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CHOOL started in the new consolidated school November, 1922. The census showed that year two hundred and thirty-six scholars. The census of 1926 was three hundred and fourteen scholars, making a fine gain of seventy eight from the time it started. The census taken this year since the blast was two hundred and seventy-three, making a loss of forty-one. There were thirty-eight children killed in the disaster and of course there were some people who moved away, but in nearly all cases some one moved back to replace them.
Of course it made taxes higher and they will continue to be high until the school is paid for. The district during this time has purchased and paid for five acres of land to be used as an athletic field, bought and paid for two lighting plants, and also paid interest and eight thousand dollars on the principal, leaving the township still bonded for thirty-five thousand dollars on the school. When this bond is paid, I don't think the school taxes will be any higher than they were in 1922. The school taxes run as follows: 1922, they were $12.26 on a thousand dollars valuation; in 1923, $18.80; in the year 1924, $18.50; in 1925, $19.20; and in the year 1926, $19.80. What made the taxes higher in 1926 was because twenty-two hundred dollars interest and five thousand dollars on the principal was paid.
A consolidated school is expensive in a
small community, but there are a great many other things to look at. The
children don't have to wade through the snow and mud, they are picked up
at the door. A great many people appreciate not having their children
playing along the road with rough children and standing a chance of
being attacked by some lawless ruffian. The parents can feel that their
children are safe from the time they leave the door to the time they are
brought back, the bus drivers being selected from the most responsible
men of the community who make application. This is a broad statement to
make right after the terrible catastrophe that happened at our school.
I feel that there is not another man in the world who would try to live
a public life and be too big a coward to stand defeat and strike such a
terrible blow at the neighbors of his community. The consolidated school
is a help in a great many ways; the children have the same classmates
up to the time they graduate. In the rural schools they work along until
they pass the eighth grade and then go into a strange school. In some
cases they are large for their age and this causes them a handicap. I
know from experience. Teachers have to be farther advanced to teach in a
consolidated school than they do in a common country school. It is my
firm belief that when everything is taken into consideration, the
consolidated school is the cheapest and best way of education.