About 75 high school boys are enrolled 

 in vocational agriculture in the five high 

 schools. None of the courses is entirely 

 adequate. With all the students together, 

 a first class fully-equipped shop would no 

 doubt be set up. 



Further consolidation of the class 

 rooms would require fewer teachers and 

 maintenance personnel, thus keeping 

 teacher and building costs per pupil 

 lower. The system now requires 68 

 teachers, and 22 janitors and bus drivers. 



At present, for instance, there are four 

 vocational agricultural teachers. With 

 consolidation, one may be enough or pos- 

 sibly two. There are at present, three 

 home economics teachers. With the 

 students under one roof, one teacher 

 could do the work of three. With two 

 home economics teachers one high school 

 in the district could also accommodate 

 the girls who do not now have the ad- 

 vantage of homemaker training. 



For the school year 1946-47, according 

 to the county treasurer's books, per cap- 

 ita cost per year of educating a student in 

 the Elburn high school was $584 com- 

 pared with an average of about S200 per 

 pupil in schools of about 300 enrollment 

 in northern Illinois. 



Per capita cost of operation in the 

 other four high schools in the district are 

 similar. Costs that same year were: El- 

 burn, $25,377; Sugar Grove, $17,945: 

 Kaneville, $21,006: Big Rock, $25,609: 

 and Maple Park, $32,281. 



Greater efficiency and better business 

 methods can be expected from the con- 

 solidation. Already one board secretary 

 has taken the places of 10 secretaries and 

 one treasurer has replaced 10 township 

 treasurers, who handled school funds on 

 a part time basis. Records are being kept 

 on school bus efficiency and costs, and 

 bus routes are being laid out to elimi- 

 nate all unnecessary travel. 



Many Kane county men and women, 

 including County Superintendent of 

 Schools E. E. McCoy, have devoted a 

 great deal of their time and energy to do 

 the best possible job of reorganizing 

 Kane county schools. Their efforts are 

 directed mainly at giving the children of 

 the county the best possible education at 

 the least cost to the taxpayers. 



Their attitude is summed up in the 

 following taken from the preliminary re- 

 port of the Kane County School Survey 

 Committee: ". . . . the work .... in- 

 volved the highest responsibility and 

 honor. The committee operated on the 

 assumption that free public education of 

 the highest type is the birthright of ever>- 

 American child .... Their primary obli- 

 gation is to discover and recommend to 

 their fellow citizens a system .... that 

 will best serve .... the youth of Kane 

 county. They have unanimously de- 

 cided to abide by this principle even at 

 the risk of conflicting with tradition . . 



NOVEMBER, 1948 



Lud Almburg uses 

 nine fingers to (how 

 size of taxes, $900 

 en his 320-a(re De- 

 Kolb county farm. 

 Listening are Ward 

 Cress, left, assistant 

 farm adviser, and 

 John Urie, new tax 

 assistant for DeKalb 

 County Farm Bureau. 



Do You Growl About Taxes? 



Everyone does. But DeKalb county 

 farmers aren't stopping with talk. Here's what 

 they've decided to do about it. 



HAVE you ever cussed taxes? 

 Have you ever been asked to 

 do something about them? 

 Even more, have you ever been 

 put on a tax committee, say. 

 as chairman? 



This is about where C. B. Watson. 

 DeKalb. found himself. Chairman 

 of the DeKalb County Farm Bureau 

 committee on taxation. 



So he and his committee got hu^y 

 figuring taxes. Their figures added 

 to a total — a confusing mess. What 

 they needed, they soon concluded 

 was help. 



They called in Bert Vandervliet. 

 director of taxation for the lAA. To- 

 gether they decided they needed 

 someone to work full-time on the 

 tax problems in DeKalh county. 



This recommendation was made to 

 the DeKalb County I'.irm Bureau 

 board of directors. George Bark ot 

 Hinckley, as president of the DcKaih 

 County Farm Bureau, took up the re- 

 sponsibility of promoting the program 

 to the board. 



They hired John L"rie as tax re- 

 search director on a three vear ex- 

 perimental basis. Urie is a recent 

 graduate of the University of Den- 

 ver. He is the first tax expert hireii 

 by any Farm Bureau in Illinois. 



Like many other DeKalb county 

 farmers. Lud Almburg. Malta, is 

 interested in taxes, and the help that 

 a tax expert may be able to give him. 

 Almburg's taxes are high, and con- 

 fusing. He pays $900 personal and 

 real estate taxes on his ^2() acre farm 



He sees no relief. 



He pays federal, state, lounty 

 township, sihool. road, and drainage 

 district taxes. And if his case is 

 similar to most Illinois farmers, these 

 taxes are levied hit or miss. 



DeKalb county farmers hope, by 

 working with Urie, to bring more 

 efficiency to these taxing bodies 

 They know they'll always pay taxes 

 1 hey know that taxes probably won'l 

 get much lower. But they would Iikf 

 more for their tax dollar. 



As one of them said: ■>X'c'\t 

 paid for roads, we've paid lor gooo 

 schools. Our roads are still poor, our 

 schools not adequate." 



Since le\ies for schools and roads 

 are the two largest tax items, Urie 

 will make a study of those levies first 

 He also plans to help develop compre- 

 hensive township budgets. He will 

 otfer lulp to the 19 township tax as 

 scssors. and will give suggestions on 

 bonds for road and other impro\e- 

 ments. 



In short, he will help to bring tl- 

 ficiency in the spending and levying 

 of the annual $2.26l.(HK) county t.ix 

 bill, help that can be of ixiiefit to all 

 citizens of DeKalb county. 



Farm and Home Week 



Farm and Home week, annual five- 

 d.iy agriculture program at the Uni- 

 versity of Illinois College of Agricul- 

 ture, will i-e held Jan. 51 to Feb. 4 

 it Champaign-Urbana. 



13 



