have been no reorganizations within his 

 county within the past two years. In 

 regard to the possibility of future reor- 

 ganizations Foster says, "I feel that our 

 county is ripe for a readjustment of dis- 

 tricts, but most of our rural people are 

 opposed to 'longhaul' consolidation, 

 over-sized classes, and to subjecting their 

 children to town temptations and dis- 

 tractions." La Salle county, one of the 

 largest counties in the state, is reported 

 to have more one-room schools than any 

 other county. 



MARSHALL 



County Superintendent C. W. Swan- 

 son of Marshall county reports two con- 

 solidations in his county within the past 

 two years; Sparland, the first, and all 

 the eight schools in LaPrairie township, 

 the second. The Sparland consolidation 

 was around the village of Sparland and 

 took place under Section 121a of the 

 School Law. LaPrairie voted under Sec- 

 tion 84a and carried by approximately a 

 159 to 35 vote. It has about 65 pupils. 

 Since the LaPrairie consolidation, the 

 adjoining township of Saratoga has met 

 to discuss the possibilities of reorganiz- 

 ing. 



"I do not know if any lowering of 

 taxes is possible in the new districts as 

 compared with the tax rates in the old 

 districts, but the people do feel that their 

 children will have better and broader 

 educational advantages in these new dis- 

 tricts. 



"There is a considerable amount of 

 interest in reorganization throughout 

 Marshall county and there is a possibility 

 of additional new districts being formed 

 in the future." 



ST. CLAIR 



County Superintendent Clarence D. 

 Blair states that there has been no reor- 

 ganization of school districts in St. Clair 

 county for a good many years. He says 

 that although there is a definite need for 

 reorganization of schools, it is diffi- 

 cult to convince rural populations of 

 this need. He further states, "We have 

 had quite a number of rural schools to 

 cjose and to transfer their pupils to an 

 adjoining school district. However, they 

 still want to maintain the school district 

 and have no idea of consolidating. The 

 main reason for not wanting to con- 

 solidate is that the district can get by 

 with a much lower tax rate by paying 

 tuition to an adjoining school district. 



"It is hardly advisable in St. Clair 

 county to have rural consolidated dis- 

 tricts. If you will observe on the map 

 you will note that there are quite a large 

 number of small villages scattered 

 throughout the county. It seems to me 

 that any plan of reorganization would 

 have to be built around these trading 

 centers." 



wHire 



Hubert H. Sutton, county superin- 

 tendent of White county, says that al- 

 though there has been some talk of re- 

 organization in White county, and some 

 closing of school buildings, there has 

 been practically no actual reorganizing 

 of districts or attempts at such within the 

 past two years. He adds, however, that 

 some non-high territory has been an- 

 nexed to existing high school distrirts 

 within the last six years. 



DE WITT 



Wayne Dickey, county superintendent 

 in DeWitt county, reports that in a re- 

 cent election in the Weldon vicinity 

 where 10 districts voted on reorganizing 

 around the village of Weldon, six dis- 

 tricts voted in favor and four against, 

 thereby killing the proposed merger. He 

 states that taxes could have been lowered 

 as a result of combining the 10 schools 

 and employing four teachers rather than 

 the 12 now employed in the same dis- 

 tricts. He says that transportation prob- 

 lems are the big stumbling block. He 

 adds that they are having difficulty in 

 finding teachers for all the rural schools 

 in that area and that some will close for 

 lack of pupils and some for lack of 

 teachers. Quoting Dickey, "Further re- 

 organization of schools in DeWitt coun- 

 ty will probably have to be delayed until 

 a school survey has been made and con- 

 siderable more publicity and education 

 of the rural people for larger and bet- 

 ter school units has been accomplished." 



WHITESIDE 



R. M. Robertson, county superintend- 

 ent of schools in Whiteside county, re- 

 ports as follows: "Whiteside seems to 

 have been a rather conservative county. 

 Up to the present time only nine rural 

 one-room schools have been closed. How- 

 ever, the reports of your organization 

 and that of our county committee have 

 not been without influence. Boirds of 

 directors are thinking more and more 

 about the impossible situation confront- 

 ing them with low enrollment, teacher 

 shoi-tage, and lack of sufficient funds. 



"Three of our one-room schools have 

 recently agreed to combine for next year. 

 All three districts are able to enroll only 

 seventeen pupils. I hope many more 

 will follow this example. It looks now 

 as if we may have six or eight fewer 

 schools than last year. It would appear 

 that local districts must have a great deal 

 of help and encouragement if reorganiza- 

 tion of districts is to move forward." 



The two most frequently mentioned 

 obstacles in the way of needed school 

 district reorganization are (1) poor roads 

 and (2) lack of education on the part of 

 the public as to the deficiencies and 

 extravagance of the present system and 

 the possibilities of improvement in the 

 serviceability of schools that are more 



nearly adapted to noeet riie needs of this 



present day. 



A partial answer to the first obstacle 

 is the secondary road bill just passed by 

 the state legislature, calling for the ex- 

 penditure of $15,000,000 on the sur- 

 facing of secondary roads throughout the 

 state and with special preference being 

 given to school bus routes and mail 

 routes. Some counties have already nude 

 long strides in building their own coun- 

 ty road program. Some have grouped 

 townships into districts for road mainte- 

 nance purposes, buying only one set of 

 machinery for the district instead of for 

 each township and thus having addi- 

 tional money to spend on the roads 

 where it is needed. Also there is a 

 Governor's commission to be appointed 

 to study the secondary road situation and 

 to develop a long range plan for road 

 improvement. So considerable help 

 should be forth-coming on that score if 

 rural people are united in their demand 

 for such help. 



In regard to the lack of information 

 on the part of the public, a favorable 

 consideration of the County School Sur- 

 vey Act (recently passed by the state 

 legislature) when the school board mem- 

 bers of the county are called together on 

 or before Dec. 1, 1945, will have un- 

 limited possibilities in that resjsect. 



If the board members of the county 

 agree to make the school survey, then 

 they elect a county committee of nine 

 members (which committee will be pre- 

 dominantly rural) who will study the 

 present school problems and possible 

 remedies of existing defects in our school 

 program. The people, after public hear- 

 ings in each community affected, are 

 called upon to vote upon proposals of 

 the county school committee in only one 

 election. They can vote for or against 

 the proposals, but in the meantime they 

 will have a more thorough knowledge 

 of the needs of the schools and how 

 those needs can be met on a voluntary 

 basis without state domination. . . 



VOTE SCHOOL SURVEY 



Edwards county got off to a head start 

 in making plans for their county school 

 survey. At a meeting on Aug. 9 at Al- 

 bion, the vote was 48 to in favor of 

 the survey. 



The meeting of school board members 

 of the county was called together by Vir- 

 gil Judge, county superintendent of 

 schools of Edwards county, in compli- 

 ance with the new School Survey Act 

 recently passed by the Illinois General 

 Assembly. 



This progressive action on the part of 

 the school board members of Edwards 

 county is the first of 102 actions to be 

 taken for or against the proiX)sition be- 

 fore Dec. 1, 1945. 



SEPTEMBER, 1945 



13 



