General report on school buildings and grounds of Delaware, 1919

Front matter

Bonk JU3 O Y

COHOaiGHT DEPOSm

BULLETIN OF THE

Part I

page I How Delaware Houses Her School Children 3

II School Buildings of Delaware of More Than Two

' Rooms, Except Special Districts 25

III Representative One-Room Buildings — New Castle

County 69

IV Representative Two-Room Buildings — New Castle

County 85

V Representative One-Room Buildings — Kent County . . 97

VI Representative Two-Room Buildings — Kent County . . 112

VII Representative One-Room Buildings — Sussex County. . 121

VIII Representative Two-Room Buildings — Sussex County. . 143

IX Representative School Buildings for Colored Children,

New Castle County 153

X Representative School Buildings for Colored Children,

XI Representative School Buildings for Colored Children,

Preface

All real progress must rest upon a solid foundation of fact. This is just as true in education as in business. Educationalists in the past have -been too prone to follow theories, irrespective of the actual local conditions and needs.

In August we published a report on the physical condition of the following schools : Alexis I. du Pont, Mt. Pleasant, New Castle, Newark, Middletown, Smyrna, Dover, Caesar Rodney, Harrington, Milford, Seaford, Blades, Laurel, Georgetown and Lewes. The report was made by Dr. George D. Strayer, Professor of Educational Administration, Teachers' College, Columbia University, and Professor N. L. Engelhardt, Associate Professor of Educational Administration, Teachers' College, Columbia University. They are recognized experts in their own field. In making the survey and writing the report they had no motive or purpose other than to give an accurate description of conditions as they found them in Delaware.

This volume has been prepared by Dr. Strayer and Dr. Engelhardt in exactly the same way as the former one. It is an account of the majority of our schools in Delaware, with accurate descriptions and photographs of typical instances. Both of these reports are in the possession of the State Board of Education, and they have also been widely distributed throughout the State.

The first impression the reader obtains is one of discouragement. Conditions are undoubtedly bad, but the people of Delaware today are anxious that things which are wrong should be righted as quickly as possible. If there were no prospect of improving our educational conditions, it would be a cruel humiliation to publish such a record as this. Happily we are in the position of being able not only to make the bad good and the good better in the matter of the physical equipment of our schools, but all over the State the best citizens are anxious that these things should be done and done at once. The cost to the taxpayer is not prohibitive. Generous assistance is also available from the P. S. duPont Fund, which is being administered by the Delaware School Auxiliary Association. In undertaking a very thorough re-building program we are not doing anything unusual. Indeed, we are doing only what other states have been doing for some time past, or are engaged in doing at present.

The children of Delaware are its richest assets. In a democracy all the real values are human values. The vital factor of progress is the quality of its citizenship. It is almost impossible to get good teachers or first-class teaching in buildings which are hopelessly out of date, inadequate, insanitary, and detrimental to the health of the pupils. Money spent on education and on educational equipment is the soundest investment a state, a county, or a special district can make for its own financial, social and moral future. We are therefore publishing this report in the firm belief that it will be received with gratitude. In it there is pictured one of the diseases of our social body, but we are not disheartened because we also know that the remedy is available. Delawareans have shown themselves especially patriotic and progressive all through the desperate days of the war, and the same spirit will guide them forward in providing for their own immediate needs as the new era dawns.

Part I

How Delaware Houses Her School Children chapter i

how delaware houses her school Children

A DESCRIPTION of the school building situation in Delaware can be made clear to the reader only by an analysis which will bring into relief the several more important elements which go to make up an ideal school plant.

For this reason we shall discuss (1) School grounds; (2) The type of school buildings; (3) The facilities which are provided for the health and comfort of the children and the maintenance of the school program; (4) The class rooms, including a discussion of their construction, lighting and the equipment for school work which is found in them; and (5) The special rooms which permit of a proper program for play, community use, industrial arts, household arts and for the work of administrative officers.

In every case, the discussion will present the situation in Delaware as compared with the best type of facilities now provided in the more progressive communities of the United States. The opportunity which Delaware has, by reason of the two-million-dollar fund made available to aid in the construction of new buildings, can be thought of as significant only as Delaware provides school facilities for her children equal to the best to be found in any part of the nation.

SCHOOL GROUNDS

Any discussion of school grounds must take into consideration the location of school buildings with respect to their accessibility and environment, the size of the site upon which the building is placed and the suitability of the particular area used for the purpose for which it has been set aside.

