Class L Book COPYRIGHT DEPOSm THE CITY SUPERINTENDENT AND THE BOARD OF EDUCATION BY WILLIAM WALTER THEISEN, Ph.D. TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION, No. 84 PUBLISHED BY JBmtljtvB ffloU^gp, (SnUtmfaia UnroprBttg NEW YORK CITY 1917 oq\^ Copyright, 1917 by William Walter Theisen 0k \S'^^ SGI.A470844 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writer is indebted for the successful completion of this study to the hundreds of persons who have participated in one form or another in its making. He is indebted in particular to the members of the seminar in Educational Administration, to Pro- fessor Milo B. Hillegas, to Professor Ellwood P. Cubberley, and to Professor George Drayton Strayer for valuable criticisms and suggestions. He is especially indebted to Professor Strayer, who first suggested the problem and through whose untiring efforts in enlisting the cooperation of others the study has been made possible. m CONTENTS PAGE Introduction vii I. The Board and Its Duties 1 1. Cities of the Study 1 2. The Question of Legal Limitations 3 3. The Duties of a Lay Board of Education .... 6 4. The Work of Board Committees . . . . . . 32 5. Summary . 59 II. The Administrative Organization 61 1. Need of Considering Administrative Organization . . 62 2. Types of Administrative Organization 68 3. Administrative Organization in Other Fields .... 81 4. Summary 99 III. Authority Given the Chief Executive 101 1. Matters of Instruction 101 2. Matters of Business 120 3. Summary 124 Conclusions and Recommendations 125 Appendix A: Proposed Rules and Regulations . . . 127 Appendix B: Bibliography 133 INTRODUCTION 1. The Problem The problem of this study is to discover how lay boards of education provide for the administration of city school systems through professional chief executives. The study is concerned with an analysis of the practices of boards of education in cities of various sizes, together with an attempt to evaluate such prac- tices. It is an attempt to discover what functions boards of edu- cation themselves perform, as a body or through their commit- tees, what functions are delegated to executives, and how these functions are delegated. Questions which the study seeks to answer in part at least are : What are the duties that lay boards perform ? What is the nature of matters receiving the attention of boards ? What kind of data do they require as a basis for determining school policies ? What functions are delegated to committees? What functions are delegated to executive officers ? What is the form of admin- istrative organization provided? To what extent do boards rec- ognize professional leadership in administrative matters and in initiating school policies? Constructively the study seeks to discover the duties that are important for a lay board to perform as opposed to those that are trivial or that are professional and administrative. It seeks to discover those functions that should be delegated to the professional chief executive and his assist- ants and the scope of authority that should be given them. And, finally it seeks to discover how, with such functions delegated to professional executive officers, a lay board may exercise effi- cient control of the responsibilities imposed upon them by the state. 2. Criteria An effort will be made in this study to use objective measures as far as possible. These will be supplemented by the results of vii viii Introduction a group of judgments and by analogies with similar practices in the fields of business and city administration. The first criterion which we may apply is use or waste of salaried professional skill actually purchased. As a corollary to this may be added the employment or non-employment of the highest degree of skill available for the salary paid. It is a fair measure to place an unfavorable evaluation upon that board practice which employs a superintendent for the professional service he is capable of rendering, and then either, on account of the board's own ignorance or egotism, fails to utilize this pro- fessional skill for which it is paying. In this category may be placed such matters as the failure to recognize the professional character of educational leadership, the failure to give the super- intendent as chief executive the power to control the educational aspects of all departments of the system, or the failure to give him the necessary authority to secure the results of which he is capable. A second criterion which may be applied is economical use of time at the board's disposal, e.g., as represented by the distri- bution of time in board meetings. The assumption in this case is that the consideration which different matters coming before a board will receive is, roughly speaking, inversely proportional to the number of questions considered. The practice which gives lengthy consideration to trivial matters with the result that large and important questions are passed upon with scant treatment or that attemps to deal with fifty questions in one meeting when it has time enough to consider adequately only a few large ques- tions is not to be considered on the same plane with one that centers its attention on important matters, and leaves adminis- trative details to i>e attended to by the professional leaders it employs. A third criterion to be used is precision or definiteness, i. e., acting on adequate or inadequate information in determining school policies as in such matters as the budget. The practice which passes upon a budget containing ten items in lump sums, not knowing whether they represent the actual school needs in relation to the financial ability of the city or not, is not to be compared in point of administrative efficiency with that which passes upon a budget knowing just what proportion of its funds Introduction ix is to go for each of the different forms of service — adminis- trative control, supervision, teaching, text-books, fuel, supplies, janitor service, repairs — that knows how these proportions com- pare from building to building, from year to year or with sim- ilar items in other cities; that knows how these items compare in terms of per pupil cost; that knows something of the reasons for differences in cost ; that knows how large a burden may rea- sonably be placed upon the taxable wealth of the community for education in the light of what it must spend in other endeavors ; and that knows whether or not it has secured ample returns from previous expenditures in the way of achievements. As a fourth criterion, though largely subjective, we may use familiarity displayed by a board with its own actions. We may evaluate unfavorably the action of a board that permits committee judgments to serve without question as board judg- ments on matters of policy or administration; that accepts com- mittee reports without discussion or that does not require ade- quate reports of executive officers nor discuss them. THE CITY SUPERINTENDENT AND THE BOARD OF EDUCATION CHAPTER I THE BOARD AND ITS DUTIES The purpose of this chapter is primarily to consider the duties of a board of education and of its committees. It is aimed to select, if possible, from the wide range of duties performed by boards of education, those duties which are of vital importance. It is aimed to select those that are worthy of a board's attention, as opposed to those that are of trivial importance or that are pro- fessional in nature and which ought therefore to be delegated to the superintenaent or his assistants. There are those who fear that in the modern demand that the superintendent be given large powers, the board of education will have little left to do and, as a result, will not attract to its membership the commun- ity's most capable citizens. We shall present in this chapter a tentative list of the more important duties of a board of educa- tion, ranked in their approximate order of importance as judged by several hundred competent judges. As to the proper func- tion of board committees, the writer does not hope to reach a complete solution of the problem in this study. A thorough solution of the committee question would require a special inves- tigation in itself. We shall present the evidence found, viewing it in the light of certain other factors which influence. We may to a certain extent evaluate the work performed by committees from the standpoint of the duties that should be performed by the board as a whole and in light of the same criteria that are to be applied to the larger body. 1. Cities of the Study Table I gives the cities whose rules and regulations were ana- lyzed.^ In it is given also the population of each city to the near- 1 In two of these cities the board publishes no rules and regulations. In one of these the writer made a personal investigation in some detail to 1 2 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education est thousand as given by the last Federal Census, the size of the board, and the number of board committees for each city. Table II gives the cities whose minutes were examined. TABLE I City W (J City PQ u 1. Norwalk, Conn... 25,000 2. Chester, Pa 39,000 3. Cleveland 560,000 4. Akron, Ohio 69,000 5. New York 4,767,000 6. Salt Lake 93,000 7. Waltham, Mass. . . 28,000 8. New Orleans 339,000 9. Wausau, Wis. . . . 17,000 10. Grand Rapids ... 113,000 11. St. Louis 687,000 12. Yonkers, N. Y... 80,000 13. Detroit 466,000 14. Rochester 218,000 15. Fall River, Mass. 119,000 16. Minneapolis 301,000 17. Syracuse 137,000 18. Newton, Mass. . . 40,000 19. Baltimore 558,000 20. New Haven 134,000 21. Bridgeport, Conn. 102,000 22. Newburyport, Mass 15,000 23. Boston 671,000 24. Denver 213,000 25. Covington, Ky. . . 53,000 26. Louisville 224,000 27. San Francisco . . 417,000 28. Cedar Rapids, la. 33,000 29. St. Joseph, Mo... 77,000 30. Evansville, Ind... 70,000 31. Fort Worth 73,000 32. Moline, 111 24,000 33. New Brunswick, N. J 23,000 34. Elgin, 111 26,000 35. Spokane 104,000 36. Houston 79,000 37. Laramie, Wyo. . , 8,000 38. Lead, S. D 8,000 39. Topeka 44,000 40. Nashville 110,000 41. Chicago 2,185,000 42. Providence 224,000 43. Winston-Salem, N. C 17,000 44. Sioux City, la 48,000 45. Cape Girardeau.. 8,000 46. Seattle 237,000 47. Greeley, Colo. . . . 8,000 48. Calumet, Mich. . , 33,000 49. Lebanon, Pa. ... 19,000 50. Pawtucket, R. I.. 52,000 9 4 9 5 7 6 7 9 46 15 5 S 10 6 5 4 12 7 9 4 12 4 15 16 18 8 5 9 11 7 7 9 7 9 6 7 6 12 4 12 11 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 7 7 6 6 6 3 7 6 13 8 5 8 13 9 5 5 7 6 6 4 5 4 13 6 9 4 21 9 33 19 7 3 7 7 6 6 5 6 5 5 5 6 7 6 9 12 51. Portland, Ore. .. 207,000 52. Terra Haute 58,000 53. Paterson 126,000 54. Richmond 128,000 55. Brookline, Mass.. 28,000 56. Pittsfield, Mass... 32,000 57. Columbus, Ohio . 182,000 58. Joliet, 111 35,000 59. Omaha 150,000 60. Lincoln, Nebr. . . 44,000 61. Indianapolis .... 234,000 62. Beverley, Mass. . 19,000 63. Brockton, Mass... 57,000 64. Central Falls, R.I. 23,000 65. Westport, Mass.. 3,000 66. Waterbury, Conn. 73,000 67. Philadelphia 1,549,000 68. Harrisburg 64,000 69. Schenectady 73,000 70. Pine Bluffs, Ark.. 15,000 71. Fort Smith, Ark.. 24,000 72. Montgomery, Ala. 38,000 73. Manchester, N.H. 70,000 74. Joplin, Mo 32,000 75. Lockport, N. Y.. 18,000 76. Freeport, N. Y.. 5,000 17. Everett, Wash. .. 25,000 78. Oakland, Cal. ... 150,000 79. Fargo, N. D. ... 14,000 80. Charleston, S. C. . 59,000 81. Boulder, Colo. . . 10,000 82. Wakefield, Mass.. 11,000 83. Wichita 52,000 84. Johnstown, Pa. . . 55,000 85. Charlotte, N. C. 34,000 86. Columbia, S. C... 26,000 87. Racine, Wis 38,000 88. Newport, Ky. . . . 30,000 89. Worcester, Mass.. 146,000 90. Milton, Mass. . . . 8,000 91. Holyoke, Mass. . 58,000 92. Lawrence, Mass.. 86,000 93. Kansas City, Mo. 248,000 94. West Point, Nebr. 1,800 95. Pierce, Nebr. . . . 1,200 96. Cortland, N. Y... 12,000 97. Fremont, Nebr. . 9,000 98. Portland, Me. . . . 59,000 99. Middletown, N.Y. 15,000 100. Winchester, Mass. 9,000 5 8 5 9 4 9 4 9 5 15 15 7 6 7 9 12 6 6 6 5 5 7 4 10 9 6 6 3 1 7 5 15 8 9 5 5 5 6 5 6 5 5 5 12 4 6 5 12 8 5 2 5 5 7 4 9 8 10 7 5 5 6 5 12 11 9 4 17 7 7 5 18 8 12 15 30 14 6 3 9 11 5 6 10 6 6 6 9 9 6 4 13 17 9 5 determine what is the actual practice. The other is a small city with which the writer was for a number of years intimately connected in his capacity as superintendent. The Board and its Duties City TABLE II City 1. Seattle 237,000 5 2. Pittsburg 534,000 15 3. St. Louis 687,000 12 4. Reading 96,000 9 S.Worcester 146,000 30 6. Newark 347,000 9 7. Albany 100,000 3 S.Milwaukee 374,000 15 9. Somerville, Mass. . 77,000 14 10. Lancaster, Pa. ... 47,000 7 11. Muskegon 24,000 6 12. East Orange 34,000 5 13. Grand Rapids 113,000 9 14. Lincoln 44,000 6 15. Omaha 150,000 12 16. Fremont, Nebr. .. 9,000 6 17. West Point, Nebr. 1,800 6 18. Pierce, Nebr. . . . 1,200 6 19. Schenectady 73,000 S 20. Dunkirk, N. Y.... 17,000 8 21. Millville, N. J 12,000 5 22. Topeka 44,000 13 23. Framingham, Mass. 13,000 6 24. Whitehall, N. Y. . . 5,000 5 25. La Porte, Ind ... 11,000 3 26. Benton Harbor . . . 9,000 6 27. Boise, Idaho 17,000 6 28. Bloomington, Ind. 9,000 3 29. Kewanee, 111 9,000 — 30. Burlington, Vt. . . 20,000 6 6 3 4 4 14 4 6 4 5 4 6 6 4 6 5 11 6 2 31. Paducah, Ky 32. Salem, Mass 33. Council Bluffs, la. 34. New Orleans . . . . 35. Richmond 36. Carthage, Mo. . . . 37. Owatonna, Minn.. 38. Martins Ferry, O. . 39. Waterloo, la 40. Bellaire, O 41. Mansfield, O 42. Plattsmouth, Neb.. 43. Wichita, Kans. . . . 44. Lead, S. D 45. San Antonio 46. Mitchell, S. D . . . 47. Des Moines 48. Winfield, Kans. .. 49. Kalamazoo 50. Ypsilanti 51. Chatham, N. J 52. Louisville 53. Montclair 54. Bridgeport 55. Chicago 56. Jersey City 57. Cleveland 58. Elizabeth 59. New York 60. Los Angeles PM 23,000 44,000 29,000 339,000 128,000 ■9,000 6,000 9,000 27,000 13,000 21,000 4,000 52,000 8,000 97,000 66,000 86,000 7,000 39,000 6,000 2,000 224,000 22,000 102,000 2,185,000 268,000 560,000 73,000 4,767,000 319,000 5 — 5 — 7 6 5 4 9 4 6 — 5 — 5 — 6 — 8 10 5 — 6 — 12 11 5 4 7 9 5 — 7 4 6 — 6 3 6 8 9 5 5 12 21 9 7 9 46 15 7 6 NOTE — In both Tables I and II, where several visiting or building committees and the like have been found in a single city, they have in each case been com- bined into a single visiting or building committee. 2. The Question of Legal Limitations It is not deemed necessary for the purpose of this study to enter into an analysis of the legal limitations affecting the powers and duties of city boards of education. While the statutes, on the one hand, do not for the most part prescribe the exact form in which these duties shall be exercised, they do not, on the other hand, prevent boards from exercising good judgment through the application of sound business principles in providing for the administration of the school system. Among the powers and duties commonly granted to city boards of education are these: to employ teachers and fix their salaries; to determine courses of study and adopt text-books, in so far as not regulated by state law ; to purchase fuel and supplies ; to divide the city into districts for purposes of distributing attend- ance; to submit bond issues to a vote of the electors; to recom- 4 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education mend the tax levy; to have care and oversight of school prop- erty. The purchase and location of sites and the erection of buildings is frequently restricted by requiring a vote of approval by the electors, or in dependent city districts, by removing the power to purchase sites and erect buildings to other controlling bodies. This study is concerned with the way in which provision is made in the by-laws of boards for the performance of duties commonly devolving upon them. It is concerned with what boards do, whether it be the result of inactivity or over-activity, or whether it be the result of legal restriction, or a combination of these factors. It is true that boards are not altogether respon- sible for not doing what they may be, by statute, prevented from doing, but their responsibility in that case lies in utilizing the means at their command for securing necessary changes in the laws. In short, we are interested in finding how different forms of board practice contribute to or hinder efficient school admin- istration. Even a casual examination of state school laws is sufficient to convince the student of educational administration that the stat- utes do not prevent boards from knowing what they are doing; from bending every effort (except in San Francisco, which pro- vides for popular election of the superintendent) to secure as their chief executive officer the most capable man available ; from looking to their chief executive for recommendations on ques- tions of policy; from requiring of their executive officers ade- quate reports of the educational progress and business conditions of the school system; from an intelligent discussion of such reports ; from requiring their chief executive and his assistants to submit a detailed analysis of proposed expenditures and prob- able receipts, showing just what each unit of educational en- deavor will probably cost; from centering their own attention on large questions of policy and devoting a greater share of their time to large questions rather than to trivial