Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1873 — Circular or the State Board or Education to Township Trustees. [ARTICLE]

Circular or the State Board or Education to Township Trustees.

Gentlemen: The thirty-third section of the amended school law provides as follows: “The township trustees of the several townships shall meet at the office of the county Auditor of their respective counties on the first Monday in June, 1873, and biennially thereafter, and appoint a County Superintendent who shall be a citizen of such county, whose official term shall expire,” etc. The legislature has conferred upon you, in view of your official relations to the public free schools, the power to make the appointment referred to in this section of the school law. This power shouldbe exercised with great care and deliberation; for upon the qualifications and efficiencvof the County Huperinteudent more than of any other school officer, depends the success of the schools and of the administration of tlie school system in your respective counties; and for this reason we take the liberty of offering the followingsuggestions touching the qualifications that persons seeking the appointment should possess: 1. As he is made the only legal judge of the educational qualifications of Uie .teachers of your schools, it is of the first importance that he a thorough and critical knowledge of all the branches required by law to be taught in our public schools; otherwise, grossly Incompetent teachers will occupy our school houses and .a precious revenue will be wasted. 2. Since the organization, management and general superintendence of the schools of each county are intrusted to this officer, he should be selected, as far as practicable, from the most experienced teachers of the county, aud especially from those teachers who have kept abreast with the progress of our schools. 3. In as much as the law; constitutes him the judge of the moral character of all teachers, he himself should possess that character in a pre-eminent degree. The appointment, therefore, should not be conferred upon any person addicted to' intemperance, profanity or other vices. 4. Under the present law it is made the duty of the County Superintendent to visit all the schools of his county, to hold a township institute in each township in the county once each year and conduct the same, to labor in every practicable way to elevate the standard of teaching and to improve the condition of the schools of nis county, to supervise the collection and application of the school funds and revenues, and to discharge all the duties heretofore discharged by the County Examiner, together with much other labor that must necessarily present itself in the prosecution of the work. You should, therefore, select him strictly with reference to his energy, industry, honesty and business qualifications. 5. Since his decisions upon all local questions arising under the school law are final, and his opinions upon all controversies of a general nature must be first obtained before an appeal can be taken to the State Superintendent, reference should be had in the selection to the practical judgment and strong common sense or the candidate. We cannot, in too strong terms, urge upon you the necessity of ignoring all political and personal preferences, in making this appointment, aud of acting with sole reference to the qualifications of the candidate and the best interests of the schools.

The County Superintendent begins a new, and it is to be hoped, a better era in the administration of our school system. If your appointments are judicious, a fresh impetus will be given to the free schools of your counties; ii injudicious, little or nothing will be gained. Upon your action on the first Monday of June next, depends, in a great measure, the character of the common schools of the State for the next two years.

M. B. HOPINS,

President of the Board. A. C. Shortridge, Secretary. Indianapolis, May 5, 1873, .