Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 204, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1919 — COUNTY EDUCATIONAL NOTES. [ARTICLE]

COUNTY EDUCATIONAL NOTES.

Russell B. Wooden, formerly connected with the schools at Wheatfield, has taken a school ■under Trustee Charles W. Postill, of Marion townshop. Mr. Wooden has recently returned from overseas where he saw much service. It will please his many friends in Jasper county to learn that he will be in the schools next year. Afldie Harris, of Mt. Ayr, will teach in the high school at DeMotte. Miss Harris is a daughter of Ed Harris, the well’ known grain and implement dealer of Mt. Ayr. Miss Harris taught a year in the city schools of Rensselaer, but was located in the west last year.

Miss Millie Hoover, of near Francesville, who taught sor —Warren Poole at Osborn school in Hanging Grove township last year, will teach for Grant Davisson, of Barkley, at Gifford upper room next year. Helen Kissinger will teach the lower room at Gifford. Miss Kissinger returned from Indianapolis last Wednesday where she has been attending Mrs. Blaker’s school. Miss Esther Wiseman also returned from Mrs. Blaker’s school, where she has completed her 36 weeks of professional training, making her eligible to tea'ch the grades in a commissioned or certified school. Miss Wiseman will teach at Fair Oaks the coming year. There has been much misunderstanding between patrons and trustees relative to the 1919 statute governing (the transportation of pupils. To clarify this statute Jesse E. Eschbach, president of the state board of accounts, has sent the following communication to the county superintendent: Indianapolis, Ind., August 20, 1919. My Dear Supt. Sterrett: The attorney general has given the state superintendent of public instruction an opinion on the law, regarding the transportation of school pupils found in the acts of 1919 on pages 66 and 67. In said opinion the attorney general holds that township trustees under said law do not have any right to transport or pay for the transportation of high school pupils. The former law under which high school pupils were transported is not now in force. It is mandatory upon township trustees to provide and maintain means of transportation for grade pupils in abandoned school districts who live a greater distance than one and one-half miles from the school to which they are assigned, if this school has been abandoned within the last twenty years or may hereafter be abandoned. The law also provides that any township trustee may provide means of transportation for any grade pupils in any school district if the conditions in his township, in the judgment of the township trustee, warrants the Same. I would be pleased to have you notify all of the township trustees of your county regarding this matter and give same publicity through the newspapers. Yours very truly, JESSE E. ESCHBACH, State Examiner.

No doubt the above letter will receive the careful reading of every parent of children who have heretofore received compensation for transporting his own pupils or had them transported otherwise. This will affect Keener, Wheatfield, Kankakee, Union and Carpenter townships more than others, although it is true that no township will be free from this construction given the statute. Trustees will find many patrons who do not agree .with the equity of the law, but this is no fault of the trustees. There is a great scarcity of high school teachers in Jasper county. Daza M. Brown notified Trustee Harrington a few days ago that she not teach at Fair Oaks another year. Mr. Harrington is in the market for two high school teachers. C. E. Fairchild is looking for one. Wheatfield town for two, and Kankakee township is anxious to employ one and possibly two. This scarcity is due to the recent bpd apparently unfair ruling of the state board of education requiring schools of commissioned and certified standing to have at least two high school teachers who are college or normal graduates. Such teachers command high wages and are scarce at b&st. It is possible that some of our county high schools will be unable to open on September Bth. The Jasper county institute will be held September 1 to sth, inclusive. One of the most interesting weeks of the school year is in store for the teachers of Jasper county. The public is solicitously invited to attend these educational meetings to be held in the high school auditorium during that week.