WHAT 



SCHOOL DISTRia? 



SHOULD the county school survey committee- recommend 

 a plan of school reorganization it thinks the public will 

 accept? Or should it recommend changes it believes 

 necessary but which might not be approved by the 

 voters ? 



These questions often arise in the deliberations of 

 the County School Survey Committees. What is the answer? 

 Is it better to be satisfied with a plan that will offer a few 

 minor changes or should the school committees break with the 

 past and recommend a plan for schools which will still be 

 modern and flexible 25 years from now? 



Some people say: "Well, some change . 

 is better than none at all." That may be 

 true generally. But I'm afraid it isn't 

 always true when applied to the reorgani- 

 zation of our schools. Why? Because 

 suppose your county committee decides 

 on a certain measure of consolidation and 

 reorganization. All right, your district is 

 set up. You sell bonds; you construrt a 

 new building; you elect your new school 

 board. You have made your improve- 

 ments. 



Now your school system is pretty well 

 frozen for the next several decades. But 

 a few years hence your grown up children 

 may decide they want something better 

 for their children, or they may decide they 

 can have more efficiency and economy 

 under a different type of school reorgani- 

 zation. They may have to make the same 

 decision you have to make now, only then 

 it may be a lot more expensive. 



The director of this department has 

 held consistently that the job of the 

 County Survey Committee is to make rec- 

 ommendations which they consider to be 

 for the best interests of the people, both 

 now and in future years. Their work is 

 to consider, make proposals, and explain. 

 If they do that, they have complied 



By JOHN K. COX, Director 



lAA Rural School Relations 



with the intent of the law regardless of 

 whether those proposals are voted up or 

 down. Then too, if a partially satisfac- 

 tory solution would be accepted by the 

 public today, perhaps a better plan would 

 be accepted tomorrow after more educa- 

 tional work. 



An uninformed public does not know 

 what plans for the future are best. Many 

 still see no particular limitations in the 

 small one-room school which enrolls one 

 pupil in a grade or in the small high 

 school that neglects to prepare 80 per 

 cent of its graduates for living and work- 

 ing in the community. Some think the 

 high school must be ail right because 

 Junior plays on the basketball team. The 

 handicapped school like the handicapped 

 child is often more warmly loved and 

 more stoutly defended than the self- 

 reliant school or child. 



It is unsafe for a county survey com- 

 mittee to follow public opinion where 

 such thinking is predominant. A county 



survey cbmmittee that tries to figure out 

 what the public is thinking and makes its 

 recommendations only on that basis is 

 not giving people the benefit of their 

 broader knowledge and study. If that 

 county committee guesses wrong, they 

 have made a much bigger mistake than 

 if the best plan were voted down. 



Our policy has been to discourage 

 school reorganization, except such as is 

 approved by the county survey committee, 

 until the county committee can make pro- 

 posals for an over-all reorganization plan 

 which considers the rights of all. Some 

 county committees have been too quick 

 to give approval to locally inspired con- 

 solidations. It is hoped that the County 

 Survey Committees will rectify the mis- 

 takes that have already been made. 



The larger administrative district em- 

 bracing both grades and high school will 

 in general provide more flexibility in 

 \iew of future demands, as well as more 

 efficiency and economy. If that is our 

 goal, we should discourage half way steps 

 in school reorganization if such steps will 

 tend to freeze further progress toward 

 arriving at our goal. 



X X X X 



MM 



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JULY- AUGUST. 1947 



