CONSOLIDATION OF SCHOOLS IN RANDOLPH COUNTY,

INDIANA.

By O. H. GREIST, County Superintendent.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

In 1900 Randolph County enumerated 8,497 young people between the ages of 6 and 21. Of these 7,109 were enrolled in school. The average daily attendance was 5,645. There were 137 schoolhouses, valued at $269,800. Three of the houses were built that year at a total cost of $2,500. The school term averaged 151 days. There were 194 teachers, 22 of them employed in commissioned and noncommissioned high schools. The high schools enrolled 439 pupils and graduated 42.

In 1922 the enumeration was 7,105, the enrollment 6,060, and the average daily attendance 5,559. There were 20 consolidated schools and 4 one-room schools. Eighteen of the consolidated schools ranged in value from $17,500 to $117,000 each, and were worth approximately $592,000. There were 225 teachers, 86 of them in high schools. The 18 high schools enrolled 1,365 pupils and graduated 226.

There were fewer young people in Randolph County and fewer enrolled in school by nearly one-sixth in 1922 than there were in 1900. But the schools had better holding power. The average daily attendance had decreased about 1.5 per cent. In the high schools there were three times as many pupils and four times as many teachers, and more than five times as many young people were graduated. Coincident with a decrease in school population, the county has so increased the effectiveness of its schools as to practically maintain the average daily attendance in them, and to more than quintuple the number of young people that have been given the benefit of a full 12-year course. The county is more than making up in qualitative future citizenry its loss in quantitative.

These are statistical data for merely a few outstanding facts. Other and much more important improvements in the Randolph County schools in the two decades either are not subject to statistical interpretation or the data are not available. The State superintendent ranks the county as first in the State in progress in con

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solidation and abandonment of one-room schools. It is believed that most of the betterment of the schools is due to consolidation. story of the movement in the county is here told by the county superintendent.

NATURAL CONDITIONS.

Randolph County is situated near the central part of the eastern boundary of Indiana. It is 447 square miles in area, is almost square in shape, and has a fairly level surface broken only by two small rivers that are easily bridged where necessary. With few exceptions the public highways are located on section or half-section lines.

Qualitative citizenry. These boys cut 40 cords of wood to keep school going during a coal famine.

The population of the county in 1920 was 26,484, or 59.2 persons to the square mile. Nearly all, 98.3 per cent, of the people are native born of white parentage. Illiteracy is nine-tenths of 1 per cent. The number of families is reported as 7,307.

It is purely an agricultural county, with only two small cities and very few small towns. The farms constitute 96.7 per cent of the county area. They were valued at approximately $51,000,000 in 1920 and in 1919 produced crops estimated to be worth eight and one-half millions of dollars.

EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS.

The county is divided into 12 civil townships, ranging in size from 24 to 74 square miles and in assessed valuation from 3 to 10 millions of dollars. Each township is a school district and elects a trustee for

a term of four years. The trustee has limited powers in certain civil matters and rather autocratic powers over the schools. The trustees of the townships and the chairmen of the school boards of the two incorporated cities in the county constitute an advisory county board of education. The township trustees select the county superintendent.

SCHOOL SYSTEM OF RANDOLPH COUNTY IN 1921.

Two of the one-room schools shown have now been abandoned and three more will be at the close of this school year.

SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION.

In 1900 Randolph County reported to State Superintendent Jones, who was then making a study of consolidation in the State: "No effort has been made in the direction indicated (consolidation), which would imply that they (the trustees) are unfavorable to the plans." In fact, there was no specific consolidation law in Indiana at that time. School trustees were required to establish and locate conveniently a sufficient number of schools for the education of the children in the township, and no trustee might abandon any district

school in his township until he had the written consent of a majority of the legal voters of the district, unless the school had an average daily attendance of 12 or fewer. A trustee might also establish in his township at least one central graded high school. Interpreting liberally the phrase "to locate conveniently," closing schools with an attendance of 12 or fewer, establishing a graded high school, and securing the consent of patrons to closing some schools were the means of effecting consolidation.

There were originally 131 one-room schools located at the crossroads and 2 miles apart. The county reported 16 of these schools as having an average daily attendance of 5 to 10, 12 schools as having 10 to 15, and 35 schools as having 15 to 20. All were of the usual type of one-room schools, with poor equipment, poor buildings, unkempt school grounds, and dilapidated outbuildings. Mud roads had given way to gravel and macadamized roads, the old churches had been remodeled, new farm homes had been built; in fact, everything in the community had responded to the spirit of progress except the schools. They were 40 years behind the other factors of community life.

A campaign was begun and every energy was directed to better the rural schools, which meant the consolidation of the one-room schools. Of course the opposition was very pronounced, but the county was fortunate in having boards of township trustees who were open-minded, progressive, and fearless, and, above all, had the one great purpose of doing the best that possibly could be done for children.

Consolidation was begun by the erection of a building at Lynn in 1901, and in 1905 another was put up at Losantville. Buildings were erected at Lincoln, Spartanburg, Saratoga, and Farmland in 1908. These buildings soon became the Mecca of the school people of the county, as well as of those parents that were interested in better schools. The movement spread year by year. In chronological order the townships effected more consolidations as follows:

By 1920 only 6 of the 131 one-room schools remained. There are now [March, 1923], four one-room schools, and three of the four will be abandoned at the close of the present term. Of the 19 consolidated schools now established, 16 are grade schools and four-year commissioned high schools, and 3 are consolidated grade schools.