ISLAND BAY SCHOOL

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 136, 6 December 1926, Page 8

ISLAND BAY SCHOOL

lU fa* Editar.) Sir,—Several letters havo appeared kk your columns dealing with the overcrowd, ed condition of the above school, and two correspondents, apparently members of the local school committee, have condemned the board's proposal to erect a second school at the Bay. The argument of th* writers is that two separate school* at the Bay (under separate management) art not required, and the board's restriction limiting.the size of any one school to 700 pupils should be removed. It j* further argued that the first portion of a new building should be erected on Victory Park {a reserve adjoining the present school), large enough to accommodate all the children at present living at TJ^nq Bay, and those who will reside there in the future. No indication of th* somber of children of school age who will re?. quire tuition in, say, ten years' time i§> given, but if the number, should reach 1000 or 1500 what matter? The more.the merrier. Now, sir, I agree with the board that 700 pupils with tho necessary staff is quite as much as any headmaster can efficiently control, and I hope the board will, not vary its policy in this respect. A second school distinct from the existing school is absolutely necessary, and it should not be erected on "Victory Park. Evidently some members of the committee do not know that Victory Park waa purchased on the recommendation of th* then school committee as a play ar*a for the children attending the school, and this policy should be adhered to. There is still room for many more dwelling houses at the Bay, and ultimately the second school will house quite as many pupils as now attend the building in existence. As an old committeeman, I would like to suggest to the members of the liland Bay School Committee, for whom 1, .have the greatest respect, that there are certain school teachers who are very ambitious, and who are anxious for reason* of their own to control schools large enough to receive all the children in tn* district, even if the number reached 5000, These teachers arc very shrewd. They never by any chance appear in the pioture, but they make the bullets.and persuade the innocent school committee to do, the rest. —I am, etc., TWO SCHOOLS.