1. Cost of additional facilities (new construction, repair, renovation, and equipment) provided in school district from last normal year to June 30, 1948: 2. Estimated cost of providing the total additional facilities needed to provide normal school services for 1948-49 school year (line 3, column 3): New construction___ Repair and renovation_ Equipment. Other costs_ Total costs.. $1, 150, 000 200, 000 100, 000 50,000 1, 500, 000 3. Estimated cost of facilities to meet need caused by Federal activity: $900,000. SECTION D. FINANCING 1. Assessed valuation, $11,000,000; ratio of assessed value to true value, 35 percent. 2. Legal limit on bonded debt, 7 percent; bonded indebtedness, $84,000. 3. Amount that can be provided from— Mr. WIXCEY. A request of Senator Myers with an enclosure consisting of materials presented to him from the Mead Township School District, Meadville, Pa. Senator Myers notes that certain material was prepared by Mr. Gordon P. Leberman, secretary of the Mead Township School District. (The documents referred to are as follows:) FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY, Or Mr. William J. Finĺcy, District Engineer, FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY, Washington, D. C. MARCH 25, 1949. Harrisburg, Pa. GENTLEMEN: Following the report which was made to you on October 8, 1948, relative to the serious need of additional classrooms to take care of the children living in the Daniel Cozy Court, Federal housing project, located on the edge of the city of Meadville, West Mead Township, Crawford County, Pa., we wish to confirm that report in all particulars and to again emphasize the fact that this school district is financially unable to build classrooms to properly accommodate the children of the township. They only have a 15-room building which normally should be accommodating only 450 children. This building is now housing 580 pupils. The township is renting 3 classrooms from the city of Meadville which accommodate an additional 100 pupils while 70 more students are sent to the Meadville city schools on a tuition basis. These pupils are all in grades 1-8 or the elementary school covered by the West Mead Townshop school system. West Mead does not operate or maintain a high school. All high school students, grades 1-12, are sent to the Meadville City High School on a tuition basis. One hundred and seventy-five pupils of the present elementary shcool enrollment of West Mead Township are directly attributed to the Federal housing project and other war-impacted emergency housing in the township. This, as you can see, is practically 6 classrooms of 30 pupils each. West Mead Township has an existing debt on their present school building built in 1938 which, with temporary loans, as shown on October 8 report, makes it impossible for them to build more than three classrooms alone without help. They need 10 additional classrooms to take care of the 175 pupils of Federal housing and the rapidly expanding and overcrowded condition due to enrollment increase in school population. However, if the Federal Government is able to assist up to 50 percent of the cost in building six additional classrooms, as needed to accommodate the children from the Federal housing project alone, that would be a great help in relieving the serious situation now existing in the township. We We should say that the Meadville School District also has an increase in pupil population which is making it necessary for them to reconsider as to whether or not they will be able to continue to rent three of their classrooms to the West Mead Township School Board or to accept from 70 to 100 additional students and infiltrate them among the Meadville pupils in various buildings, grades 1-8. are fearful that word may come from the Meadville School District at any time, telling us that they will need this space for Meadville pupils next year, 1949-50. If that should be the case, the West Mead Township School District will have no room or school facilities to accommodate any of the pupils from the Federal housing project, as the surplus now being accommodated in Meadville is just equal to the number of pupils in grades 1-8 living in and attending school from the Daniel Cozy Court Federal housing project. House bill 2617 (Lanham) and Senate bill 834 (Magnuson-Kerr) are designed to meet the educational emergency explained in this and similar situations throughout the United States, caused directly by World War II and left without attention or consideration since. We therefore urge that serious and immediate consideration be given to Federal aid for relieving this overcrowded condition with a serious lack of classrooms. We shall appreciate your earnest attention to this matter. Respectfully yours, Mr. WILLIAM J. FINLEY, District Engineer, Harrisburg, Pa. DEAR MR. FINLEY: Enclosed is the school survey information requested in your letter of September 23. As a supplement to the information contained in the enclosed questionnaire, we are submitting the following information: West Mead Township surrounds the city of Meadville on three sides, north, east, and south. Meadville is bounded on the west by French Creek and Vernon Township. Due to its physical location surrounding Meadville on three sides, normal population growth of the city of Meadville is spilling into West Mead Township at a rapid rate. The better-than-normal expansion of business and industry in Meadville has produced a 20 percent normal growth of population within the township in the last few years. Superimposed on this normal growth has been an abnormal influx of residents into the township due to Federal activity caused by the war. The construction, by the Government, of the Keystone Ordnance Works in Greenwood Township in the early part of the war, brought thousands of people into this territory and many of them settled in West Mead Township. As a result of this population increase the Federal Government built 160 apartments known as Daniel Cozy Court. Because there was not enough space available in the city of Meadville to hold this housing development it was placed at the edge of Meadville in West Mead Township. Within 1 year after completion this Federal housing project added over 100 children to the student population of West Mead