matters. An exam- ination of school laws reveals further that boards are not deterred by legal provisions, from refusing to appoint teachers and other officers, so far as the appointive power rests with the board, except as they are nominated and recommended by the chief executive. It does not prevent them from refusing to squander The Board and its Duties 5 their own time in listening to personal complaints and communi- cations unless it is found that the matter in question cannot be adjusted satisfactorily by those whom it employs to administer its system of education. While charters and general school laws do restrict boards in some cities by placing the money raising power, or the power to determine the location of sites and the erection of school buildings, in other hands, they may at least attempt to see that these other bodies are provided with adequate information regard- ing the needs of the school system. They may see that the city authorities or the legislature have opportunity to learn what is needed by the schools in the way of money, or types of educa- tional endeavor. They may enlighten the people of the com- munity as to the community's educational needs. They may make an honest effort to secure information as to whether or not the proposed expenditures are a fair and just burden upon the taxable wealth of the community. Some provisions may be noted, however, that require certain administrative functions to be delegated. The Pennsylvania school law ^ provides that in school districts of the first class "associate and assistant district superintendents may be appointed by the board of school directors, upon nomination of the super- intendent of schools. . . . They shall be under the supervision and direction of the superintendent of schools." It further pro- vides ^ that, "All plans for new school construction, additions or repairs shall be approved by the superintendent of buildings and shall be submitted to the superintendent of schools for criticism, before submission to the board of public education for adoption." The St. Louis charter provides * that, "All appointments, promo- tions and transfers of teachers, and introduction and changes of text-books and apparatus, shall be made only upon the recom- mendation of the superintendent and the approval of the board." In some instances the law provides certain statutory commit- tees. New York City's charter provides ^ that, "It shall be the duty of the board of education ... to appoint an executive committee of fifteen members of the board." It does not, how- 2 Pennsylvania School Law, 1913, Art. XXII, Sec. 2224. 3 Ibid., Sec. 2231. * St. Louis Charter, Sec. 7. ' New York City Charter, Sec. 1063. 6 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education ever, require that the board provide, as it does, fourteen addi- tional standing committees. In evaluating the practices of boards of education, error may be made in giving credit to boards for meritorious service; whereas, as a matter of fact, they may be doing only what the law compels them to do. Such error would tend to place the practices of boards in a more favorable light. Error may be made in the opposite direction, when certain criteria are applied, condemning boards for not doing what they may be prevented by law from doing. However this may be, our purpose, as stated, is to evaluate the practice of boards as it makes for or does not make for efficient school administration. 3. The Duties of a Lay Board of Education a. Duties Undertaken in Practice (1) The Kind of Matters Considered in Meetings. That the reader may form some conception of the nature of matters which occupy the attention of boards of education, matters reported in the proceedings were tabulated. Table III includes all matters considered by boards, when not in the form of committee reports, for the first two meetings ^ whose minutes were received for the sixty cities in Table 11.^ Too much significance must not be attached to the frequency of different matters found because cer- tain types of business are more apt to be taken up in a given meeting than others. Bills of expenditure are commonly pre- sented each month, while such a matter as the budget may be confined to one or two meetings each year and a question of bond issue or the selection of a chief executive may not occur in sev- eral years. Evaluation of the matters found to be engaging the attention of boards is reserved for later sections of the study. (2) The Kind of Data Required by Boards. One criterion of the efficiency with which a board discharges its legislative func- tions is the precision or accuracy of the information it requires as a basis for passing upon proposed school policies. It is at the "In some instances only minutes of one meeting were received. ' Except for reports of officers only matters occurring in three or more cities are given in the table. Matters merely referred to committees or officers are not included for the reason that such matters may be referred by the president without board consideration. The Board and its Duties 7 TABLE IIP I. Reports of Executive Officers "3 Superintendent's Report on: — ^ Proposed extensions or readjustments of the scope of educational activities : 1. 3, 4, 5. 10, 12, 13, 19, 20, 21, 29, 33, 34, 40, 42, 53, 56, 57, 58, 60 20 Progress of the schools : (a) Achievement of pupils : 34 1 (b) Number of visits of supervision: 8, 10 2 (c) Enrollment and attendance : 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 13, 21, 29, 32, 33, 36, 37, 59, 61 15 Matters pertaining to capital outlays, buildings, sites, improvements : 1, 21, 61 3 Selection of text-books or course of study : 2, 3, 19, 21, 31, 34, 36, 45, 46, 54, 59 11 Matters pertaining to maintenance expenditures : 1, 3, 16, 23, 30, 31, 33, 41, 44, 45, 53, 54 12 Appointment of teachers: 2, 3. 6, 20, 23, 27, 32, 34, 35, 38, 41, 45, 51, 53, 56, 58, 60 17 Assignment, transfer, resignation, leave of absence, or promotion of teachers : 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20, 29, 31, 33, 34, 35, 53, 56, 58, 60 IS Questions of salaries or pensions : 2, 3, 20, 41, 45, 53, 58, 61 8 Permits granted for use of building : 3, 57, 59 3 Appointments of board of examiners : 48 1 Appointments of administrative employees: 3, 61 2 Educational meetings attended : 9 1 Communications or complaints received: 1, 8, 34, 35, 53 5 Changes in rules and regulations : 4, 34 2 Length of school session, vacation dates : 10, 40 2 Suspension of pupil : 29 1 Granting diplomas : 33 1 Receipts from school entertainments: 19 1 Superintendent of Buildings or Superintendent of Supplies : — Progress of construction and amounts due on contracts : 2, 3, 14, 20, 21 5 Matters of maintenance expenditure or equipment: 2, 3, 14, 33, 34, 57, 59 7 Inspection of buildings, or materials, and amounts on hand: 2, 3, 57. 3 Appointments and suspensions : 3, 56 2 Permits granted or recommended : 2, 3, 56 3 Recommending investigation of building department : 3 1 Secretary, Business Manager ^ : — Business transacted or pending : 2, 3, 6, 13, 17, 21, 34, 58, 61 9 * Numbers refer to cities of Table II. ^ Exclusive of receipts, expenditures, conditions of funds, or bills to be paid. 8 The City Superintendent and the' Board of Education Officers in charge of special departments : — Medical inspection : 6, 11, 12, 19, 21, 30, 33, 59 8 Attendance : 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13, 21, 33, 56, 59 11 Attorney: — legal opinions, matters pending or adjusted: 3, 15, 57 3 President's annual report : 8 1 II Appointments, consider: (a) Teachers: 9, 10,io 25, 29, 30, 34, 54 7 (b) Nurse : 32 1 (c) Janitors : 14, 17, 27, 37, 43 5 (d) Business employees : 12, 28j 38 3 Adopt text-books or courses of study: 5, 12, 20, 45, 50 5 Approve or reject expenditures: 1, 2, 3, 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, Z6, 37, 39, 40, 41, 43, 44, 46, 49, 51, 54, 59. 32 Expenditures, authorize: 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 29, 30, 33, 36, 41, 42, 45, 46, 47, 49, 54, 58 22 Grant leaves of absence to teachers or others : 22, 24, 31, 32, 34, 39, 43, 45 8 Grant use of buildings or grounds : 12, 14, 16, 25, 26, 27, 30, 32, 48, 56 10 Building insurance : 29, 30, 43, 46 4 School calendar: 9, 10, 18, 24, 35, 36, 39, 40, 44, 46, 47, 49, 56, 57, 58, 59 16 Resignations of teachers accepted : 18, 37, 47 3 Authorize teachers, superintendent or board members to attend educa- tional gatherings : 29, 37, 44, 48 4 Non-resident tuition : 12, 29, 30, 34, 36, 43 6 Question of bids, supplies or equipment: 1, 2, 7, 12, 14, 15, 17, 20, 21, 25, 28, 29, 31, ?>2>, 34, 35, 37, 41, 54, 55, 57, 58 22 Questions pertaining to legal matters : Official bonds : 10, 13, 17, 46, 51 5 Legal proceedings to quiet title : 47 1 Heard report of receipts, expenditures and condition of funds : 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 29, 31, 33, 34, Z6, 42, 51, 57, 58, 59, 61 27 Consider questions of capital outlays and means of financing: Bonds : 2, 13, 27, 36, 50, 51, 55, 58 8 Sites and buildings : 10, 36, 43, 47, 48, 49, 60 7 Consider matters of salary : 34, 42, 43, 48, 55 5 Communications and complaints, written or oral: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21 25, 26, 29, 31-7, 39-41, 43-5, 48, 51, 53-7, 59-61 38 1*^ Voted on all applicants. The Board and its Duties 9 Plans and specifications : 2, 6, 32, 33, 54, 55, 60 7 Consider questions of budget, including sources of revenue : 1, 2, 12, 17-8, 20-1, 24-5, 27, 35, 37, 43, 46-7, 49, 51, 57 18 Questions of representing needs before city authorities or the legis- lature : 7, 9, 34, 53, 57, 59, 60 7 Select (a) Chief executive: 38, 56 2 (b) Other executive officers : 10-12, 15, 32, 36. 6 same time a measure of the facts as to whether or not a board is holding its chief executive responsible for results and whether or not it is demanding that the chief executive, through such in- struments as the budget, shall initiate new policies. A board which votes a lump sum of $100,000 for teachers' salaries without knowing how many teachers at each grade and type of service and without knowing wherein and why there are differences from previous years, or which appropriates a lump sum of $10,000 for fuel and supplies without knowing whether this money is being spent where most needed, can scarcely be said to be properly serv- ing its community. We may select two topics for measuring practice of boards in this respect, the budget and the reports of its officers. The importance of adopting the annual budget as recommended by the chief executive and that of requiring and considering reports may be judged from the tentative scale of board duties. (a) The Form of Budget Adopted. It is not our purpose to enter into an exhaustive study of budget making. We may, however, examine the data of boards for certain matters of infor- mation which contribute most effectively to a board's ability to pass upon school policies. In any scientifically constructed bud- get data are necessary which will show whether school funds are being expended for those things which mean most for the edu- cation of the children, whether they are sufficient to purchase a high quality of instruction, and whether they represent a fair proportion of the community's ability to support good schools. The science of educational administration has established norms ^^ for the guidance of boards which make it unnecessary to guess in matters involving annually, as in some cities, millions of dollars. 11 For data on this point see the studies of Strayer, Updegraff, and Elliott. 10 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education Note was made wherever the budget had been considered in the meetings for which minutes were received. In addition information was secured in a number of cities visited. As a result data were secured from seventeen cities, though not complete in every case. Annual reports of these cities, where published, were also examined for whatever data essential in budget making were included. The cities thus selected are: Albany Lincoln Pierce, Nebr. Bridgeport Milwaukee Pittsburg Fremont, Nebr. Newark Richmond, Va. Grand Rapids Norwalk, Conn. Schenectady Jersey City Omaha West Point, Nebr. Kansas City, Mo. Owatonna, Minn. We cannot in every instance state positively that the board did or did not possess certain types of information which would enable it to act intelligently upon matters of financial policy. However, the rare instances in which any evidence is found either in the proceedings or reports seems significant. In only one instance, Schenectady,^^ is the board known to possess data show- ing the per cent of expenditures devoted to each major item of expense. Two others, Norwalk ^^ and Pittsburg,^* have such data for some of the items. In Schenectady the board, when considering its budget, had before it, through the initiative of its chief executive, data show- ing the percentage distribution of each major item, administra- tion, teaching, supervision, text-books, supplies, etc., for the pres- ent and preceding year together with that proposed for the com- ing year. It had data showing similar facts for thirty-three other cities of its class, from which could be determined the median, maximum, or minimum devoted to each item by these cities and by which the board could be guided in passing upon its own budget. In at least six other cities, each of which was vis- ited by the writer, the board does not have information showing percentage distributions. With reference to per pupil costs for these major items of expenditure there is evidence that the board is informed in 12 Meeting attended by the writer, January 11, 1916. 13 Report, 1915, p. 28. 1* Report, 1914, pp. 247 and 265. The Board and its Duties 11 Newark, Pittsburg, Schenectady, and Grand Rapids. It has information on some of these items in Norwalk and Lincoln. We have no evidence that this is true of the remaining eleven cities. We are certain that three of the small cities do not, Pierce, West Point, and Fremont, Nebr. Some of the cities do not even have the bare per pupil total for maintenance costs. Only three, Bridgeport, Norwalk, and Richmond, give evi- dence of possessing a knowledge of what per cent of the city's funds are devoted to schools and how this compares with other cities of the same class. When we examine the budgets of these cities we find few that have subdivided items sufficiently to show unit cost estimates of any sort. Yet such unit terms are neces- sary if the board is to know whether increased cost is to mean greater quantity, better quality or higher price of materials or service. With unit price specifications of supplies of all kinds, allowing somewhat for market fluctuations, and data showing quantities of each kind required, by buildings, it would be pos- sible to obviate the necessity of passing upon requisitions for supplies meeting after meeting as many boards do. If these are allowed in the budget with the maximum prices which the board will consent to pay fixed, it becomes unnecessary to re- peatedly pass upon requisitions for supplies, authorize bids, and consider such bids in board meeting. Executive officers can be entrusted with performing such service if the board fixes its maxima, permits executive officers to secure the best prices pos- sible on given specifications and then requires them to report on what has been done. There is no evident reason why this can- not be done in the field of education as it is in the field of busi- ness. Purchases would then be controlled through the budget and the board would be freed from petty administrative details to devote its time to large matters of policy. When we examine the budget or the annual report, we find no distribution table of salaries in such cities as Pittsburg, Milwau- kee, Grand Rapids, Jersey City, Newark, or Omaha, as we do in the case of Albany. ^^ The budget for Albany specifies the num- ber of teachers at each given salary. With such data before him, a board member may know whether he is voting for a few high salaried teachers and a large number of low ones or for a large 1" Proceedings, November 1, 1915. 12 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education number which group closely around the central tendency and only a few at either extreme. Varying conceptions of budget making are found. In some cities the dignified term of "budget" is inappropriate. A half dozen gross items or less of expenditure and no greater number of revenue items are considered sufficient to complete the "budget." This occurs, if the recorded minutes are accurate, in Pittsburg,^^ Bridgeport, Conn.," Fremont,^^ Pierce,^'' and West Point, Nebr.