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The Infamous Black Bird Southern Oregon History, Revised


Medford Schools

For more Medford information, refer to the Jackson County Schools page.

Norton L. Narregan, April 25, 1912 Medford Mail Tribune
Norton L. Narregan, April 25, 1912 Medford Mail Tribune

    Finley Dixon is our new principal. He is lately from Washington Territory and comes well recommende
d."Medford Doings," Valley Record, Ashland, January 10, 1889, page 3


    Now is the time to come to some definite arrangements about that fine brick school house. What say you, progressive citizens of Medford? More room will be needed next year and we cannot afford to spend any more money on the old building. Let us have a brick, and that this year.
    J. N. Hockersmith, clerk of school district No. 10, informs your reporter that as soon as the money has been collected and land secured either by lease or purchase, work will be commenced on their new school house. The district has no title for the land where the old school house stands, and it is well to secure and get a title to a small piece of land before putting in several hundred dollars in a building. Miss Emma Coleman is now teaching a good school in the old school house.
"Medford Doings," Valley Record, Ashland, May 9, 1889, page 3

    The school meeting, which was announced to be held on the 15th inst., for the purpose of passing on the question of building a large, new school house, came to naught, as there was some defect in the notices which had been posted. Owing to the stringent times, it is doubtful whether the people will vote in favor of the large tax which would be necessary.
"Medford Squibs," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, July 18, 1890, page 3


    The impression that the Medford school directors expel young gentlemen who dance with Central Point maidens is entirely erroneous. The case in point, where three youths were excluded from the Medford school for nine days for dancing with a girl at the other town, was owing to the fact that the young miss was smitten--with scarlet fever--the day after the dance whereat the young gentlemen exposed themselves. The able-bodied citizens of Medford or any other town in the valley would be only too glad to expose themselves in a similar fashion, for the Central Point maidens rank high in the scale of grace and beauty, but consideration for the welfare of the little folks dictated the action of the school directors at Medford.
"Here and There," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, December 12, 1890, page 3


    N. A. Jacobs will continue as teacher in the second department of our public schools for the remainder of the year. Miss Coleman, on account of ill health, was compelled to give the school up.
"Medford Doings," Valley Record, Ashland, March 5, 1891, page 3


MEDFORD.
    This beautiful and thriving young city is most pleasantly located in the very heart of the famous Rogue River Valley. It is a railroad town, being on the main line of the Southern Pacific. The R.R.V.R.R., lately completed, runs regularly from here to Jacksonville, the county seat, a distance of five miles. Medford has a population of about 1500 souls. Thrift and prosperity reign supreme on every hand. New enterprises are constantly springing up, which are encouraged and fostered by our people. Our importance is gradually being recognized, not only by the home-seeker, but the capitalist here finds rare opportunities to invest. With our natural advantages, and the salubrious climate peculiar to this part of Oregon, a bright and prosperous future is before us. Our school house is a very poor affair and an eyesore to the community, but the prospects are good that we shall soon have a new one. It will prove a good investment. Medford has been called the "city of churches." The town has never experienced a boom, but its growth has been steady and of a substantial character.
The Young Idea, Washington School publication, April 1891, page 2


ARBOR DAY.
    The Arbor Day programme of the Medford public schools was carried out in a manner befitting the occasion. Notwithstanding it rained almost incessantly during the night before, Friday proved to be a bright and pleasant day.
    At 1:30 o'clock p.m., the pupils formed ranks at the school grounds under the supervision of the teachers, and, after marching through the principal streets of the city, repaired to the Presbyterian church, where the exercises took place.
    Rev. F. J. Edmunds made a few very appropriate remarks pertaining to Arbor Day, which were well received, after which the programme was taken up and disposed of. The pupils all acquitted themselves admirably. The dialogue, "Visiting a Dentist" by pupils from Miss Strang's room, brought forth a storm of applause from the audience, especially from the little
folks, who seemed to enjoy it very much.
    The exercises were concluded by planting a
chestnut tree in the city park.
The Young Idea, Washington School publication, April 1891, page 2


NEW SCHOOL HOUSE.
    On the 9th of May the legal voters of this district meet and decide whether or not a new school house will be erected. If the question carries, and we have no doubt but that it will, the kind of structure, plans, cost, etc., will have to be determined upon, and later on the tax can be levied, but not until all the preliminaries as stated above have been settled. Voters, give us a school house that we can all feel proud of.
The Young Idea, Washington School publication, April 1891, page 2


    The breaking of a scaffold at the new school house one day last week precipitated three painters and the contents of the paint pots to the ground, a distance of more than twenty feet, but fortunately without injuring anyone seriously.
    It is proposed to publish a school paper by the pupils of the public schools during the coming scholastic year, and as there is much talent in that line displayed among the growing generation here and it is a useful branch of training, the scheme is highly commendable.
"Medford Squibs," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, October 2, 1891, page 2


Medford's New Schoolhouse Dedicated.
    MEDFORD, Or., Dec. 4.--The fine new $10,000 schoolhouse was dedicated at 2 o'clock with appropriate exercises. A large crowd was present, which completely filled the large assembly hall. The school, under the supervision of Professor N. L. Narregan, is one of the best in Southern Oregon, and the erection of the structure dedicated today will prove the best investment Medford ever made.
Oregonian, Portland, December 5, 1891, page 3


    The public school opened Monday in the $15,000 school house with Prof. Narregan principal, N. A. Jacobs vice-principal. the two Misses Griffith [and] the two Misses Sackett as teachers. Prof. Rigby's business college opened with about 30 pupils.
"Medford Items," Valley Record, Ashland, September 8, 1892, page 3



MEDFORD PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
N. L. NARREGAN, PRINCIPAL.
    Report for month ending Oct. 28, 1892:
    First grade--Miss E. J. McGuire, teacher; number enrolled 46, daily attendance 3d [sic--36?], tardiness 3.
    Second grade--Miss Lila Sackett, teacher; number enrolled 46, daily attendance 3g [sic--38?], no tardiness.
    Third grade--Myrtle Nicholson, teacher; number enrolled 37, daily attendance 31, tardiness 2.
    Fourth grade--M. E. Griffiths, teacher; number enrolled 46, daily attendance 38, tardy 1.
    Fifth and sixth grades--Carrie Sackett, teacher; number enrolled 60, daily attendance 54, no tardiness.
    Seventh and eighth grades and high school--number enrolled 88, daily attendance 77, tardiness 3.
    Total enrollment 323, daily attendance 275, days taught 19, cases of corporal punishment one.
    The monthly examinations closed Friday night. More hard work was done and a greater interest manifested in results than any previous examination in the history of the school.
    The Holt sisters are quite ill.
    Miss Cordelia Keizur is a member of the high school and preparing for the teachers' work.
    The boys of the school have organized an athletic club with boxing gloves, sandbags, etc. They are soliciting funds to build a school gymnasium.

Southern Oregon Mail, November 4, 1892, page 3


    The public school at Medford celebrated Washington's birthday in a most appropriate manner last Tuesday afternoon. There were recitations and songs by the students and an open air concert by the school band. There was quite a concourse of town and country people present, and all were very much pleased with the entertainment.
"Medford Squibs," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, March 3, 1893, page 3


    The public exhibition of the work of our district schools won many encomiums from visitors, and our people are agreed that school matters here are under most efficient management.

"Medford Squibs," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, March 24, 1893, page 2


    There are five school marms living on adjoining farms in the vicinity of Roxy Ann.

"Here and There," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, March 24, 1893, page 3


    The teachers' institute set for the closing days of the last week in April, to be held in Medford, is attracting its due share of attention from the hands of our citizens, who are always glad to welcome the school teachers--especially the female portion--with open arms.

"Medford Squibs," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, March 31, 1893, page 2


A District Institute.
    MEDFORD, Or., May 4.--The district institute met here with over 100 teachers in attendance. State Superintendent E. B. McElroy is present and is assisting Superintendent C. S. Price in conducting the institute. Much enthusiasm is manifested, and the institute will no doubt be the best one ever held in the district. Miss Elva Galloway, of this city, read a most interesting paper on "Moral Elements in Teaching." Professor N. L. Narregan, of the Medford public schools, presented the subject of "Music in the Public Schools" in a good, practical talk. An interesting program at the opera house last evening drew a large audience. A lecture was delivered by Professor T. A. Hayes, of the Ashland public schools.
Evening Capital Journal, Salem, May 5, 1893, page 1


    The late public school entertainments were among the most satisfactory ever held in Medford, and all trust that they will be repeated at the close of school.

"Medford Squibs," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, May 12, 1893, page 2


Report of Medford Public Schools
    School report for the school year ending May 19, 1893.--Total enrollment 437; average attendance 306; number days taught 173, cases corporal punishment by principal 4; number of suspensions or expulsions, none; number of visitors 200.
    Class leaders, Fourth Grade B class--Francis Davis 98; Mary Hanson 97; Gertie Beaver --.
    A Class, Fourth Grade--Fannie Hall 96; Frank Crouch 95; Alex. Anderson 93.
    Grammar Grade, A Class--The names of all this class deserve honorable mention for the percentage won, Grace B. Davis leading with 100 percent.
    The following named pupils, together with their general average percent on the final examination of the 7th grade, N. A. Jacobs, teacher, were promoted, and which required an average of 75 percent to pass:
    B Class, 7th Grade to A Class, 8th Grade--Helen Holtan, 100 percent; Katie Fries, 98; Lula Newton, 97; Jessie Wait, 96; Herbert Crouch, 95½; John Gainey, 91½; Alfred Walter, 93½; Brace Skeel, 93; Ida Weaver, 92; Iva Purdin, 91½; Della Surran, 91; Charles Higinbotham, 89½; Alvin Squires, 89½; Archie Fries, 89; William Isaacs, 88; Emma Engledow, 82½; May Phipps, 76½.
    A Class, 7th Grade to B Class, 7th Grade--Prudie Angle, 100 percent; Ollena Holtan, 100; Abe Bish, 98½; Gracie Odgers, 98½; Oley Oviatt, 98; Edgar Van Dyke, 97½; Virgie Parsons, 96¾; Cora Bates, 96; William Griffis, 95½; John Johnson, 95; Frank Tryer, 94¾; Archie Sargent, 94¾; Scott Davis, 91½ ; Bert Brown, 91½; Eva Bunch, 90¾; Charles Culp, 88½; John Plymale, 83½.
    In the A Class four prizes were offered. Prudie Angle was awarded the first prize, having stood 100 percent in all her studies--written arithmetic, geography, mental arithmetic, and language--and her papers being the neatest and best. Ollena Holtan the arithmetic written and mental prize, 100 percent in each. Gracie Odgers the language prize, 100 percent, which requires seven pages of legal cap to write out the examination. Virgie Parsons the geography prize, 100 percent, which included a map of the southern and southwestern states to be drawn from memory.
    Helen Holtan received the prize in the B Class for excellence in scholarship, having attained 100 percent in all her studies--physiology, history, geography, language, written and mental arithmetic.
Medford Mail, June 2, 1893, page 2


    The commencement exercises of the Medford high school were all that was promised and reflected credit alike on the pupils and teachers.
"Medford Squibs," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, June 2, 1893, page 2


    The school directors did well in re-engaging the services of Profs. Narregan and Jacobs. They are first-class teachers and labor hard for the success of our school.
"Medford Squibs," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, July 14, 1893, page 3


The Tax Levy.
    The total levy for state, county and school taxes for this year is $90,312.08; for towns and cities, $12,463.07; school districts, $13,388.76; total $116,163.91. Ashland, Jacksonville and Medford have each made a municipal tax levy of 10 mills. The following school districts have levied taxes: No. 1, Jacksonville, 5 mills; No. 5, Ashland, 7 mills; No. 6, Central Point, 5 mills; No. 28, Steinman, 3 mills; No. 49, Medford, 10 mills; No. 70, 5 mills; No. 73, Boulevard, 8 mills.
Democratic Times, Jacksonville, February 8, 1894, page 3


    The Jacksonville-Medford public school union picnic May 5th will be allowed round trip tickets on the railroad for 10 cents.
"Medford Items," Valley Record, Ashland, April 26, 1894, page 3


    The school board has chosen the teachers for next year's term of school in the Medford public schools. Prof. N. L. Narregan for principal, Miss Elva Galloway, assistant principal; Miss Della Pickel, sixth grade; Miss M. A. Crouch, fifth grade; Miss Bursell, fourth grade; Miss Minnie Worman, third grade; Miss Viola Brandon, second grade, and Miss Minnie Coleman, primary and kindergarten. Three of the above named teachers are new to the schools this year. Miss Galloway is a daughter of our much respected townsman, Frank Galloway; Miss Crouch is a daughter of another of our worthy townsmen, B. F. Crouch, and has been engaged in teaching in Klamath County for some time. Miss Brandon is a Salem lady. The board feel that they have made a very good selection and that the schools in their hands will not lose any of their heretofore redeeming features as model places of education and culture. It will be noticed that seven teachers are engaged for this year instead of six, the number engaged last year. The growth in our school population made the addition compulsory. The rooms were all full last year, but to accommodate all who attend this year another school room is to be fitted up in a part of the building basement. Clerk Jones is now at work arranging all details for the commencement of school, about the first or middle of September. One feature in connection with the continued success of our schools is that nearly all teachers employed hold state certificates, or have paper entitling them to such certificates.

