Page images
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER IX

THE COUNTY UNIT

MUCH of what has been reproduced in Chapters VII and VIII, relating to the substitution of some larger unit of administration for the district system, has indicated the need of making the county the unit for school work, as it is for most other forms of governmental activity. In this chapter some further comments are added, relating more to the office of county superintendent of schools, and a description of the Maryland form of county unit is given.

The first article shows the position and the small powers of the county superintendent of schools in a strong district-system state; the second section presents extracts from official reports, relating to the need for a change in the methods of selecting this official; the third section relates to the advantages of the county-unit and a county board of education; and the chapter closes with characterizations of the county-unit plan, as in force in Maryland and in Georgia. Chapter X contains still more material bearing on county educational organization.

I. THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT AND THE DISTRICT SYSTEM [From Williams, J. H., Proposed Reorganization of the School System of San Mateo County, California, Chap. II, Bulletin of the U. S. Bureau of Education, 1915 Series.]

THE PRESENT SYSTEM

There is provided for, by state law, a County Board of Education, "which shall consist of the county superintendent of schools and four other members, appointed by the board of supervisors for the county." These members, or at least a majority of them, must be "experienced teachers, holding not lower than grammar

grade certificates in full force and effect." The county superintendent is ex officio secretary of the county board of education.

The board is required to meet semi-annually, and at such other times as the county superintendent shall deem it necessary to call them together. Each member receives a compensation of five dollars per day and mileage for his services. The following are the powers of the county board of education, as provided by law: 1. To examine applicants for teacher's certificates. 2. To grant certificates to qualified persons.

3. To adopt books and apparatus for purchase by the schools of the county.

4. To revoke certificates to teach.

5. To issue diplomas of graduation from the elementary schools of the county.

state.

California is a district-system state, and the districts, rather than the counties, control educational affairs throughout the San Mateo County is divided into thirty-six school districts, twenty-three of which are rural one-teacher schools. Each district by law has a Board of Trustees of three members, elected by the people of the district. Each such Board of Trustees is given almost absolute control over the schools of the district, employing teachers and janitors and determining their salaries, erecting buildings, making repairs, buying land, or carrying out any schemes they may see fit, so long as such are not forbidden by law and provided that they remain within the limits of the funds of the district. For any excess of these funds expended they are personally liable. There are also three union high-school districts in the county, each with a board of five trustees, vested with powers and duties similar to those of city boards of education, and authorized to act independently of other district boards.

The County Superintendent of Schools is elected by popular vote, for a term of four years. He receives a salary of $1800 per year, but with no allowance for clerical assistance of any kind. He is by law given the following duties:

1. To superintend the schools of the county.

2. To apportion the school money to each school district.

3. To visit the schools.

4. To preside over the county teachers' institutes.

5. To issue temporary teachers' certificates.

6. To distribute laws, blanks, etc.

7. To make and keep records.

8. To approve plans for school buildings.

9. To act as Secretary of the County Board of Education.

10. To appoint trustees to fill vacancies, to hold office until the next election.

These duties, as will be seen, are, with the exception of number 1, largely clerical in nature, and could be equally well performed by an office clerk of reasonable intelligence. No unusual amount of preparation or intelligence is required.

In duty number 1, although authorized to "superintend the schools of the county," there are absolutely no powers granted to him consistent with the carrying out of that duty. The County Superintendent, under the present system, cannot determine the site of a school building; rearrange desks or seats; condemn a building on account of the inadequacy of the heating, lighting or ventilation; he cannot select teachers, specify their salaries, direct their method of teaching, or dismiss a teacher for any cause whatever. He cannot require janitor work to be more efficiently carried on, employ additional janitors, or require any school building to be cleaned.

"Supervision of the schools" generally consists in visiting each school once each year, as required by law, and for a period of from fifteen minutes to one hour; in asking several questions of the pupils, generally in the form of an examination in reading or some similar study, for determining whether or not the pupils shall receive the county diploma for graduation; and in meeting the entire teaching body at the yearly teachers' institute. Rarely does the Superintendent ever see or talk with his teachers except on these two occasions.