^° Many of the so-called "budgets," as superintendents in cities vis- ited admit, are mere accumulations. Previous years' expendi- tures with whatever additions seem necessary constitute the essen- tials of a new "budget." There is little, if any, attempt to devise the budget along the line of such administrative principles as have been indicated. The maintenance budget of Newark^^ con- tains twelve lump items of expenditure exclusive of the salary item which is subdivided into ten types. Jersey City ^^ classifies the expenditures of its maintenance budget under seventeen headings, but subdivides "salaries" into seven parts and voca- tional schools into four. There is no specification of the precise way in which expenditures shall be made in such budgets. The building budget of Newark ^^ is distinctly different in form from this. Each parcel of land with its size and the proposed price is specified. A definite statement is made of the number of rooms to be provided in each building addition with the cost of each. The budget for Albany -* covers thirteen printed pages. While not a model in all respects it makes the explanation of increases or decreases a distinctive feature. This is in marked contrast to what is found in connection with the budget of many of the cities. What is the nature of the questions upon which precise data of the kind indicated above enable a board member to pass judgment? At Schenectady data on per cubic foot costs for heating showed that of two buildings of the same size, age and type of construction, one was costing twice that of the other for fuel. Obviously the problem was either one of repairs or im- 16 Minutes, Dec. 9, 1913. 21 Minutes, May 4, 1915. " Minutes, Dec. 9, 1915. 22 Minutes, June 2, 1915. 18 Minutes, July 7, 1915. 23 Minutes, June 18, 1915. 1^ Personal observation. 24 Proceedings, Nov. 1, 1915. 20 Minutes, June 7, 1915. The Board and its Duties 13 provement in janitor service and not of fuel. While this is but a single instance of a lone building it indicates the possibility of losses where accurate and detailed data are not compiled on items which affect the budget. In the same city, the members of the board were enabled to see that an increased cost of $7.50 per pupil within the past three years was due to an increase in the amount expended for janitor service. At Lincoln per pupil cost figures for the work of each special department gave the board data with which it could weigh costs with probable achieve- ments and decide whether or not it should encourage either of these departments with more liberal appropriations. In Nor- walk 2^ the data accompanying the budget showed that 36.3 per cent of the increased expenditures for teachers' salaries was due to additions to the teaching force, that the average per pupil cost was the lowest of five cities of its own state, and that it was more than eight dollars less than that of a neighboring state. The data showed further that the per cent of city revenue spent for schools was lower than that of other cities with which it may be compared, and that it was spending 11 per cent less than the average of all cities of its class. Such data should indicate to a board that its problem is very probably that of convincing the board of estimate or other controlling body of the need of more liberal appropriations for schools. (b) The Reports of the Chief Executive. To determine if possible the kind of reports required or received by boards of education from their chief executive, minutes of proceedings and annual reports from selected cities were analyzed. A first group of ten cities was selected at random from those cities of Table II whose published proceedings were received. To secure a random selection cities were selected in order from the proceed- ings, as found on the library shelves of Teachers College at the time, until a sufficient number meeting the required conditions were secured. Only those were chosen for which the proceed- ings covered at least an entire month and which included the report of the superintendent in one or more meetings. Those which merely indicated that the superintendent had made a report were excluded. In the matter of annual reports it was soon dis- covered that some of these cities publish none. These may be 25 See Annual Report, 1915. 14 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education p X H « X X « a O XX S XX ^ X X W XX X XX X X XXX XX X XX X X XX XX X rS ?SrS?S r^ X xxxxx X s X XXXX X X X XXX X O K o o J3 ti 2 a 4J E o O OS H 2 XX X XXX XX XXX X X X XX X X X XXX X XX XX X X X XX XX X X xxxxx XX XX .2 c "rt g U 3 X X XXX X X XXXX • CO • to^ — ca " nl w 3 ™ 3 O "' ^ I-. 5 t-" e.2 Jf 2 W) •- ^ rt > u .a •-•+2 -^ o „,T3 E-3 c 3 US J) 'U « b o i^ ii C 5 I- rt rt u g-c a " S " g^ (U o tj S i> rt 5 _ U C 1) -".-T^ 5 « bog u 3 C J2 hfl_d e D c TS-o <" J _o -a o 2 f ^ « ^ m o " !,•« o o^ m bo ij rt ■< fc U &hS." CftC 3 3 3S "'^O rt u'-' fe"^ .2.2.2 <: rt -" -►^ F. c ■: I fW ^ ■2^ ■" > u "o "" to 2 o-a E.E T3 ;s« — u-^ "S. =« rt 3 Srt'S * o >.>>>>o >. u umP5PQapq E^ Q = o . 4J ^ Ul O P IJ •71 W3 o & The Board and its Duties 15 noted from the blank columns of Table IV. As a measure of the superintendent's report, selected objective items were chosen and their presence or absence noted. The particular items were chosen with reference to their serviceability as indices of desir- able policies. Some items may duplicate others somewhat. This is due to a desire to give due credit where statistics are pre- sented in somewhat less desirable form but nevertheless valuable in indicating desirable policies. The items are mainly of a per cent or per unit nature. Many formal tables were found of which no account is taken for the reason that such tables require skill and no small amount of time for effective interpretation. They may possess a mine of information, but it is often undis- covered. Table IV gives in columns A to J inclusive the results from the published annual reports of the first group of ten cities. City I, it may be noted, is the only one which gives the per cent of city revenue spent on schools. In the report of this city com- parisons with six other cities of its class are made by departments and in per capita terms. This city is the only one of the first group which considers in its report the amount of money raised by taxation, in relation to the taxable wealth, and the relation which this amount raised bears to the tax rate and taxable prop- erty of other cities of its class. If the annual reports of a city's school system do not contain such comparative and analytical data on the financial ability of the city to support good schools, how does the public know definitely whether the city is making the best effort it can for the education of its children? The public may possibly receive information on this point from other sources, but that is trusting to chance what is an evident duty of the board of education. The examination of the minutes of a total of thirty-six regular and special meetings of boards in these ten cities revealed the fol- lowing items that were comparable to those of the table: Enrollment compared with previous years Cities A, B, C, D, G, I Per cent of enrollment in average attendance A, B, G Distribution of classes by size D Amount of retardation F It may be maintained with some fairness that oral reports are not recorded. Observation of boards in session, however, does 16 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education not warrant any great stress on this point. At best an oral report gives neither the board nor the chief executive a record of the fact that adequate data have been required on the one hand or presented on the other. It may or may not satisfy the public that the board is legislating or that its executives are pro- posing legislation based upon the most urgent needs of the chil- dren. A further objection may be raised that cities do not report the same phases of activity each year. As far as this group of cities represents the tendency in reporting the objection is not valid. To verify this a total of twenty-five additional reports from preceding years were examined, as follows : Cities A, D, F, I, three each ; B, E, G, four each ; H, one. None were available for C and J. City I again alone presents the per cent of city revenue spent for schools and in each case compares its own efforts with that of other cities of its class. Cities A, F, G, and H give nothing to indicate the financial ability of the city to sup- port schools. City D gives the value of the taxable property and the tax rate for schools in two different years. City E gives sim- ilar data and in addition gives the per cent that the school tax rate is of the total city tax rate. This occurs in three of the four reports. Nothing more is to be found in any of these re- ports that would indicate the ability of these cities to support their schools. Nor do we find data for any of the cities of this group differing materially from that indicated in the table for each city. In other words, these cities tend to publish data on the same items each year. The following graphic charts were found in the first reports examined for each of these cities : cities A and D, two each on medical inspection showing prevalence of physical defects or dis- eases ; E, one on census and enrollment showing growth by years ; I, two on achievement of pupils; B, F, G, H, none; C and K reports not published. A second group of fifteen cities was selected. These cities were chosen by selecting in order from the cities of Table II, omitting those already included in the first group of ten, until the required number were secured. The results found in the reports of these cities on items of the table are given in columns K to Y. Graphic charts were found in these cities as follows : The Board and its Duties 17 city L, six on achievement of pupils in standard tests ; M, one on progress of pupils by grades ; P, two for the repair depart- ment, one showing how "every dollar was spent" and the other the relative cost of each trade divided into labor and materials ; S, eight, one each on (1) achievement of pupils, (2) persistence of attendance by grades, (3) growth of average number of days attendance, (4) comparison of expenditures by years for each major item in per cent, (5) per cent of receipts from each source, (6) per cent of expenditures for each of three groups of items, (7) growth of receipts from each source, (8) growth in expenditures for each of three groups of items; X, thirteen, (1) growth of city's tax budget, (2) growth of school tax appropria- tion, (3) growth in per cent of the budget devoted to educational administration and instruction, (4) progress by grades, (5) nor- mal over and under age by grades, (6) over age by grades and years, (7) normal age by grades and years, (8) under age by grades and years, (9) and (10) proportion of pupils promoted, (11) comparative enrollment, (12) growth of enrollment, (13) per cent of failures by causes; cities K, O, R, U, V, Y, none; cities N, Q, T, W, no published reports. From the data presented with respect to the budget and the reports of the superintendent as found in the annual reports and in the minutes, it is evident that many boards are not requir- ing the accurate, detailed statistical data necessary to pass intel- ligently upon school policies. Neither are they requiring the form of data necessary to know whether or not the chief execu- tive and his assistants are securing the desired results. From such data as we have found, it is clear that not many boards are holding executive officers responsible for results. They have yet to learn that a board can secure results by (1) delegating pro- fessional and administrative functions to the chief executive, (2) requiring that he take the initiative in such matters as the budget and present to it such data that the board may know the kind of results he proposes to secure and has secured in the past, and (3) reserving for itself the legislative functions to be exercised on the basis of adequate objective data. (3) The Board's Regard for Economy of Its Own Time. We may measure the efficiency of the practices of a board of edu- cation to some extent by the distribution made of the time at its 18 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education disposal. Even though a board is accustomed to passing hur- riedly over routine matters as happens in New York City, the care and consideration which matters receive will vary, roughly speaking, inversely with the quantity of matters which the board attempts to consider. One problem of a board of education, which is evident from conditions found in board meetings, is to properly economize its own time so that important measures of policy may receive adequate consideration without unnecessary sacrifice of private business on the part of members. (a) Waste of Time upon Unimportant Matters. By far the most time-consuming element found in meetings is that of giving ear to complaints and communications. Boards were found giv- ing attention to persons ranging from those who had purely private interests to those who took issue with the board's policy in such matters as its building program. As a result of squan- dering time upon trivial matters or upon matters that ought to be disposed of through other channels, important business must be passed over hurriedly. The reports of executive officers are frequently given all too little attention. Committee reports are accepted and their recommendations adopted without adequate consideration by the board itself. In nine of the fifteen cities visited, the board gave audience to individuals, groups, or repre- sentatives of organizations. None of these nine are cities having less than 25,000 population. We may illustrate the type of matters considered from the first of these nine cases. In this city the board spent practically the entire open session from 8 to 9:45 p.m. hearing complaints brought before it without previous consideration by executive officers. The real work of this board is performed in execu- tive session between 6:30 and 8 p.m. Approximately thirty persons appeared with interests to defend. One parent desired his child to be transferred. A guardian appeared with a non- resident high school pupil for whom she sought free tuition. A small group desired a new school site. Another small group wanted a smoke and blasting nuisance in the vicinity of a school abated. A principal appeared before the board with a request for supplies and equipment. A motion picture representative asked the privilege of photographing some school children. An- The Board and its Duties 19 other group desired the consolidation of an outlying district and the vacation of the present building. In the second of these nine cities, approximately one hour of a session lasting less than two hours was given over to discussion of the request of representatives of an organization who appeared asking permission to take a religious census of the school chil- dren. At the close of the hour it was discovered that the organ- ization had no definite plan of procedure. The board failed to make final disposition of the matter, voting to file the communi- cation for further consideration. In the third city, one-half hour of the open session of approxi- mately two and a half hours was devoted to a discussion of the request of representatives of a religious organization that danc- ing be prohibited in the new high school building. In the fourth, committee meetings were in session until 9:10 P.M. The next twenty minutes were devoted to roll call, com- munications, and the reading of brief formal reports of the super- visor of buildings and the attendance officer. At 10 p.m. the board had finished its labors of the open session, having heard and accepted the reports of four committees. In the fifth the board met at 8:10 p.m. At the end of twenty minutes the minutes had been read and approved and the board had heard a representative of a special type of heating fixtures. An additional hour and fifteen minutes was spent in discussing whether the board or the city council had the power to fill a vacancy on the board of education. The question was unusual, it may be true, but the board adjourned at 11:35 p.m., having found it necessary to postpone any discussion of what was per- haps the most complete and illuminating of any superintendent's report heard in all the cities visited. In the sixth, after listening for one hour and thirty minutes to a debate between two groups of citizens on a purely professional matter — a new method of school room organization and teach- ing — proposed by one of these groups, it was discovered that its advocates, who pretended to represent a certain parent-teacher organization, represented but a small minority of the organiza- tion. The matter was tabled. At 10:10 p.m. the board went to work at the real business before it, disposing of it in less than 20 The City Superintendent' and the Board of Education one hour. A matter involving ten thousand dollars was passed upon with only momentary consideration. In the seventh, the board spent one hour in executive session with the announced intention of considering bids on fuel. Forty minutes more were devoted to hearing members of a delegation urging that the board adopt a more far-sighted plan in the pur- chase of sites and the erection of buildings. These men were urging a matter important for the board to consider, but never- theless a matter that could have been introduced through the channel of the board's executive officers. As it was, the board listened to speakers who had private interests in the way of pos- sible increased property values as well as to those who urged the needs of the children or