A
cache of letters and documents from the educational archives of the County
School District now reside at the Klamath County Museum. What follows are a
selection of documents that serve as vignettes from a different time in local
history. If there is a moral here, perhaps it is that public education is not
only a right in the United States – it is also a responsibility.
A schoolhouse near you
At
the turn of the 20th Century, there were numerous school districts,
and schools, across the county. Each had to be within easy traveling, walking,
distance from its pupils. An Aug. 14, 1906, letter from E.T. Abbott, general
manager of Klamath Lake Railroad Company, to the superintendent of county
schools sought to move a building closer to the student body.
Dear Sir:
There is a
school district, No. 32, at Pokegama, Ore, and Miss Applegate is now the
teacher in a temporary building about three-fourths of a mile from the Pokegama
station, at a spring which is an ideal spot for a school house. The regular
school house belonging to this district is something like two and one-half
miles away, and absolutely worthless for school purposes where it is now, near
the Potter Mill, which is now shut down with no prospect of its again being
operated.
I do not know
whether I have done this thing well or not, but we want a school there and we
want the school house moved from its present location down to the spring, which
I can do for $250.
I caused
notices to be posted for about 20 days at the depot, the postoffice, the
Potter’s Mill and at the school house. These two meetings were held in
accordance with the papers enclosed. I had no copy of the school laws at hand,
but from the best information I could get, presume we have substantially
complied with the law. As I understand it, the clerk is also the treasurer. The
papers enclosed will of course, explain themselves. Will you kindly forward to
me, at Thrall, Cal., the necessary bond for the clerk and the oaths of office
for the other directors, and inform me how we can get our hands on the present
money available and how much more there is in the hands of the state or some
one else to which we are entitled. In short, I wish you would write me on
receipt of this, fully just what we can and cannot do. I want a school there
and want to move the school house, and if there is not money enough available
to do it, this company will advance it. Of course, we must pay the teacher. I
do not know quite how this is being done at the present time. There is no one
left of the old board except Mr. Hill, with a likelihood of him not being a
resident there very much longer. Mr. Potter has left the country for good and
Mr. Richardson is now located at Klamath Falls.
Pokegama
was not the only site in need of a schoolhouse. S.C. Hamaker wrote to County
School Superintendent J.G. Wight on June 23, 1908, to request a facility in
Bly.
Dear sir
We are endevoring [sic] to Bond
school dist No. 9 In the sum of $900.06 to erect a school Building have
circulated a Petition among the Legal voters and received the Proper amt of
signers Held Election & there are no vots [sic]against the Question of the
Bonded Debt I send you certificate of the Judges of Election also Clerk. Now
will you kindly help us to go a head [sic] with this proposition and give me
any Instructions you can how to Procede [sic] next thanking you in advance for
your kindness in this matter
Before civil rights
An
April 30, 1912, letter from Attorney General A.M. Crawford to Oregon’s
Superintendent of Public Instruction L.R. Alderman dealt with the issue of
equitable education for Native American students. The School District No. 7
mentioned is Fort Klamath.
Dear Sir:
In compliance
with request of recent date, I have had under consideration the question raised
by the letter of Honorable J.G. Swan, County School Superintendent of Klamath
County, asking a solution of the question presented in School District No. 7 of
said county, on account of the attendance at the school of Indian and half
breed Indian children who are afflicted with tuberculosis and venereal
diseases.
Answering I
would say, that any of said children who have any of those diseases, can, in my
opinion, be excluded from the school, under the authority of the district to
exclude persons having contagious or infectious diseases. This would probably
require an examination by the County Health Officer, or some other competent
physician, certifying that they are afflicted with such diseases. Also, if the
electors of the district are in favor of segregating children of Indian blood
from the white children, they can by vote, authorize the directors, at a
meeting called for the purpose, to build and equip a separate school, in which
shall be furnished equal facilities for the attendance of such children.
Indians who have severed their tribal relations, or have received allotments of
land are, under the United States laws, citizens of the United States and
entitled to all of the rights and privileges of citizens under the laws, and
therefore cannot be discriminated against on account of their race, but it has
frequently been held that it is not a discrimination to separate the races, if
equal facilities are furnished to the two races.
One or the
other, or both of these remedies, are about all that occur to me to be applicable
to the situation present.
Four
years later Klamath Agency Indian Service Superintendent W. Freer wrote to
County Superintendent Fred Peterson on Oct. 5, 1916, to establish a new school
for Native American children in the eastern part of the county.
My dear Mr. Peterson:
In connection
with the proposed establishment of a school district near Trout Creek about 12
miles this side of Yainax, you are informed that the Government is willing to
pay a reasonable monthly tuition for the Indian children who may attend the
school, whose parents are not tax-payers. There is no fixed tuition but I
should be willing to recommend that the sum of $2.00 for each pupil per month
be paid on the basis of enrollment, with the understanding that the pupils
attend with reasonable regularity.
Educational lobby
In
an effort to standardize education statewide, Senate B ill 8 was introduced by
Senator Eddy and read for the first time January 13, 1925. It reads, in part:
Sec. 5293. To course of study
for high schools in this state shall embrace a period of four years above
eighth grade of the public schools of the state, and shall [contain two years
of required work] embrace the required
work herein specified, which shall be uniform in all high schools of the
state. Such required course of study
[for the two years of required work] shall be laid down by the superintendent
of public instruction, after due consultation with all county and district high
school boards in the state, and such
required work, which shall be obligatory upon every high school student, in all
high schools of the state, shall include United States history; the history and
leading principles of American constitutional law, in simple form; American
literature; the English language, including grammar, composition, rhetoric,
spelling and punctuation; penmanship; bookkeeping; practical operations in
arithmetic. Such studies and the optional work hereinafter mentioned shall be
so combined or distributed as to permit of earning necessary credits for
entrance into higher institutions of learning in this state.