"News of the City,"
Medford Mail, July 6, 1894, page 3


    A Stranger: "Your school building is too crowded. You ought to have at least one more building, and two more wouldn't be any too many."
"News of the City," Medford Mail, October 19, 1894, page 3


    The measles are still making lively times among the kid fraternity of Medford. The public school keeps open, however.
"Medford Items," Valley Record, Ashland, November 1, 1894, page 3


    The Medford public school observed Arbor Day with appropriate exercises.
"Medford Items," Valley Record, Ashland, April 18, 1895, page 3


    The Medford school board has elected the following teachers for the ensuing year: Principal, N. L. Narregan; vice-principal, Miss Elva Galloway; assistants, Misses M. M. Coleman, R. L. Warner, Viola Brandon, Ellen Bursell, Bessie Wait, Adele Pickel and C. Grace Foster.
"Medford Items," Valley Record, Ashland, June 6, 1895, page 3


    In the election of teachers for the state university at Eugene Prof. N. L. Narregan, for many years principal of the Medford public school, was chosen dean of the preparatory department; Prof. Letcher of Corvallis state agricultural college, professor of mathematics; Prof. Washbourne of same place, professor of biology; Prof. Young of Albany college, political economy; Prof. Friedel of Leipzig, physics; Profs. Bailey and Collier, professors emeriti.
"Medford Items," Valley Record, Ashland, July 25, 1895, page 3


    Medford is to hold a school meeting Aug. 31st to vote on the subject of a new school house and the bonding of the district for the same.
"Medford Items," Valley Record, Ashland, August 22, 1895, page 3


Medford's Incendiary Fiend.
    Medford's public school house and its furnishings were burned to the ground just after midnight on Sunday night. The building was erected about five years ago by Geo. Catchings, a Riddle contractor. The origin of the fire is believed by all to have been incendiary and the work of a fiend who burned several barns last year and made two unsuccessful attempts to set the school house on fire. Much uneasiness and indignation is felt at Medford at the presence of such an unwelcome reprobate in their community. The Monitor gives the following account of the affair:
    The fire was discovered shortly before 1 o'clock Monday morning. G. L. Schermerhorn was returning to town and drove in from the west. When within a block or two of the school house he noticed a light in the rear but drove past the front to ascertain the cause. Not a glimmer was visible from that point so he returned and passed down the side street and when just past the building be saw flames climbing the posts of the rear porch. Whipping his horse into a run he was soon at the hose house ringing the alarm. Enough fire boys were soon on hand to attach the hose cart to his buggy and the horse was started back to the fire on a run. Within eight minutes from the time the fire was first noticed the hose was attached to the hydrant and the water turned on. But, oh, what a disappointment to the fire laddies, there was no pressure. Only 12 feet of water in the tank and no steam to pump with. A bold break was made for the building, however, but the heat prevented their approach.
    By this time the flames had broken through from the rear porch to the lower hallway and then spread like a flash to the upper hallway and front. In a moment the middle of the structure was all on fire and the pine and fir material finished in hard oil made a fierce heat. Seeing a stream could not be made to reach the fire without pressure the firemen turned their attention to saving the M.E. church, south, across the street. The hose was divided and two nozzles used, but the water scarcely reached the eaves. The roof was smoking several times and had five minutes more elapsed before the engines began pumping all efforts to save the church would have been futile. As it was, the building was badly scorched outside and some damage done the interior.
    The school house burned furiously and in less than three-quarters of an hour nothing was standing above the walls. Hundreds of people were attracted to the scene and watched the progress of the fire with mingled feelings of regret and anxiety. Anxious lest the spirit which prompted some archfiend to perpetrate the dastardly act of firing the cherished property of all the people of Medford, might continue the depredations until our little city would be considered an unsafe home.
    When the first parties reached the scene the fire could have been controlled easily had water been available. There was a box room about 10x12 feet, 10 feet high under the rear porch which was easily accessible from either side of the steps, there being no doors except the one from the room into the basement, which was locked. The most plausible theory is that the incendiary passed under the steps to this room where with the proper arrangement of combustible material fire would burn unnoticed until it broke through the porch above and allow one ample time for escape. The building was constructed with two main parts, with the hallways on the upper and lower floors between and the observatory and cupola over the middle. When the fire broke from the rear porch into the building it extended to the front and all over the middle portion upstairs as well as below almost like a flash.
    Joe Frizell of Ashland was one of the first to see the fire. He was coming down the side street near the church when he noticed the light and started running to give the alarm. While making inquiry at the hotel for the location of the fire bell Schermerhorn passed him. He started back with the fire boys, and fell near the depot from exhaustion, the wheel of the hose carriage striking the calf of his leg below the knee, badly bruising the muscle. He is about on crutches.
    Medford was all excitement again the next night, about 3 o'clock Tuesday morning, when the barn on Geo. Justus' residence, a few blocks from the burned school house, was all ablaze and was nearly burned to the ground when put out by the fire department with a full head of water. The loss was $300, covered by $200 insurance. The same incendiary is suspected.
Valley Record, Ashland, August 22, 1895, page 3



    The special meeting of the taxpayers of Medford School District, Saturday afternoon, to consider the matter of constructing a new school building to take the place of the one recently destroyed by fire, was unanimous for a new building at once, and the directors were instructed to go ahead on a new brick building according to plans submitted by W. J. Bennet, the architect. the directors were authorized to borrow $7500, which with the $7000 received from insurance on the burned structure, it is thought will build and furnish the new school house, the cost of the building being estimated at $12,000. Architect Bennet's plans provide for a building 65 feet front by 85 feet deep, with an L 45x35 feet, two stories high, with ten rooms. The practical unanimity with which the proposition for undertaking to build such a creditable structure was received speaks volumes for Medford's interest in the public schools.
Ashland Tidings, September 5, 1895, page 2


    As stated in The Mail last week Medford is going to have a new school building, and it is going to be a good one, too. One has only to glance over the plans and specifications which have been prepared by Architect Bennet, and which have been accepted by the school board, to convince himself that Medford is going to have as good a school building as can be found in any district in the Pacific coast states, outside, perhaps, of some of the larger cities.
    By the kindness of Mr. Bennet a Mail representative was shown the plans and the details of the new building, and each and every particular explained.
    The foundation of the building will be of stone and laid on the bed-rock. It will be two and one-half feet from the ground to the first floor. The building walls will be of brick and each story will be fourteen feet in the clear.

Washington School
Washington School
Washington School, Medford--site of today's Jackson County Courthouse.

    The division between the principal's room and that of his assistant will be a "rolling partition." It will be so arranged that it can be easily rolled up or down. Should the principal wish to leave the room he has only to roll up this partition and the two rooms are thrown into one and can be under the direction of the vice-principal during his absence.
    The principal's room will be to the northwest corner of the building, and near his desk will be a speaking tube running to the teacher's closet in each of the other rooms, supplied with proper signaling appliances. This brings the principal within speaking distance with all the teachers and is a great convenience to all.
    On the north side and near the east end of the building will be located a tower sixty feet in height. In this tower is the main entrance, which will be eleven and a half feet in width. This entrance opens into a hall with stairs eight feet in width, leading to the upper floor. There will also be an entrance at the north-west corner, with stairs six feet wide leading to the second floor. In each flight of stairs there will be a landing half way up. This will prevent a jam in case of a rush down the stairs. The halls on the upper floor are narrower than the stairs
this also to do away with a jam in case of a rush.
    All in all Medford will have a school building of which she can justly feel proud. It will be a structure unequaled by any in architectural design and modern conveniences. Mr. Bennet will have personal supervision of the work and it will be the aim of the directors and all who have the work in charge to see that it is done in a first-class manner and nothing but first-class material used.
"A Good, Grand Structure," Medford 
Mail, September 13, 1895, page 1


    Butler, Barrett & Stewart of this city were the lowest bidders and were awarded the contract for the erection of the new school house, have given the bonds and commenced work. The district has also purchased 260 desks and other furniture at an expense of $1900.
"Medford Items," Valley Record, Ashland, September 26, 1895, page 3



OREGON
    Medford will erect schoolhouse. Write Arch. W. J. Bennet.
"School Building Notes," The School Journal, October 5, 1895, page 299


Duties of Pupils.
    The following rules relating to duties of pupils attending the public schools of Medford have been passed by the school board.
    They will commend themselves to the good judgment of the patrons of the school, and to every pupil who desires to make the most of his time and opportunities while in school.
    The issuing of these rules does not indicate that our school children are in special need of them, but that Medford is growing so fast that it is better to anticipate contingencies than to wait until necessity urges action. The good do not object to wholesome laws; others, who are wise, acquiesce. Patrons may care to keep this paper for future reference.
    1. Due attention shall be given to personal neatness and cleanliness. Any pupil failing in these respects may be sent home to be prepared for school. Any pupil infected with any contagious disease shall not be allowed to remain in school.
    2. Willful disobedience, habitual truancy, vulgarity or profanity, stealing or carrying deadly weapons, or violating the criminal or civil laws of the state or city, the use of intoxicating drinks or of tobacco in any form or of smoking any substance whatever on or about the school premises or on the way to or from school will subject the offender to suspension or expulsion.
    3. Pupils who shall mark, cut or write upon any property used for school purposes or in any other way deface or injure it shall pay for the damage and be liable to punishment, suspension or expulsion.
    4. No pupil shall be allowed to be absent from school during regular sessions for the purpose of receiving any kind of instruction.
    5. No books, papers or other literature of any sort can be allowed in the school rooms unless directly connected with school work.
    6. Pupils must not enter other school rooms than their own unless granted permission by the principal.
    7.  Pupils may be temporarily suspended from class exercises by the teacher, who shall immediately report with reason to the principal.
    8. Pupils detained from school must bring a written excuse from their parents on their return.
Medford Mail, October 18, 1895, page 4


    The design, plans and specifications for this fine building [Washington School] are the product of Architect W. J. Bennet, of this city, and to him is due, and is given, credit for the splendidly arranged and commodious new building. No person is there who visits the building and well inspects it in detail but that will speak words of compliment for the architect and superintendent.
excerpt, Medford Mail, March 6, 1896, page 1


Medford's Public School Opening.
    Medford, March 7.--This was opening day at the new public school building. Although the day was quite damp, fully 1200 persons were present to witness the exercises that took place in front of the new building.
    A flagstaff, nearly 100 feet high, had been planted, and a large flag had been procured and was today presented to the public school. Attorney L. A. Esteb, of this city, delivered a very able address upon the flag, explaining, quite at length, why it was so cherished in the hearts of all American citizens. After the flag presentation exercises, those present were invited to go through the new building, and many were the expressions of surprise at its completeness and stability.
    This was also book day, and all were invited to bring a book to be presented to the public school library. As the result a large number of books were contributed. The day's exercises closed at the opera house tonight, where a literary and musical programme was carried out, and Hon. W. I. Vawter delivered an address upon the progress of Medford's schools. He told, in a pleasing manner, how the demands of the schools had increased from a small building, with a seating capacity of 30 in 1884, to the large 10-room brick structure, with a seating capacity of over 600, which was opened today.
Valley Record, Ashland, March 12, 1896, page 3

Washington School
Washington School, on the current site of the Jackson County Courthouse.
Medford Mail, March 6, 1896


    The Medford school board has engaged teachers for the ensuing year, and fixed salaries as follows: Professor Gregory, principal, $100 per month; Miss Elva Galloway, vice-principal, $50 per month; Miss Minnie Coleman, primary, $25; Miss Elsie Roof, assistant primary, $25. All the other teachers, except Miss Grace Foster, who resigned, were retained at a salary of $20, namely, Misses Bessie Wait, Mary Davidson, Adella Pickel, Ellen Bursell, Robin Warner and Mrs. Mary Peter.
"Oregon Notes," Oregonian, Portland, June 10, 1897, page 3


    Prof. G. A. Gregory, Mrs. Peter, Misses Fannie Haskins, May Phipps, Della Pickel, Elva Galloway, Minnie Colman, Grace Amann, Elsie Roof, Mina Stoop, Robin Warner, Mary Davidson, Emma Reed, from Medford, Prof. Benson, of Grants Pass, Profs. Barnard and Dailey, Misses Clemens and Hall, of Central Point, and C. F. Shepherd, of Jacksonville, were among those who went up on Wednesday morning's train to attend the teachers' institute at Ashland.
"Personal," Medford Monitor-Miner, October 14, 1897, page 3



    The Medford schools opened Monday with the following corps of teachers: North primary, C. Grace Foster; south primary, Emma Reed; second grade, May Phipps; third grade, Jessie G. Wait; fourth grade, Fannie Haskins; fifth grade, Grace Amann; sixth grade, Julia Fielder; eighth and high school, Miss Gertrude Sutton, Latin and mathematics; N. L. Narregan, German, English literature, history, civil government, penmanship and drawing.
"Medford Squibs," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, September 28, 1899, page 2



    School Clerk Garl T. Jones has completed his work of taking the school census of this district. The total number of children of school age is 714; of this number there are 361 boys and 353 girls. Last year the census showed 673, the increase this year over last therefore being 43.

"Additional Local," 
Medford Mail, March 16, 1900, page 2


Teachers Elected.
    The school trustees for this district met last Monday night and elected the following teachers for the ensuing year: Prof. N. L. Narregan, Misses Gertrude Sutton, May Phipps, Elsie Wiley, Lizzie Ferguson, Emma Reed, Minnie Hockenyos, Mabel Jones. No selection has yet been made for the first primary grade, the selection being left open until later in the season. All the old teachers who applied for positions were reelected. Misses Grace Foster, Fannie Haskins and Julia Fielder did not make applications.
Medford Mail, April 19, 1901, page 2


    There are but four students in the high school graduating class this year, and these are all boys. They are Leon Haskins, Ward Webber, Eugene Rhinehart and Roy Mickey.
"Additional Local," Medford Mail, May 10, 1901, page 6


SCHOOL CLOSED LAST FRIDAY.
A Most Successful School Year Terminated with a Splendid Entertainment--
All Participants Acquitted Themselves Admirably.
    With the entertainment on the evening of June 6th, and the commencement exercises on the evening of June 7th, another very successful school year was closed in Medford. On the first-named date the "Kingdom of Mother Goose" was presented by the school children in a very entertaining manner. The opera house was taxed to its full capacity to accommodate the large audience assembled. The stage was beautifully decorated with a wealth of roses and evergreens, and the fifty or more little girls and boys arrayed in costumes appropriate for the parts assumed by them made a very interesting picture. They performed their work in a very credible manner, reflecting much credit upon themselves, and also upon those who drilled them for the occasion. It would be a difficult task to undertake to say which one of the participants excelled. The little girls, dressed so becomingly as fairies, were very pretty, and many were the compliments bestowed upon them as they carried through their parts, some of which were difficult, with an ease and composure which would have done credit to those more experienced in such work. The comic characters seemed to vie with each other as to which could create the most merriment, and that they all succeeded admirably was evidenced by the applause with which each was greeted in his turn. Jack Sprat and wife apparently were oblivious to the fact that they were only acting their part; the wise man did his turn to perfection; Tom, the piper's son, could not have been far excelled by the original Thomas; the man who jumped into the bramble bush, Jack and Jill and the little Brownies all did their part toward making the entertainment the grand success that it was, while Mother Goose presided over all just as she has been depicted in the fairy stories for ages and ages. The commencement exercises Friday evening were also very interesting. Leon B. Haskins, R. J. Mickey, D. P. Webber and Eugene J. Rhinehart were the members of the graduating class. After the rendition of the program they were awarded high school diplomas, the presentation being made by D. T. Lawton, president of the school board. The high school orchestra furnished excellent music for each evening, and are deserving of much praise for the efficiency which they have attained as musicians. The net proceeds from the sale of seats was about $80.
    The principal and his assistants, together with the friends and patrons of the school, worked hard to make the entertainment a success, and all should feel amply rewarded for their work from the many hearty words of commendation heard on every hand.
    Taken all together, the past year has been one of the most pleasant, interesting and successful in the history of the school. The greatest harmony has prevailed between the teachers, school board and patrons, excellent work has been accomplished and the high school course has progressed very satisfactorily. During the past few years a large and well-selected library has been provided for the school, the greater part of which has been purchased by the pupils with the funds received from their entertainments.
Medford Mail, June 14, 1901, page 2


    The Medford high school will open on September 16th. The teachers for the coming year are N. L. Narregan, principal; Gertrude Sutton, assistant principal; Emma Reed, south primary; Gertrude A. Wilson, north primary. Teachers in the intermediate grades are Misses May Phipps, Grace Amann, Lizzie Ferguson, Mabel Jones, Minnie Hockenjos and Jessie Wait.

