By JOHN COX 

 lAA Director of Rural School Rolatlont 



Key to Schcx>l Reorganization 

 The high school seems to be the key to 



an adequate school reorganization program 

 on both high and grade school level. Many 

 County School Survey Committees, while 

 doing a good job generally in providing 

 plans for reorganization on the elementary 

 level, have shown a reluctance to tackle 

 non-high and high school problems. It was 

 certainly the intent of the legislators who 

 passed the Survey Act that high school 

 problems be included in the study. 



Many leaders think that the easiest, sim- 

 plest, and most logical approach to a com- 

 prehensive reorganization program is to 

 consider the high school first. They would 

 set up on paper a high school district that 

 would meet minimum standards. The area 

 should not be so large, in most cases, that 

 all of the high school pupils could not be 

 given satisfactory bus transportation to a 

 central high school. On the other hand, 

 such district plans should include a min- 

 imum of 150 to 300 high school students 

 and provide a broad, adequate tax base so 

 that a good, sound educational program can 

 be provided at reasonable cost. It would 

 most likely include several grade school 

 attendance units, located at strategic points 

 for the convenience of the people. 

 Larger Districts 



Next, these leaders would enlarge the 

 high school district to include all that terri- 

 tory from which it normally gets its high 

 school pupils. It would likely include some 

 non-high territory and perhaps some terri- 

 tory included in a tax protectorate district. 

 If nearby high school districts were too 

 small, such district or districts might be 

 added to the larger district if the people 

 normally belong to that larger community. 



Then these leaders would have this larger 

 district with its broader tax base and ample 

 possibilities recommended to the people by 

 the County Survey Committee as one ad- 

 ministrative unit embracing all grades, one 

 through 12. This type of district is called 

 the unit district as opposed to the dual 

 system where grade school and high school 

 districts have no legal connections. There 

 are approximately 100 such unit districts in 

 Illinois at the present, the number having 

 been reduced greatly because of an unwise 

 tax limitation on such districts. That tax 

 limitation was withdrawn during the last 

 session of the General Assembly. In fact, 

 the Sixty-fourth General Assembly gave the 

 unit district a tax advantage over the dual 

 system in the matter of qualifying for special 

 state aid. 



Greater Flexibility 



The greater flexibility together with the 

 coordination of the entire school program, 

 activities, facilities, and services possible 

 under the 12-grade system make this type 

 of reorganization very popular when people 

 take the time to study it. Also many people 

 point out that it is adaptable to our present 

 road system, no matter in what condition. 



16 



and offers an opportunity to improve the 

 school program, even though widespread 

 consolidation of school attendance units is 

 not possible in some areas at present. 



In view of the scarcity of population in 

 rural areas and the high overhead costs of 

 maintaining multiple attendance units, the 

 12-grade or unit district system may prove 

 as popular in rural areas of Illinois as it 

 has in the big per cent of the other states 

 of the union. 



The State Advisory Commission has this 

 to say of the 12-grade system: "An ad- 

 ministrative unit should comprise one or 

 more attendance areas, (preferably two or 

 more) offering education facilities at least 

 through the twelfth grade .... The re- 

 organization of school districts does not al- 

 ways involve the abandonment of the smaller 

 units of school administration. Indeed the 

 major purpose of such reorganization often 

 is to enlarge the tax area and to effect co- 

 operative relationships in the business and 

 personal activities of the district affected."* 



♦Manual for County School Survey Com- 

 mittees. Pages 18 and 19. 



Rural people should be extremely cautious, 

 however, about combining their districts 

 with large urban centers. Any school dis- 

 trict reorganization on either a dual or unit 

 basis that includes larger urban centers 

 may deprive rural people of representation 

 on the school board and thus a voice in 

 the control of the pupil transportation and 

 school program. Most of this area is al- 

 ready in large urban centered high school 

 districts. The decision as to whether this 

 rural territory should also be included for 

 elementary purposes will largely depend on 

 the proportion the rural vote bears to the 

 total vote in such proposed district and the 

 record of understanding and cooperation 

 between urban and rural areas in the past. 