A
Western Union telegraph was sent to County School Superintendent J. Percy Wells
on Feb. 10, 1925, to rally opposition to the bill:
HELD CONFERENCE WITH FIFTEEN
REPRESENTATIVE SCHOOL MEN FROM SALEM PORTLAND AND WILLAMETTE VALLEY POINTS TO
STUDY EFFECTS OF SENATE BILL NUMBER EIGHT BY SENATOR EDDY ALL UNITE IN
DECLARATION THAT IT WILL GREATLY INCREASE HIGH SCHOOL COSTS STOP MOST SERIOUSLY
EMBARRASS STATE INSTITUTIONS IN COLLEGE ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS STOP DECIDEDLY LOWER
THE PRESENT STANDARDS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL STOP BE A SERIOUS MENACE TO THE SCHOOL
SYSTEM STOP SEE YOUR BOARD AND HAVE THEM IMMEDIATELY WIRE YOUR REPRESENTATIVE
TO KILL IT IN THE HOUSE
CORNELIA J SPENCER
PRESIDENT OREGON STATE TEACHERS ASSOCIATION
PRESIDENT OREGON STATE TEACHERS ASSOCIATION
E D RESSLER SECRETARY OREGON
STATE TEACHERS ASSOCIATION
J E MYERS CHAIRMAN LEGISLATIVE
COMMITTEE
Teacher compensation
With
schoolhouses spread across the county, part of a teacher’s wages could include
a place to live. Roads were not in good repair, nor were automobiles an
everyday convenience. In a July 19, 1927, letter to Klamath County School
District Superintendent Fred Peterson, Mr. H. Evans wrote:
Dear Sir:
Mrs. Evans and
I stopped at your office to see you on our return from Sprague River, but you
were not at the office, and since we were in a hurry we left without seeing
you. There are several matters we wished to talk to you about.
Mrs. Wann
showed us through the school building and apartment. We noted several things we would like to have
done, if possible. The school rooms appeared to be in fairly good shape. I
believe a heavy coat of oil about one month before school begins will put the
floors in first class shape for half the school term. Mrs. Wann mentioned that
the blinds were purchased but not forwarded to the school. They would add to
the appearance of the school rooms. Mrs. Evans says she would like to have a
long window put in the end of the teacherage downstairs; high enough that a
piano would go under it. She would appreciate having the walls tinted and the
floors painted. This may be asking quite a bit for newcomers but we feel that
good environment has much to do with the success of the school.
We look forward
to a pleasant school year at Sprague River.
Deferred maintenance
During
periods of economic concern, one area of expense that is routinely reduced is
maintenance on buildings. It is a constant concern in the kindergarten through
high school arena and the higher education environs. An undated document, which
was filed among other papers from the 1930s, requests immediate action for
maintenance at Bonanza School:
To The Klamath County School
Board,
We, the
undersigned voters of Sub School District #2, Klamath County, located at
Bonanza, Oregon, petition your board as follows:
That present
alterations and repair work on the Bonanza School to place same in a safe,
sanitary and healthy condition, fit for the proper housing of the children that
they may do their best work, continues.
Further, we
feel the work as being carried on is in competent hand, and that there be no
change and that the work be hastened so as to cause no delay to the opening of
our school term.
The above is
expressly necessary as thru some oversight our budget only levied $2600.00
[editor’s note: this number is crossed out in pencil and $29.50 written after
the paragraph] for repairs which is so grossly inadequate as to be absurd.
Thru the
adoption of the County Unit plan of School Administration, active matters
pertaining to our school has been taken away from the local board and
responsibility for the safety and health of the schools attendants placed in
your hands. An examination of the school showed same to be in an unsafe
condition, the burden of responsibility which we will not assume for our
children and which we do not believe you care to assume, and your Chairman
under the directions from your Board in conference, with our Board, held on the
ground, have agreed on the necessary work to place the building in a safe,
healthy, sanitary and comfortable condition.
Under former
school law we would be free to meet this emergency but as authority has been
transferred to your Board and we are left without recourse to remedy
conditions, which we know are bad, we respectfully urge that you afford us
immediate relief from our emergency.
Arts education
A
well-rounded education has always included exposure to the arts. In February of
1938 local granges petitioned the County Superintendent to seek music
instruction at local high schools. The charge was initiated by the Bonanza
Grange No. 772.
WHEREAS Mr. Christiansen, of the
Portland Music Co., has surveyed Klamath County as to its needs and
possibilities for orchestral work in both the schools and Granges, and
WHEREAS he has agreed to return
to this County in the fall with a competent instructor, provided the schools
and Granges want this service, therefor be it
RESOLVED that we ask Fred
Peterson, our County School Superintendant, to do all in his power to interest
the County School Board in cooperating to the extent, that they, at the budget
meeting in July, ask that the County Unit bear part of the expense of bringing
a first class teacher to handle all county schools; that the County pay $150.00
per month for the teacher to handle all County schools part time, leaving the
balance of his salary to be derived from private lessons in the different
communities, and be it further
RESOLVED that all Granges of the
County be asked to endorse this Resolution, after being properly presented, and
then sent to the Pomona Executive Committee for their endorsement and finally
presented to Fred Peterson.
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