"City Happenings," Medford Mail, August 23, 1901, page 7


Our Schools.
    The public schools will open Monday, September 16, 1901.
    The teachers are: Gertrude Wilson, north primary; Emma Reed, south primary; Mabel Jones, 2nd grade; J. G. Wait, 3rd grade; Minnie Hockenyos, 4th grade; M. Grace Amann, 5th grade; Lizzie Ferguson, 6th grade; L. May Phipps, 7th grade; E. Gertrude Sutton, 8th grade and high school; N. L. Narregan, high school.
    All primary pupils must enter at the beginning of each term.
    Monday will be given to the exchange of textbooks. Bring your old books to school and there you will receive instructions as to the books you will need and the price of exchange.
    All new students and those who may wish examinations of subjects in which they failed last May will be examined on Monday.

Medford Mail, September 13, 1901, page 2


The Medford Schools.
    This being the last week of the term it has been a very busy one for the teachers in the Medford schools, for with grading examination papers, making up term reports and assisting the pupils in their rehearsals for the entertainment and commencement evenings, they have had every minute of their time fully occupied and they will appreciate the rest and change that their vacation will bring them. Already the teachers are planning for their vacations, and next week will find several of them bidding adieu to Medford for the present at least. Prof. Narregan will go prospecting on the Applegate for a hearty appetite, renewed strength and incidentally for a paying gold mine, if such should be his good fortune. Miss Gertrude Sutton will spend a short time at her home in Ashland, after which she will leave for Portland and Knappa, on the lower Columbia, where she will visit friends and enjoy the bracing air of ocean beaches at the mouth of the Columbia River. On her way home she will come by way of the West Side Road through the Willamette Valley, stopping off at some of the towns for a brief visit with friends. Miss Emma Reed will begin next week a term of school near Prospect. Miss Minnie Hockenyos will enjoy a quiet rest at home, after which she may go to Portland or to the mountains. Miss Lizzie Ferguson stated that the chances were good that she would spend her vacation in the quietness of her home in East Medford. Miss May Phipps will remain at her home for some time, after which she may take a trip to the mountains. Miss Grace Amann will enjoy her vacation at home, as will also Miss Mabel Jones, and Miss Gertrude Wilson spend the greater part of their vacation at home, with a possibility of a trip to Crater Lake or to the mountains somewhere later in the summer. Miss Lutie Ulrich will return to her home in Alton, Ill., and will not come back to Medford unless she can induce her parents to come too. In the year that she has been in Medford she has become greatly pleased with our little city and thinks the Southern Oregon climate almost perfect. Of the Medford schools Miss Ulrich stated that when she came here she expected to find our schools somewhat behind the times as compared with eastern schools, but to the contrary she found it both in its appointments, and in the thoroughness and high grade of work carried on, the equal of the best city schools in Illinois and the other states whose schools are considered models.
Medford Mail, June 6, 1902, page 6


    The Medford school band has been engaged to play on the Fourth at Grants Pass. The band numbers twenty-one boys, ranging in age from ten years to sixteen years, and in their jaunty new uniforms of dark green, trimmed in silver, and naval caps, they present a decidedly handsome appearance. The boys for the past month have been practicing each evening, and they now can handle quite a number of high-grade selections, which they render in excellent time and with a snap and spirit that would be a credit to a band of mature experience.

"City Happenings," Medford Mail, July 4, 1902, page 7


List of School Books.
    List of books required in the Central Point Public School:
    Chart Class--Slate and pencil.
    First year--Primer, slate and pencil, writing No. 1, drawing No. 1.
    Second year--First reader, slate and pencil, drawing No. 2, writing No. 2.
    Third year--Writing No. 3, second reader, elementary arithmetic, introductory language, drawing No. 3, tablet and pencil.
    Fourth year--Elementary geography, elementary arithmetic, third reader, writing No. 4, drawing No. 4, physiology "Primer of Health," introductory language, speller, tablet and pencil.
    Fifth year--Fourth reader, elementary geography, practical arithmetic, writing No. 4, drawing No. 4, introductory language, physiology, "A Healthy Body," speller, mental arithmetic.
    Sixth year--Fourth reader, advanced geography, writing No. 5, drawing No. 5, graded lessons in English, physiology, "A Healthy Body," elementary history, speller, mental arithmetic, practical arithmetic.
    Seventh year--Fifth reader, geography, practical arithmetic, writing No. 7, history (U.S.), speller, mental arithmetic, "Graded Lessons in English," drawing No. 5, fifth reader.
    Eighth year--History, civil government, "American Citizen, practical arithmetic, grammar, "Higher Lessons," mental arithmetic, speller, writing No. 8, drawing No. 5.
    I will be at the public school building during the forenoons of Sept. 11 and 12 for the purpose of examining and classifying new pupils. School opens Sept. 15th. High school textbooks to be announced at opening.
    At a meeting of the school board Sept. 2nd, they ordered a globe for the school, also ten copies, per week, of "The Little Chronicle," to be used in the study of current events.
A. J. HANBY, Principal.           
Medford Mail, September 5, 1902, page 2


    School will commence in Medford next Monday. Last week in these columns was published a list of the textbooks required in the Central Point schools. This list of books is applicable to all graded schools of the state.
"Additional Local," Medford Mail, September 12, 1902, page 6


School Opens.
    The Medford High School opened Monday with a good attendance, 400 pupils being enrolled. The assignment of teachers is as follows: Prof. N. L. Narregan, principal; Gertrude Sutton, vice-principal; May Phipps, 7th grade; Mae Earhart, 6th; Minnie Hockenyos, 5th; Lizzie Ferguson, 4th; Anna Jeffries, 3rd; Grace Garrett, 2nd; Gertrude Wilson and Fannie Haskins, primary.
Medford Mail, September 19, 1902, page 2


Public School Report.
    Following is the report for the Medford public schools for the month ending November 7, 1902:
    Number days taught, 20; total enrollment, 416; average attendance, 390; cases corporal punishment, 0; teachers' meetings, 2; visitors, 16.
N. L. NARREGAN, Principal.       
Medford Mail, November 14, 1902, page 6


School Report.
    Following is the report for the month ending Dec. 5, 1902: Days taught, 19; holidays, 1; total enrollment, 452; average attendance, 360; cases corporal punishment, 0; visitors, 40; teachers' meetings, 2.
N. L. NARREGAN, Principal.       
Medford Mail, December 12, 1902, page 2


Additional Teacher for Medford.
    MEDFORD, Or., Dec. 26.--Owing to the crowded condition of the Medford school, the board has found it necessary to add a teacher after the holidays, which will make 11 teachers in the school. Miss Helen Wait has been selected for the position, and her pupils will be taken from the third grade, Miss Jeffery, of this grade, having 76 pupils.
Morning Oregonian, Portland, December 27, 1902, page 4


Medford City Teachers Chosen.
    MEDFORD, Or., April 17.--(Special.)--At a recent meeting of the School Board of Directors, of this city, the following teachers were elected for the ensuing year: Professor N. L. Narregan, principal; D. C. Mathews, vice-principal; Miss Minnie Hockenyos, Miss Annie Jeffrey, Miss Fannie Haskins, Miss Julia Fielder, Miss Helen Wait, Mrs. M. G. Hoge, Miss Zuda Owens and Miss Clara Poley, grade teachers.
    The grade teachers' salary has been raised from $30 and $35 per month to $40 per month.

Morning Oregonian, Portland, April 18, 1903, page 4


    The following teachers have been selected for the Medford school: Fannie Haskins, Gertrude Wilson, Mrs. M. C. Hoge, Minnie Gowland, Lizzie Ferguson, Julia Fielder, Helen Wait, Mary E. Talbert and Roberta Rippey.
"General School News," Oregon Teachers' Monthly, May 1904, page 46


Next Year's Medford Teachers.
    MEDFORD, Or., April 12.--(Special.)--The school directors met this afternoon and elected the following teachers for the ensuing year: J. K. M. Berry, of North Yakima, Wash., principal; Bessie Hill, Portland, vice-principal; Mrs. H. C. Stoddard, Misses Mary E. Talbert, Olive Huffer, Minnie Gowland, Gertrude Wilson, Julia Fielder, Fannie Haskins, Lutie Ulrich, Echo Nason and Etheylend Hurley. All teachers except the principal and Misses Ulrich and Nason were re-elected..
Morning Oregonian, Portland, April 13, 1905, page 4


A Step Forward in the Medford Schools.
    For a number of years the high school has been laboring under the difficulty of an insufficient teaching force. The first step in advance was the placing of the eighth grade under a separate instructor. This still left the four grades of the high school with but two instructors. The work required by the state course for college entrance, in these four grades, necessitates five periods per day, each period forty minutes in length, for each grade, or twenty forty-minute periods each day. Obviously this amount of work is more than two teachers can successfully carry on with justice to themselves or to the pupils. To relieve this difficulty, the following course of study has been adopted for the high school department.
FIRST YEAR (9th Grade).
    First Semester--Advanced Grammar, Ancient History, Beginning Algebra, Latin, Physical Geography. Second semester--Same as first.
SECOND YEAR (10th Grade).
    First Semester--English Composition, Medieval and Modern History, Algebra (completed), Latin (Caesar), Physiology. Second Semester--Same, except Rhetoric in place of Physiology.
THIRD YEAR (11th Grade).
    First Semester--History of English Literature, Plane Geometry, Latin (Cicero), Elementary Geology, Physics. Second Semester--English Authors, Plane Geometry, Latin (Cicero), Elementary Botany, Physics.
FOURTH YEAR (12th Grade).
    First Semester--Shakespeare, American History, Solid Geometry, Chemistry. Second Semester--American Authors, American Government, Political Economy, Chemistry.
    Electives--German, Bookkeeping.
    To accomplish the work laid out Miss Huffer will assist in the high school and Miss Nason, who was engaged to take the overflow class, will have charge of the 7th grade.
Medford Mail, September 15, 1905, page 1


Attendance and Tardiness in Medford Schools.
    The principal and teachers desire, among other things, to improve the schools, along two important main lines--attendance and tardiness. A pupil who is habitually late at school will always be just a little too late for the best things of life, and the one who is in the habit of dropping out a half day each week lacks a prime element of success--application to business. The school law on this point says in Rule 50 that all cases of tardiness or absence must be excused by the parent, either in person or by note. Excuses are valid for sickness, exposure to health or necessary employment. Of all other cases the teacher is sole arbiter. Rule 51. "When the unexcused absences aggregate seven days, the pupil shall be reported to the school board and may be suspended. For this purpose an unexcused tardiness equals a half day's absence."
    Rule 56 (in part). "Every pupil must attend school punctually and regularly." Hence, truancy will not be allowed.
    We look to the parents to aid in this movement. They can do so by not detaining pupils at home except for special reasons and by being prompt in the matter of excuses. This may seem a small matter to each individual, but it is very important to the success of the school and the formation of right habits in the child.
CALENDAR OF SCHOOL YEAR.
    Thanksgiving recess, date fixed by proclamation of president.
    Friday, December 1st, first quarter ends.
    Friday, December 22nd, to Tuesday, January 2nd, holiday recess.
    Friday, January 19, 1906, first semester ends.
    Monday, January 22nd, second semester begins.
    February 22nd, Washington's birthday.
    Friday, March 2nd, second quarter ends.
    May 21-25, final examinations.
    Promotion exercises and commencement.
    No pupils may enter beginning primary until the beginning of second semester owing to the crowded condition of the department.
Medford Mail, October 6, 1905, page 1

Washington School, circa 1912
The 1896 Washington School, circa 1912

A Visit to Medford's School.
By J. G. Martin
    I have been promising myself a grand treat from time to time by paying the popular public schools of our growing city a brief visit, but unforeseen circumstances would apparently arise about the time I was ready to go and prevent me from availing myself of that visit I so much coveted, until Wednesday of last week, when I made my start and as I strolled along the street I asked myself the question, How is an entire stranger going to get admission to this beautiful, strong institution of learning, where six or seven hundred pupils of all ages and sizes are gathered for their mental, moral and physical culture? I looked upon buildings a model of beauty and loveliness, surrounded by clean, well-kept walks and outbuildings with a cool, green, shady playground. I took notice as I entered all the doors and windows were thrown open and so many sentries were walking to and fro apparently on the alert, but I put on a bold front and not receiving any challenge I soon reached the top of the winding stairway and knocking at the door of the fifth grade room, I politely made my business known and the teacher, Miss Talbert, kindly invited me to a seat. Right here, Mr. Editor, I must confess I felt not a little abashed on coming in so very suddenly and meeting and looking over this little sea of clean, bright, promising, fidgety faces of fifty-two boys and girls; but after listening to a number of the exercises, which were both interesting and instructive to me, my fright gradually wore off and I became reconciled and grew easy and comfortable, and wished I was young again, for my thoughts began to wander back into the dim past and the pleasant memories of my boyhood school days began to return to me when I surveyed the old blackboard and heard that familiar whisper from boys and girls. The same antics and spirit of restlessness pervades the school room among the children of the present day as of the past, no improvement along these lines as I could see from the old method, but not for a moment do I wish my readers to imagine I would have the world, our world, set back to the old days, for the present as a whole is always better than the past. I found the school room of Miss Talbert's clean, bright, cheerful and comfortable and the teacher, I should judge, to be an industrious, painstaking instructor and her method of conveying her ideas to others simple, plain and practical, and her order and discipline excellent. At recess I was much interested in the pupils marching into their respective rooms with so much military precision, order and quietness, which reflects much credit upon teacher and children. I met Prof. Signs by accident as I was about leaving the school room. An introduction to this well-known educator I considered quite an honor, but from his warm handshake and the bright, cheerful welcome he gave me, persuades me to believe he is a gentleman and worthy of the high and honored position he is entrusted with, and if there can be any advancement and improvement along the educational lines of Medford's popular schools they will, as in the past, continue to advance with the assistance of his able corps of teachers keeping the progress, popularity and high standard it now enjoys, both in moral and educational training, always in the lead.
    In conclusion permit me to say since vacation time is over and the new school year has begun in earnest, Hurrah for Work should be the motto and watchword from each grade, and I hope sometime in the near future to be permitted to visit each grade of our city school and get acquainted, which I think is an individual duty required and should be more generally practiced by both patrons and friends, for without their assistance and encouragement and the industrious, punctual perseverance of the pupils of each grade there can be but little harmony or noticeable improvement and advancement with your children.
Medford Mail, October 20, 1905, page 4