civic pride. The superintendent's report was deferred because of the late hour. In the eighth, the same city in which the superintendent made the statement, referred to elsewhere, that "there is absolutely too much business to be done without committee action," the board spent one-half hour out of three hours of an evening ses- sion discussing building needs with a delegation desiring a new building. The chairman of the committee on buildings reviewed the board's building program, showing that the board had adopt- ed an extensive program in which the delegation acquiesced Avhen the real needs and plans were learned. The difficulty was that the board had not taken the public into its confidence to repre- sent to it school building needs. Through an adequate system of reporting the questions asked by these citizens might have been answered with less effort. The new policy proposed by the superintendent in his report at this meeting, advocating the em- ployment of sufficient nurses to inaugurate a "follow-up" policy of medical inspection, was referred to a committee without dis- cussion. However, the board devoted ten minutes to the ques- tion of whether it should permit the sale of "peanuts, candies and tickets." In the ninth, a city which looks to its executive officers to carry on the actual work of administration, and which has since voted to abolish all committees, routine matters were disposed of VN^ith dispatch to make way for the main item on the calendar, the consideration of its building program, to which thirty-five min- utes were devoted. It did not, however, escape giving twelve The Board and its Duties 21 minutes to satisfying a misinformed delegation of citizens that the building needs of their particular locality were already receiv- ing due consideration. Such distribution of the board's time as was made in eight of these nine cities, or as was found in New York, a tenth, calls for improvement. In New York the board spent slightly more than two hours of its session discussing the advisability of asking the board of estimate for additional funds. This was an impor- tant matter involving some millions of dollars. Discussion by members, however, revealed the fact that the board was consider- ing a question on which it lacked accurate data as to the amount required. One member asked to be enlightened as to how the price proposed to be paid for a certain site, included in the appropriation asked for, had been determined. The informa- tion was not forthcoming. Another member sought to discover the total of the proposed expenditures. Some little time was consumed before it could be answered. Others favored blanket requests for money without specification as to its use. It was evident that this large body was spending its time seeking infor- mation from sources where it was not to be had, with the result that it had but scant time to devote to other matters. The devotion of the board's time to matters of importance, which occurred in Jersey City and Schenectady and in the ninth of the cities referred to above, was a decided improvement over that in the first eight and in New York. In Jersey City the matter receiving the larger portion of the board's attention was a discussion of the building program. No verbal complaints or communications were heard. At Schenectady there were no communications or complaints seeking the attention of the board. This board has nominal committees, but no committee action was recorded in the proceedings for six months previous and no matters were referred to committees for consideration at this meeting. A single topic, the budget, prepared by the chief exec- utive, occupied approximately three-quarters of the meeting. The members of the board had before them the data referred to elsewhere in this chapter. The president of the board, when asked to account for such conditions, explained that it was the policy of the board to leave administrative details, communica- tions or complaints to the superintendent. 22 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education Of the twelve cities thus far considered, all having a population of 25,CXX3 or more, nine may be said to have been spending from one-half to more than two hours of time in board meeting either on trivial matters or on matters on which the board did not have the necessary information to pass intelligently. Of the three remaining cities visited, one has a population of 9000 and the other two less than 3000. A waste of time in such small cities with little business to transact, if it did occur, would be of less consequence. While in some cities apologies were made on the ground that it was unusual to devote so much time to com- plaints, the fact that it occurred in three-quarters of the cities of 25,000 or more population seems to be evidence that no small number of boards do spend a part of their time in such fashion. (b) Volume of Business Passed Upon in Meetings. The amount of business which some boards attempt to pass upon may be judged from the minutes of Los Angeles. The board at its meeting of January 24, 1916, professed to have passed upon the following: Reports of Purchasing Committee 20 items Law and Rules 13 Teachers and Schools 29 Finance IS Building 62 Communications 4 Total 143 In addition the board passed upon reports from four execu- tive officers, superintendent, supervisor of buildings, supervisor of supplies, and secretary. Committee items are by no means always simple items. Five items in the report of the teachers and schools committee, deal- ing with elementary schools, involve passing upon resignations, leaves of absence, appointments, assignments and transfers of thirty-two teachers. Item 24 of the building committee report for elementary schools includes a delay for committee investiga- tion on a matter of moving "bungalows" from three sites to twelve other sites. The board in this city meets in regular ses- sion five times each month. It meets at 1 p.m. on the first and third Thursdays and at 7:30 p.m. on the second, third, and fourth The Board and its Duties 23 Tuesdays as an elementary school board. Under the California law it meets separately as a high school board. These meetings are held immediately following. Committees meet immediately following the regular board meetings. ^^ But this is not all of the time members of this board attempt to contribute to the welfare of the schools even though it be a heavy tax upon their own pri- vate business. Committees have taken some time to pass judg- ment on matters they present. Some committees expect to spend more time still by making personal investigations in the field. The building committee recommends : "that action by this committee on the following recommendations of the Superintendent be deferred until the Teachers and Schools Committee investigates same and makes recommendation: — (a) That the basement of the San Pedro Street School be equipped for sloyd and the sloyd room in that school be equipped for cooking. (b) That the following released bungalows be moved to the school sites as indicated below : From Ann Street School site: — 1 to Palo Verde School site. 3 to Bridge Street School site. 2 to 62nd Avenue School site. 1 to 21st Avenue School site. 1 to Breed Avenue School site. 1 to Utah Street School site. 1 to Malabar Street School site. From Seventh Avenue School site : — 1 to 17th Street School site. 1 to Magnolia Avenue School site. From Virgil Avenue School site: — 3 to Logan Street School site. 2 to Echo Park Avenue School site. 1 to Cambria Street School site." "We recommend that action on the following matters be deferred one week to enable the Committee to personally investigate same: (a) Recommendation of the Superintendent relative to additional school facilities at Torrance. (b) Repairing of the cottage on the Staunton Avenue School site at an approximate cost of $217.50. (c) Request from . . . Ass't. Superintendent of Schools that addi- tional land be purchased for use of the Trinity Street School." " ae Report, 1914. , 3^ Italics used here and elsewhere in the study are the author s. 24 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education Los Angeles is by no means the only city in which board mem- bers spend considerable time in the field supervising administra- tive matters. This is true especially for members of the building committee in a number of the cities visited. Some board mem- bers were observed to be doing so at no small sacrifice on their part. Their public spirit and interest in seeing that buildings are well built is to be commended, but it would probably be wise economy in many instances to engage experts of known ability in whom the board can place confidence that buildings will be constructed in accord with the plans and specifications. With the time spent in examining buildings, added to that devoted to meetings, it is certain that some boards give liberally of their time to school affairs. With a large amount of business to be transacted and with field work in addition it is not surprising that some boards resolve themselves into a number of separate boards in the form of committees. We may have presented an extreme case in Los Angeles. One needs but to examine the minutes or calendars of such cities as Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, or Kansas City to see the mass of material that the board in these cities attempts to cover. Is it surprising that pleas are made for committees on the ground that the board itself cannot attend to all of the business coming before it? Such a plea, however, is an admission that the board itself does not expect to pass intelligently on many matters. When we add to the facts (1) that boards attempt to pass upon too much business to give important matters thorough considera- tion, and (2) that they accept committee judgments for their own; the further facts, (3) that they fail in many instances to require adequate data, and (4) that they fail to make an eco- nomical distribution of the time at their disposal, the need of reform in board practices is indicated. Our constructive suggestion toward the solution of the diffi- culties confronting lay boards of education is that they adopt a businesslike policy toward city school administration. This sug- gestion is based upon administrative principles employed in the field of business. It finds a further basis in the judgments of several hundred competent judges as to what are the proper duties of a board of education. It is quite probable that that board will first reach a solution of these difficulties which (1) The Board and its Duties 25 recognizes that educational leadership is a professional under- taking; (2) chooses capable leaders; (3) places upon them the responsibility for administrative success and requires them to dispose of all save matters of vital importance; (4) reserves its own time to a consideration of matters of policy as presented in the reports and recommendations of its chief executive and his assistants, and (5) acts only on the basis of adequate statistical data presented by its executives showing the achievements of the past and those proposed for the future. b. The Duties a Lay Board of Education Should Perform ( 1 ) A List of Board Duties. The writer, with the assistance of several hundred others, has endeavored to bring together in constructive form the duties which most of all should command the attention of a board of education. The list of duties on the page following is the result of a process of selection. Each member of a class of eighty graduate students in educational administration was asked to list the three duties of a board of education which he or she considered most important. From the returns received, and from the recommendations of various school surveys, which possibly represent the best single judgments, a preliminary list was prepared. After discussion of this list by students of educational administration had brought out its weak- nesses as well as its strong points, members of the seminar in educational administration at Teachers College were each asked to list the ten most important duties of a board of education. From the lists submitted by these individuals and the prelim- inary list, a second list was prepared. Along with the duties considered important were placed a few which were considered of minor importance or which the board possibly should not per- form. These unimportant duties were added in order to facili- tate a final approximation to a scale at one extreme of which should be placed those duties considered by several hundred com- petent judges as of first importance and at the other end those considered least worthy of a board's attention. After some addi- tional criticisms of the wording of the several duties, the list was prepared with the accompanying directions. The list was sub- mitted to 531 judges. The judges, while made up mostly of students of educational administration, superintendents, and prin- 26 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education cipals, included school board members and experienced business men. The judges were instructed to rank the duties in what each considered the order of importance. Realizing the impossibility of drawing sharp distinctions between all of the nineteen duties, the suggestion was given that duties near either extreme be ranked first. Instructions were also given to mark with an X those which boards should not perform. Rank the following duties performed by city boards of education in order of their importance. Note : Read the entire list before you begin. Give rank No. 1 to the one you consider most important and No. 19 to the least important. You may find it easier to rank those that fall near the upper or lower end before attempting to locate those that will fall near the middle. Mark also with an X those you think Boards should not perform, e.g., X-19. Rank A. Act as a court of final appeal for teachers, supervisors and patrons in cases which the superintendent has not been able to dispose of, or which may be appealed from his decision. B. Adopt, upon consultation with the chief executive, a set of by-laws or rules for the government of the school system, i.e., designate authority of executive and administrative officers, and duties to be performed by the board or its committees. C. Advise with the chief executive, aflfording a group judgment, on his recommendations for extensions or readjustments of the scope of educational activities. D. Appoint — upon nomination and recommendation of the chief execu- tive — teachers, principals, and supervisors. E. Approve text-books selected by the chief executive and approve courses of study recommended by him. F. Approve the list of bills for expenditure previously authorized and approved by executive officers. G. Consider recommendations of executive officers on legal tnatters, decide steps to be taken, e.g., suits to quiet title, condemnation. H. Require and consider report of the business transacted or pending and of the financial status of the system. I. Debate and pass upon recommendations of chief executive for addi- tional capital outlays — buildings, sites, improvements, and deter- mine the means of financing such outlays, e.g., bonds, loans. J. Determine, after consultation and discussion with the chief execu- tive, the schedule of salaries. K. Require and discuss report of the chief executive concerning The Board and its Duties 27 progress of the schools — in terms of achievements of pupils, teach- ers, supervisors. L. Hear communications, written or oral, from citizens or organiza- tions on matters of administration or policy. M. Pass upon architect's plans, approved by the chief executive and his assistants, for buildings that have been authorized. N. Pass upon the annual budget for maintenance prepared by the chief executive and his assistants ("budget" including sources and amount of revenue available as well as expenditures). O. Represent needs of the schools before city authorities or the legis- lature. P. Represent needs of the schools before the public, e.g., press, plat- form. Q. Select the chief executive officer and support him in the discharge of his duties. R. Serve as laymen ready (even after retiring from the board) to champion school needs and to further public support of the schools, e.g., as others champion good streets, parks. S. Visit the schools, observe or investigate the efficiency of instruc- tion. Indicate any important duties that you think have been omitted from the list (2) The Result of a Series of Judgments. Table V gives the distribution of ranks assigned to each of the nineteen duties by the 531 judges ^^ from whom complete rankings were received. The most striking feature of the table is, that to select the chief executive and support him in the discharge of his duties is un- questionably regarded by these judges as the most important sin- gle duty which a board of education has to perform. Approxi- mately 70 per cent of all the judges rank it number one. The duties which are placed next in importance are those which have to do with passing upon the annual budget, the recommendations of the chief executive for additional capital outlays, advising 38 The difference