the regularly employed teachers in charge of the several rooms of the model schools.
METHOD OF PURCHASING AND ACCOUNTING FOR THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS.
GENERAL STATEMENT.
All purchases for the use of either (1) the educational or (2) the dormitory divisions of the normal schools are to be made under the following regulations:
I. The requisitions issued and records kept must show definitely whether the expense is a charge against (1) or (2) in preceding paragraph and to insure this there must be two sets of requisitions, manifests or other forms conspicuously marked to prevent confusion in accounting.
II. All purchases must pass through one of two channels, namely, (a) the state purchasing agent or (b) through a “working fund” when the latter has been duly authorized and provided by the Governor and Council.
(p. 81)
III. Transactions Through the Purchasing Agent: Normal school directors will be provided with suitable blanks, in triplicate bearing consecutive set numbers, the separate sheets of each set being marked respectively, A, B and C.
PROCEDURE TO BE FOLLOWED
(1) The details of each requisition will be written on A and automatically carbon copied on B and C; (2) A will remain on file at the school, B and C attached to each other, will be sent to the accountant of the State Board of Education, to be approved and forwarded; (3) the accountant, after properly checking, shall retain B on file and forward C to the purchasing agent who shall make the purchase according to his usual custom; (4) When the purchasing agent has completed the transaction he shall return to the accountant two copies of his original bill with any changes in the quantity or quality of the articled ordered plainly stated on these bills; (5) The accountant shall attach one of these bills to the requisition on file (B) and forward the other to the director issuing the requisition; (6) The accountant shall at this point make a book or card entry of the transaction; (7) The director must check up his shipment when received and file the duplicate bill with requisition A, at the same time notifying the accountant that the transaction is O. K. In case of errors or shortage, the director will at once notify the accountant of the facts.
No order shall be in proper form to executed by the purchasing agent until the requisition is viséd by the accountant.
IV. At the end of each month the accountant will forward to each director a statement approved by the commissioner, showing in properly classified form (a) the expenditures for the month; (b) the cumulative expenditures for the year up to date and the balances of authorizations yet available.
V. Minor Purchases by Means of a Working Fund: The director may be provided by the State Treasurer with a fund not exceeding two hundred dollars for the purpose of making small cash payments for supplies, material or labor in cases where credit is impracticable.
(p. 82)
He shall render to the accountant at the end of each month, on blanks to be provided, an itemized sworn statement of such payments from said fund and no other voucher shall be required unless specially called for by said accountant. Such statement or statements shall be the voucher for the reimbursement of said fund by the treasurer.
The accountant shall enter such transactions from the lists thus provided and shall forward the list or lists to the state treasurer from time to time when reimbursement is to be made.
No payrolls or reimbursement schedules shall be paid by the state treasurer unless viséd by the accountant.
VI. All payrolls must be sent to the accountant for verification and entry on their way to the state treasurer.
The foregoing instrument must be so interpreted as to make sure that no item of expense in any department of the normal school can pass from the payee to the state treasurer without going through the hands of the accountant of the state board of education.
VII. There shall be an inventory of provisions, school supplies, coal and such other goods on hand as the state board of education shall require and at such times as voted. (Adopted May 21, 1919.)
(p. 109)
THINGS BEGUN AND IN PROCESS
* * *
It is an interesting fact that about one-half of the teachers in service in New Hampshire have had in the beginning no special training for their work. Nevertheless, having now acquired practical experience and having rendered valuable service, they become invaluable to the state when they have supplemented these qualities by special training for their work and it becomes not only an obligation, but an economy, for the state to offer the opportunity for this, as has been done in the summer sessions of the State Normal School.
For the last two summers the attendance at these sessions has been record breaking and it is now apparent that in place of a single summer school during the summer, it will be necessary hereafter to maintain summer sessions, both at Keene and Plymouth, since neither normal school is large enough to accommodate all who desire to attend.
An increasing number of those who profit by these courses are older teachers who have gone into the profession without special training and who now desire to secure some of the benefit that a normal course would have given them. These women are in most cases careful students who fully appreciate the value of the six weeks’ course that is given.
(p. 130)
NORMAL SCHOOLS.
Condition of the Schools.
During the last few years most states have experienced great difficulty in attracting the usual number of girls to their normal schools. In spite of this our two schools have been at all times filled to capacity and each school finds it an embarrassing problem to find accommodations for all those who seek admission.
This is due in large part to the competent management of the schools. The directors have been in their present positions for ten years and those have been years of growth and development at both Plymouth and Keene.
The schools are recognized as institutions where girls are well cared for and well taught and, moreover, are institutions where the students are so busy and the student life is so happy that the girls are enthusiastic in recalling their educational experience and in encouraging others to enter the schools. Statistical information on the normal schools is given on page 55 of Appendix C.
(p. 131)
The Teachers.