    Hereafter pupils missing monthly tests will be required to take the same or a similar one on return to school. We have also adopted the plan of allowing those who make a general average of 92 percent and who do not fall below 80 percent in any branch to be excused from the monthly examination. Deportment is to be considered in making the general average and must not fall below 85 percent.
    Our young people should be kept off the streets at unseasonable hours. The parents should hold their children responsible in this matter. It is out of place, damaging in character for school girls to sit in the public park with young men. The teacher's authority holds until a pupil has been home from school. Then the parent is responsible. Let us cooperate in every way to inculcate right ideas in the minds of our young people in regard to such things. We cannot afford that ONE shall go wrong because we are neglectful.
"School Notes," Medford Mail, December 15, 1905, page 4


OVERCROWDED SCHOOL ROOMS.
Director M. Purdin Tells of the Crowded Condition of the Medford Schools,
and the Necessity for Relief

    A visit to the public schools of Medford will convince the most pronounced kicker against school taxes that something will have to be done another year to relieve the congested condition existing at the school house in this city.
    Beginning at the high school department with Prof. Signs, Miss Hill and Miss Huffer, teachers, we find an enrollment of sixty-five pupils, with a seating capacity for fifty-six only. For a recitation room the library room is used for part of the classes and the others recite in the school room, making a continual disturbance in the room, as during the time classes are reciting other classes are trying to study, and it will be readily seen that the conditions for study are not of the best. This room has the ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades, and requires the same number of recitations as would be required with three times as many pupils, as the same branches of study are taught.
    The next room is the eighth grade and is taught by Mrs. Stoddard, and there are forty-two pupils enrolled, and the room is as full as it should be allowed to be, and the number of pupils enrolled is all that one teacher should be allowed to have charge of.
    The next is the seventh grade with Miss Nason as teacher, and has forty-three pupils enrolled; it would not be good for the condition of the school nor for the advancement of the pupils to allow more than this in the room, as this number is as many as can be allowed and pay any attention to sanitary conditions, and the health of the children is part of the situation that should not be overlooked.
    Next we come to the sixth grade, taught by Miss Gowland. In this room there are enrolled fifty-six pupils. It has a seating capacity of sixty, but there are twenty more than should be allowed in the room. Another year there will likely be sixty-five pupils for this grade or more and this will mean two rooms will be required for their accommodation.
    The next is the fifth grade room, with Miss Talbert as teacher, and here we find the congestion has been so great that a class of forty-three has been placed in another room in the basement of the Christian church, the total enrollment for this grade being eighty-three, which was so great a number that the room could not possibly accommodate them and one teacher could not handle them. In this room can be seen the advantage of single seats for each pupil, as the new single seats purchased this year for the overflow class were placed in this room, and the old double ones sent to the basement of the church. After once seeing these seats in use it is not likely that anyone would be satisfied with the old double ones.
    In the fourth grade room, with Miss Hurley as teacher, we find an enrollment of forty-five pupils at this time; but the total enrollment was some greater and part of the pupils were removed to the church basement and the room now has more pupils than it should be allowed.
    The conditions in the third grade room, where Miss Phipps is teacher, was so overcrowded that forty of the pupils were sent as an overflow class to the basement of the church and the present enrollment is forty-six and the room can seat forty-eight by taxing the seats to their full capacity. There should be not to exceed forty pupils allowed in this room.
    The second grade room, with Miss Fielder as teacher, has an enrollment of sixty-one, of which twenty should be placed under another teacher in another room. This room has seats for seventy, but under no condition should that number be allowed in the room, as it is out of the question for so large a number to be taught in a room of this size with success.
    The first grade room, with Miss Wilson, has sixty-two enrolled and has seats for fifty-six. These are small children, but not more than forty-five should be allowed in the room, as that is all that one teacher can possibly do justice to.
    The primary department is the worst overcrowded of any of the rooms at this time. The total enrollment at present is seventy-nine, with seats for forty-eight. Miss Haskins is the teacher in this room, but in her absence on account of illness, Mrs. Signs has charge. Miss Prim has been secured the present week to assist in this room and the first grade room, as the two rooms have together an enrollment of 141, and by putting in a third teacher it is hoped to better conditions to some extent.
OVERFLOW CLASSES 1N CHURCH BASEMENT.
    First room, with Miss Roberts as teacher, has thirty-nine pupils at this time. The conditions as to lighting, heating and ventilating in this and the other room of basement are poor. There is not sufficient play grounds. This class is composed mostly or entirely of pupils removed from the fifth grade room at the school house.
    In the second room at the church basement, with Mrs. Daily as teacher, the same conditions as to light, heat and ventilation are to be found as in the first. There is an enrollment of forty pupils with seating capacity for only thirty-eight. There are no toilet accommodations for these rooms and those at the school house are used, which makes it very bad in stormy weather, as the distance is quite long and the crossing on Seventh Street very muddy. These rooms are only used as the last resort by the directors, as something had to be done and there were no proper rooms to be had for the overflow classes.
ADDITIONAL SCHOOL ROOMS MUST BE HAD.
    We see by the foregoing that there have been removed from the school house some eighty pupils, and there should be taken out yet as many as fifty more, making a total of 130, and according to the way the city is growing there will be an increase of fifty to seventy-five pupils by the beginning of the next school year, which will make about 200 pupils that we have no room for. This brings us to the point for consideration, the fact that we must have another school building, the kind and location of which is to be determined by the people of the district; whether we shall build an addition to the present school house, or another building on the same grounds, or build another building at some other point in the city. A building of not less than six rooms should be built, as it will be full in a year or so after built.
    There is much to be said in favor of ward schools. Build another building in some part of the city for the accommodation of the extra pupils in the lower grades and for at least one of the grades, say the sixth or seventh, and leave us one more room for the high school at the school house, as it will be imperative that we have more room for the high school another year. This would not give the proper amount of room for the high school, as we should have a recitation room for its pupils. Some of our people think it would be better to build another building on the same grounds with this one, as the superintendent could have easier access to it than if at a distance, but there are now about as many pupils as the play grounds can accommodate at the school house. However, this is a matter that the voters of the district will have to settle and it will be well if the matter is thoroughly discussed and settled before the time for the erection of the building shall come.
    Another thing to be considered is the advisability of the directors trading the present equipment of double seats for single ones, or selling the same to country districts that will be willing to purchase them for their schools. There is no question that the single seats are much better for our purpose than the double ones and the extra cost of single over double seats is only about 60 cents for each two pupils and this is so small a sum that it will really be nothing compared to the advantages gained by the change.
    Medford is rapidly increasing in population and wealth, and its churches, stores, banks and other business houses compare favorably with any city in Southern Oregon, and it is to be hoped that our people will see to it that her schools are as well provided for as any of our sister cities.
    It will soon be time to do something in the matter, and the people of the district should take this matter under advisement at once and be prepared to act right when that time shall come. The directors must have the support of all Medford when the time comes.
Respectfully,
    M. PURDIN.
Medford Mail, February 23, 1906, page 1


    It has been patent for some time to those who have paid attention to the matter that the Medford school building is overcrowded, and that the time was
soon to come when measures must be taken to relieve the congestion in the interest of teachers and pupils alike. An article on another page of this paper by Hon. M. Purdin, one of the directors of Medford school district, details the situation in such a way that the needs of the district for more room become immediately apparent. That there must be additional school room provided goes without saying. The main questions are ways and means, the kind of building to be constructed and its location. Whether an addition shall be made to the present building, a new building erected on the present grounds, or one built in some other portion of the city are matters which must be decided by the people of the district. The right conclusion can only be arrived at by the interchange of opinions on the matter. This much is certain, something, whatever it is, must be done. Conditions such as those described in Mr. Purdin's communication should not be allowed to exist longer than absolutely necessary. The teacher is handicapped in an endeavor to impart knowledge; the pupil is handicapped in the search for knowledge, and the unsanitary condition which is bound to come from overcrowded school rooms--no matter what precautions are taken--is a menace to the health, not only of pupils and teachers, but to that of the whole community. Let us take up the matter of more room for our school children, and let's do it now.
Medford Mail, February 23, 1906, page 4


Will Have a New School House.
    It was the unanimous sense of the meeting of the citizens of Medford school district which was held at the school house Wednesday afternoon that a new school building should be erected to accommodate the rapidly increasing number of pupils. It was also the sentiment of the meeting that the board of directors should have charge of the matter, and it was recommended that block 7, on B Street, between 3d and 4th streets, should be the site of the new building, if the property could be purchased at a reasonable price. The building to be erected will have eight rooms, with all modern conveniences.
Medford Mail, May 18, 1906, page 1


MEDFORD'S NEW SCHOOL HOUSE
Growth of City Demands Increased Facilities.
TO COST OVER $15,000
Plans Have Been Accepted for an Eight-Room, Two-Story Building--Site Not Selected.

    Medford has many things she might rightly boast of, but her modesty has heretofore been a check to the heralding of her true worth and many advantages. She has scorned to use the blare of bugle and bray of trumpet to proclaim the many and varied reasons why this is the ideal place for homes of all classes of men. But the time has now arrived for extended advertising showing to the rest of the country that here we have really matchless advantages to offer the homeseeker.
    Among the first things that the man of family, contemplating a change of location inquires about is the educational facilities. To his questions on this subject, Medford may well feel proud to be able to reply: "Second to none." Her public school is classed by the prominent educators of the state as among the very best in Oregon. She is able to take her place among the few schools in the state that offer a twelve-grade course. This means four years of high school, with a curriculum that enables the student bent upon further study to enter any college.
FAMOUS FOR HER SCHOOL
    The growth of Medford during the last few years has been so rapid and the fame of her school proved so attractive to students from surrounding sections that the present quarters have become altogether inadequate to meet the demand of the steadily increasing student body. For this reason it was decided some time ago to erect a separate building for the eight common grades and remodel the present school for the four grades of the high school course.
    Recently it was voted by the district to issue negotiable warrants to the amount of not exceeding $20,000, and it is expected that the new building will cost in the neighborhood of $15,000, irrespective of the site. Negotiations have been going on for some time between the board of school directors and the Southern Pacific railroad company for the purchase by the district of the railroad block in the north part of the city. There seems little likelihood now, however, of the deal being made. Option is also held on the Dr. Adkins tract of one acre and a half further north. This would furnish an ideal site for school purposes, though a little farther out than is quite desirable. As yet nothing has been decided regarding this.
LAST YEAR GREAT SUCCESS
    The plans for the new building have been accepted as drawn by Chas. Burggraf, the Albany architect, and the board is now awaiting the specifications before advertising for bids on the construction work. The plans call for an eight-room building, though it is doubtful that more than six will be finished for school purposes at the start. The present building will have to undergo considerable alteration and some refurnishing in order to meet the demands of the high school course.
    The school as a whole has made great strides forward under the efficient leadership of the present superintendent, Mr. M. B. Signs.
    Among the further improvements to be made will be the increase of the number of teachers to 20 for next term, when the high school students alone will number 90.
    Taken altogether Medford has in the public school an institution to be justly proud of, and the interest taken by all the citizens in its progress and development augurs well for the future.
Medford Daily Tribune, June 29, 1906, page 1


NORTH MEDFORD SCHOOL HOUSE.
    After thoroughly canvassing the situation, the Medford school board decided to purchase the tract of ground owned by Dr. Adkins, immediately east of Paul Theiss' residence, as a site for the new school house, and closed the deal a day or two ago. The contractors have looked over the ground, ordered in a carload of cement for the foundation and will at once proceed to go forward with building operations. The building will be of brick, on cement foundation, and the contract calls for same to be completed by the first of next January. As the additional room is so badly needed for school purposes, a few rooms will be fitted for occupancy as soon as possible, it being the design of the board to have the high school remain in the present quarters, the lower departments being divided between the south school house and the new building.
    The location selected is about an acre of ground on which Dr. Adkins made very favorable rates and is a pretty situation for the school and in about the right place. It is the intention to run a sewer to the creek from the site. The city water works already reach the vicinity. The plan for the building is a fine one, and the appearance is all that could be desired. The location is fortunate for a large number of people, and values will advance somewhat in the vicinity.
Medford Mail, August 10, 1906, page 1