in the totals for each of the nineteen ranks is due to the fact that some of the judges regarded certain of the duties as of equal importance. Half ranks resulting from such failure to distribute have been included with the next higher rank. A more accurate method would have been to distribute these half ranks equally among the next higher and next lower ranks. However, when this was done it was found that in no case was the relative position of the any of the nineteen duties changed, nor was the change in any case as much as .05 from the value given in Table VI. 28 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education with him on questions of extending or readjusting the scope of educational activities, and appointing teachers, principals and supervisors when nominated by the chief executive. The duties which are regarded as least worthy of a board's attention are, in order, those which involve visiting the schools and attempting to pass upon the quality of instruction, hearing communications, and acting as a court of appeal on complaints from teachers, supervisors and patrons. These same three are most frequently regarded as duties which a board of education should not per- form. The relative importance of each duty as determined by the 75 percentile method ^^ is shown in Table VL The same facts are represented graphically upon a linear scale in Fig. I, which may be regarded as representing a tentative scale of the nineteen duties. TABLE V Distribution of Ranks Assigned Each Duty Rank Duty A 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Total 3 13 12 9 13 13 21 20 27 23 29 34 31 23 43 45 64 66 42 531 B 28 73 38 35 25 27 22 27 19 26 23 28 23 23 24 30 16 34 10 531 C 28 63 80 53 54 32 42 29 34 16 22 20 16 12 8 10 4 4 4 531 D 14 97 ■77 64 42 32 21 25 15 24 26 19 14 17 15 13 4 8 4 531 E 1 S 25 28 28 31 20 29 35 29 31 23 36 31 40 33 42 40 24 531 F 5 15 16 31 20 34 23 44 50 35 33 45 40 26 44 39 26 5 531 G 1 3 10 17 19 16 30 30 34 47 50 56 58 49 38 26 28 9 531 H 7 11 22 26 31 36 31 45 39 41 47 50 34 34 29 19 17 12 531 I 21 38 63 55 70 50 46 45 37 22 19 19 15 14 7 4 2 3 1 531 J 2 9 25 41 31 57 49 41 61 40 42 34 34 17 12 12 13 5 6 531 K 8 21 29 45 47 38 40 32 25 34 36 22 29 25 29 24 24 19 4 531 L 2 5 4 6 10 13 8 14 17 18 34 38 39 56 56 72 91 48 531 M 2 5 11 25 13 26 25 37 46 40 36 44 49 43 37 28 23 29 12 531 N 20 90 51 56 65 39 27 32 34 22 14 19 22 9 5 6 5 3 2 531 O 7 24 25 23 21 29 23 36 35 27 34 31 37 41 49 41 29 14 5 531 P 7 10 19 19 19 29 37 23 25 35 31 28 24 40 39 49 46 35 16 531 376 39 29 17 14 7 11 9 4 3 1 4 2 3 6 3 2 1 531 ]^ 6 22 13 11 18 16 25 26 18 24 22 33 22 38 42 43 61 58 33 531 s 1 4 5 7 7 4 6 11 7 10 11 5 16 8 15 30 48 85 251 531 531 532 547 544 552 515 519 528 549 517 524 530 543 515 531 528 547 560 477 10089 39 The 75 percentile is that point above which 75 per cent of the judges would place a given duty and below which the remaining 25 per cent would place the same duty, e.g., 75 per cent of the judges would place duty Q at 2.57 or higher and 25 per cent would assign it a lower rank. The Board and its Duties 29 > o Ph m ^ a CLh r^ H !? Q u PQ tn w < < P-I H >< lO H r^ t3 P w o < w ffi o !zj WW CM O fe vo H t— 1 a O h ON g r-H W \d « u pq . o\ p- oo - !£2 - ^ £2 _ O - o\ - oo >0 *o '^ - ro - rsi - O w o w o z <: H o 30 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education The different duties will be seen to fall within more or less distinct groups. Duties N, I, C, D, and J form a group which are next in importance to the selection of the chief executive. A middle group includes H, K, B, M, O, F, G, E, and P, while the duties which stand out as being of least importance are R, A, L, and S. Nine are regarded as of more importance than M and nine as of less importance. We may, then, as a result of the 531 judgments, rearrange the list of duties performed by a board of education in the order of importance as follows : 1. Select the chief executive officer and support him in the discharge of his duties. 2. Pass upon the annual budget for maintenance prepared by the chief executive and his assistants ("budget including sources and amount of revenue available as well as expenditures"). 3. Debate and pass upon recommendations of chief executive for addi- tional capital outlays — ^buildings, sites, improvements, and determine the means of financing such outlays, e.g., bonds, loans. 4. Advise with the chief executive, affording a group judgment, on his recommendations for extensions or readjustments of the scope of educational activities. 5. Appoint — upon nomination and recommendation of the chief execu- tive — teachers, principals, and supervisors. 6. Determine, after consultation and discussion with the chief execu- tive, the schedule of salaries. 7. Require and consider report of the business transacted or pending and of the financial status of the system. 8. Require and discuss report of the chief executive concerning progress of the schools — in terms of achievements of pupils, teachers, super- visors. 9. Adopt, upon consultation with the chief executive, a set of by-laws or rules for the government of the school system, i.e., designate authority of executive and administrative officers, and duties to be performed by the board or its committees. 10. Pass upon architect's plans, approved by the chief executive and his assistants, for buildings that have been authorized. 11. Represent needs of the schools before city authorities or the legis- lature. 12. Approve the list of bills for expenditure previously authorized and approved by executive officers. 13. Consider recommendations of executive officers on legal matters, decide steps to be taken, e.g., suits to quiet title, condemnation. The Board and its Duties 31 14. Approve text-books selected by the chief executive and approve courses of study recommended by him. 15. Represent needs of the schools before the public, e.g., press, plat- form. 16. Serve as la3Tnen, ready (even after retiring from the board) to champion school needs and to further public support of the schools, e.g., as others champion good streets, parks. 17. Act as a court of final appeal for teachers, supervisors and patrons in cases which the superintendent has not been able to dispose of, or which may be appealed from his decision. 18. Hear communications, written or oral, from citizens or organizations on matters of administration or policy. 19. Visit the schools, observe or investigate the efficiency of instruc- tion. When the judgments of business men and board members are considered separately, though insufficient in number to warrant positive conclusions, we find little change from the order above in the relative rank of the different duties. The selection of the superintendent is placed first. Advising with the chief executive on his recommendations for extension of educational activities is placed second, passing upon recommendations for capital outlays third, and passing upon the budget fourth. Adopting a set of by-laws to designate the authority of executive officers is raised to fifth rank. The duties regarded as least worthy of a board's attention are : to serve as laymen ready to further public sup- port of the schools ; to visit the schools and investigate the efficiency of instruction ; and to hear communications. The suggestions received as to important duties which may have been omitted from the list were not sufficiently agreed, to in any material way affect the results. The one which was perhaps most emphatically maintained is that of representing the needs of the community. This duty is one which the careful observer will see has been analyzed into several specific duties in our list. The one most frequently suggested was that of becoming familiar with school development elsewhere. 32 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education 4. The Work of Board Committees a. Previous Studies As a preliminary to presenting the facts found with reference to committees of the board we may survey briefly the results found and the conclusions reached by other investigators in this field. Bard *° found 996 committees in 112 city school districts, an average of nearly nine to each district. The committee occurring most frequently was that of finance with 73 while 25 others pro- vided a committee whose duties had to do with finance. The next committee in order of frequency was that of supplies with 33. Of the committees found, 255 appeared only once each and 54 twice. "With only a few exceptions, boards of education provide in their by- laws for a number of standing committees, to which are intrusted prac- tically all the more important duties imposed upon such bodies by law. . . . They constitute a convenient means by which the board of education may discharge the functions which it is required by law to discharge." He con- cludes that: "This practice, if employed with judgment and discretion has much merit, particularly in the case of large boards with executive func- tions to perform." Dr. Bard, however, does not submit any evidence tending to prove the merit which he claims for committee action. Whether or not committees should be allowed to perform executive func- tions is open to serious question. His statement that "a study of these committees, however, may show either a great lack of agreement in boards' conceptions of what really are the things of most vital importance in their educational systems or a great diversity of interests varying in importance with the different districts," here couched in terms of a possibility, will be seen from the evidence found in this study to be borne out by the facts. Professor Moore in his report on the New York City Board and its committees *^ has this to say with reference to the committee system in one city having a large board of education : 40 The City School District, pp. 63-4. *^ How New York Administers its Schools, 1913, p. S4f. The Board and its Duties 33 "So efScient are these small, compact groups when they meet to dispose of the business which is brought to them that I am confident any one of its major committees would make a more effective board of education than the board itself. The internal weakness of the present system is that the committees do the work and that there is nothing of real moment left for the board to do, but to meet and formally ratify what the committees have done. ..." "The committee system of the board leads to a confusion of authority and action in determining policies and action for the control of the schools. The committees do not form an interlocking system, but a series of more or less independent sovereignties ; each has a business of its own, and is naturally exceedingly jealous of its own prerogatives. They communicate with each other diplomatically, like pride protecting, independent states. Each committee conducts the work of its own execu- tive bureau to which it functions as a board of directors, and whose busi- ness must wait upon the meeting of the committee for its disposal. . . . Much delay in conducting the business of the board is caused by this reten- tion of executive duties by the board members and the calendars of the committees are crowded with a mass of routine details which do not in their nature call for board action for their disposal. A resident director or general manager . . . could take care of much of this detail, and his presence would make greatly for the strengthening and unifying of the work of the different bureaus, and for the direct and speedy transaction of business of the school department. ... In order that the board may function as a whole, the number of such committees must be as few as possible and their authority must be limited to the initiation of action by means of recommendations and suggestions and not be allowed to extend to the final disposal of business, except where specific matters are, from time to time, referred to them for decision by the board as a whole. . . . The great number of such committees at present is due, not to the inher- ent necessities of the work but to the great number of board members for whom committee appointment must be found. . . . When they are once created work must be found for the committees, and functions which should be intrusted to an executive staff are retained by board mem- bers. . . . The most serious fault of the committee system is that it pre- vents the board from transacting its business as a board, upon considera- tion of it by the whole board; that it substitutes for the initiative of all the members the initiative of a part of them and trusts to a minority of the body the first hand determination of its policies and decisions. ..." Deffenbaugh, in his investigation *^ of approximately 1300 cities, of from 2500 to 30,000 population, made six years later than Bard's, found a much smaller range of interests demanding the attention of a standing committee. He lists in all forty-eight *2 School Administration in the Smaller Cities, pp. 20-22. 34 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education kinds of committees. His statements of the findings and his conclusions are as follows : "Though school boards in most of the smaller cities have been reduced in size to 5, 6, or 7 members, some of them still cling to the custom of having many standing committees. Sometimes there are as many commit- tees as there are board members, each member holding a chairmanship. What these committees find to do is a question difficult to answer, either there is nothing for some of them to do or they take upon themselves duties that do not belong to them but to paid experts. . . . Clearly the functions of many of these committees, such as those on promotion, exam- inations, penmanship, course of study and truancy, must duplicate the functions of expert employees of the school board. . . . How many and what committees a board should have may depend to a certain extent upon local conditions and upon the size of the board, but in general a board composed of 7 or fewer members needs no standing committees. If the superintendent is given the power due in preparation of the school budget, in the selection of teachers, and in the general professional and business administration of the schools, he seldom needs the assistance of a committee. A board of 5. 6, or 7 members can discuss and pass upon the recommendations of the superintendent as well as a committee of three. When the work is done by committees, there is usually but little discussion by the entire board; one part of the board may be almost entirely ignorant of what another part is doing. ... If there are any com- mittees, their attention should be directed chiefly to the business affairs of the board. In a board of from five to nine members two committees could easily look after the business of the board — a committee on finance and accounts and one on buildings and grounds. ..." Professor Cubberley, after participating in the surveys of Port- land, Butte, Salt Lake, and Oakland, has this to say of com- mittees : *^ "The most common means by which mismanagement and interference with technical and professional functions of the experts of the school de- partment comes is through the attempt of such boards to manage the schools by means of a large number of standing committees. Committees commonly exist, such as those on courses of study, text-books, instruc- tion, and promotion and grading, which simply cannot exercise intelli- gently any of the functions usually assigned to such bodies. The work attempted by such committees involves a professional knowledge and judgment which no city board of education, either as a body or through a committee, ought ever try to assume." *3 Public School Administration, p. 112f. The Board and its Duties 35 Professor Cubberley cites ten cases to illustrate what he styles "the over-activity of committees." "All of these cases of over-activity on the part of board members and board committees arise from a confusion as to what the members were elected to do. In the exercise of its legislative functions the board will need few, if any, standing committees. If the board is small, say five or seven, action can be taken better as a whole, all committees being purely temporary. In any case, three committees will be sufficient for even a large board, namely a committee on educational affairs, a committee on business affairs, and a committee on buildings and finance." Ballou, following an investigation in seventy-two cities, con- cludes as follows : ** "The few members of a standing committee play altogether too large a part in the decisions of the board, as shown by the fact that (1) more than eighty per cent of the committees are minority committees, and (2) the reports of committees whether large or small, through necessity, are sel- dom discussed by the whole board. The committee organization permits the exercise of pernicious influences, because (1) of the prevailing method of appointment of members by the president of the board, because (2) of its closed meetings, and because (3) it is easier to deal unscrupulously with a small committee than it is with a whole board. The committee system violates four principles of effective administra- tion, as follows: (1) The duties of each committee cannot be clearly de- fined, because the functions of committees overlap, due to the fact that committees are usually organized according to no known principle of or- ganization. (2) This makes it impossible to fix the responsibihty of each committee, because no one knows just what its duties are. (3) The ab- sence of any well-defined responsibilities makes it impossible to hold the committee responsible for its acts. (4) The committee system tends to confuse lay control with professional and executive management, because the prevailing practice is to refer the discharge of executive functions to committees of the board rather than to the board's professional execu- tives. For these reasons the practice of boards of education of organizing into standing committees for the transaction of their business must be condemned." The conclusions of these investigators may be summarized somewhat as follows : 1. There is no agreement among boards as to the number or the kind of committees. — Bard, Deffenbaugh. 