$195 additional per capita for each pupil cared for in excess of 309. $65,000 00 Repairs 4,000 00 Industries 4,500 00 Specific funds to be used during period ending October 31, 1902: Cement floor, schoolhouse, 9,600 square feet, at $13. 1,248 00 400 00 Farm fencing, 7,000 feet, at $8. $560 00 Steam pipe, boiler house to schoolhouse, 400 feet 4-inch pipe, Oak boxing, 12x16, 2x2, deduct $900. New sewer line, first court to Washington Street, 15 tile, Concerning general appropriations, as stated by the Board of Managers, an increase of $5,000 is asked in the annual appropriation for maintenance, also of $9 per capita for each pupil present over a daily average of 309 each month. The reason for these increases is the increased cost of support on account of the advanced and advancing prices for food supplies, clothing and other commodities of all kinds; the increased cost of coal over natural gas for fuel; the necessity for additional teachers, attendants, and employes, and especially for the employment of a skilled specialist in the treatment of the eye and ear. The salaries and wages of those who suffered a reduction three years ago during the then existing era of low prices, should be restored in whole or in part and the wages paid some of the others should be slightly increased. Restoration in some cases and increase in others would not be extrava gance, on the contrary, it would simply be justice to those concerned, and generally would result in drawing the better class and insure more efficient service. The amount appropriated at the present time for current expenses and repairs, $4,000 annually, will be sufficient for the term for which new appropriations are to be made. An increase of $1,500 annually is asked for the industries, to the end that the industrial education of our boys and girls may be made more effective by the addition to the list of trades now taught, of tinwork for the boys and cooking for the girls. Increased cost of materials used in the shops is also to be considered. SPECIFIC APPROPRIATIONS. Concerning these, the Board says: "If the institution is to remain where it is now for an uncertain number of years, the improvements and repairs and additions asked for are absolutely necessary and should be attended to at once in order to keep the State's property in half-way decent condition and to more fully carry out the purposes for which the school stands. An inspection of the premises will show the necessity for boiler-house roof and roof repairs generally; for the painting of the buildings and repair of stucco work; for brick and cement work immediately surrounding the buildings; for farm fencing; and for replacing with iron bedsteads the wooden slat, uncleanly and cumbersome wooden bedsteads now used by the pupils for fifty years, more or less. "Concerning the cement floor in the cellar of the schoolhouse, the paving of the north drive, the laying of new steam pipe in the tunnel from the boiler-house to the schoolhouse, the new sewer line through the first court to Washington street, and increasing the electric light plant, we simply ask that you investigate existing conditions and act accordingly. We believe them all to be necessary at this time for the health of the pupils, for preserving the physical condition of the property and for genuine economy. "If, however, it should be determined to change the location of the institution and erect a new one, then none of the specified appropriations called for would be necessary, excepting the iron beds for pupils and perhaps relaying of the steam pipe to the schoolhouse in an oak box. At the present time, the boxing around this pipe is rotten, the pipe is rusted and leaks and the whole is in bad condition. In all other cases repair and patchwork paid for from the regular current expenses and repair fund may be resorted to for two or three years, as it would be necessary to keep up the physical condition of the property to a high grade. INCREASED CAPACITY. "During the past eight years, the average annual admission of new pupils has been 45, the average annual discharge of pupils 23. If it were not for the nonattendance, those who are entitled to return each year but do not do so, because of sickness and other 3-LEG. COM. REP. causes, it would have become impossible sometime ago to receive new pupils, except as old ones were discharged. We have now reached that point. What shall be done? "In 1869 the capacity of the institution was given at 186, and urgent demand was made for increased accommodation. This demand was answered and a new building erected, which, it was claimed (although we doubt it) would increase the capacity to 286. In 1875 another demand was made for still further increase in order to relieve the congested condition in dormitory and dining-room and to properly separate and care for the increasing number of very young boys and girls agreeable to modern requirements, which was constantly reducing existing capacity rather than increasing it. The demand has never been answered except by the removal of the Superintendent from the main building to a residence upon the grounds, which resulted in an increased capacity in dormitory and dining-room of 30, making a total crowded capacity of 316. During the last scholastic year the enrollment was 346, and they were taken care of by excessive crowding, the extreme capacity being pushed to 350, which would allow in the dormitories but 500 cubic feet of breathing space to a bed. This excessive crowding of the dormitories is unsanitary and unhealthful and an injustice to the pupils and parents, the latter of whom deserve and demand better treatment as taxpayers for their children. At the present time the beds are so closely crowded together as to prevent chairs, one for each bed, being placed in the dormitories. If 800 cubic feet of breathing space should be allowed for each bed the total capacity would be reduced to 225. Under such an arrangement chairs could be provided, and the unsanitary and unhealthful condition avoided. "The dining-rooms at the present time are overcrowded, every available inch at the tables being utilized. The tables are so closely arranged as to make it difficult for those serving the tables to pass between them when the pupils are seated. "It is for the above reasons, inadequately set forth, that we recommend the building of two dormitory buildings, one for boys and one for girls, and the extension of the present main dining-room. These buildings, 40x96x40 feet, three stories high, built of brick upen stone foundation, properly plumbed, heated and furnished, would cost $25,000, and provide sleeping room for 100 pupils, thus increasing the total capacity of the institution to 425, allowing 800 cubic feet of breathing space to each bed. The lower floors and basements of the buildings would be used for bathrooms, waterclosets, study-rooms, etc., thus affording some degree of separation of the pupils, a thing to be greatly desired. "If the present dining-room be enlarged by extending the west wall further east, the cost will be about $5,000. This will give more space to both bakeshop and kitchen under the dining-room, which is needed, but will tend to decrease the light therein, which is even now poor unless some arrangement be made to especially obviate this. To make this dining-room on the lower floor of one of the new dormitory buildings, for a portion of the pupils, would not be satisfactory, because of the great distance from the kitchen. "In view, however, of the constantly recurring talk concerning the sale of the institution's present holdings within the city limits, removal to some point outside the city limits upon cheaper land, and the erection of modern buildings upon widely different plans than now obtain, it is difficult to know what to advise in the way of permanent improvements or repairs, if any at all, upon the present site and buildings. If the institution is to remain where now situated, with its old and ill-arranged buildings (erected in 1850), then large sums of money must be put into improvements, repairs and additions. Even after this is done there will still remain for one of the State's great institutions a "patched-up" group of buildings, absolutely incommensurate with modern requirements for an educational institution with both sexes in attendance, with industrial and literary departments, with oral and sign departments, with kindergarten, primary, intermediate and academic grades, with boys and girls from seven to twenty-one years of age, and the whole requiring proper division and separation, general supervision, and with many, and especially the younger, close personal attendance. These things can not be fully and properly put into execution under existing conditions, nor can they in the future upon the present site. "We believe that the best interests of the deaf children of the State will be subserved in their moral, industrial and literary training by the removal of the institution to another site outside the city limits, and the erection of more buildings upon a plan conserv |