grades were taken out of the High and Industrial School, 1918-19, when the enrollment in the elementary grades for these two districts dropped suddenly. There was no decrease in the West Athens district and there was none to speak of in the East Athens district in that year. It does not seem reasonable to suppose that the influenza epidemic hit this district so much harder than any other. Rather, it is reasonable to suppose that when children are transferred to a building like the Newtown School, they simply do not go to school. Failure on the part of the city to provide modern school buildings ultimately always means that fewer and fewer children get an education. Customers will not come to a business firm which is housed in an old, tumble-down, insanitary building; hence modern office buildings are erected. The children are the customers of the schools. Why should they be expected to go to school in an old insanitary building? What has it to offer them? There are no laws which can compel attendance in such a building as the Newtown School. The West Athens School is a somewhat better building than the Newtown School, but it is an old, wooden frame structure, badly constructed, and with no modern facilities. The cost of reconstructing it would be out of all proportion to the original value of the plant. Furthermore, the number of children in the school is too small to justify erecting a new building for it. In other words, it is important both from an educational and financial standpoint to house all the children on the west side of the Oconee River in a new building to be erected on the present High and Industrial School site. This would make a combination elementary and high school, the total enrollment of which would be about 1,200 children, or the minimum necessary for a modern, economical plant. The original cost of such a plant may seem large, but it should be remembered that by erecting such a school building the cost of maintaining three separate buildings is eliminated. The cost of this one plant would not only cover the cost of three separate day schools but it would also provide for the evening High and Industrial School. Therefore, the plan recommended represents the cost for four schools, not one. Furthermore, such a building would provide a school plant for Negro children which would not only be a credit to the city but an example to be followed by all the other cities in the State. The objection might be made that the consolidation of these three schools in one plant at the High and Industrial School would necessitate children having to walk too long a distance to school. As a matter of fact, however, no pupil under such a consolidation would have a farther distance to walk than many pupils have to walk The districts at present overlap; for example, 10 pupils from the High and Industrial district go to Newtown School, and 41 pupils now. from the Newtown district go to the High and Industrial School; 103 pupils from the West Athens district go to the High and Industrial School, and 68 pupils from the High and Industrial district go to the West Athens School. The majority of pupils in the West Athens district would not be more than a mile and a quarter from the High and Industrial School. At the present time there are pupils attending the Newtown School and the West Athens School who live a mile and a half from each of those schools. The enrollment to be provided in this combination elementary and high school would be as follows: High and Industrial High School... Elementary. Newtown... West Athens, 1920.. Total..... Increase in 10 years (39 per cent) Increase in enrollment in West Athens due to extension of territory............. Total in 29 classes)...... 111 163 182 291 747 290 109 1, 146 Make this a school of 30 classes, that is, 6 high-school classes of 30 pupils each and 24 elementary classes of 40 pupils each. Providing merely for the activities at present carried on in the school, the number of classrooms and special rooms would be as follows: 4 classrooms for the high-school students for English, mathematics, Latin, and history; 12 elementary classrooms and 12 special rooms; for example, 1 chemistry laboratory, 1 physics laboratory, 5 shops (a foundry, forge, machine shop, woodworking, plastering), 1 cooking room, 1 sewing room, 1 mechanical drawing room, 1 music room, 1 library. The school now has all these subjects but no adequate rooms or equipment with which to teach them. There should also, of course, be an auditorium and 2 gymnasiums. This would make 28 units. The cost of 28 units at $12,000 would be $336,000, and the cost of equipment would be $62,000, making a total of $398,000. This makes a per pupil cost of $331, as over against a per pupil cost in the white high school of $1,199. Under the traditional plan 12 extra rooms would be needed at a cost of $120,000 and equipment $24,000, making a total of $144,000 additional, or a grand total of $542,000 under the traditional plan, as over against $398,000 under the work-study-play plan. 2. A new building for East Athens School. The present building for this school is an old wooden frame structure. It was built for 240 children and it contains 429. There are only 6 classrooms in the building, and these are nothing but bare rooms with the blackboards so placed that it is almost impossible for any children except those in the front row to read what is written on them. There is no principal's office or teachers' rest room, and although the school is really a social center as well as a school where children are taken care of when they are sick or poorly clad, yet there are no cloakrooms and no rest room or clinic. There is no shop or cooking room, or auditorium or play room. A new building should be erected which would serve both as a schoolhouse and a social center for this part of the town. The enrollment to be provided for in this school is as follows: This should be a 16-class school (640 pupils). It will be necessary to have, in addition to an auditorium and a gymnasium, 8 classrooms and 6 special rooms, for example, 2 shops for boys, a cooking room, 1 sewing room, 1 drawing and nature study room, and 1 music room, making a total of 14 units. The total cost for this building would be $200,000. This represents more than the $12,000 unit cost, because a smaller building is always more expensive. The equipment for 16 units at $2,000 would be $32,000, making a total of $232,000. Under the traditional plan 8 additional classrooms would be needed at a cost of $80,000, which, with $16,000 for additional equipment, would come to $96,000, making a total cost under the traditional plan of $328,000, as compared with $232.000 under the work-studyplay plan. SUMMARY OF COST- -PERMANENT BUILDING PROGRAM FOR NEGRO SCHOOLS. On basis of one elementary school and one combination elementary and high school. (a) WORK-STUDY-PLAY PLAN-CAPACITY AND COSTS. On basis of one elementary schoot and one combination elementary and high school-Con. (b) TRADITIONAL PLAN-CAPACITY AND COSTS. PLAN 1.-(a) WORK-STUDY-PLAY PLAN-CAPACITY AND COSTS. WHITE Total 2,652 $140,000 $930, 120 $1,070, 120 1,840 94,000 536,000 630,000 4,492 234,000 1,466, 120 1,710, 120 PLAN 1.-(b) TRADITIONAL PLAN-CAPACITY AND COSTS. 2,652 198,000 1,840 134,000 PLAN 2-(0) WORK-STUDY-PLAY PLAN-CAPACITY AND COSTS. ATHENS HAS THE W The taxable wea' including the recent city up to 7 per cen outstanding bonds. at present for a bo Real property... Personal property.. Total taxable wear Considering the RECOMMENDATIONS FOR It is obvious that almo would take most of the " all the schools. Therefore buildings in toto with the that would make it impos ין |