By JUDSON P. MASON 

 Astt. Director, Milk Marlceting 



The annual meeting of the Illinois Milk 



Producers' Association will be held Tuesday, 

 Nov. 19, 1946, beginning at 9;.^0 a.m., at the 

 Hotel Sherman in Chicago. 



Milo K. Swanton, executive secretary of 

 the Wisconsin Council of Agricultural Co- 

 operatives will speak. Swanton needs no 

 introduction to Illinois dairymen. His mes- 

 sage will deal with current problems facing 

 the dairy industry. 



The business meeting will consist of a 

 summary of the activities of the I.M.P.A. 

 for the past year and the election of a 

 Board of Directors to serve for the coming 



The annual meeting of the Illinois Milk 



Producers' Supply Co. will be held Monday. 

 Nov. 18, 1946, at the Hotel Sherman, begin- 

 ning at 9:00 p.m., for the purpose of receiv- 

 ing reports of officers relative to operations 

 of the supply company for the past year and 

 to elect a new board of directors. The 



Illinois Milk Producers' Supply Co. was 

 organized in March, 1944, and has shown 

 a tremendous growth in volume of business 

 handled. The purpose of this organization 

 is to purchase supplies on a cooperative 

 basis for member organizations, and to ob- 

 tain discounts otherwise not available to 

 individual purchasers. 



The ninth annual meeting of the Kewanee 



Milk Producers' Association was held Oct. 1, 

 in Kewanee. The meeting was well attended 

 and the membership was pleased with the 

 progress made by the organization during 

 the past year. 



The annual meeting of the DeKalb Milk 



Producers' Association was held Oct. 11, 

 at the Masonic Hall at DeKalb. Attendance 

 at the meeting was not large, but those 

 present showed a keen interest in recent 

 developments in the dairy industry. William 

 O'Maliey was reelected president of the 

 organization. V. A. Peterson, vice-president, 

 and Thomas O'Connell was reelected to 

 the board of directors. In addition to the 

 regular business meeting, short talks were 

 given by Judson P. Mason, Assistant Di- 

 rector of Dairy Marketing, Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association, and Dave Henry, manager 

 of Prairie Farms Creameries, lAA. 



A committee of dairymen representing 

 the McLean County Milk Producers' Asso- 

 ciation and the Prairie Farms Creamery of 

 Bloomington visited the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association office Oct. 9. The com- 

 mittee was accompanied by Dr. R. W. 

 Bartlett of the University of Illinois and 

 Forrest C. Fairchild, Bloomington. They 

 visited the Hawthorn-Mellody Dairy and 

 the bottling plant of the Pure Milk Associa 

 tion in Chicago. This committee is studying 

 the proposed merger of the McLean County 

 Milk Producers' Association and Prairie 

 Farms Creamery of Bloomington. 



The production and marketing administra- 

 tion of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture recently announced that they 

 would make dairy production payments to 

 dairymen for July milk if the price received 

 for that month was less than the ceiling 

 price plus announced subsidies. Payments 

 will be made on the basis of milk and 

 cream statements received for July. These 

 must be submitted as evidence that a price 

 less than the old ceiling price plus sub 

 sidies was received. 



Milk production for the first eight months 



of 1946 totalled 85 billion pounds, or ap- 

 proximately two billion pounds less than 

 for the corresponding period a year ago, ac- 

 cording to recent reports of the Bureau of 

 Agricultural Economics. For the entire 

 year, 1946, milk production on farms is 

 expected to exceed 119 billion pounds. This 

 is between two and three percent below 

 the record high reached in 1945, but 15'5'r 

 above the pre-war (1935-39) average. The 

 number of cows on farms during 1946 will 

 average around four percent below the 1945 

 number. About half of the effect of this 

 decline in cow numbers will be offset by 

 an increase in the average output per cow 

 Production per cow this year is the high, 

 est on record. 



Better feeding of dry cows will mean a 

 much better milk output when they freshen. 



Livestock producers should take steps to 



prevent the poisoning of livestock on frosted 

 forage. 



L A. A. RECORD 



