Author Y * Title * ** s ..L-ia.5... Imprint 16 — 47372-1 GPO REPORT CONTROLLERS PUBLIC SCHOOLS, RELATIVE TO EXPENDITURES FOR SCHOOL PURPOSES; FOR THE YEAR COMMENCING JULY 1, 1845, COMMUNICATED TO THE COUNTY BOARD, SEPTEMBER 24, 1845. PHILADELPHIA: KING & BA1RD, PRINTERS, 9 GEORGE STREET. 1845. f w ■■•■■ r »*£i> y -^9 -i RESOLUTION OP THE COUNTY BOARD. Resolved, That the Controllers of the Public Schools be and they are hereby requested to inform the County Board, at its next meet- ing, what appropriations beyond the amount received from the State, and the $25,000, recently appropriated by this Board for the pay- ment of Teachers' Salaries, will be necessary to meet the following items of expenditure for the School year 1845, designating the amount necessary to be appropriated under each item : — 1. For the settlement of contracts entered into prior to the 3d instant, for the erection of new School Houses. 2. For the erection of new School Houses, not yet under contract. 3. For the payment of Salaries of Teachers of Grammar, Second- ary and Primary Schools. 4. For the payment of Professors and Teachers of High School. 5. For the settlement of small Bills, or bills not exceeding in amount $20 each. 6. For the payment of Ground Rents. 7. For Books, Stationery, &c. 8. For cleaning School Houses. 9. For Salaries of Officers of the Board v 10. For rent of School Houses. 11. For Fuel, Furnaces and Stoves. 12. For Repairs of School Houses. 13. For Water Rents. 14. For incidental expenses, such as Printing and Advertising, Professional Services, Carriage Hire, Messenger, Hardware and other items not included under the foregoing heads. And also to inform the County Board what appropriation has been made by the Controllers of the amount received from the Com- monwealth for the present school year, and what amount has already been expended by said Controllers for supplies. REPORT. The Committee of the Board of Control to whom was referred the communication of the County Board, containing certain questions relative to the expenses of the Public Schools for the First School District — respectfully Report, That while the Board of Control are desirous to give to the pub- lic and to every body entitled to receive it, the fullest explanation of the expenses, finances, and condition of the Public Schools under their charge, they must protest against the construction of the law contained in a late Report of a majority of a Committee of the County Board, by which the right is claimed by that body to appro- priate specific amounts of the appropriation required by the Board of Control, to specific purposes. Admitting the right of the County Board to reduce the gross amount of the requisition of the Board of Control, the appropria- tion of specific sums to specific purposes involves the exercise of a discretion which the law has placed upon those having the charge of the Public Schools. The exercise of this discretion requires an in- timate knowledge of the details of the Public School System, which can only be acquired by continued attention to the subject. This, the members of the County Board, from their other duties, are ob- viously unable to give. And if they had the ability to do that which their construction of the law would oblige them to do, why keep up the Board of Control or Sectional Boards at all ? The County Board will examine whether a teacher is required in one school, or sup- plies in another, and they alone will say whether money shall be granted for these purposes. Is it not unjust to make the gentlemen who constitute the School Boards, responsible for the efficiency of a system which they have not either money to carry on, or which they are obliged to conduct according to the views of a body, who must be entirely ignorant of its wants ? The Board of Control, there- fore, in answering the questions addressed to them by the County Board, do so with a protest of the right of the County Board, under the law, to appropriate specific amounts to specific purposes. Your Committee would remark, that it is impossible to answer the question as to the amount required for small bills, or bills not exceed- ing in amount twenty dollars each, and at the same time include them in the aggregate with the other items of expenditure, because many of these other items are paid in amounts under twenty dollars. Many of the sums paid for repairs, cleaning school houses, furnaces and stoves, and incidental expenses, are paid in amounts under twenty dollars ; the Committee, therefore, while they give in then- statement of the whole amount paid for everything under the head of small bills, not exceeding in amount twenty dollars, in order that different views of the same amounts might be given, have not in- cluded it in their recapitulation, in which they desire to give an estimate of the whole expenditure for the year. Your Committee believe this to be the object of the County Board. Your Committee, in order to obtain accurate answers to the ques- tions submitted, sent copies of them to the different Sectional Boards, and answers have been duly returned by all. These answers ac- company this report. Some discrepancy exists in these answers, in consequence of the different views taken of the questions by the dif- ferent Sectional Boards, particularly as to that of amounts required for small bills under twenty dollars ; in some of the returns, amounts paid for repairs, &c, are repeated under the head of small bills, in others they are not. All, however, have been corrected in commit- tee, with the sanction of the Controller of the respective sections, so as to conform with the construction of the questions adopted by the Committee by which the whole estimate of expenditure is given. Your Committee would further remark, that in the returns from the different sections, sums amounting in the aggregate to $40,950, are required for the erection of School Houses, not under contract. These returns will show the views of the different sections of their wants in this particular. But of this amount, the following only have been acted upon and received the sanction of the Board of Control, viz : First Section. — Appropriation for Locust Street Secondary School, $5,000 00 " " Appropriation for Class Rooms S. West Public School, .... 