(Note: The descriptive treatment given in this section is based upon a careful survey of school grounds, buildings and equipment throughout the State. Every school house was visited and the details recorded on a score card. This detailed scoring, together with a discussion of the standards which were used, appears in Part Two.)

B

It is difficult to express adequately the failure upon the part of local Boards of Education to provide school grounds without being charged by some one with failure to recognize the adequacy of the provision which has been made in a few localities. If one generalizes concerning the whole State, he is compelled to record the fact that school grounds have been provided only in terms of a space big «ettough to accommodate the school building, the fuel house and the toilets.

The typical school site in Delaware is a piece of ground, triangular or rectangular in form, with an area of less than half an acre, in the angle of the crossroads, on a piece of ground ordinarily not considered suitable for cultivation and not infrequently so low as to make it difficult or impossible of proper drainage. In a great many cases this little plot of ground is either in a densely wooded section or on the edge of a forest or swamp.

In the more progressive communities throughout the United States the necessity for providing space enough on the school grounds for play has long been recognized. The standard school site for a one tO' four teacher school should include a minimum of four acres of land, at least three and one-half acres of which is free from buildings, trees or other obstacles which would interfere with the development of a well-equipped playground. Rural school children need, even more than do' the children of our urban communities, an opportunity to learn to play. One of the most pitiful sights to be seen in the rural schools of Delaware is a group of children, during school intermissions, standing around in the yard with no opportunity for play and apparently with no appreciation or understanding of the games in which children find their most worthwhile recreation. Whether one considers the problem from the standpoint of the physical welfare of children or from the standpoint of their social and moral development, well-organized play must be considered as significant as the study of arithmetic or the learning to read.

It is a pleasure to record the fact that in a few instances playground space has been provided and that there is evidence that this space has been used. At the same time, it is necessary to call attention to the fact that practically no play apparatus for the smaller children has been installed. Children of the lower grades should have see-saws, swings, giant strides, sa,nd piles, slides and the like, as well as space for ring games, basketball and other group activities.

For the older children, sufficient space for regular baseball for the boys and for tennis and outdoor-indoor baseball for the girls has been provided by communities in other states, where they believe that an investment in the physical and social well-being of children pays.

For schools having more than four teachers, and especially for the communities which maintain a high school, a minimum of ten acres should be provided in the site. Where children of the elementary and high schools are brought together on one site, it is essential that larger space be provided in order that all may have an opportunity for play, organized in groups determined by the ages of the children. At Middletown, Harrington, Greenwood, the Alex I. Du Pont School, and in lesser degree in a few of the other communities, this standard has been partially met.

It is noteworthy^ that the communities which now have under consideration the building of new school buildings (Claymont, Newark, Middletown, Dover, Smyrna-Clayton, Laurel, Lewes, Richardson Park, Seaford) are all planning to secure a site of at least ten acres. In some of these communities the site now under consideration contains twelve or more acres. For both the rural school and for the larger community the play space will be available for community use as well as for the school. The modern conception of the function of public education requires that plans for the development of school property recognize the necessity for providing opportunity for recreation for the youth and adults of the community as well as for the children enrolled in the school.

Wherever agriculture is included in the curriculum of the school a small part of the school site should be available for demonstration purposes. There are in the United States today rural schools which have had a most marked effect upon the productivity of the farms in their neighborhood through the experimentation and demonstration which have been undertaken on the school grounds and on the home farms. In one instance in an adjoining state an increase of thirty per cent, in the yield of potatoes was brought to pass solely by the experiments undertaken, in the selection of seed and in the cultivation of this crop, by the agricultural department of the high school. When the education provided deals directly with the most important occupation engaged in by the fathers and mothers of the children, it has the double advantage of securing generous support from the local community and of educating the children with respect to the opportunities for advancement along the lines of work in which they ought normally to engage. Education ought not to seek to train all children for city life. In Delaware, for most children, the greatest opportunity is to be found in an improved and more profitable cultivation of the soil.

When one has in mind the use of the site suggested above he recognizes the necessity for picking out the best piece of land in the community and not an area which is not suited for any other purpose.

