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coils placed in the room heat only the air that is in the room; they give no ventilation. About 30 cubic feet of air per minute should be supplied to each person in the room. Hat and cloak rooms and halls should have a warm air register in the floor. Here children may stand to dry wet feet or damp skirts. Heat may be turned into the hat rooms to dry damp garments. A window slightly raised from the bottom will serve as an outlet for these rooms. If rooms are heated by stoves, a terra-cotta flue and a small stove will warm the hat room in damp weather.

It is not a matter of necessity, but is often a matter of great convenience, in a building of several rooms, to have an assembly hall. Here the chil

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dren may be brought together for general exercises and instruction and here parents may be invited for educational lectures or for parents' and teachers' meetings. Plan IX shows such an assembly hall. An assembly room 30 x 44 feet may be made at little additional cost, over the central portion of plan X. To give the room proper height it should extend into the roof. The stairs would then occupy the space of the two small rooms at the sides of the entrance, and the stairs to the basement would be under those leading to the assembly room.

The sketches here given are intended to illustrate proper lighting, heating and ventilation, together with compact and economic arrangement. there is money enough to permit, halls, hat-rooms, library, and teachers'

rooms may be larger, and the outside of the building architecturally more beautiful. But these things should not be secured at sacrifice of apparatus, maps, charts, supplementary readers, library and reference books.

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These are the things that make the school, in the hands of a good teacher thoroughly efficient.

A competent architect must be employed to make the drawings and specifications; a carpenter is not sufficient. In calling for plans, give com

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peting architects full information of what is required within the building; it is for them to furnish strength of construction and beauty of form.

The hygienic conditions of buildings already constructed and in use may be greatly improved. The stove may be jacketed at a cost of from $10 to $20. The outlet for foul air may be a window on the opposite side of the room raised slightly from the bottom. The direction of the wind must determine which window is to be opened. If there are windows on too many sides of

the room, some of them may be heavily curtained and a window added at the left. Seats may be removed from the floor and rearranged for best light

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ing. Seats of the same size should be in the same row. Too many schools have the seats graded from the largest in the rear of the room to the smallest ones in front. This makes an ill-adjustment of seat and desk whenever the sizes change. When window ventilation must be used in winter, the stream of cold air may be prevented from falling directly on the children's heads. A board about ten inches wide is fastened to the window-sill inside, and is parallel to the sash. When the window is raised from four to six inches, the air, striking the board, is deflected upward. Another upward current of air comes in between the two window sashes. dows arranged in this way a large amount of fresh air is supplied without a direct draught on any one. The walls of a school room may be tinted at small cost. Good pictures are now very cheap. Inspiring mottoes for the walls are cut from colored paper or made from evergreens. The children

will gladly care for growing plants.

With all the win

Thus may the humblest schoolhouse be made a place of instruction, of pleasure, and of health.

Official.

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION.

H. T. GAGE, President of the Board

THOMAS J. KIRK, Secretary of the Board.

BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER.

.Governor, Sacramento. Superintendent Public Instruction, Sacramento. President University of California, Berkeley.

ELMER E. BROWN, Prof. of the Theory and Prac. of Education, University of California, Berkeley.

JAMES MACNAUGHTON.

E. T. PIERCE..

C. C. VAN LIEW

SAMUEL T. BLACK

FREDERIC BURK..

. President State Normal School. San Jose.

. President State Normal School, Los Angeles. President State Normal School, Chico. President State Normal School, San Diego.

. President State Normal School, San Francisco.

D

The biennial convention of the City and County Superintendents will be hed at San Jose, August 28th, at 10:30 a. m.

THE LAPSING OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS.

Paragraph 2 of subdivision 2 of section 1543 of the Political Code provides that a school district shall lapse when the average daily attendance has been five or less for the entire school year. If the census of a school district be less than ten, the district does not receive any public school money on census, but does not lapse because of lack of census children. The people of the district may raise money by special tax or otherwise and continue the school.

SPECIAL CERTIFICATES AND QUALIFICATIONS OF COUNTY BOARDS.

A special certificate is not equal to a grammar grade certificate. Special certificates are simply licenses to teach certain special branches, and, as I have heretofore expressed opinion, the law evidently intended that they shall be confined to subjects that require rare and unusual skill (technical education), such as penmanship, music, drawing and manual training.

The law requires, as per subdivision 2 of section 1768 of the Political Code, that at least two membersof the County Board of Education shall be the holders of at least grammar grade certificates in full force and effect. I think the word "full," in this connection, may properly be construed to mean no less than a complete grammar grade certificate.

In my judgment, a county board of education the personnel of which does not meet the requirement of the foregoing provision is not a legal board, and if the Board of Supervisors have failed to follow this law in their appointments they should rescind their action and observe the law by appointing such persons as will constitute a duly qualified county board of education.

COMBINING SCHOOL DISTRICTS.

The last part of subdivision 2 of section 1577 of the Political Code provides for combining two or more contiguous school districts. A weak district under this provision may be combined with an adjoining district and have

the funds to its credit and the property belonging to it transferred to the district with which it is combined.

A SCHOOL TRUSTEE'S WIFE.

Attorney-General Ford has decided that, the husband being personally interested in the earnings of his wife, by the provisions of section 1876 of the Political Code the wife of a trustee cannot legally teach in a school district in which her husband is a trustee.

RESIDENCE OF CENSUS CHILDREN.

In the event of controversy as to residence of parent or guardian of census children, the census marshal may administer an oath to the parent or guardian to determine residence. The residence of the parent or guardian claimed under oath should be accepted as the residence of the children until a court of competent jurisdiction declares otherwise. A parent or guardian may be prosecuted for prejury for falsely swearing in such case.

COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT FINAL APPROVER OF CENSUS.

Subdivision 5 of section 1636 of the Political Code gives the County Superintendent of Schools the power to accept, reject, or correct the census of any school district in his county. If it appears that an error has been made in taking the census of a school district, the County Superintendent must have the error corrected. If it is shown that fraud taking in the census has been practiced, the Superintendent may reject the report, appoint another census marshal and have the census retaken, and draw a requisition, without der, for compensation of such census marshal.

SCHOOL TRUSTEES' ELECTIONS.

The law fixes the day for holding the school election on the first Friday in June. The Board of School Trustees is required to appoint a Board of Election, whose duty it is to conduct the election. It has been decided by the Attorney-General that electors only who were registered forty days before the first Friday. in June may vote at such election. The Superior ⚫ Court of Sacramento County, two judges sitting in bank, rendered a decision adverse to this opinion, deciding that the law of 1899, requiring forty days' registration prior to the day of election, does not apply to school elections. By another year it is hoped no room for controversy may exist.

CERTIFICATE OF ELECTION.

A certificate of election, properly made out and signed by the Board of Election, is prima facie evidence of a legal election, and must be accepted by the County Superintendent until a court of competent jurisdiction declares the election illegal. The Superintendent has not the judicial power to declare an election illegal.

VACANCIES.

In the event of an election for school trustee being illegal by a proper court, a vacancy in the office of trustee occurs which must be filled by ap

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