Township schools. As of October 1948, 135 of these apartments are occupied. Enumeration of children showed 113 school age and 181 below school age, but due to enter school over the next 2 or 3 years. Because of the acute housing shortage in Meadville, Cozy Court will probably be here at least 10 years in spite of the fact that it was designed originally as a temporary housing project. The last school enumeration showed 1,001 school-age children in our district attending elementary school, parochial, and high school. The West Mead Township School Board has been trying for 4 years to solve this problem of overcrowded conditions, but due to a time lag between new construction and its effect on assessed valuation, the legal limit on bonded indebtedness has not risen sufficiently to provide enough funds for a construction project. An analysis of our school population and our financial condition indicates that it will be at least 5 years before the income of West Mead Township will be increased sufficiently to warrant the construction of new school facilities without outside assistance. It is our belief that if it were not for Daniel Cozy Court and the Keystone Ordnance Works, West Mead Township would be able to handle its school population adequately. We are taking care of our overcrowded conditions at the present time by the following methods: 1. We are using the auditorium as a classroom. 2. Three rooms are being rented from the Meadville City School District. 3. Seventy pupils are being sent to Meadville schools on a tuition basis. These methods are, of course, very expensive and only temporary. If there is any supplementary information you need regarding any of these above points, please let me know. Very truly yours, JOHN W. Fox, Supervising Principal. Last normal Actual, 9,900 4 8,600 1,000 3, 960 SECTION C. COSTS 1. Cost of additional facilities (new construction, repair, renovation, and equipment) provided in school district from last normal year to June 30, 1948: 2. Estimated cost of providing the total additional facilities needed to provide normal school services for 1948-49 school year (line 3, column 3): 3. Estimated cost of facilities to meet need caused by Federal activity, $128,000 SECTION D. FINANCING 1. Assessed valuation, $1,642,700; ratio of assessed value to true value, 50 percent 2. Legal limit on bonded debt, $114,989; bonded indebtedness, $25,000; temporary loans, $20,000. 4. Describe the Federal activity that caused the influx of population into the school district and indicate the present status of that Federal activity and situation expected during the next several years. Mr. WIXCEY. A letter from Senator Miller, addressed to Hon. Hubert H. Humphrey, under date of June 8, to which letter he attached information sheets with the request that they be made a part of the record, Senator Miller's letter and enclosures to be included in the record. (The documents referred to are as follows:) Hon. HUBERT H. HUMPHREY, UNITED STATES SENATE, Chairman, Subcommittee on School Construction, Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR SENATOR: Enclosed is a letter and information sheet indicating 1949-50 school-building need at Lapwai, Nez Perce County, Idaho, signed by John Cermak, superintendent of Lapwai public schools; also information sheet indicating 1949-50_school-building need in Independent school district No. 1, Bannock County, Pocatello, Idaho, and signed by George N. Green, superintendent, Independent school district class A, No. 1, Bannock County, Idaho. As will be noted from the information sheet, the difficulty at Lapwai springs from the fact that a fire completely destroyed the school building on March 5, 1949. A contributing factor in this instance results from the fact that most of the valuable realty of the district belongs to Indian tribes or to the United States Government and is not taxable for school purposes. The second instance, at Pocatello, reflects the difficulty being experienced in many of our Northwest cities as a result of the shift in population during the war. This condition has been brought to your attention repeatedly during the current hearings, so I will not elaborate thereon. It is my desire that both these information sheets be made a part of the record of the hearings before your committee. Sincerely yours, Hon. BERT H. MILLER, BERT H. MILLER. LAPWAI PUBLIC SCHOOLS, Senate of the United States, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: Please find the enclosed information sheet concerning our Lapwai school-building needs which we hope may be of some assistance to you in your support of bill S. 287, and in addition, the following: 1. Our location is near the center of population of the Nez Perce Indian Reservation; and as you know, at the home of the Northern Idaho Indian Agency. 2. Our school district has expanded during the past 50 years from approximately 10 to 732 square miles. Of this, 285 square miles of the most fertile land is Indian and United States Government property. The remainder, while taxable, is of comparatively low value. 3. Our temporary quarters, being utilized since our disastrous fire of March 5, 1949, must be vacated by us within 4 years and could possibly be sooner as we are under a 30-day eviction clause. 4. All school-building construction in our district has been supported by local taxation since 1898. 5. Thirty-nine percent of the property which comprises our school district is either Indian or United States Government property which is, of course, nontaxable. This situation creates an impossible burden on our district because we can only raise $253,000 which is one-half of the amount necessary to construct a minimum number of classrooms. Thanking you for any assistance you may render. Very truly yours, JOHN CERMAK. INFORMATION SHEET INDICATING 1949-50 SCHOOL-BUILDING NEED School: Lapwai. Superintendent: John Cermak. Mailing address: Lapwai, Idaho. Telephone: 31. Telegraph address: Lapwai, Idaho. Federal activities affecting school enrollments: Nez Perce Indian Reservation and Northern Idaho Indian Agency. Are any of these now active? Yes. If active, when did they become active? 1911. Average daily attendance at time of becoming active: 74. Congressman for your school district: Compton I. White. |