School grounds, if they are to be used, must be capable of rapid drainage. The site of the school should be located with reference to improved roads. Other things being equal, the school building should be as near as possible to the center of the attendance district, Where the better roads intersect at a point some distance from this central locality, this road intersection, rather than mere centrality, should determine the location of the school building.

Every school building should have a flagpole placed in front of the building and high enough to float the flag above the highest point on the building. Many of the flagpoles in Delaware were placed some years ago and are today without halyards and cannot, therefore, be used. Forty-two per cent, of the school sites in Delaware are today without a flagpole.

It is assumed in this discussion of the school site that in a modern school building water supply, toilet facilities and fuel storage will be provided in the building itself.

TYPE OF SCHOOL BUILDING

If an adequate site has been provided the next problem which confronts the community is the type of building which is to be constructed and its placement upon the site. The materials used, the height of the building, the foundation and walls, the entrances, corridors and basement all in some measure contribute to the development of an ideal school building. As has already been suggested, the building should be so placed upon the grounds as to permit of a maximum use of the site for play and for school gardens. It is also advisable to put the building far enough back from the street or much-traveled road so as not to have the noises interfere with the work going on in the class room. The building should, of course, be placed SO' as to appear well in the neighborhood. A good school building ought to be the most attractive public building in any community. Where there is a possibility of the school growing larger, either on account of the growth of the community or because of the consolidation of other schools, it will be necessary as well to provide for extensions to the building when locating it on the site.

Even in the oiie-teacher school building the direction from which the light enters the class rooms should determine the facing of the building. In many cases in Delaware school rooms were found in which the main source of light was from the north. In this latitude light entering the class room should come from the southeast, east, southwest or west rather than directly from the north or south.

The typical school building in Delaware is a most unattractive, store-box type of structure, with windows located at regular intervals on two or three sides, with the entrance on the fourth side. In almost no case is there 'any evidence of any attempt to make the school building attractive architecturally. Even the one-teacher school should compare most favorably with the very best type of cottage or dwelling house in the community in which it is placed. It should be an example of good taste and of beauty rather than an eye-sore which is hidden on a by-road.

Larger school buildings have been successfully planned and are most attractive when built not on the single rectangular plan, but rather on the T E or U outline. Buildings constructed with this general contour permit, as well, of additions without interfering with the structure already built. No building that has six or fewer class rooms should be more than one story in height. There is absolutely no excuse in the villages of Delaware for the two to four class-room buildings two stories in height. It is sHghtly cheaper to build a two-story structure, but the use to which the building is put and the safety of the children who' are housed in it demand the one-story structure. This is especially true in the communities in which nO' adequate fire protection is available. In the larger buildings, where on account of economy in building or lack of space over which to spread the larger number of class rooms it is necessary to build a two-story building, the plans must always include fireproof construction if the building is to be considered acceptable from the standpoint of fire risk.

School buildings in Delaware are commonly of wood frame construction. Thirty per cent, of the one to four teacher schools are of the one-room box type, without vestibule, requiring that this room be utilized as storage place for children's wraps, for the fuel and even for the pump, as well as for the remainder of the school equipment. It was surprising to find that in a large number of instances the one-room buildings were mounted on brick, concrete block or even wooden post piers, with spaces between the piers open so that the floors of the school room would of necessity be extremely difficult to heat in the winter months. In other instances these open spaces between the piers had been partially filled in with boards, providing only meager protection against the winter winds. In cases where the floors of these buildings were warped and not closely fitted together, this type of foundation allowed the dust to be blown into the school room, while even in some instances weeds were growing through the cracks.

In many instances the roof, sadly in need of repair, had permitted enough water to enter the building to damage the plaster, even to the point of having a large part of it fall off the ceiling and off the walls. In some cases a leaky roof resulted in a mouldy interior totally unfit for school purposes. Floors were badly damaged, books were moulded and school furniture discolored and covered with dirt on account of the failure to provide adequate protection against the rain.

In cases where vestibules were provided they frequently were without equipment, except a few nails hammered in their wooden walls for the hanging of children's wraps ; while in other instances the studding had not even been covered, so that the vestibule had the appearance of a barn instead of a room in a schoolhouse.