MEDFORD SCHOOLS FOR THIS YEAR.
    Among the first things about which intending settlers are wont to inquire, school facilities are the most important. This city has never had occasion to feel ashamed of its schools or the manner in which they have been conducted, and from now on we can point with a considerable amount of pride to this necessary adjunct to the production of good Americanship.
    The number of school children in the district has been increasing by leaps and bounds each year. Last year the increase was 132 and the total number was 751. This year Prof. Signs estimates that there will be between 900 and 1000 children of school age in the district, and is inclined to believe that the latter figure will be more nearly correct. He thinks that the proportionate increase will be as great, if not greater, this year than it was last, which would bring the total well up toward the 1000 mark.
    In January the new North School building will be ready for occupancy, and the children of the first six grades living in the northeastern part of the city will be accommodated there. Several changes and improvements have been made in the old school building, principally with a view to the accommodation of the high school department, which has grown to be a most important part of the schools. The old 8th grade room has been enlarged by the tearing out of two partitions--giving an added width of fourteen feet to the room, which will be used as an assembly room for the high school, and which will comfortably seat 100 pupils. The 6th grade room has been cut into a class room and laboratory for the high school. The laboratory will be thoroughly equipped for the high school work, and all the laboratory work in physics and chemistry required by the state course can be done here. Graduates from the Medford high school can now enter any college or university in the state without taking an examination.
    In addition to the changes above mentioned new floors have been laid in the halls and on the stairways and the walls will be replastered and tinted.
    For the present the overflow classes will be taught in the rooms formerly used at the Christian church. The M.E. Church, South, has tendered the school board the use of a room, as has also the Baptist church, and it is very likely that both these rooms will be used. It is gratifying to all to note the betterment and expansion of our schools. Nothing marks a progressive, prosperous community so strongly as do good schools, and Medford has schools of which she may justly be proud.
    The fall term opens on September 17th. The Batavia method of teaching has been adopted. This method originated in Batavia, New York, and consists of having two teachers to each room, one whose duty is to oversee the desk work, while the other has charge of the class work. This method is in use in many schools all over the country and has been found to work admirably.
    The teachers and their various assignments are as follows:
    First grade--Misses Floy O'Neil and Olah Mickey.
    Second grade--Misses Gertrude Johnson and Jennie Cameron.
    Third grade--Misses Mae Roberts and May Phipps.
    Fourth grade--Misses Ethelyn Hurley and Adela Shunk.
    Fifth grade--Mrs. M. L. Daily. Miss Anna Beeson had been elected as the second teacher in this grade, but resigned to accept a position in Klamath Falls, and so far no other teacher has been employed.
    Sixth Grade--Miss Minnie Gowland.
    Seventh grade--Miss Talbert.
    Eighth grade--Mrs. M. B. Signs.
    The high school teachers are: Miss Ollie Huffer, Latin and history; Miss Bessie Hill, preceptress, mathematics and English; F. G. Snedicor, science; Prof. M. B. Signs, principal, psychology and economics.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS.
    School begins September 17th. All pupils will report at the main building for enrollment.
    The first day will be set apart for enrolling, entrance examinations and assignment of lessons and information in regard to textbooks.
    All pupils will report to their proper grade. Doubtful cases will be referred to the superintendent.
    The superintendent will have an office each afternoon between two and four at the building. All who can should attend to this classification at that time. This refers especially to high school students, but grade pupils who are new to the school may also report.
    The regular list of textbooks will include a music reader this year. Other books the same as last year.
    The committee will begin work September 10th securing subscription for season tickets for the high school entertainment course. Remember the excellent list:
    Royal Male Quartet:--"One of the best if not the best entertainments we ever had."--Republican, Castlewood, South Dakota.
    Midland Opera Quintet:--"Artists one and all."--Lacrosse, Wis.
    Mrs. Wm. Calvin Chilton, Shakespeare recitals:--"Has few equals and no superiors."--Thomasville (Ga.) Echo.
    Welbourn, Wizard of Electricity:--"Mr. Welbourn's experiments are quickly done and stunning in their import. The dreams of humanity are the reality before the eyes of the audience."--Tacoma Ledger.
    Rogers and Grilley, recitals, music and comedy:--"We have had them before and must have them again."--Brooklyn, N.Y.
    Lulu Tyler Gates Concert Company:--"In the front rank."--Leland T. Powers.
    Dr. John Merritte Driver:--"Driver is apt, alert, eloquent and a royal fellow."--Fred Emerson Brooks.
    Maro, the Magician:--"He is fine."--Salem, Oregon.
    Price for the eight numbers, $2.50. Reserved seats at any time 25 cents extra. This makes the total cost of each entertainment about 50 cents, including the reserved seat.
Medford Mail, September 7, 1906, page 1

North School, 1911ca
North School- (later named Lincoln School) circa 1911
NORTH SIDE SCHOOL BUILDING
IS NEARING COMPLETION
    Work on the new north side school building is progressing rapidly, and before the spring term opens Prof. Signs will be enabled to relieve the congestion due to the increased enrollment and lack of room in the high school building.
    The new structure is of handsome design, and the residents of the north side naturally view it with feelings of pride.
    The building will contain eight study rooms, each with its individual dressing room; wide roomy halls and broad stairways provide ample room for such evolutions as the fire drill and afford ample means of egress in case a hasty exit should become necessary. A large basement affords ample play room for the pupils of the primary departments during stormy weather; also the necessary storage and furnace room.
    The building will probably be ready for occupancy by January 1st, yet this is a matter of conjecture, as so much depends upon the supply companies and the dilatory freight service of the S.P. Company.
Medford Mail, October 26, 1906, page 1


    The new school building will not be ready until the middle of January owing to the dampness in the walls preventing kalsomining, and the fact that sewer connection cannot be made for lack of pipe. This is an added inconvenience, since as two rooms occupied at the Christian Church must be vacated. The grades fourth and fifth which have been meeting there will meet in the main building, afternoon only, for a short time. The A divisions of fourth and fifth will meet forenoons only until the new building is ready.
"City Happenings," Medford Mail, December 28, 1906, page 5


NORTH SCHOOL COMPLETED
    Monday was a day of rejoicing for many school children of Medford, and we have no doubt that many older people consider the day well worth remembering. To all who have the welfare of the children and the growth of our prosperous city at heart the opening of the new North School on Jan. 21, 1907 is a matter for self-congratulation. There is no finer building of its kind in Southern Oregon and few elsewhere. If you haven't seen it just make up your mind to visit the school some day. By so doing you will please the teachers and also please yourself.
    Every thing is modern, from the sanitary toilets in the basement to the well-arranged library room on the second floor. Without a doubt the school board is to be especially congratulated on the able and businesslike manner in which this worthy monument to the prosperity of Medford has been brought about. At this writing there are still a few things to be done--the laying of a walk all around the building and the partitioning of the furnace room from the boys' basement. But to all intents and purposes it is finished, and already nearly 250 of Medford's bright boys and girls are settling to their work with a spirit that says that the lost time and inconvenience of the first part of the year will not show when final examinations come.
    For the present there will be seven teachers employed at the new building--Miss Gowland, Principal, and Misses Cameron, Johnson, Phipps, Hurley, Bell and Talbert, assistants. Mr. Signs will have the general superintendence of both buildings.
    We hoped that these new accommodations would settle the question of room for school purposes for some time to come, but a rush order for seats was necessary the first day, and several grades at the main building still number close to 50. Perhaps, however, the paint will be dry on the North School before we have to have the South School or the East School. There is no better indication of a city's growth than the growth of its schools. We are surely growing.
Medford Mail, January 25, 1907, page 1


MEDFORD EDUCATIONALLY
Second to No City of Oregon in Spirit and in Achievement.

(Special Dispatch to The Journal )

    Medford, Or., April 12.--At the regular meeting of the school board resignations were accepted from the following teachers: Miss Minnie Gowland, Miss Della Shunk, Mrs. M. L. Daily, Miss Mary Talbert, Mrs. M. B. Signs and Miss Olive Huffer. The following were reelected for the coming year: Miss Olah Mickey, Miss Jennie Cameron, Miss Mae Roberts, Miss Iva Shirley, Helen M. McCoy, Miss Camilla Cameron, Miss May Phipps, Miss Ethelyn Hurley and Miss Donna Bell, in the grades, and Miss Bessie Hill, Miss Gertrude Johnson and Miss Jennie Snedicor in the high school. Superintendent M. B. Signs has been retained at an increase of salary and placed on a 12-month basis instead of nine. The minimum salary fixed for the grades is $50 and for the high school $60, the maximum in each case being left to the discretion of the board. The teachers elected to fill vacancies are: Miss Olive Jones of Iowa; Miss Gussie M. Burns of Junction City, Oregon; Miss Lutie Ulrich of St. Louis, Missouri; Miss Pearl McElhenie of Denver, and Miss May Farrel of Oldham, South Dakota. James W. Shirley, principal at Shedds, Oregon, was elected to the principalship of the North School. A complete commercial department will be added to the high school, offering bookkeeping, shorthand, typewriting and allied subjects. Several applications have been filed for this position, but the sense of the board is that a man is desired for the place if a desirable one can be secured.
    Medford now has six teachers in the high school, which will allow for a broadening of the courses and a special teacher for each general course. Manual training is also being seriously considered.
Oregon Daily Journal, Portland, April 12, 1907, page 6


Medford Educationally.
    We note in a recent issue of the Portland Journal an item under the above heading accompanied by the statement "Second to none in Oregon." The article commented on the election of teachers, the broadening of the high school course and the addition of a business department, that manual training was being discussed. It is indeed gratifying to the board of directors and to the public in general to note these elements of progress. There seems however to be one thing lacking. We talk of electric railroads, steam railroads, coal, copper and fruit, and multitudinous resources which will make Medford a city variously estimated at from 10,000 to 20,000 inhabitants in ten years. Few are inclined to discredit these statements. Yet with all the other improvements we fail to consider the needs of a city of the size of Medford in regard to a separate building for the high school. In most cities of importance such building is considered an absolute necessity for several reasons. In the first place high school students are young men and women and are [omission] ceed from the regulations governing the control of small children. These different methods in the same building conflict, leading the grade pupils to desire the freedom of older pupils thus rendering control a matter of effort which otherwise it would not be. In the second place hours of recitations differ, and passing of classes numbering in the aggregate over a hundred pupils of the high school interfere with the work of the grades in rooms below. In like manner the recess periods of the grades with several pupils playing on the grounds interferes with the work of the high school. In the third place, adequate room for the best grade of high school work cannot be found in a ten-room building where light rooms are given up to the grades. The plans for the high school next year include a department of mathematics, one of history and Latin, one of English, one of science and one of business. The two latter need two rooms each, one for physics and one for chemistry, and one for bookkeeping and one for typewriting respectively. Each department should consist of a classroom capable of seating at least forty pupils. In all seven classrooms are necessary to avoid crowding and make the best work possible. The statement that three classes have been able to meet but half time during the past year owing to the fact that the classes numbered forty while the classrooms would seat but twenty lends color to the above fact.
    We should be done with temporary arrangements except insofar as they pave the way for a permanent structure suited to the needs of the school and the growing community. The high school this year has enrolled a total of 102. One hundred fifty is a conservative estimate of next year's number when we consider the large quota that will be drawn to the business department. The present assembly room seats 80. What is to be done with the other 70? True, we could allow pupils to come only for classes, but the effect of such a plan on school work and attendance would be indeed deplorable. The essential qualities of school life would be lost, namely, quiet, orderly routine with all pupils at all times during school hours in contact with their instructors and not walking the streets between classes because there was no place to go. An adequate assembly room is also absolutely essential.
    These are a few points which will suggest much to thoughtful citizens who have the best interests of our city at heart.
Medford Mail, April 19, 1907, page 1


Medford Schools Will Again Overflow.
    An observing visitor in our city remarks that Medford's school facilities are behind the requirements of a city of its size. An observing patron states that the basements of the churches must again be utilized to house the overflow. In regard to the first point, all towns the size of Medford have several ward schools. Two buildings accommodating the eight grades and several primary schools scattered here and there through the city. Statistics show a probable enrollment in the grades of about 800. This means an average of 50 per teacher. With the congestion falling in grades below the sixth. The necessity of dividing three or four of the lower grades seems unavoidable. The overflow could be accommodated if several of the rooms of the main building were not given over to the high school department. This brings us to the question "What has the new board done to carry out the motion made at the annual meeting to provide estimates of a suitable high school building to be built with an eye toward the future, such estimates to be laid before a special meeting of the voters?" It seems to us not the time to delay such matters. Since we need more school facilities let us have them instead of forcing our children to occupy any old building available without regard to its heating, lighting, ventilation or sanitation.
    A further consideration is that even the rooms formerly secured in the churches are not now available. It will be necessary to move and to move quickly if we are to save ourselves the inconvenience of the past seasons.
Medford Mail, July 26, 1907, page 5


    A frame building, one story high, is being put up by the school board to accommodate the overflow from the West Medford primary rooms. The building is being erected on the school grounds and just south of the high school building. It will have two rooms, which will necessitate the hiring of two more teachers.
"City Happenings," Medford Mail, September 27, 1907, page 5


A Kindergarten for Medford.
    A number of mothers have been planning for a kindergarten for their children. Much interest has been manifested, and it is hoped to mature plans so that the kindergarten may be in operation in the near future.
    All parents who are interested are asked to meet at the opera house, Saturday afternoon, at 3 o'clock. It is necessary that a good number cooperate in order to assure the project.
Medford Mail, October 25, 1907, page 1


NEW SCHOOL BUILDING
    The school board met Monday evening in regular session and transacted considerable business. The crowded condition of the schools, particularly north side school, was discussed at length. The fourth and fifth grades in this school are particularly crowded, and in each room there are eight or ten pupils more than can be accommodated with the present seating arrangements. To provide for these pupils it was decided to seat the 1 room which has been used as a library, and in this way these youngsters will be taken care of. A new teacher who will have charge of this room will be engaged. No definite selection of a teacher has been made.
    The annual school meeting was called for December 23, at which time the question of providing funds for the construction of a new high school building will come up for consideration. The matter of a suitable site will be brought before this meeting, as well as a number of other details connected with the proposed building. The fact that both of the present buildings are badly overcrowded makes the construction of a new building the coming year an imperative necessity.
Medford Mail, December 6, 1907, page 1


J.G.M. Visits School.
    I felt pretty despondent, sick, blue and lonesome Tuesday of last week so I hiked away for new scenery and a brief visit with Mrs. Logan, the popular teacher, and her forty clean, bright, promising, industrious pupils of the 6th grade of our North School, but I must confess on the start I have neither space nor language at command to express the pleasure and satisfaction enjoyed in that brief space of time. I was surprised at the magnificent order kept by this teacher with so little effort and friction, and I became much interested while there listening to the methods of teaching many class exercises and would briefly suggest to the parents and guardians of the training and educational development of their children's future to pause for a moment in their busy lives and say I will give a couple of hours to mingle socially and inquiringly with the departments and learn the progress of my children in their various studies in this bright, clean, cheerful place of learning, and should you have any of the many symptoms your humble writer was afflicted with Tuesday they will quickly be dispelled and should. you be so fortunate as to be in a healthy, happy mood you will still be made happy by your presence and a kind cheerful word of encouragement to teachers and pupils which we think is a plain duty we justly owe to our city schools.
Medford Mail, February 7, 1908, page 1


Site for New School.
    At a meeting of the school board Tuesday afternoon it was decided to purchase the Phipps residence property at Fifth and A streets for the site of the new $40,000 school building. The price paid was $7,500. The block will be improved by grading and the planting of trees and lawn and will make a fit setting for the new building.
    The board expects to have the work of erection under way soon so that the building will be ready for use during the next school year.
Medford Mail, March 6, 1908, page 6



CONTRACT LET FOR SCHOOL BUILDING
    The school board has accepted the bid of the Medford Brick Company for the construction of the new high school building, the figures being $29,872. By the terms of the contract, which was signed on Wednesday morning, the contractors agreed to have the building complete on October 1st.
    There was some misunderstanding between the board and architect Burggraf of Albany as regards the cost of construction. The board gave directions to the architect that the building cost not more than $27,000. When the contractors, however, figured upon the work they found that it would be impossible to construct the building for that amount of money. The architect was summoned from Albany, and upon his arrival several details were changed as regards the building so that the building will be erected for $29.872.
    The board intends to select a competent person to supervise the work of the contractors and see that the building is constructed according to the specifications. The superintendent of construction will take the place of the architect.
    G. W. Priddy, who is practically the Medford Brick Company, intends to go to work at once on the grading of the lot, preparatory to the excavating for the foundations. He states that he does not contemplate any difficulty in having the building ready for occupancy by the time specified.
    The plans for the building call for twelve large classrooms. In the attic a gymnasium is to be constructed, and in the basement will be bicycle rooms, lunch rooms and the like. The building will be of brick with granite trimmings. The assembly hall will be modern in all respects and will contain a balcony. When completed the building will be as fine as any of a like nature in the southern part of Oregon.
Medford Mail, May 22, 1908, page 1


