REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT.

To the Board of Education of the City of Chicago:

GENTLEMEN: At the close of another school year, those who have placed us in charge of the Public Schools of our city will require at our hands a full account of the manner in which we have discharged the important trusts confided to our care, and the success which has attended our labors. Of the present condition of our schools, you have herewith presented the report of the Superintendent, giving a concise but full account of the working of our school system, and what has been accomplished during the past year.

The duties of the Superintendent are yearly and rapidly increasing. Since the Board have taken charge of all repairs upon the school buildings and grounds, of the purchasing of new school sites, and the erection of new school buildings, all these, together with the largely increased number of pupils and teachers, many of whom are daily seeking and must have his care, direction and advice, tend to throw upon the Superintendent an amount of labor not originally contemplated, in the creation of his office. Many thousands of dollars of the school money are yearly saved by the manner in which it is now ex• pended, and the Board will ever feel the necessity of

allowing such competent and reliable assistance in the office as shall give to the schools and teachers more of the Superintendent's instructions and advice, now rendered impossible by other duties claiming his constant care and attention.

It is a most gratifying fact to report, that for our schools as they are to-day, neither the Board nor the city owe one dollar. Our new and elegant buildings, finished and furnished in the best manner, with all the modern improvements in furniture, and most of them in heating, unincumbered with debts, we hand over to our successors, as a legacy to coming generations, showing, in a measure, our appreciation of the value of public schools.

In this connection, it will be proper to present the valuation of our school grounds, buildings and furniture, as made for the City Comptroller, by persons well qualified for the duty. This embraces only that portion of the school property which has been purchased by the two mills tax. For this comparatively trifling yearly cost to our citizens,-a cost which, I am happy to say, has ever been, and I trust ever will be, promptly and willingly met,—we have the following valuable school property, against which there is no demand, unless it be a small yearly payment on two or three of the less valuable lots.

แ

Newberry..

Kinzie.....

Ogden...

.$72,900 00

5,000 00

9,450 00

4,000 00

9,600 00

13,350 00

purchased for the Ogden School (in bk. 17, Bushnell add.),... 10,000 00

In addition, we have unexpended of the two mills tax. to commence the new year, and to pay expenses until the tax for the coming year can be collected, $13,754.94, and the only liabilities for school purposes, as stated above, are payments on two or three school lots, amounting to $10,130.00.

By direction of the Common Council, a committee has recently been appointed by this Board to examine into the present condition of our School Fund. That committee has reported in part, and the Council have the result of their labors before them. I deem this matter of such vital importance, and the present condition of a considerable portion of this fund is such that I cannot refrain, in this report, from asking at your hands your most active, prompt and earnest co-operation with the Council, in placing this fund in some more reliable and safe condition. Some loss is now inevitable; and without speedy action, more of it, and far too much of it, will be beyond recovery. No body of men have such a realizing sense of the value of this fund as the Board of Education; and some plan that should place its management under their supervision, care and watchfulness, would save it from many of the evils of the present system, and would throw around it many checks and safeguards now entirely wanting.

During each of the years 1857, 1858 and 1859, we added to our school accommodation 1,200 seats. The

Brown and Foster school buildings were erected in 1857, each accommodating 600 pupils. In 1858 the Newberry School House was erected, at the corner of Willow and Orchard Streets. This will seat at least 1,200 pupils, and at the same time give a large hall for the exercises in singing, declamations, etc., and two rooms for the use of the heating apparatus, the original design being to heat with steam or hot air.

At the corner of Aberdeen and Jackson Streets, on the West Side, a house has been erected during. the past year of the same plan and size of the Newberry school house. The plans of the two houses were furnished and the work superintended by Geo. P. Randall, Esq., of this city. These two houses are regarded, I think, by all competent to judge of the matter, as models for buildings affording such accommodations. The arrangements for ingress and egress in both are ample; in all of the twenty rooms the light is abundant and admitted on two sides; the halls and stairways are spacious and well lighted, and the means of ventilation seemingly perfect. In short, the whole arrangement leaves little room for improvement. The manner in which the builders and contractors have done their work, entitles them to the thanks of this Board and of this community. In eight months from the time the ground for this building was purchased, it was completed, and one thousand children were in it, enjoying the benefits of our public schools. During the severity of the past winter, this entire building has been kept sufficiently heated by steam, generated from a single boiler.