2. A large number of committees is to be attributed rather to **The Appointment of Teachers in Cities, pp. 121-122. 36 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education the size of the board than the amount of work to be done, merely as a way out of a dilemma. — Ballou, Bard, Deffen- baugh, Moore — or to provide members with chairmanships. — Deffenbaugh. 3. Committees tend to perform executive functions. — Ballou, Bard, Cubberley, Deffenbaugh, Moore. 4. The committee system fosters a divided rather than a centralized or coordinated form of organization. — Moore. 5. Committee policy tends to become board policy, the board as a whole being ignorant of the real work of each com- mittee. — Ballou, Moore, Deffenbaugh. 6. The functions of committees overlap. — Ballou, Moore. 7. Committees form a means of unnecessary delay and post- ponement of action. — Cubberley, Deffenbaugh. 8. Committees permit of pernicious influence. — Ballou. 9. A board of proper size needs only a few if any standing committees. — Cubberley, Deffenbaugh. The limited amount of time available for this study made it in- advisable to duplicate the efforts of these investigators on certain phases of committee action. For such matters as the size and kind of committees the reader is referred to the studies of Ballou, Bard, and Deffenbaugh. With reference to the conclusions reached by these investigators such evidence as we have found in support or contradiction will be presented. The first of these is supported by the evidence found in the present study. The near- est approach we have to agreement on the number of committees is that 53 per cent of our boards agree that there should be from 4 to 6 committees. The number occurring most frequently is 5, which occurs in twenty cases. b. The Relation of Committees to the Size of the Board The repeated reference by other investigators to the relation of the size of boards of education to the number of committees they provide, independent of any statistical analysis of the actual situation seemed to call for further investigation. Accordingly one of the first steps with reference to the committee problem was to find what relation exists between size of board and frequency of committees. From Table I we find that the number of com- mittees for the one hundred cities ranges from none at all in ten The Board and its Duties 37 cities to nineteen in Providence. The median number is six and the average is six. To find what relation exists between the size of boards and the number of committees, a correlation by the Spearman method of ranking was made between these two fac- tors. To discover whether or not the number of committees is due as much to the size of city represented as to the size of the board, it was necessary to correlate also size of city and number of standing committees. Correlating size of board and number of committees gives a positive relationship of p := +-56. The re- sult when correlating size of city and number of committees gives p = -}--15. Thus it is evident that there is a significant positive correlation between the size of the board and the number of com- mittees for these one hundred cities. This then bears out the con- tention of those who hold that large boards tend to have many committees, and is directly opposed to the statement made by Bal- lou *^ that there is no correlation between the two. Since the re- sult of our second correlation is small the results of the two cor- relations may be taken as an argument in favor of small boards for the administration of our city school systems. If it were the quantity of work to be attended that is causing boards to split up into committees we should expect to find a high correlation between the size of the city and the number of com- mittees. It may be argued by some that size of city does not in- dicate the quantity of work to be done, yet a comparison of the minutes of large and small cities indicates a larger amount of work usually covered in the course of a regular meeting in the larger cities. Compare for example the minutes for any period of several months of such cities as the nine of over 300,000 popu- lation in Table II with those of such cities as Reading, Worcester, Albany, Somerville, Lancaster, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Eliza- beth, cities ranging in population from 150,000 to 39,000. If the minutes of the latter group are compared with those of cities with a population from 5,000 to 25,000 the difference in the amount of business transacted will be further apparent. Large cities employ and promote more teachers, they purchase more sites and erect more buildings whose plans must be passed upon, and for which means of financing must be adopted. With more actual business to be transacted in large cities we might expect many committees *^Ibid., p. 114. 38 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education and large cities to be found together. Such is however not the case as our correlations show. One reason why small cities are almost as apt to have as many committees as large cities is prob- ably due to the fact that in large cities additional executive officers perform duties commonly assigned to committees in smaller cities. The fact that cities are frequently found having many committees is then to be attributed to the large board rather than to the actual demands of the situation. In view of the fact that size of board appeared to be the largest single factor in determining whether or not a board shall have committees, information was sought in cities visited as to the pur- pose of committees. The reason commonly given by superin- tendents, when asked why the board of education in that particular city found it necessary to have committees, was that there is too much work to be covered for all members to attend to all matters needing attention. As one superintendent ^® expressed it, "There is absolutely too much business to be done without committee ac- tion." That city has a board of nine members and thirteen com- mittees, but a population of less than 75,000. Another city visited, where the board finds too much to do as a board, has a board of twelve. In a third city of less than 40,000 population and a board of nine, in which the writer attended a board meeting, practically all of the board's business is done through committees and the real work of the committees apparently occurs behind closed doors. The formal board meeting in that city as in some others visited is little less than an attempt to deceive the public. Committee re- ports, and resolutions were read so fast that the writer had dif- ficulty in following them and as fast as they were read they were approved. Of the fifteen cities visited, seven have boards of either five or six members. Six out of the seven have com- mittees, but committee action in four appears to be largely per- functory. Of the remaining eight, all having boards of nine or more, committee action appears to play an important part in the deliberations of at least six. While the number of cases here is too few to furnish conclusive evidence, there is strong indica- tion that size of board is the determining factor. *^ For reasons of courtesy cities visited will rarely be mentioned in name. The names of the cities to which specific references allude are filed with the Department of Educational Administration, Teachers Col- lege. The Board and its Duties 39 c. The Work of Three Committees Occurring most Frequently To find out what duties committees perform and if possible to shed further Hght on the committee problem the duties of three committees were studied in some detail. The three committees occurring most frequently, namely, buildings, finance, and teachers,^'^ were selected. A tabulation was made of the duties assigned by boards having either of these committees. For boards whose minutes were read a tabulation was also made of the matters treated in reports of the committees or referred to them for consideration. For purposes of treatment it has been necessary to group duties closely related, the different duties pre- scribed and performed running into hundreds when tabulated as originally worded. By so doing it is possible for errors to be made, but it is not probable that this has in any material way af- fected the results, since no great stress is here attached to fre- quency, particularly in the minutes. In presenting the data collected on the three committees an at- tempt will be made to point out the capacities in which committees may be of real and valued service as opposed to those in which their presence becomes a detriment to the proper administration of the school system. We shall attempt further to select from a con- structive point of view some of the particular duties which com- mittees may well exercise. Contrariwise, we shall attempt to point out duties assigned to committees which cannot well be justified under the category of proper matters for the attention of a committee. From lack of sufficient data there will possibly remain in case of each committee some duties concerning which no sharp conclusions seem warranted. The criteria used in judg- ing as to the proper functions of a committee are those employed throughout the study, the application of a particular criterion de- pending upon its adaptability. The relative importance of duties assigned to committees may be approximated by reference to the tentative scale of board duties. Were sufficient time available to secure a consensus of judgments on the duties of the different committees as in the case of the duties of the board, it would aid materially in evaluating committee practices. Data on the duties of the three committees were secured in sixty- four, seventy, and *^ The precise title of these committees is not always that given here. 40 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education seventy-two cases respectively for the committees on teachers, buildings and finance. Seventy-six cities having committees are, however, represented owing to the fact that nine of these cities have no committee on teachers, two none on buildings and two none on finance. In the remaining instances either data were insufficient or the rules were stated only in general terms, (1) The Committee on Buildings. Table VII gives the duties as summarized for the building committee. The first line of figures under each duty given represents key numbers to cities of Table I and the second gives the same facts for cities of Table II. The first point which may be made with reference to committee action as found in connection with the building committee is that boards as a whole fail to prescribe specifically the limits of com- mittee action. It is difficult to determine the exact extent to which committees participate in the duties assigned to them or how far the rule expects them to go. From the rules of most boards it is impossible to determine whether "repairs" are intended to mean only very minor repairs or whether they extend as far as remodel- ling a building. One cannot tell whether "supervision of build- ings" means only a very general supervision or a minute super- vision. In some cases it appears to be only general and in others minute. Due in part, at least, to such laxity the duties assigned to the building committee are such that the committee may act largely in an executive capacity, independent of the board's salaried executive officers. It is not required to assume a posi- tion which is more in accord with principles of good management and which permits of the professional skill of the chief executive and his assistants being used, i.e., a position advisory to and in support of the chief executive. The one important duty of Table VII which appears least sub- ject to two possible lines of action is that of examining the report or recommendations of executive officers of the building depart- ment. It occurs, however, in the rules of but three cities, St. Louis, Louisville, and Covington. St. Louis is an exception to common practice in that it does specify what the nature of the committee activities shall be : "The duties of standing committees shall be supervisory and not execu- tive. Each committee shall have the powder to investigate the affairs of the department under its supervision, and to call for information from the The Board and its Duties 41 TABLE VII « Building Committee Rules Min. Inspect or supervise buildings : 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 12-3, 19, 20, 31-3, 35-9, 42, 45, 49, 50, 56-9, 67-70, 74-6, 78, 81, 83-4, 87-9, 90-1, 93, 99 43 15, 39, 47, 56 4 Have charge, control, determine or supervise repairs and im- provements : 2, 5, 7, 8, 10, 20-1, 25, 28, 33-7, 41, 44-5, 53, 58, 62, 66, 70-1, 82-3, 85-9, 93-4, 99 33 5, 8, 11, 12, 15, 17, 22, 29-31. 33-4, 40, 42, 51, 53, 55, 59, 60 19 Have charge, control, oversight or supervision of construction or record acceptance of work : 5, 7, 12-3, 19, 28, 34, 36-7, 39, 41, 44, 47-8, 51, 54-5, 57-9, 66-7, 70, 83-6, 89 28 3, 6. 15, 22, 35, 56-7, 60 8 Recommend repairs or improvements or estimate cost : 1, 5, 8, 10, 19-21, 28, 31-2, 36-9, 44-5, 55, 60, 71, 73, 75, 78, 81-3, 87, 90, 93, 99 29 3, 4, 14-5, 17, 29, 34, 44, 55-6, 59, 60 12 Recommend janitors or their salaries; control, direct, super- vise or investigate charges vs. them or other building em- ployees : 2, 5, 7, 12, 20-1, 32-4, 36, 38-9, 41-2, 44, 48-9, 53, 55-7, 59, 74, 76, 83-4, 87, 89, 91 29 3, 6, 11, 15, 17, 28, 35, 50, 54-6, 59, 60 13 Recommend purchase or selection of sites or erection of build- ings: 4, 10, 12-3, 38-9, 41, 44-5, 53, 55, 57-8, 60, 67, 69, 75, 78, 83-4 20 6, 8, 15, 22, 35, 43, 51, 55-6, 58 10 Secure bids, recommend or award contracts, or see that they are carried out: 5, 10, 12, 25-6, 34, 36, 38, 50-1, 60, 70, 73-4, 85, 88 16 3, 4, 6, 8, 11-3, 15, 17, 20, 33, 35-6, 38, 40, 42, 44, 50, 52-60 27 Examine, submit, or supervise plans : 1, 5, 12-3, 17, 37, 39, 51, 53, 70, 83, 85, 88 , 13 8, 17, 22, 33, 35, 39, 53, 55-6, 59, 60 11 Purchase or make recommendations on the purchase of sup- plies or equipment: 2, 5, 28, 31, 34, 36, 38, 50, 53-4 10 3,8,13,15,17,20,35,45,50,53,55-7,60 14 Attend to or recommend purchase, sale or renting of prop- erty: 4, 5, 8, 36, 39, 41, 51, 57, 59 9 2, 6, 11, 13, 15, 22, 40, 43, 50, 52, 55, 59 12 *^ Upper rows of numbers refer to cities of Table I, lower to Table II. 42 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education Have charge of or make recommendations on insurance : 12-3, 32, 35, 39, 53, 69, 75 8 35, 41, 45-6 4 Direct or supervise executive officers of building department: 12, 29, 32, 44 4 Approve bills or recommend payment on contracts : 20, 35, 47, 54-5 5 3, 8, 10, 33-5, 52-3, 55, 59, 60 11 Pass on request for use of building or recommend conditions for use : 7, 20, 91 3 6, 30, 35, 51-2, 55, 60 7 Recommend superintendent of buildings, architect or engineer, or their salaries — employ draughtsman, inspectors ; super- vise or control them: 4, 5, 12, 51, 89 5 6, 8, 15, 22 4 Examine report or recommendations of executive officers of the department and make recommendations thereon: 11, 25-6 3 13, 52 2 Recommend budget for building department, methods of rais- ing funds, apportionment or transfer : 48, 93 2 6, 8, 56-7 4 Supervise boundaries : 5, 38 2 3, 15, 33 3 administrative officer of the department, and any assistant, subordinate or employee thereof . . . No standing committee shall have any power to direct the action of the administrative officer or of any assistant, sub- ordinate or employee of the department under its charge . . ." ^^ The need of committee participation in the supervision of build- ing construction would seem to depend upon the presence or ab- sence of an executive officer competent to undertake such work. In cities having no superintendent of buildings this duty is quite likely to be administrative in character. Only nineteen of the cities of Table I represented among the first three duties of Table VII, have a superintendent of buildings. From this it would seem that as far as the supervision of construction is concerned the committee often performs executive functions and does not limit itself to an advisory capacity. It may be that in