SCHOOL PLANS DECIDED UPON
    The board of school directors have decided to accept the plans for the new school house submitted by Charles Burggraf, of Albany. The cost of erection according to the plans will be in the neighborhood of $27,000.
    The directors tried in every way possible to favor local architects, but they were unable to do so and still do their duty to the school district. The plans submitted to the board by Mr. Burggraf were superior in many ways to the plans submitted by local architects. The plans have been returned to Albany for the detail work, and as soon as this is completed by the architect they will be returned to the board here and the bids for the contracting will be called for. The board wants the contract to go to local contractors.
    The plans as adopted are for a three-story school building containing twelve large classrooms. In the attic a gymnasium is to be constructed, and in the basement will be the lunch rooms, bicycle rooms and the like. The building is to be constructed of brick with granite trimmings. The assembly hall is to be modern in all respects and will contain a balcony. The heating plant is to be carefully constructed, minimizing the chances of fire. The rooms are to be ventilated thoroughly so that the windows are not depended upon for ventilation.
    The architect has been ordered to finish the detailing of the plans as rapidly as possible so that the bids can be called for. The board wants the building completed in time for the next term of school, and they realize that they must hurry the work along in order to have it completed.
Medford Mail, March 27, 1908, page 1



    The plans for the new school house have arrived, and the local contractors are busily engaged in figuring upon them. There is some talk of building the school building out of sandstone instead of brick, however this matter is not as yet settled. It is expected that the school board will soon advertise for bids.
"City Happenings," Medford Mail, May 1, 1908, page 5


    The cement sidewalks around the west school building are well under way.
    The new high school building is progressing finely, with the brick nearly all laid for the first story.
"Improvements Are Many," Medford Mail, August 14, 1908, page 4


MEDFORD'S SCHOOLS.
    Since the Medford public schools opened just two weeks ago yesterday the attendance has increased 63. This, in the opinion of Professor U. G. Smith, the superintendent of the city schools, is a percentage that has never been equaled in any other city, to his knowledge.
    When the schools opened September 7, the enrollment was not finished, but it was the following day, and the figures showed a total of 733 pupils in both the West and North schools. Yesterday Professor Smith added up the number again, and although he was well aware that there had been an increase, he was somewhat surprised to find the enrollment to be 796--an increase of 63.
    The attendance at the West school at the opening was 456, and it is now 493, making an increase of 37. At the North school the attendance at the opening was 277, and it is now 303, making an increase of 26. This makes the total increase, as before stated, 63.
    The number now enrolled in the different grades are as follows:
West Building.
High school  . . . . . . . . .125
Eighth grade . . . . . . . . .  36
Seventh grade . . . . . . . .  36
Sixth grade  . . . . . . . . . .  33
Fifth grade  . . . . . . . . . .  45
Fourth grade . . . . . . . . .  48
Third grade  . . . . . . . . . .  57
Second grade  . . . . . . . .  42
First grade . . . . . . . . . . .  71
    Total   . . . . . . . . . . . . .493
North Building.
Eighth grade . . . . . . . . .  13
Seventh grade . . . . . . . .  40
Sixth grade  . . . . . . . . . .  34
Fifth grade  . . . . . . . . . .  40
Fourth grade . . . . . . . . .  34
Third grade  . . . . . . . . . .  45
Second grade  . . . . . . . .  43
First grade . . . . . . . . . . .  54
    Total   . . . . . . . . . . . . .303
    Grand Total  . . . . . . . .796
    Professor Smith says that most of the children who have entered since the opening belong to families who have come to Medford since that time, and that most of them are from the East. The school figures are as a rule considered to be a very reliable means of figuring the population of a city. That being the case, Medford must certainly be increasing in population at a very fast rate.
Medford Mail, September 25, 1908, page 1


    The Medford Cement Company are this week preparing the ground and having gravel hauled for putting down sidewalk on the street and about the grounds of the new high school building.

"Local and Personal," Medford Mail, December 18, 1908, page 6


MEDFORD SCHOOLS
    Medford has one of the most progressive and complete school systems in Oregon. There are three fine public school buildings, built of brick and modern in all appointments. The public schools enroll over 1,200 pupils and offer a broad course of study, including drawing, watercolor work and music under a special director. Sloyd and manual training are also receiving some attention. The high school offers full literary, scientific and commercial courses, laboratory work, stenography and typewriting being special features.
    The teaching force is carefully selected, and many progressive Eastern teachers supplement the number from the energetic West.
    Any inquiries will be cheerfully answered by the City Superintendent of Schools.
    The Sisters of the Holy Names have completed an academy. The building cost $40,000, and it contains every modern convenience and comfort. This, with the splendid new high school, insures for Medford ample educational facilities. High school graduates are accredited to the state university.
    The educational facilities provided here will appeal to all right-minded men, and men who are moving to better their condition are apt to be right minded in all things that lead to betterment. Education is undoubtedly one of the most important of these.
"Medford, Oregon: Rogue River Valley," booster booklet published by the Medford Commercial Club, Portland, 1909.


    There has been quite a number of schoolteachers stopping with us during the past week, and one of them, a young lady, reared and educated in one of our mountain districts, who has just closed a term of school in one of the rural districts in an adjoining county, gave her experience in said school during the first few days' sessions. She was apprised of the fact that she had a hard school to manage, so was prepared to a certain extent for any emergency. It appears that the school had never been under strict discipline. The children had been in the habit of coming into the schoolhouse on a run and going out in the same way, and she undertook to turn over a new leaf by having them march in in regular order and retire the same way. So the first thing was to train them to march into the schoolhouse in regular order, take their places at their desks and be seated at the tap of the bell. The first effort they broke the line. She rearranged them again; again they broke, and again they were placed in line, and in the third effort was successful in getting them seated, but they were unruly and very much inclined to beat back into the old way, but things went fairly well until it came time for dismissal, when she gave them instructions how to proceed, having them put away their books first tap, rise second tap, march third tap. I will here remark that there were six boys in their 'teens who were very unruly and had been in the habit of running the school, and that it was warm weather and the windows of the schoolhouse were open. Well, at the third tap when the order was given to march, one of these boys jumped out of the window, and no quicker done than the teacher jumped out of the door and after him, he running for dear life and she after him. The race lasted for about 100 yards, when the teacher grabbed him by the back of his shirt collar and the jig was up. She marched him back. She said that she choked him half to death by the time they reached the schoolhouse, and then she put him down in his seat and renewed the exercise of marching. That afternoon she supplied herself with a good supply of switches and gave each one of the half dozen leaders a good thrashing, with the result that she had a good order from that time on. She said she didn't call in the directors or suspend or expel from school, but simply let them know that she was mistress of the situation. When asked how the parents of the children took such a course, she said they patted her on the back and said "Good!" The result is that they propose to raise her wages $10 on a month and have her teach their spring school.
A. C. Howlett, "Eagle Point Eaglets," Medford Mail, January 15, 1909, page 8

From a 1909 booster booklet.
From a 1909 booster booklet.

HIGH SCHOOL IN NEW QUARTERS
Will Be Ready for Business on Monday in New Building on B Street
    On Monday morning the high school pupils will find their new places in the new high school building ready for them. All of the paraphernalia is being moved today and being straightened about in the new building.
    The auditorium will be used as the assembly room, and aside from this, some six rooms will be occupied by classes. The high school staff is now composed of six instructors, and the roll embraces some 135 names.
    The library will open off of the assembly room. The commercial department will be in the south wing of the building downstairs, while the science department will be directly over this.
    Today throughout all the schools of the city proper programs have been arranged for the observance of the centenary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.
Medford Daily Tribune, February 12, 1909, page 1


ONE ON THE SOPHS.
    Class spirit has many manifestations, and the other night the sophomores at the high school got out in the stilly hours and painted the walks near and around the high school with their class numerals and with the word "soph." The members of the other classes let it become known that the following night they intended to come out in force and remove the visible signs of superiority of the class of '11. However, they had no such intention, but the members of the soph class were not mind readers, and they turned out in force and spent several hours of a rainy day in guarding their handiwork. Members of other classes profess to believe that the laugh was on the second-year men.
Medford Mail, February 12, 1909, page 3


WEST SCHOOL RENAMED; PROF. SMITH RE-ELECTED
    The West School was renamed by the scholars Friday afternoon and will hereafter be named as the Washington School. Each pupil cast one vote, Washington receiving over 100 of the 300 cast, Lincoln nearly 100, while the remaining number was scattered among other statesmen.
Medford Daily Tribune, February 27, 1909, page 1


Medford's School System
By Mrs. E. E. Gore
    From ancient Egypt to modern America, the story of advancement is the story of adding and subtracting, of accepting and rejecting, the story of change. Progress in education has been the story of the new becoming the old, the old giving way to the new in a continuous circle of ever-widening horizons.
    In a very large measure the schools of a city or state are typical of the prevailing intelligence and culture of the residents, and it is with pleasure and pride that the loyal citizens of Medford view the practical workings of their public school system.
    When the four-room brick school building, then adequate to the demands of the village children, was destroyed by fire some fifteen years ago, the district felt the loss as a heavy blow, and for several months the children were assembled for instruction in a few wooden buildings on Front Street, and in the various churches of the town. Here, with no centralized government, but very little equipment and amidst overcrowded conditions that would tax the most heroic spirit, the self-sacrificing teachers toiled to advance the children in their studies. However well-educated and efficient the succeeding corps of teachers employed in our schools may be, they can never excel in unselfish devotion to duty the loyal band of girls and young women who gave instruction at that time and even returned to the district, for the purchase of much-needed equipment, half of the small salary received.
    It has ever been the policy of the board of directors to employ the best teachers obtainable, and with the completion and occupancy of the present West School [i.e., Washington School], built on the site of the old building, conditions rapidly improved. The new quarters were amply commodious and fitted up in modern style, with eleven rooms available for class use. In order that the educational interests of the town might keep pace with advance in every other line, it soon became necessary to build another school building, and in 1906-7 the present North School, a fine building of eight rooms, was completed. At the time, it appeared that further construction could be put off two or three years, but school had no more than opened in the north building till it became evident that a high school building would be an imperative necessity before a suitable one could be erected. Plans and specifications were at once taken under consideration, and in less than a year from the time the contract was let the new high school was ready for acceptance by the school board.
    This building will be formally dedicated April 9, while it has been occupied since the first of the year. The adaptation to educational needs is perfect. A large assembly hall with gallery has the library and commercial rooms opening off from it, while the superintendent's offices are across the hall. There are in all twelve large, sunny class rooms, and most inviting quarters in the third story for a much-needed gymnasium.
    The educational work of the school is on a very firm basis, with a constant advance in the standard of scholarship necessary in the teacher as well as in the pupils. The older residents of the city remember with pleasure the efficient work of N. L. Narregan, for many years re-elected superintendent, and G. A. Gregory, who was subsequently county school superintendent and is now superintendent of city schools in Crete, Neb. M. B. Signs, the predecessor of U. G. Smith, also did much in his term of office as superintendent to advance the interests of the school. Both Mr. Narregan and Mr. Signs have felt the call of nature and have retired to valuable fruit farms and are living the "simple life," while on the high road to comfortable fortunes.
    In Professor U. G. Smith, who is serving his first year as superintendent, the school board and patrons feel they have secured the services of one who possesses tact, judgment and wisdom, and he has recently been elected for a term of three years.
    Mr. Smith was born in Pennsylvania during the later part of the war and was raised on a farm in Indiana. He attended the district schools, and when he was seventeen years of age began to teach. In 1884 he entered Denison University, Granville, O., teaching school and pursuing his own studies as funds would permit. He graduated in 1892, having completed the seven years' course in [omission] Smith began teaching in the high school of Franklin, Pa., continuing till 1894, when he entered upon his duties as supervising principal in Union City, Pa. After six years' service, he resigned to accept the superintendency of schools in Meadville, Pa., which position he held till coming to Medford. Mr. Smith spent two summers in the University of Chicago and two in Harvard College, studying school organization, administration and principles of teaching. The vital principle in his educational work, and the central idea which he urges alike upon his subordinate teachers and the pupils in the class room, is concentration of effort, thoroughness, discipline and a mastery of both oral and written expression as related to the subject under study.
Medford's Magazine, April 1909, page 4


MEDFORD'S MONUMENTS TO THE CAUSE OF EDUCATION
    The small building to the left in the group printed on this page was Medford's first school house. It was built in the [spring] of 1884 by W. F. Williamson, who was the first teacher. The building was 16x20 and had a seating capacity of 30 pupils. The building was built on the east side of Central Avenue South, between Eighth and Ninth streets, is now owned by R. A. Knipps of Canyonville, Or., and is occupied by J. E. Ashton as a residence. [The building survives to this day as part of the former Yellow Submarine sandwich shop at 135 South Central.] It was used in 1884 as a place of worship as well as school purposes, and the first sermon ever preached in the town was by Rev. M. A. Williams, Presbyterian. Two weeks later Rev. Martin Peterson, Christian, held services in the same building. The first school directors were J. S. Howard, D. H. Miller and [C. W.] Broback; J. L. Johnson, clerk.
Medford's First Three Schools
    In the summer of [1884] the building shown in the center of the cut was built. [This building also survives, though it was moved from the courthouse site where it was built to 517 W. Tenth.] There were two rooms with a seating capacity of 80 pupils. In 1886 this building was remodeled into a four-room building. It is now, having been remodeled beyond recognition, the residence owned and occupied by A. A. Davis.
    The building to the right in the cut was built in 1891, having eight rooms and a seating capacity of 320. This building was destroyed by fire in August 1895 and stood upon the site occupied by the Washington School, on West Seventh Street.
Washington School, Medford Mail, March 6, 1896    The Washington School was built in 1896. The main building is 64x86 feet, with a wing 35x50 and an annex 12x24. The foundation is quarried rock three feet in thickness at the base, two and one-half feet at the top and three and one-half in height, being 18 inches above the ground. The walls are of brick and the height of the building from ground to tower roof is 68 feet. The architect was W. J. Bennet, and the cost of the building was $14,000; it is heated by a combination of steam and hot air and is equipped with electric fire and burglar alarms and has a gravity system of ventilation. The school directors at the time of its erection were J. H. Whitman, E. P. Geary, W. H. Parker; Gail T. Jones, clerk.
North School, 1911ca
    The North School was built in 1906-7 and is a modern, well-built structure, provided with eight classrooms, though at present the library is also used as a schoolroom. The seating capacity of the building is 425, and the cost was $20,000.
    So rapid was the growth of the town during the summer and fall when this building was erected that in a few weeks after its opening, the schools were nearly as overcrowded as the year before, and steps were at once taken toward building a high school, and the beautiful and commodious building dedicated last night is the result. At every point in the preliminary considerations the board of directors was confronted with the problem of adapting the plans of schoolhouses costing from $50,000 to $60,000 to the $30,000 or $40,000 deemed sufficient by the district. That they succeeded in securing the greatest possible equipment from the amount expended is most apparent upon thoughtful comparison.
Medford High School, circa 1912
    The structure is a model of architectural beauty; the walls are of brick, relieved by a trim of granite blocks, giving a plain and very substantial appearance. The main entrance is approached from Bartlett Street and, ascending broad steps, one enters the large entrance hall, from which opens the assembly hall, the commercial rooms, the library, superintendent's office, the teachers' assembly room and large, well-arranged classrooms.
    The assembly hall has a graduated floor which affords a good view of the rostrum from every point in the room, while the system of prismatic lighting is ample and practically ideal. The room is seated with patent adjustable seats, as are all the rooms, and will accommodate 148 pupils. The balcony, which is a most attractive feature of the room, is seated with opera chairs and at least 150 people can be seated here. By using every available bit of space, filling in with extra chairs, probably 500 were seated last night.
    The second floor is given over to class rooms and the chemical laboratory, while in the third story is ample space for a very necessary gymnasium. There are 11 class rooms and all sufficiently spacious, well lighted and sunny, while the plumbing, system of electric call bells and lighting are well adapted to the needs of the school. There are three modes of exit on the first floor, and the halls and stairways are sufficiently wide to minimize the danger of panic, should fire break out.
    In the cement basement a steam heating plant and gravity ventilating system are installed, and there is also sufficient room for the use of the manual training and domestic science departments which will probably be added next year.
    The present school directors are: J. E. Watt, L. G. Porter, H. C. Kentner, J. H. Cochran and Chas. Strang. The school clerk is Oris Crawferd.
Medford Mail, April 16, 1909, page 6