1,500 00 Eleventh Section.— For School at Nice Town, . . 2,250 00 $8,750 00 The Sectional Boards have specified the following sums in addi- tion to the above as required for this purpose in their respective sections. Third Section.— For School at Wharton House, . $2,200 00 Fourth " For purchase of Nixon Street Church, 7,000 00 Fifth " For the Bustleton Academy in lieu of rent for ten years, $1,000 00 " " For the Lower Dublin Academy, . . . 1,000 00 " " For School at Holmesburg, 4,000 00 6,000 00 Sixth Section. — For School at Roxborough, 2,000 00 " " For School at Lower Har- mony, . . . 2,000 00 " " For School at Crescentville, 1,500 00 5,500 00 Seventh Section.-Fov School at Blockley, 2,000 00 " " For School at Hestonville, 2,000 00 " « For School at Paschallville, 2,500 00 6,500 00 Eleventh " For School at Richmond, . . 5,000 00 Total, $32,200 00 Whether or not, all or any of these Schools will be required during the current school year, your Committee are unable to say, as the determination of the question requires an examination of a mass of details, into which the Committee had neither the authority, means, nor time to inquire. In the answer to the question submitted under this head, the Committee have returned the whole amount demanded by the Sectional Boards, with the explanation that only $S750 of the amount has been acted upon by the Board of Control — that no por- tion has yet been rejected — and that the remaining portion de- manded, will be acted, upon by the Board of Control, when regu- larly submitted, with proper vouchers by the Sectional Boards. The result of the whole investigation will show that the amount of $1S0,000 asked by the Board of Control in their requisition, in addition to the sum received from the State, falls short of, rather than exceeds the wants of the system, even if the above-mentioned sum of $32,200 for building be not included in the estimate ; and if any reduction of this requisition is made by the County Board, it is due to themselves, to the public, and the Controllers, that a specific statement of facts should be made, showing in what particulars, under existing laws, the Public School System in the First School District has not been justly and economically administered. The amount of the whole estimate made by the Com- mittee, is $278,529 19 If the amount required for buildings by the Sectional Boards (not yet acted upon by the Board of Con- trol) be deducted, 32,200 00 The balance will be, $246,329 19 With the above explanations, and referring to the notes and ex- planations in the returns from the different sections, the Committee report the following answers to the questions submitted. 1. That the sum of $31,557 96 being the net amount received from the Commonwealth for the present school year, after deducting the amount paid for discount of relief notes, was paid to the Treasu- rer of the County of Philadelphia, and was paid out with other monies upon the orders of the Board of Control, passed July Sth, A. D. 1845 — a general statement of which orders amounting to $41,960 15 is herewith submitted. General Expenses, $ 1,655 00 Salaries, 35,877 88 Cleaning School Houses, 545 86 Rent, 2,034 72 Small bills, 1,450 00 Sundries, Watchman, Book cases, Repairs, Printing, &c. 396 69 41,960 15 2. The amount expended for supplies, since July 1, 1S45, has been $3,652 91. These supplies were, for the most part, ordered previous to the 1st of July. 3. The amount of appropriation required for the year 1845-6, beyond the amount received from the State, and the $25,000 recently appropriated by the County Board, will be at least $155,000; and the amount necessary for each of the items designated by the County Board, will be found in the tabular statement hereto annexed. Sec.7&S. L. Crousillat. 9. Francis Lyons. 10. Peter Rambo. Section 1. George Emlen, Jr. 2. John C. Smith. 3. J. P. Colcord. 5. Jacob Shearer. 6. G. F. McCallmont. 11. A. M. Macpherson. Chamber op the Controllers of Public Schools, > First School District of Pennsylvania. 5 Philadelphia, September 23d, 1845. At a meeting of the Controllers of Public Schools, First School District of Pennsylvania, held at the Controllers' Chamber, this day, the following Resolutions were adopted : Resolved, That the Report of the Committee to whom was re- ferred the communication from the County Board, containing certain questions relative to Public School expenditure, be adopted. Resolved, That the said Report, with the accompanying docu- ments, be forwarded by the officers of this Board, to the County Board, to be laid before that body. In pursuance of the foregoing, the Report and accompanying- documents, are herewith respectfully submitted. John Miller, President Of the Controllers of the Public Schools of the First School District of Pennsylvania. Attest — Thomas B. 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