A particular difficulty which we face at this time is that the teachers of the normal schools are underpaid. Our appropriations have been limited and the teachers’ salaries have been increased but little, while the salaries of teachers employed by the several towns and cities have increased at a more rapid rate.
As a result we have teachers whose salaries are less than their own graduates with but a year or two of experience. The success of the normal schools depends upon the retention in the schools of competent teachers and the adding to the faculty of teachers of high competence and proved worth. In order to do this we must increase the salaries paid.
New Normal Schools.
All of the graduates of our normal schools teach in the state and all receive prompt employment in villages and cities. Until the number of graduates is largely increased, we shall be unable to provide trained teachers for the rural schools. In spite of this, it is not the opinion of the Board that new normal schools should be established at this time.
The Board recognizes that this must be a future development and it believes that no new schools should be established until a careful study determines the most desirable location.
The greatest need would seem to be for a normal school in the southeastern part of the state as distance prevents girls from this section from attending our present schools and the call for trained teachers in this part of the state is an insistent one. However, before this school is established, it is desirable that the two schools which we have now be developed to their full capacity and this is the need which should receive attention without delay.
(p. 131)
Development at Plymouth.
The village of Plymouth is not of sufficient size to furnish satisfactory practice facilities for a large normal school. The completion of the present plant would, however, permit a fifty percent. addition to the number of girls accommodated and at comparatively small increase of the general charge for maintenance.
At present the dormitory is filled and the teachers obliged to secure rooms wherever they may find them in the village. At the same time, the third story of the dormitory is unfinished. The completion of the plant would mean the ultimate purchases of the residences which now are between dormitory and normal school and their conversion into houses to be used for school purposes. When these changes are made, a strikingly attractive school will result and one of a size which can be satisfactorily administered.
Development at Keene.
At Keene it has been necessary to rent five houses for the accommodation of students. A new dormitory has been planned and should be built at once. This would provide accommodations for a hundred additional students and would not proportionately increase the cost of administration.
With this dormitory should be a well-equipped gymnasium as the school is now without this necessary adjunct.
(p. 199)
Respectfully submitted,
GOV. JOHN H. BARTLETT, Ex-officio.
FRANK S. STREETER, Chairman.
WILFRID J. LESSARD.
ERNEST W. BUTTERFIELD,
Commissioner of Education.
THOMAS W. FRY.
JOHN C. HUTCHINS.
CONCORD, N. H., RALPH D. PAINE.
December 15, 1920. State Board of Education.,
(p. 39)
APPENDIX C
A. DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATION
_______________
(p. 55)
(d) The Normal Schools.
GOVERNMENT.
The government of the state normal schools at Plymouth and at Keene since September 1, 1919, has been in the hands of the State Board of Education. Prior to that date, the Board of Trustees was as follows:
His Excellency John H. Bartlett.
Ernest W. Butterfield.
Charles W. Vaughan.
Arthur B. Rotch.
Francis T. Clayton.
George H. Whitcher.
Inez Ford Nason.
EXPENSE OF MAINTENANCE.
Plymouth. 1918-19 1919-20
State Appropriation, $32,000 $35,000
Number of graduates 33 39
Keene. 1918-19 1919-20
State Appropriation, $32,000 $46,000
Number of graduates 75 59
NORMAL SCHOOL ENROLLMENT.
PLYMOUTH.
Elementary Curriculum, 1918-19 1919-20 1920-21
First Year, 36 60 39
Second Year, 33 30 57
Special Students 1 3 8
(p. 56)
Secondary Curriculum, 1918-19 1919-20 1920-21
First Year, 13 21 10
Second Year, 5 10 17
Third Year, 6 10
______ ______ ______
Total, 88 130 141
Short Course.
Summer, 304
Winter, 59
KEENE.
Elementary Curriculum, 1918-19 1919-20 1920-21
First Year, 49 54 61
Second Year, 73 39 51
Special Students 4 4 8
Secondary Curriculum, 1918-19 1919-20 1920-21
First Year, 18 44 35
Second Year, 4 6 35
Third Year, 1 9 7
______ ______ ______
Total, 149 156 197
Short Course.
Summer, 522
Winter, 42
EXPENSES FOR STUDENTS
To students who agree to teach in New Hampshire for as long a period as they attend the school, there are no charges for tuition, books, school supplies, heat and lighted room and plain laundry.
At each school, a boarding hall is conducted and board furnished at cost. During the biennium, the price has been five dollars per week.
(p. 57)
TERMS OF ADMISSION AND CLOSE OF SESSIONS.
Keene.
1918-1919. September 10. Opening of fall term.
December 20 to January 7. Christmas Vacation.
March 21 to March 31. Spring vacation.
June 27. Graduation..
July 8 to August 15. Summer term
1919-20. September 9. Opening of fall term.
December 19 to January 6. Christmas vacation.
February 27 to March 9.. Spring vacation.
June 16. Graduation.
July 6 to August 13. Summer term