    Medford is justly proud of her schools, which are now under the supervision of U. G. Smith. With him is a competent corps of teachers. The School Board consists of J. H. Cochran, J. E. Watt, Chas. Strong, L. G. Porter and H. C. Kentner, with Oris Crawford, clerk.
    Their new high school building was dedicated on April 19th with a carefully prepared program. It is a roomy two-story brick structure with large basement and attic. It is substantial and well lighted and ventilated. The plan throughout presents a happy combination of convenience and pleasing effect.
    There is an auditorium, octagonal in shape, with sloping floor, a spacious elevated platform and a balcony. The room has a seating capacity of about five hundred. The main floor is furnished with adjustable school desks and the balcony with opera chairs. This room is used for general assembly and a study room. The high school library occupies a well-lighted and comfortably furnished room just off the assembly room.
    The commercial department occupies two rooms on the first floor, and the laboratories of the science department occupy two rooms on the second floor of the building just over the commercial department. There are three rooms on the first and second floors in the opposite end of the building from the commercial and science departments, equipped especially for recitation purposes. The Superintendent's office and the office of the School Board are on the first floor. In addition to these rooms, there are two school rooms on the first floor and three on the second floor, each sufficiently large to accommodate fifty pupils if necessary. The gymnasium occupies a spacious room in the attic.
    The basement, which extends under the entire building, is high and well lighted. In it are placed the toilets and baths, and the boilers for the steam heating plant. Besides the fuel room, there is sufficient space for well-lighted rooms in domestic science and art, manual training and mechanical drawing. The basement floors are all to be cement.
    The halls of the building are wide and light. The stairs are broad and constructed according to the most modern ideas for convenience and ease in ascending and descending. All in all, the building comes as near to the ideal as can be hoped for in any school building.
Reuben F. Robinson, "Medford," The School and Home, May 1909, page 9


Medford School in Court.
Judge Hanna Asked to Mandamus Issuance of Diplomas.
    MEDFORD, Or., June 12.--To force a board of education of this city to issue a diploma to Clarence W. Gore, member of the high school graduation class of 1909, mandamus proceedings were today begun before Judge Hanna in the circuit court, Attorney Porter J. Neff representing Gore, who with two other students claims to have been unfairly dealt with at commencement. Gore and two other students failed to appear at the formal graduating exercises and the board of education refused to deliver the diploma to which each was entitled.
    The absence of the students was intended as a protest against alleged favoritism and discrimination by one of the instructors against Carl Glasgow, a member of the class, who was said by George Merritt, his instructor, to have "flunked." Glasgow had expressed exception to a certain conduct on the part of Merritt toward certain girls, members of the graduating class, also.
    The actions of Instructor Merritt were so grievous, it is stated, that Miss Warner, principal of the high school, informed Superintendent Smith of the city schools, that she could not overlook them, whereupon she was quietly asked for her resignation. Things were getting warm in education circles when Merritt tendered this resignation at suggestion of the board.  Added to the complication came to the organized effort on the part of the graduating class to rebuke the actions of the faculty, or at least a member of it, in not allowing Glasgow to pass the examination and take his diploma with the class.
    Petitions asking the board of education to reinstate Miss Warner are being signed by nearly all the students of the high school, and citizens are loudly denouncing the arbitrary methods employed in the controversy. Perhaps no case parallel to this has been recorded in the history of Oregon, particularly the actions in court, and it will be watched with interest. The school trouble has aroused public feeling generally, and promises to be fought out bitterly.
Ashland Tidings, June 14, 1909, page 1


Medford School Teachers.
    The following teachers have been chosen and assigned for the Medford schools:
    High school--U. S. Collins, principal, mathematics; George W. Taylor, commercial work; science, to be filled; Miss Edna Cummings, Latin and German; Miss Ethel Lawson, English; Miss C. W. Liddell, history and English.
    Industrial work--Miss E. M. McDermott, domestic science and art; manual training, to be filled.
    Washington School--H. S. Stine, principal, teacher in eighth grade; Miss Marian White, eighth grade; Miss Bertha White, seventh grade; Miss Stella Schuler, sixth grade; Miss Alice Elder, fifth grade; fifth and fourth grades to be filled; Miss Jessie Wilson, third grade; Miss Julia Fielder, second grade; Miss Anna Beeson, second and first grade; Mrs. P. H. Daily, first grade.
    North School--Miss Ulrich, principal, seventh grade; Miss Vora Storey, sixth grade; Miss Millicent Potter, fifth grade; Miss Mary Kittridge, fifth and fourth grades; Miss Lotta Luke, fourth grade; Miss May Phipps, third grade; Miss Fannie Haskins, second grade; Miss Kate Stine, second and first grades; Miss Maude Philbrook, first grade.
    The following schedule of salaries for teachers has been fixed:
    I. For first, primary, seventh and eighth grades--First year's service $65 per month; second and third years' service, $70 per month; fourth and fifth years' service, $75 per month; sixth and subsequent years' service, $80 per month.
    II. For second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth grades--First year's service, $60 per month; second and third years' service, $65 per month; fourth and fifth years' service, $70 per month; sixth and subsequent years' service, $75 per month.
    III. Principal, teacher and librarian in grade schools--First year's service, $80 per month; second and subsequent years, salary to be fixed by the board.
    High school:
    I. Principal, teacher and librarian, first and subsequent years, salary to be fixed by the board.
    II. Commercial, science and English departments: First year's service, $90 per month, second year's service, $95 per month; third and subsequent years' service, $100 per month.
    III. Mathematics, history, Latin and German; second year's service, $75 per month; second year's service, $80 per month; third year's service, $85 per month; fourth and subsequent years' service, $90 per month.
Ashland Tidings, June 21, 1909, page 3


MEDFORD VOTES ON BONDS
One New School and Addition to Another Are Demanded.
    MEDFORD, Or., April 25.--(Special.)--An election will be held tomorrow to decide on bonding the district for $50,000 for building an east side high school and adding an annex to the Washington School.
    The east side of the city has spread so far that too long a walk for the children to come to the west side schools results. The Washington School has been so crowded it was necessary to place desks in the halls to accommodate the pupils.

Morning Oregonian, Portland, April 26, 1910, page 7



24 PERCENT IS GROWTH IN SCHOOLS
Superintendent Collins Makes Report for Past Month--
Increase Over a Year Ago Is Nearly One-Fourth--
Over 1100 Children Now Enrolled in Medford Schools.
    Twenty-four percent--nearly one-fourth--is the growth made by the Medford schools over one year ago, according to the first monthly report filed by Superintendent U. S. Collins with the school board. At present 1102 pupils are enrolled in the schools of the city. At the close of the first month, one year ago, the total enrollment was 891. The increase is 211 or 24 percent.
    The report of Superintendent Collins shows that 25 days school was taught during the month ending October 10; that the number of days' attendance totaled 24,163; days of absence, 796; whole number times late, 1205; number pupils neither absent nor late, 615; average daily attendance, 97; visits by parents, 21; visits by school board, 1.
Medford Mail Tribune, October 11, 1910, page 1



Our Public Schools.
    To the Editor: Education here in Medford! I am one of several mothers who are nearly frantic at the knowledge of the wasted years our children are putting in in school. We have been here two years--last year my child's teacher said "have did"; this year she is one of a class which has had five teachers since September. To be sure, one of these five stayed but half a day.
    Two of these teachers were experienced teachers; the others are dear, sweet girls but wholly inexperienced. She is now in a class where the pupils talk aloud, are rude, and one little boy especially takes delight in answering his teacher without permission and striking the little girls.
    It's not the fault of these girls that they are teachers. What business have they with a license and no training?
    Then the awful condition of the Washington School. The toilets are a disgrace to Medford. I understand the building has been condemned, yet these children are jammed in here; in one instance a dirty old recitation room is used as a schoolroom.
    Some of the patrons of this school are among the heaviest taxpayers of the city, yet see the unsanitary conditions to which our little children are subjected.
    Another thing, a little boy who has just started to school at one of the new buildings told his father that the toilets were "simply filthy." How's that for the plumbing?
    Let us have a new school building for the Washington School pupils, and for heaven's sake have it planned by an architect who knows something!
    Then, won't someone who knows please tell us why trained teachers are not demanded? Why aren't the standards higher in this splendid big state, and why haven't these girls had a chance to properly fit themselves for the grandest of all callings?
PARENT.           
"Communications," Medford Mail Tribune, February 12, 1912, page 4


Jackson's Population Climbs.
    MEDFORD, Or., Aug. 10.--(Special.)--According to the annual school report of county school superintendent Wells, the population of Jackson County is increasing at the rate of 6 percent a year. In 1910-11, there were 6969 pupils enrolled in the schools of the county, while during the past school year there have been 7381, an approximate gain of 6 percent. Four new schoolhouses have been built and $103,383 has been paid out in salaries, while $85,966 was paid out a year ago. In making his official visits to the schools Mr. Wells declares that he has traveled 7176 miles in a year without going out of the county.
Sunday Oregonian, Portland, August 11, 1912, page 6


TOO MUCH TIME ON NONESSENTIALS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
To the Editor:
    I see in yesterday's paper a criticism of the various so-called "supernumerary" textbooks in use in the fifth year of the grammar school. While the writer was a little facetious at times, it seems to me there is much merit in his criticisms. We are told the average school life of a child in Oregon is about six years. Now, if that be true, the fifth year must be the end-all of school life with many.
    I have observed the work of many pupils of this grade, and I am convinced much, too much, of their time is spent in studying microbes, diseases and their causes, courses and treatments; the philosophy of history and economics. Large encyclopedias are brought into use, and their investigations are made to cover a university range. Also I have observed that reading and spelling are severe tasks for them, and when children are away on vacation their letters home glitter with misspelling of the most common words. When struggling with a difficult problem, it often seemed as difficult for these children to perform the operation as to know what operation to perform.
    The textbooks forced upon our long-suffering children and their teachers seem to call for culture, culture, culture. The system ignores largely the foundation, while already the beautiful, artistic outside and upper finish is being laid on. Too much veneering before the body structure is built.
    I rather incline toward the old-fashioned way of teaching reading. Every student read each day. Reading was done with mathematical precision as to pronunciation. There were contests in reading, also much concert reading, and many classic selections were learned by rote and used as basis for further drills and to build up perfect pronunciation with perfect articulation, and for the further purpose of weeding out crudities and mishaps in naming words. Of course, this required time, much time. This left but little time for a fifth grade boy to run down the atomic component parts of a molecule of an organic compound, and but little opportunity to trace out the germs of the Magna Carta in the various ramifications of the history of the Anglo-Saxon world. Neither did it leave many hours each day to acquire the power to force every mouthful of food into its proper classification as nitrogenous, carbonaceous etc.
    Reading is the great implement by which most knowledge in the schools and ever after is acquired. An able and delicate use of this implement ought to be the heritage of every man or woman, and it must come to such in the early years of school life. There are few good readers in this day and age. If present methods are pursued there will be almost none a generation hence. Good reading seems in course of ultimate extinction.
    The same may be argued with regard to the teaching and study of arithmetic. To acquire skill in adding and subtracting seems to be relegated to manhood years. A great banker told me that young men must invariably learn anew the fundamental operations of arithmetic on entering the bank as an employee.
    The teachers have no time for drills. A child gulps down a case of problems and hurries to the next, and so on to the end. Involution and evolution engage his attention while he remains an imbecile of inaccuracy in everyday calculations. No, I am not faulting our teachers. They work like fighting fire to "make the grades." The course of study is packed with big books treating with university subjects, and the law must be upheld that positions may be held. Culture will follow in due course, but true education must begin with a solid mastery of reading, writing, arithmetic and spelling. That is the way Abraham Lincoln began.
PATRON.
Medford Mail Tribune, September 9, 1914, page 5


    Medford papers announce the closing of the Washington School in that city for fumigation, following the discovery of four or five cases of smallpox. The disease is said to be of such light form that it causes but slight inconvenience to the patient.