It has long been recognized for any type of school that a good school building must provide facilities for some work in the household arts and in manual training, and that indoor space other than the class room for play and for community use is essential. If children in rural communities are to have as adequate provision made for their education as have their more fortunate brothers and sisters of the urban communities, then there can be nO' such thing as a one-room school. Rural school children have a right to a class room that is well equipped. They also should have provided for them a space off one end of the class room in which there is at least an oil stove, a sink, table and chairs, a cupboard, cooking utensils and dishes. This room will be used every day to supplement with hot cocoa or soup the cold lunches which the children bring from home. A capable teacher on certain occasions will use it for demonstrations in cooking, canning and the like. The community will use this space when gatherings are held in the evening, or on special occasions, for the preparation of refreshments which are served to those present.

It is quite as important that space be provided, preferably off the other end of the class room and under the control of the teacher, in which at least one carpenter's bench, a grindstone, a harness horse, a cupboard with ordinary carpenter's tools, a long table for agricultural experiments and a cobbler's bench are installed.

In the one to four teacher schools of Delaware no provision has been made for any work in manual training, agriculture or the home-making arts, although a majority of the children who attend these schools never have any opportunity beyond the education which is provided in them. A good plan for the one to four teacher school will make it possible, by erecting partitions of folding doors, to open a maximum of space into one room' for community meetings. The plan for the one to four teacher school building should, as well, include at least an alcove for books other than the textbooks which children have in their desks. In this library space there should be provided a daily paper, a weekly magazine of current events, a fa^m journal, a children's magazine and one of the better of the monthly magazines. In addition to this current literature, standard reference books, works of history, biography, science, fiction and State and National governmental bulletins and reports should be made available.

If children are to be properly cared for and freed from the contaminating influence of the outhouses now found everywhere on the grounds around the smaller school buildings, toilet rooms on the same floor as the class room or class rooms, with sewer connections, sewage disposal or chemical toilet tank should be installed.

In these smaller school buildings a play space, as well as a compartment for the heating plant, can be provided by excavating a basement, the floor of which should not be more than three and a half feet below grade. This room can, as well, be used for community purposes even while the school is in session.

In the larger school buildings an auditorium and a gymnasium are commonly provided in more progressive communities throughout the country. Where it is thought desirable tO' minimize the expense, it is possible to provide a combination of auditorium and gymnasium, although neither will be as satisfactory as where these rooms are built separately. In these larger buildings the equipment for manual training and for the home-making arts will, of course,, be more extensive on account of the greater number of children to be instructed and because of the special teachers who will be employed for this purpose.

Even in the one-teacher school a space should be provided for the teacher outside of the class room. This room will be used for the storage of books and supplies, for the school records, for the use of school officials when they come to the school building to consult the teacher or to hold their meetings, for the work of the attendance officer, for the supervisor and for the visiting nurse, who may wish to make careful physical examinations in order to discover defects of hearing, sight and the like.

In the larger buildings more than one room for the purposes enumerated above will, of course, have to be provided. It is also to the advantage of teacher and pupils to have the school library within the limits of the school building itself so that it will be readily accessible when needed.

The types of building proposed will cost more than has heretofore been expended on school buildings commonly found in the State of Delaware. If progress in providing school facilities in Delaware keeps step with the developments in other states, the number of one-teacher schools will be diminished very rapidly on account of the consolidation which is effected. There may remain a verv few one-teacher schools, but even in these remote communities adequate facilities should be provided even though the cost be greater, and unusually capable teachers should be provided for them, even though it may be necessary to pay more salary than is ordinarily paid to those who teach in the towns and cities of the State. Doubtless, the people of the State will find in the smaller expense of the larger school, per pupil or per teacher, both for original cost and for maintenance, one incentive to rapid consolidation.

PROVISIONS FOR HEALTH AND COMFORT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN

In fortv-six per cent, of the one to four teacher schools now existing in the State of Delaware, no other provision has been made for heating and ventilating the school room than through the agency of the old-fashioned tvpe of wood or coal stove. These stoves are frequently worn out, cracked and battered to such a degree that they should long ago have been discarded. They provide an excess of heat for the children seated in their immediate vicinity. Instances were found where the children's seats were within twelve inches of the fire bowl of the stove. The children sitting on the fringe of the room farthest from the stove receive a minimum of heat, while those nearest to the stove must be most uncomfortable.