some cities mem- bers of the board have had valuable experience in supervising the erection of buildings. But why not attempt to secure the highest « Rules of the Board of Education, 1914, Rule 13, Sec. VI. The Board and its Duties 43 type of executive service the board can afford? If the cities rep- resented in the first three duties given are distributed according to size it will be seen that forty- four of the sixty- four have a population of more than 25,000. These forty-four at least might be expected to provide a trained assistant to the superintendent to take charge of buildings rather than to trust to the uncertain lay expertness of a committee. It may be, however, that executive officers desire the committee to share in assuming the responsi- bility for the approval of the construction work of new buildings. This occurs in some cities. Such service by board members, however, represents lay executive action. Members of the committee may render what is possibly the most expert service in the purchase of sites. Business men of ability may be more familiar with real estate prices and values and may be able to drive a sharper bargain than an executive of- ficer. This is particularly true in smaller cities where the chief executive has had only a limited amount of experience. If they have had considerable experience in the real estate field as hap- pens to be the case in a number of cities covered by the study, they may render the community a valuable service. This will be true if their expert knowledge is placed at the disposal of the chief executive and if they recommend purchases only after he has assured them that the site is adapted to the educational re- quirements. Unless their services are rendered in this manner we may have valuable experience and training on the part of the members of the committee on the one hand and the chief executive and his assistants on the other working at cross purposes rather than coordinating at a maximum efficiency. An illustration of how this service may be rendered is given by Fremont, Nebr. After the board and the superintendent had decided upon the de- sirability of a certain site for its new high school building a mem- ber of the board engaged in the real estate business was able, ostensibly for private purposes, to secure options on a major por- tion of the block and thus prevent an inflated appraisal value on the balance before owners were aware of his real motive. This is a type of lay administrative service that cannot be overlooked. The second and more striking thing perhaps to be noted is the lack of agreement even between boards which decide that their organization demands a building committee. This may be seen 44 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education from the total column of frequencies for each provision as found in the rules. Only the first occurs in more than one-half of the seventy-three cases. It is only if we grant, as some may contend we should, that the first three duties given refer to the same func- tion in practice, that we have anything like agreement as to what should be some of the duties of a building committee. In that case we would have sixty-four cities ^° (omitting duplications) out of seventy-three. Only six of the duties prescribed occur with a frequency of twenty or more. A third point to be noted is the evident difference in relative importance of the duties assigned this committee. While we can- not assume to measure accurately the relative importance of any of them, we may reach an approximation by referring to the ten- tative scale of board duties for comparison. The assignments of the building committee will be seen to vary all the way from such relatively important matters as examining the report of executive officers of the department and examining building plans or super- vising construction to such minor matters as approving bills or supervising boundaries. In so far as such duties as supervising construction, examining building plans, making recommendations on the selection of sites and the erection of buildings, examining the report of executive officers of the building department and recommending the budget for buildings, represent a careful study and weighing of the superintendent's proposed policies in order to help him to shape his own judgment and to support him in his proposals before the board, they appear to be the duties most worthy of committee attention. For the purpose of having a group of men who have already given careful attention to the plans of a building as recommended by the executive officers and who stand ready to defend the action recommended when the board meets for discussion of the plans the building committee may furnish needed support. The same would be true with reference to the question as to whether or not a new building is needed and as to the location to be chosen, the report of executive officers on the progress of work on buildings, and the budget for buildings. These are important matters in which executives may desire the benefit of discussion to assist them in shaping the policies to be recommended to the board and 60 Table VII. The Board and its Duties 45 in discussing the proposed policies before the board. The danger is that the committee instead of supporting executive officers may- attempt to submit alternative policies not approved by the execu- tive officers. In such event the board is required to choose be- tween its professional, paid advisors and its lay advisors. In the event that committee action takes the direction indicated above it is not a case of interference with the professional ability of the chief executive and his assistants but an attempt to bring to his assistance and place at his disposal whatever of lay expert- ness members of the committee may have acquired through long experience. The duties of a committee are important for it to perform in so far as such action becomes an aid and not a hin- drance in the way of permitting full use of the skill represented in the executive officers of the system, i. e., the superintendent and his assistants. They are important also so far as the board is placed in a position to know more fully the probable results of one action or another toward proposed policies. Finally they are important in so far as the principles of good business administra- tion indicated in the chapter following are observed. Such being the case the danger of permitting a committee to exercise such a function as recommending an architect or an engineer or a superintendent of buildings should be apparent. This duty is assigned the building committee in Akron, Ohio, New York City, Yonkers, Portland, Ore., and Worcester, all cities steeped in committee activity, none having less than eight com- mittees and three having boards of fifteen or more. The selection of such officers is a matter in which the two possible lines of com- mittee action need to be carefully distinguished. Since the board expects the superintendent to be its professional leader he must have assistants capable of rendering the quality of service he re- quires. The committee cannot have a standard different from that of the superintendent if he and not the committee is to be the head of the school system. For a committee to choose subor- dinate executive officers is contrary to accepted principles of busi- ness administration. It represents a practice as absurd as to ex- pect that the road committee rather than the general manager of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company should nominate the super- intendent of transportation. If the committee serves only to as- sist the superintendent in arriving at a decision as to the man most 46 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education competent to fill the position, it may render him valued support. Then its service is advisory rather than executive. Unless the rules specify carefully and unless the superintendent is careful to see that this duty of the committee is carefully prescribed as a part of his own contract with the board there is little assurance that the committee will not work at cross purposes with the super- intendent. In such matters as recommending janitors, securing bids, pur- chasing or recommending the purchase of equipment, directing the executive officers of the building department and passing upon requests for the use of buildings, the building committee seems to be outside of the field of its legitimate endeavor. Each of these are matters requiring professional knowledge and judgment, They are executive and belong properly to the superintendent and his assistants. Janitors must meet the requirements that the superintendent of buildings regards as necessary in his depart- ment. They must also be of such character and training as to fit in well with the educational scheme of the superintendent. They must be subject to the control and direction of both of these officers if the janitorial service is to reach the stage of efficiency to which the executive officers of the system are capable of lead- ing it. Recommendations on the purchase of equipment may assume two aspects, the one advisory, approving the superintendent's re- quest that the board purchase equipment, and the other executive, having to do with the actual selection. The latter represents an interference in a professional matter. The rules seldom distin- guish between the two. The folly of assigning such duties to a committee was illustrated recently by the building committee in Chicago which decided "on the toss of a coin" ^^ to accept an offer for the sale of an automatic screw machine of $925. The princi- pal had recommended its sale and the supervisor of technical work and the superintendent had given their approval. The attempt to direct officers of the building department, which occurs in Yonkers, St. Joseph, Moline, and Sioux City, and did until recently in Denver, represents direct interference with the duty of the chief executive. Considering requests for the use of buildings represents a waste of time that must be withdrawn from " Minutes of the Board of Education, Dec. 22, 1915, p. 138. The Board and its Duties 47 more important matters. In a meeting attended of one board which has a committee on buildings, approximately one-half of the time was consumed in considering requests for the use of the high school building. A further aspect of the committee question is revealed by the duties assigned the building committee. If we take the cities rep- resented among those whose boards prescribe that the building committee shall examine building plans, we find that of the thirteen, seven have boards of twelve or more members and two more have boards of nine members. Of the seven with boards of twelve or more, one has sixteen committees, two have fifteen, one eleven, one eight, one seven, and one six. This suggests that on such important matters as the consideration of construction plans large boards may tend to permit or even expect the committee to do the board's own thinking. Committee policy may tend to take the place of board policy. (2) The Committee on Teachers. Table VIII gives similar facts for the committee on teachers. That a fewer number of boards provide a committee on teachers may be evidence that the professional nature of many of the duties commonly assigned this committee is recognized at least by some boards. As in case of the building committee it is difficult to determine the extent to which committee participation is intended. Rules not infrequently omit to state whether the committee may make alternative recommendations to the board in such professional matters as the appointment of teachers or the selection of text- books and course of study, or whether their function is to weigh recommendations of the superintendent. Not infrequently the duties assigned this committee are so worded that if the com- mittee desired to exercise its prerogatives it could become a serious factor in the actual administration of the educational department. The provision for committee participation in the appointment of teachers is most common, occurring fifty-two times in a pos- sible sixty-five. Aside from this single exception there is how- ever, as in case of the building committee, little agreement as to the diities that should be assigned this committee. Only three provisions occur with a frequency of twenty or more. Some boards assign certain duties to this committee which we found were assigned by others to the committee on buildings. 48 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education TABLE VIII 52 Teachers Committee Rules Min. Make recommendations for the appointment of teachers : 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 12-3, 15, 17, 21, 26, 28-9, 31-9, 42, 44-5, 48-50, 53-6, 58-9, 66, 71, 74-5, 78, 81-5, 87-89, 94, 96-7, 99 52 2-6, 9-11, 13, 15, 20, 22, 29-31, 33, 35, 39, 43, 47, 50-2, 54-6, 58-9, 60 29 Make recommendations on salary or appropriations for : 1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 12-3, 17, 20-1, 32, 34, 36, 38-9, 42, 45, 50,53-4, 58, 69, 81-3, 88, 89 27 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 13, 15-6, 20, 30-1, 35, 39, 47, 49, 52, 54-5, 57-60 22 Consider changes in text-books or courses of study: 7, 8, 10. 12, 20-1, 29. 35, 38. 40, 47, 49, 51. 54, 62, 69, 75, 78, 81, 96 20 2, 4, 8, 11, 13, 15, 34, 47, 49, 52, 55, 57, 59, 60 14 Ascertain qualifications of teachers, or have charge of exam- inations, or recommend members of board of examiners : 4, 8, 10, 13, 15, 17. 34, 36, 40, 42, 47, 49, 51, 53, 57-8, 87, 89. 18 4, 6, 15, 55, 59, 60 6 Investigate charges against teachers, suspend or recommend dismissal: 2, 4. 8, 10. 13, 28. Z2>, 35. 38, 44, 49, 50, 53-4, 67, 70 16 6, 59... 2 Make recommendations on assignment, transfer, promotion, leaves of absence, or resignations of teachers : 2, 4, 8, 13, 28, 32, 49, 50, 53, 66, 71, 78, 83, 89, 96 15 2-4, 6, 9-11, 13, 15, 29, 30, 47, 51-2, 54-6, 58-60 20 Consider superintendent's report or recommendations for extensions or readjustments: 4, 8, 10-1, 20, 25-6, 28, 36, 45, 49, 56, 66, 70 14 2-4, 6, 8, 13, 15, 35, 49, 52, 55-7, 59, 60 15 Visit schools, study the work of teachers, supervise their work, or report defects in instruction or management; call teachers' meetings: 4, 8, 10, 31, 35-40, 70, 84 12 Prepare rules for the government of schools ; make recom- mendations on or have charge of matters of discipline and management: 4, 7, 10, 12, 29, ZZ, 44, 53-4, 69 10 8, 47 2 Consider matters of changing boundaries: 2, 10, 13, 67, 68.. 5 6, 13, 57 3 62 Upper rows of numbers refer to cities in Table I, lower to Table II. The Board and its Duties 49 Determine classification of schools, direct manner of conduct- ing pupils' examinations, pass on qualifications of pupils for promotion, recommend changes in marking system or recommend methods of promotion: 2, 8, 40, 49, 68, 78.. 6 5, 52, 60 3 Recommend appointment of the superintendent : 45, 56 2 39 1 Recommend janitors or supervise them: 1, 82, 84 3 Approve expenditures for supplies, pay roll; authorize emer- gency expenditures or consider matters of tuition : 10, 12, 20, 51, 54 5 12-3, 35, 49, 51, 55, 57, 58 8 Have charge of or recommend measures of enforcing com- pulsory attendance : 53, 67 2 52 1 Recommend authorizing purchase of supplies or equipment: 12, 20, 54, 59, 62 5 6, 15, 35, 60 4 As to the relative importance of the duties given to the com- mittee on teachers we find a wide range. Considering the super- intendent's report, appointing teachers and fixing their salaries upon the recommendation of the superintendent are important functions for the board itself to perform. It is to be questioned whether the board in the discharge of its own most important duty, the selection of the superintendent, should expect to be guided by the recommendations of a committee. Yet two boards ask the committee on teachers to make recommendations in this matter. In so far as the committee's choice tends to be substituted for board choice it is bad policy. Recommendations of those who know most about the ability of men available for the position of chief executive can be reduced to writing to which all may have ac- cess and which all may ponder over and discuss. The most eco- nomical use of a board's time in the case of this duty may be the use of a large amount of it. The appointment of teachers is some- times with and sometimes without the approval of the superin- tendent. When appointments are controlled by either the board or a committee, as happened recently in Burlington, Vermont, or as may occur in Philadelphia, it represents a pure waste of the super- intendent's professional skill which the community has a right to expect to be utilized. That such waste of professional skill occurs 50 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education at times may be seen from the minutes of Burlington, Vermont." The superintendent nominated a science teacher but the board failed to approve ; he made a second nomination and the board again refused to approve. The board then filled the position with a man not recommended by the superintendent. In Philadelphia the committee may nominate irrespective of the superintendent's wishes.