The following is a true and typical case of the Superintendent's visitation. This was at the Las Lomitas school, a distance of three miles from his office :

10.30

Arrived at school (two teachers). 10.30-10.45 Regular morning recess.

10.45-11.00 Visited Miss C.; second-grade reading.

11.00-11.30 Visited Mr. W., eighth-grade arithmetic. Asked a few questions. Congratulated the school on having installed a new sanitary drinking fountain. Left for his office.

11.35

This process he is compelled by law, and by the authority asserted by the district trustees, to carry on during each school year. The blame for having inadequate supervision can hardly be laid at his feet. The present Superintendent of San Mateo County is an exceptionally capable man, an experienced teacher, a university graduate, and a student of school administration; but without being invested with sufficient authority, all his recom

[ocr errors]

mendations being left to the discretion of the district trustees, and his office being political, he feels himself powerless to move forward to the extent he would were he appointed and invested with authority similar to that given superintendents in some eastern and southern states.

II. NEED OF A CHANGE IN THE METHOD OF ELECTING COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS

1. Fundamental Weakness of our Present System

[State Supt. C. P. Cary, in Bien. Rept. State Supt., Wisconsin, 1906-1908, pp. 17-18.]

One of the most important problems connected with the improvement of the country schools is the problem of the supervision of these schools. During the past two years this question has been discussed at the meetings of the Wisconsin State Teachers' Association and at the County Superintendents' Convention. The consensus of opinion seems to be that our present system of selecting county superintendents is radically wrong and should be changed. From 12,000 to 14,000 educational positions are filled in the state each year by boards of education elected by the people; that is, by applying the principle of representative government. However, when it comes to the selection of the seventy-three county and district superintendents the method of electing by direct ballot is still used.

For more than forty years the present system has been in use in the state and it has failed to give us a profession of county superintendents, and never until such a profession exists will the county superintendency be what it should be. If a person secures a position in one of the high schools of the state, he knows that in case he is successful in that school, the reputation gained thereby will enable him to secure a better position, and the same is true with respect to city superintendents. Such conditions are an incentive to our high school principals and city superintendents to do their best. Such conditions also warrant one in looking forward to a successful career in these lines of educational work during all the working years of life, but with respect to the county superintendency these conditions do not exist. Anyone considering the advisability of going into the county superintendency work may rest assured of meeting defeat at the polls in the course of a few years, and when defeat comes his career as a county superintendent ends,

for he is not even eligible as a candidate in any other county or superintendent district. As long as this lack of permanency and lack of opportunity for promotion exists in the county superintendency it will never become a profession, and therefore will not appeal to anyone as a life work.

Again, when a vacancy occurs in a city superintendency or a high school principalship, the board of education in filling it is not confined to candidates who are residents of that particular locality. The board has the right to go even beyond the limits of the state in its efforts to secure the best person that it is possible to secure with the money at its command. Not so, however, in the selection of county and district superintendents, for under the present system the people are compelled in their selection to confine themselves to local candidates, no matter how poorly fitted for the position they may know every one of them to be.

These conditions constitute a fundamental weakness in our present system. This weakness has retarded the country schools in the past, and will continue to retard their progress as long as it exists; therefore, it is to be hoped that the next legislature will provide for the election of county boards of education, such boards to be elected by the people. Such boards of education should select the county superintendents, fix their salaries, provide necessary clerk hire, audit the expense accounts of the superintendents, and do such other work as the legislature, after careful consideration, may deem proper to place in their hands.

2. The Work of a County Superintendent

[State Supt. L. D. Harvey, in Bien. Rept. State Supt., Wisconsin, 1899-1900, pp. 81-82.]

It must be borne in mind that the office of superintendent of schools is different from any other county office. The duties of every other county officer are definitely and fully set forth in the statutes. Certain duties of the county superintendent are also enumerated in the statutes. He must examine teachers, visit schools, make certain reports, and must conduct an institute in his county each year. Beyond this the statutes do not and cannot properly go. Yet the chief value of the superintendent's services is in work entirely outside of the performance of these duties. His work of supervision cannot be formulated by statute. His work in conducting teachers' meetings, associations, and in general in awakening and organizing the educational forces of the county, are not the product of statutory enactments; but these are the

« PreviousContinue »