Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1918 — PATRONS FAVOR SIX DAY PLAN [ARTICLE]

PATRONS FAVOR SIX DAY PLAN

VOTE SHOWS OVERWHELMING MAJORITY IN FAVOR OF SIX SCHOOL DAYS. A straw vote, engineered by the school board and superintendent C. R. Dean, shows the patrons of the Rensselaer public schools to be overwhelmingly in favor of-six school days a week until the close of the present school year. The vote was ' recorded Monday and showed that over ninety-five per cent of the patrons were in favor of the movement. The action on the part of the local school authorities follows that of several other schools of the

state, which have decided to abandon the idea of giving the pupils two holidays a week as has always been the custom. In practically every city in the state where the question has been brought to a vote, it is has been acted upon favorably. The action of the board of education was not arrived at hastily. The question was discussed from all angles and it was not decided until last . week to ask the patrons to vote on the project. Slips were mailed to. each patron, asking them to vote on the subject and return them Monday morning. “The vote was. surprising and expresses beyond the least doubt the opinion of the patrons in the matter,” said superintendent Dean. “In the high school there was four votes against the proposed movement and in the grades there were but a scattering few who opposed the plan. Especially among the rural patrons was the vote in favor of the adop- * tion of the . plan pronounced, although' the towns* people generally were in accord with the change,” added Mr. Dean. The primary object of the movement is to permit the closing of the schools a few weeks earlier in the spring, in order that the boys and girls from the country may help in the spring farm work. The few who protested the six day plan, in the majority of the cases, were of the belief that the fuel situation should be taken into consideraI tion, and that the school authorities , should aid in the conservation of the city coal. However, Mr. Dean in a conference with C. S. Chamberlain, city engineer, was apprised by ths latter that as much coal is used on the days that school is not in session, as when it is. The exhaust steam is I sufficient to heat the school build- | ings, according to Mr. Chamberlain. | The school board will take action |on the matter at once. There is I scarcely any room for doubt that the I six day plan will be adopted. If I this is the case it will go into effect I at once.