In fifty-four per cent, of the one to four teacher schools a jacketed, improved type of heater, with provision for fresh air intake, has been installed. In most cases these are the very acceptable Waterbury heaters. For the one-room school this heater furnishes a fairly satisfactory type of heating and ventilating system, and is a very great improvement over the old type of stove. If the one to four teacher school is enlarged to include the facilities discussed above, this improved type of heater will not be large enough to heat the building. Two or three of these heaters might, however, be installed in such fashion as to satisfactorily heat the larger type of building. In the more modern type of school these heaters are always placed either in a basement or in a special space provided for them outside of- the class room.

When new school buildings of the one to four teacher type are erected, a fairly satisfactory heating plant can be provided by installing a hot-air furnace in the basement, with . ducts leading to each class room or other space provided for school or community use.

Even in some of the school buildings having from four to six rooms the old-fashioned stove was found as the sole means of heating the class rooms. This provides as many sources of fire danger and of dirt as there are individual stoves, and cannot be too seriously condemned.

In the larger school buildings, heating by steam will ordinarily be found most satisfactory, and an adequate system of heating and ventilating can be provided by bringing air into the building by means of a stack that reaches above the highest point of the building, through an air chamber in the basement in which the air passes over steam coils and is forced by a fan through ducts which carry it to each class room. From each of these class rooms a ventiduct, taking the foul air from the floor level of the class room, carries it to the roof or to an air chamber immediately under the roof. In order to get a maximum of ventilation, it is necessary to supply a steam coil or other source of heat in the ventiducts or to install a fan in the air chamber in the attic, which has the efifect of exhausting the foul air from the class rooms. When such a system of heating and ventilating is installed, it is customary to place radiators in the class rooms, both for the sake of supplementing the heat supplied by the air which is forced into the class room and for the sake of furnishing all of the heat that is necessary when the building is not in use. In the absence of forced ventilation, such as has been suggested, it is possible to heat the room with radiators placed in the room and to provide ventiducts for the removal of foul air, heated with steam coils, in order to accelerate the movement of air, installing a screen covered with cloth, through which fresh air may enter the class room, in the window openings. This latter form of ventilation will ordinarily be found less satisfactory than is the forced system of ventilation.

In the larger school buildings a system of temperature control, which acts automatically to shut off the supply of heat, is commonly installed. In the smaller school building a thermometer should be provided, hung at approximately the breathing level, and the tem^ perature record should be placed on the blackboard in the front of the room at intervals not exceeding one hour during the school session, so that the children and teacher may see that the building is not overheated. In very few Delaware schools were even thermometers found whereby the temperature of class rooms might be regulated.

The people of Delaware will, unless action is taken in the very near future, be shocked some day by the story of a catastrophe resulting in the death of a number of children in a school building fire. There is literally no attempt to protect the children of the State from the danger of fire which is to be found in the highly inflammable buildings in which they are housed. In one instance the furnace, within three feet of the floor of the class room^ above, had on one side of it a pile of ashes and cinders which had been thrown out, and on the other side a pile of waste paper, boxes and other trash ready to be used for kindhng. In several other buildings trash of various sorts, old furniture, boxes and other containers had been stored under the stairways which provided the only exit for children from the second floor. In one of the best school buildings of the State, built of semi-fireproof construction, the storeroom for the chemical laboratory is placed under the main entrance through which the majority of children would have tO' pass in case a fire broke out during school hours. It is out of just such situations as these, found throughout the United States, that the catastrophes about which one reads every month school is in session have occurred.

The most common source of fire in school buildings is the heating plant. In all new buildings which are constructed the heating plant should be separated from the rest of the building with fireproof walls and should be entered by a self-closing fireproof door. In all buildings more than one story high the stairways should be fireproof and enclosed in fireproof stairwells. In a one or two teacher building one exit wiJl be found sufficient, with an additional exit from the basement if it is used. In buildings housing three or more classes, at least two exits should be provided. In buildings having more than six classes on the second floor, two or three stairways from the second floor should be provided. In all buildings a small hand fire extinguisher should be made available for every two thousand square feet of floor space. In all school buildings, doors opening out of class rooms and exits from the corridors of the building should open outward. The doors opening from halls and corridors should be provided with panic bolts which permit of their opening merely by having children crowd against them. In Delaware, in a great many cases, the class room doors open in, and in some cases even the doors opening off of corridors, cloak rooms and vestibules ofifer obstacles to the escape of children in case of fire. Panic bolts have been supplied in a very few cases, while in other instances snap locks have been installed on doors in such a manner as actually to prevent children from opening them in case of panic.