^* These are clear cut cases of interference in a profes- sional matter. The purely professional matters in which the committee on teachers is asked to take part is indeed surprising. It is asked by some boards to attend to such professional duties as super- vising instruction and passing upon the qualifications of pupils for promotion. It is somewhat surprising that Lead, S. D., in 1908 or Topeka in 1914 did not make their committee on teachers, since their services were to be had without charge, head of the educational department in name as well as in power. "The teachers member . . . shall observe the modes of instruction and courses of study, report any defect or abuse and recommend any changes that may seem desirable." ^^ "It shall be the duty of this committee" to "examine the schools throughout the city as carefully as practicable, and report to the superintendent any de- fects in the management or instruction that they may notice." ^® If committees when assigned such purely professional duties as just noted faithfully perform their duties violations of two of our criteria will be evident. In the first place there will be inter- ference with teachers, principals, supervisors, and superinten- dents in the rendering of professional services, for which the com- munity is paying. In the second place such action on the part of committees requires an amount of time which none, save possibly men of no business of their own, can well afford to spend and still attend to the matters which are most important for a com- mittee or a board to consider. The duties which, aside from making recommendations on the appointment of the chief executive, are most worthy of the com- " Burlington, Vt. : Minutes June 17, 26, July 2, 1915. "By-laws, 1914. 55 Lead, S.D., Rules and Regulations, 1908, sec. 17. The rules of 1908 were received by Bryson Library, Teachers College, as late as 1914 upon request for a copy of the latest rules and regulations. 56 Topeka : Rules and Regulations, 1914, Sec. 10. The Board and its Duties 51 mittee's attention are considering the superintendent's report and recommendations for the extension or readjustment of the scope of educational endeavors, and making recommendations on mat- ters of salary. Approximately one-fourth of the sixty-five cities have seen fit to place the consideration of the superintendent's report among the duties of the committee on teachers. As evidence of how this provision may operate where a board and its committees have come to accept the business principle that the chief executive is to be looked upon as the educational leader and that suggestions of policy shall come through him, we may cite St. Louis. Here the board recognizes that the position of committees should be one of weighing the superintendent's recommendations, to the end that the community shall be pro- vided with those types of education which it most needs. The board found it necessary because of limited funds to ask the superintendent to suggest readjustments. The committee on in- struction reported as follows : "Your committee found itself, after the greatest and most anxious con- sideration of the subject, compelled to approve the superintendent's recom- mendations that the greater part of the summer school work be discon- tinued" . . . "the income of the board from all sources will not be suffi- cient to continue in its entirety all the branches which up to now have been maintained by the instruction department. This condition is a con- sequence, of course, of the board's activities in the admission of the five- year old children to the schools, the greater care of the general health of our young people . . . the natural growth of the school population and the consequent employment of an additional number of teachers and added school accommodations," . . . "we accept the superintendent's recom- mendation to dispense with what, in his opinion, and in the opinion of the committee, will do the least harm and affect the least number of chil- dren . , ." 5T The president of the board in making a report to the public on this same matter after its consideration by the superintendent and the committees on instruction and finance, stated that : "the board feels that it should retrench in every way possible in order to increase its school room accommodations, it having 113 portable build- ings. . . the superintendent of instruction informed the committee that in his opinion the following expenses might, with least harm, in the order in which they are mentioned, be discontinued : »7 Minutes, June 8, 1915, p. 1174. 52 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education 1st. The expense caused by wider use of the school buildings 2nd. Appropriations for school sites 3rd. Expense of optional extra hours in high schools 4th. Excessive expense of Evening High Schools 5th. The following parts of the Summer Term Schools : a. High School b. Grade schools, with the exception of the fourth quarter of the eighth grade c. Grade Manual Schools "For the present, it was concluded therefore that the greater part of the summer term activities be discontinued. President." ^^ Here was an opportunity for the committee to weigh the judg- ment of their chief executive and to debate that judgment with other members of the board. The practice of a board which assigns the duty of considering the superintendent's report to a committee must be judged good or bad in so far as it requires its executive to present the evidence for and against his proposals. It is to be judged in so far as it discusses these proposals with him in the light of the evidence and refuses to accept blindly the recommendations of the com- mittee. Aside from the duties mentioned as worthy of committee at- tention few remain which do not have professional aspects. (3) The Committee on Finance. In Table IX we have the duties considered by seventy-three boards as of sufficient import- ance to be assigned by rule to the committee on finance and the same duties as found for cities whose minutes were examined. There are some duties in whose performance this committee may either assume an administrative character, or take an ad- visory position, but on the whole the duties prescribed for the finance committee are more explicit than in the case of the two committees previously considered. This may be due to the fact that board members from their own training and experience know more of the possibilities and limitations in the field of finance than in a field like instruction. It was a quite common occur- rence to find among the boards visited that some members of the finance committee were men engaged in the banking business. 58 76iJ., pp. 1194-1199. The Board and its Duties 53 TABLE IX 59 Finance Committee Rules Mia Estimate the annual budget and consider measures of finance for meeting it : 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10-12, 17, 19, 21, 29, 31-2, 34, 36, 38-40, 42, 45, 48-51, 56-9, 62, 67-71, 73, 75-6, 78, 81-2, 85-9, 91, 93, 99 SO 2-4, 6, 8, 13, 15-7, 20, 23, 36-8, 47, 49, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59. . 21 Examine bills and accounts of expenditures — see that only authorized expenditures are made: 4, 7, 8, 10, 12-3, 15, 17, 19-22, 25-6, 28, 31, 33-4, 36, 38-41, 47-50, 53-5, 57-8, 60, 62, 68-70, 73-5, 80, 84-7, 90-1, 93, 94, 97, 99 51 2-4, 6, 8, 10-1, 15-7, 20, 23, 26, 30, 34-5, 42, 44, 47-9, 52, 56-8, 60 26 Supervise or have charge of finance — recommend authorizing expenditures within or not provided by budget : 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 12-3, 17, 20-2, 29, 33-4, 41, 44, 49, 51, 53, 55, 58, 62, 67, 69, 75-6, 81-4, 86, 88, 93, 99 34 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 15, 52, 54-5, 57, 59, 60 12 Examine reports of receipts and expenditures, and the condi- tion of funds: 8, 11-3, 17, 19-21, 33-4, 36, 41, 48, 51, 53, 55, 67, 87, 89, 90, 93 21 3, 4, 6, 10, 15, 34, 39, 52, 55-7 11 Have charge of insurance: 1, 4, 20-1, 28, 47, 49, 76, 83-4, ■ 88, 99 12 15, 55 2 Supervise the method of accounting : 8, 17, 21, 42, 57, 67, 71. . 7 15 1 Consider salary changes : 26, 28, 40, 55, 57 5 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 15, 33, 55, 57 9 Consider safeguarding moneys — examining securities, bonds, contracts, depositories: 12-3, 41, 47, 57, 80, 83, 85-6 9 2, 3, 15, 55 4 Consummate large financial transactions when authorized — negotiate loans, sell bonds, change securities, purchase sites: 57,67-8 3 2, 8, 21, 54 4 Represent the Board before the city or the legislature : 1, 5, 53, 82 4 11, 12, 15, 35-6 5 Estimate the value of board property and invoices thereof: 20, 58 2 2, 5, 6, 11, 49 5 "Upper rows of numbers refer to cities of Table I, lower to Table II. 54 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education Employ or control building or office employees and janitors: 20, 28 2 60 1 Consider matters pertaining to bids and awarding contracts — buildings, equipment, supplies: 26 1 2, 56 2 Have charge of school census : 21 1 In two Middle Western cities in particular that were visited, the finance committee of the board of education included in its mem- bership men generally considered among the prominent bankers of that section of the country. Such men are to be thought of as lay experts in large questions of finance such as negotiating loans, buying or selling bonds, considering matters of safeguard- ing the board's funds. Chief executive officers in these cities frankly acknowledged that these men were more competent to administer large measures of finance than they themselves. Only the first four of Table IX are assigned by twenty or more of the seventy-three boards. On all other duties they fail to agree in even twenty-five per cent of the cases. It is possible that certain combinations could be made of the duties as listed in Table IX, which would tend to give the appearance at least that there is more nearly substantial agreement as to what cer- tain duties of a finance committee should be. Some may mean examining accounts of expenditures to be the same thing as ex- amining reports of them. However, if we combine the second and fourth of the duties, the total increases only to fifty-five. If we combine the first and third, the total of cities represented in the rules by these two is sixty. We may note again for the committee on finance the relative importance of the work mapped out for this committee. A purely routine function, examining bills and accounts of expenditures already made, and which is not a matter of very grave import- ance, occurs as often as such an important duty as that of esti- mating the annual budget. If all boards had an adequate con- ception of the requirements of budget making, less time and atten- tion need be devoted to routine details. Through a thorough- going consideration of the reports of receipts and expenditures and the condition of its funds, made by executive officers, the members of the finance committee and the board may know the The Board and its Duties 55 exact status of the board's financial ability. It is this, after all, which it needs to consider when voting upon new policies. For the committee to consume valuable time each month in scrutinizing bills of expenditures previously authorized and made and which after all mean nothing until summarized in adequate statistical form, is to deprive itself of time to consider adequately financial policies. The type of service that a committee on finance may give its board was previously indicated in the case of St. Louis. It is il- lustrated further in a report of the committee on finance in Pitts- burg. It reported as follows : ■'Your Committee on Finance, after two months of careful considera- tion of the budget for the fiscal year . . . and after considering in connec- tion therewith the financial poHcies which, in its opinion, should character- ize the administration of school affairs for the coming year, begs to re- port as follows : 1. No fundamental increase in salaries can be made without an in- crease in millage. 2. No considerable extension of manual training centers, household economy centers, kindergarten, or of other school activities can be undertaken without an increase in millage. 3. No program for the replacement of old buildings or for substan- tial additions thereto can be undertaken without a bond issue. 4. Your committee is of the opinion that a just consideration for the taxpayers of the city will preclude any increase in the millage, and that in view of the large building operations under way and in contemplation, no further issue of bonds should be made at this time. We submit on these various propositions the following for your con- sideration : Requests made for schedule increases in teachers' salaries, if all were granted, would increase the tax rate almost one mill ... A very thorough comparison of our salary schedule with that of other cities shows that Pittsburg ranks well ... A very great deal of attention has been given to" . . . Manual Training and Domestic Science, . . . "and to the exten- sion of the kindergarten system . . . while it would be desirable to have centers for all these activities in each building, we feel that the policy of the board during the coming year toward these and all other ordinary school activities should be to work toward a maximum of efficiency in the administration of the system we now have established, rather than to make material extensions." . . . "we would not have been content to make this recommendation two years ago, but since that time unsafe and un- 56 The City Superintendent and the Board of Education sanitary buildings have been made safe and sanitary; additional teachers have been added to eliminate overcrowding; additional high school ac- commodations have been provided ; ungraded rooms have been opened ; principals have been largely relieved of clerical duties ; special schools have been established ; closer supervision has been attained ; school ad- vantages have been largely equalized, equipment has been standardized, and proper provision has been made for sinking funds." ^o In this report of the Pittsburg finance committee we note that the committee has devoted its time to large questions of financial policy and not to administrative details. Its weakness, however, lies in a possible tendency to propose policies of its own, and which have not been initiated by executive officers. In Table IX the duties which are most deserving of attention among those found in the rules and regulations are: the annual budget, reports of the condition of the board's funds, questions of salary changes, and matters of representing the board's interests before city or legislative authorities. If the board requires that its chief executive submit an adequate detailed budget, there will be little need of further supervision of finance other than that pre- viously indicated. The board will have determined its financial policies in adopting the budget and since it will know precisely how the district's funds are to be spent, it can leave the actual spending thereof to those whom it employs for that purpose. d. The Substitution of Committee Policy for Board Policy To determine accurately to what extent committee policy tends to be substituted for board policy, a fact which such investigators as Moore, Defifenbaugh, and Ballon maintain, would require a much greater amount of field study than has been possible in the present study. However, to determine in some measure the rel- ative importance of the position occupied by committees in de- termining board policies the printed minutes of three meetings for a number of cities were selected. The cities were chosen at ran- dom from those having committees, whose printed proceedings were received. The minutes were selected at intervals of at least one month. The number of pages devoted to committee reports and the total number of pages of recorded proceedings are given in Table X. To arrive at some indication as to what extent re- 60 Pittsburg, Minutes of the Board of Education, Jan. 20, 1914, pp. 142-44. The Board and its Duties 57 ports and recommendations of committees are accepted without amendment or division, the recorded actions on reports, recom- mendations, and resolutions offered by committees were noted. The results, omitting votes to merely receive the report, are given in the table. TABLE X 01 o E»; o V •a u rS O W 'o N E E o U "o 6 *o o2 • T3 cd O 3 O C 'So. ca o Ct3 rt o u o O '37 u V > o 'rt T3 < -J a m n < w H tj w u !< w > H u P U » Id X W w b. W t— 1 w u X! a "rt o> '^ o ". H 00 ". ^ n o C\ Tf ". O .VO - rj "^-"-f n 00 ■^ vc„--^-=o<^_ 2s c^a .CM oCin lOoT s.S g Ik >. .00 r»5 CM°^ .00 OO -tx o\ b '^'T .^ . .O e^ ", .fo vo .-1 r^ 00 o ".VO rt Tl CM 1/1 ^ 00 "-1 rot^ t^vO 5 N CO crv •^ »o o H CO 2 -^%*S" S 5S^oo ^^r^ r^-S ^ "^c?\ :--"p": SoJ" T^ Ot^ VO ooo VO-^ rt -^"^riS ^r; >. -co o ^'^'".^r-s; C »- .o .10 CM CM »-t CM ^ ul f^ Ov 3 V, >o CM o ^ H Ovn CM " .CM« 00 C7\^ ON •* «^g_00 fo ;; _--*ro «^ - ■^ 00 CM fO '"'cm . V5 .•^t^ \o ^ "^ .t^ ^ CM »— t to >> fO t^s U ^ . . VO ^ .r^fC ro CO U-JCMIO RS N rt Oi H VO . T^ .CM (M OlO u ■^ . VO ^ 1 -^ m-^ "o j_. "o "o u t: i; o i o U u u oom VOt-I T3 r iS. « ^ 1^ 2 < |2 " v:/:;;';:!:;'s:r;;(Mf^ > Urm