"Local News," Jacksonville Post, March 20, 1915, page 3



NAMPA EDUCATOR CHOSEN
V. Meldo Hillis to Be Superintendent of Medford Schools.
    MEDFORD, Or., April 7.--(Special.)--V. Meldo Hillis, of Nampa, Idaho, has been unanimously chosen by the school board as superintendent of the schools of Medford for the approaching year. Mr. Hillis is a graduate of Indiana State University and Normal School, 38 years old, and a man whose life has been devoted to education. He spent Sunday and Monday in Medford and will return in the early summer to begin preparations for the pending school year.
    Mr. Hillis will succeed U. S. Collins, who has held the position for six years.
Morning Oregonian, Portland, April 8, 1915, page 14


BOUNDARIES FOR MEDFORD SCHOOLS IN COMING YEAR
    For the benefit of patrons and students who are not familiar with the school districts of the city, Supt. Hillis has submitted for publication the boundary lines of each district.
Washington School
    Beginning at the western extremity at Locust Street, the line extends east on Fourth Street to the intersection of Grape Street, thence south on Grape Street, thence east on Main, thence on Central Avenue south to the limits of the district.
Jackson School
    Beginning at the western extremity of Locust Street, east on Fourth Street to the intersection of Grape Street; thence east on Main to the S.P.R.R., thence north to the limits of the district.
Lincoln School
    The Lincoln district comprises all that territory lying between the S.P.R.R. and Bear Creek and north of Main Street.
Roosevelt School
    Beginning at the northern extremity of the district on a line following Bear Creek; thence west on Main to the Intersection of Central Avenue south; thence south to the limits of the district.
Enrollment on Monday
    It is urged that all pupils report for enrollment Monday morning in the district in which they live except the eighth grade of the Roosevelt School, who will report at the Lincoln School, and the eighth grade of the Jackson School, who will report at the Washington School. The Washington School will be able to take care of all the grades in its district from the first to eighth inclusive.
High School Registration Saturday
    A slight change has been made in the opening routine of the high school. The freshmen, irregular pupils and pupils transferring from their high schools should register Friday before 2 o'clock if possible. The general registration will take place on Saturday from 9 to 12 and from 1 to 2:00. School will open Monday for a short session; all pupils are expected to be on hand promptly at 9 o'clock.
Medford Mail Tribune, September 9, 1915, page 6


Medford School Board Post Filled.
    MEDFORD, Or., Jan. 6.--(Special.)--At a recent meeting of the school board, J. W. Berrian was selected to take place of B. F. Mulkey, who recently moved to Portland. Owing to the crowded condition of the high school it was decided to use certain rooms in the grade schools for the overflow. It is probable that a junior high school will be formed.
Morning Oregonian, Portland, January 7, 1916, page 6



    Supt. V. Meldo Hillis of the Medford schools has tendered his resignation, to take effect June 30. Lack of harmony with the school board is assigned as the reason for the resignation.
"Local News," Jacksonville Post, February 16, 1918, page 3


    Superintendent William Davenport of Park River has been elected superintendent of schools in Medford, Oregon, a city of about 15,000. He will have about sixty in his teaching force. We are sorry to lose Supt. Davenport from the state, but wish him every success.
"News and Personals," The School of Education Record, University of North Dakota, June 1918, page 76


    Superintendent William Davenport of Medford, Oregon, formerly of Park River in this state, has been re-elected at Medford on a two-year contract at salaries of $2750 and $3000 respectively. Supt. Davenport expresses appreciation of the Record. His friends in North Dakota are glad to note his success.
"News and Personals," The School of Education Record, University of North Dakota, June 1919, page 76

School Budget Again Rejected.
    MEDFORD, Or., July 11.--By a vote of nearly 4 to 1 the citizens of Medford defeated the 1919 school budget for the second time at yesterday's election. Members of the school board threaten now to close two of the city school buildings.
Morning Oregonian, Portland, July 12, 1919, page 11


H.S. GIRLS START CRUSADE AGAINST MODERN STYLES
    A back to normalcy movement has been started in the high school through spite work on the part of the girls towards the boys and the youths on their part retaliating in kind, and there is no telling just where the feud will end, but so far it has convulsed all Medford with laughter. The superintendent and faculty try to put on serious faces and frown on the extravagant action of both sides, but ever and anon glide into some out-of-the-way nook to give vent to their real feelings.
    Recently Miss Margaret Cottrell, member of the faculty who has charge the Y.W.C.A. activities, asked the boys to write their opinions of the modern garb, style and facial makeup of the girls. The masculine element of the school went at this very distasteful task with avidity and use of strong and superlative language. What they didn't say about the girls wearing short skirts, low necks, hair over ears, fancy stockings, paint and powder would not be worth reading.
    These written answers were read to the girls by Miss Cottrell yesterday with the consequence that the fair ones waxed more indignant the longer they talked and thought over the horrid criticisms. Hence it was that [as] a rebuke to this masculine criticism and to show the boys that they were not so smart as they thought themselves, about fifty of the young ladies came to school this forenoon garbed in the plainest and most old-fashioned clothing they were able to find, hair done up plain and carefully brushed back from the ears, and with an absence of powder, paint and rouge from their faces.
    Did this faze the boys? Far from it. They had a card up their sleeves, owing to the fact that someone had tipped them off last night to the girls' plans. Hence they, too, appeared at school today in a very plain garb, wearing ranch or hunting boots, old-fashioned turndown collars and the like. Some of them were so grotesquely costumed that they were ordered home by the faculty.
    The next move is up to the chagrined girls.
    "I fear it won't last," said Miss Cottrell today, "but the girls look very sweet and the absence of makeup is particularly refreshing."
Medford Mail Tribune, March 24, 1921, page 8


SCHOOL BOARD BUYS MEDFORD BASEBALL PARK
    Announcement has just been made that the Medford school board, through its special committee, John C. Mann and Joseph O. Grey, has contracted for the purchase of the former Medford baseball park from Court Hall and Mrs. Chas. Young at a price of $3700, on which a payment has been made, the balance to be paid for in two years' time.
    In making this purchase for use as a public school athletic field and eventually to be the site of a new high school building when conditions become imperative for such a building the board killed two birds with one stone. The grounds, three or four acres in extent, are located on Second Street off North Holly St., and constituted the last available space of land close in which was suitable for an athletic park.
    It is planned to use the funds contributed last spring to build bleachers at the Jackson School athletic ground, together with other contributions, which will be sought from the public, to fence in the grounds just purchased and erect a grandstand or bleachers before next fall, in time for the opening of the high school football season.
Medford Mail Tribune, June 22, 1921, page 8


STUDENTS ISSUE APPEAL TO BUILD NEW HIGH SCHOOL
    We want a new high school!
    We want a new high school!
    The public seems to think that as long as we "get along" with the present building, and seem not to raise much of a fuss, that it will be all right not to build a new high school.
    It may do, but as far as being convenient, commendable and comfortable it is far from it.
    The rooms and assembly are too small; with large incoming classes, everything is entirely too crowded. Even the teachers have to divide their rooms with each other. The rooms are poorly lighted and the heating is very irregular.
    The stage is too small for the high school plays that are presented, so extra money must be spent in renting the Page Theatre. The Natatorium must be rented for use as a gymnasium, as there is none in the high school building. This entails an expenditure of twelve hundred dollars a year.
    When the rainy days are here the roof of the building leaks; crocks, jars and buckets have to be placed on the floor to catch the drops. The ceilings of some of the rooms look as though they might fall any moment.
    Outsiders say that we are lacking in "pep," but we are not the only ones. The directors and public in general must be worse than we are in this line or they would have built a new high school building when it was first needed. If we had a new high school building we would be more enthusiastic, because pride produces contentment.
    For amusements the public will pay plenty of money. Fairgrounds, race tracks and armories are voted plenty of money, but when it comes to building a new high school building they cease to smile, turn their backs, and close their purses with a snap.
    Let the public get behind this proposition and--push.
    Let's have a new high school in Medford!
(Signed)
    THE STUDENTS OF THE MEDFORD HIGH SCHOOL.
Medford Mail Tribune, February 23, 1922, page 3


The Need of a New High School
    To the Editor:
    For many winters our old brick high school has stood, and we have watched the gradual growth of our little city and vicinity. During recent years many fine buildings have been built around us, for instance, the public library, a new hotel, several garages. Recently the people as a body completed a campaign for building a large fairground and race track. This is all very splendid for the betterment of our industry and progress, but what about our educational system?
    We have a highly trained faculty, we have up-to-date instruments and books to use in our study, but our school building is of the type that leaks so badly when it rains that we have to borrow buckets and watch the teacher spend her time in placing them so that the floors will not become water-soaked. It might yet be possible with several hundred dollars expenses to create a new roof making the building fit for a warehouse.
    On the other hand our school is very poorly equipped. Our rooms are so few in number and we have no basement or place for a gymnasium. Every time a team practices basketball or football they have to go out in the suburbs or rent the use of the Natatorium. Here is another obstacle. If the school did not have to rent the Nat floor and if we had one of our own, we could easily improve the financial affairs of our school.
    The football boys must go miles to practice. It is almost supper time when they arrive at the field. Much valuable time is lost in this way.
    If we had a gymnasium in our school much of the time the boys spend standing around in the halls could be used in practicing shooting baskets. Inconvenience of this kind tends to decrease the efficiency of our basketball team and thereby impairs their chance for victory. Then the people wonder why Medford High School doesn't win more basketball games. It is because we haven't the same opportunities to employ our skill as other schools have. The public must help to bring about modern conveniences as found in other up-to-date institutions and then we can put Medford on the map. Now our hands are tied and our brains cramped.
HAROLD RICHENSTEIN.
Medford Mail Tribune, March 4, 1922, page 4


Medford Mail Tribune, February 23, 1922, page 3
A New High School for Medford
By B. F. Lindas.

    The most important duty of any community is to properly educate its children. A city may boast of its commercial importance, of its bank clearings, of its hustling citizens, of its many natural advantages, but unless along with it, it has the means of taking care of the educational training of the youth it will not be attractive to the best class of people, it will not long appeal to the highest type of citizenship and it will soon deteriorate to a third-class town.
    It is true that Medford has a wonderful future before it. It is well advertised along many lines; it has natural advantages, both scenic and commercial, that will help it grow into a real metropolis, but unless it gives more thought to education, it will miss developing that subtle atmosphere of refinement and culture that is half the charm of living.
    It is difficult in this day and age to properly educate without the proper facilities. With a crowded school, a poorly equipped school, with students and teachers alike harassed by the inconveniences of disorganized classes, there is a lowered morale that does not speak well for the town.
    Medford has some real spirit among its pupils and teachers. It does one good to attend an athletic contest and listen to the enthusiastic support given the teams, but how much better it would be if the people of Medford could catch some of that same enthusiasm and say to the boys and girls, "We are going to give you the finest high school that our money will buy. We are going to give you every advantage that you could get in any town of the state. We are going to make you as proud of us as we are of you." Do this, and I'll venture to say you will create a debt of gratitude in the hearts of these men and women of tomorrow that will return a hundredfold all that we do for them.
    It is true that many will say that we can't afford it, that we have a heavy indebtedness now, etc. But what are the facts of the matter? Here is a list of the cities of the state about the size of Medford and here is how their bonded indebtedness for school districts stands.
Albany $146,000.00
Baker 182,000.00
Bend 187,000.00
Hood River 139,000.00
La Grande 171,500.00
McMinnville 198,000.00
Oregon City 123,000.00
Pendleton 160,000.00
MEDFORD 105,000.00
    The average for all the cities of this class in Oregon, not counting Portland, is $116,567.
    Now how can we, in the face of this showing, keep insisting that we cannot afford a new high school? Suppose we do put an additional burden on our shoulders. Can't we do what other towns have done? Are we to be so parsimonious that we can afford to see the splendid young men and young women of Medford crowded into a poorly equipped, out-of-date, and dilapidated structure, while the other cities of Oregon are giving their youth every attention?
    We can put over things in Medford if we desire. We have one of the best paved and best lighted cities in the country; we have recently raised money for a fairgrounds and an armory, now let us all pull together for a new high school; for a school that will place us on the map as alive educationally as well as commercially. It will be the best investment we ever made. If necessary, let us prune our expenses in every other line, but let us be open-handed and liberal when it comes to such an important matter as education.
    So we want to ask for the cooperation of every live citizen of Medford. We want you to take an interest in this; to agitate for it; to work for it; to insist on it. Don't say a few words about it and forget it. Keep at it constantly until we can say to every prospective newcomer, "You can come here with your children, you can make a home here and enjoy the beauties of the surroundings, can partake of the hospitality of the splendid people who live here, can make a living here and build a business here, and better than all else you can give to your children every advantage along educational lines that they can get anyplace else in the West." This is the one missing link in the wonderful chain of golden opportunities that lies all about the metropolis of the most beautiful valley in America.
COMMITTEE OF HIGH SCHOOL PARENT-TEACHER ASSN.
    B. F. Lindas, Chairman.
Medford Mail Tribune, March 16, 1922, page 3


Explains Position
    To the Editor: I have always opposed making the Jackson School into a junior high school even temporarily. The reasons to me seem perfectly obvious but rather than be further misunderstood and misrepresented I will state at least some of these reasons.
    The building is too small and is not well arranged for such use. It may be possible to seat all of Henry Ford's shop employees in our new armory, but you would not as a consequence be able by any stretch of the imagination to call it an automobile factory. So, though we may, and I think will, be able to seat all our 7th, 8th and 9th grade pupils in this building, yet we shall not be able to even approximate the conditions usual in a junior high school. There can be no auditorium to assemble all the students for any purpose. Without such an assembling place no school can become a unified group. It can be only a collection of school rooms. 85 percent of all the junior high schools of the country have an auditorium. There is no gymnasium possible. (Even the present basement play rooms must be used as classrooms). Nor is there a possible gymnasium space for rent within one-half mile of this building, More than 50 percent of the junior high schools now established have their own gymnasiums. There is not sufficient room to have separate study halls. A few pupils may study each period under teachers with vacant periods, but a majority of them must do their studying in a room where another class is reciting. ‘There is no space for teachers' and pupils' restrooms, library nor laboratories and shops, which should be in a real junior high school. This crowded condition will preclude the offering of electives below the 9th year.
    Neither the cultural subjects as the languages, nor the pre-vocational subjects, as shop work, excepting of the 7th and 8th years.
    I am very strongly in favor of a junior high school in Medford, but I do not believe in starting one under the poor conditions imposed by the Jackson building. It could be only a makeshift and I do not believe in remedying one makeshift by undertaking another. Better get on another year or two with the makeshifts we have than to erect others at greater expense which can be little if any more satisfactory. This, as you can see, will be little more than a departmentalized intermediate school rather than a junior high school.
    Additional objections arise from the one-sided location of Jackson School, causing a great variation in the distances required of pupils to travel in going to and from the school. This also will require us to send the pupils of the first six grades from this school to the vacated rooms at Washington and Lincoln, whereas were it centrally located as Lincoln, for instance, they could be distributed among the three schools instead of filling the two so nearly full again.
    Further, I know how devoted the people of any section are to their own school. I have met this continuously in making the transfers which have been required in recent years from building to building. This feeling is especially strong for the school to which primary and intermediate grade children go. I do not think that the people of any section should have their elementary school taken from them even temporarily.
    The present high school building, while it should be remodeled to make it an ideal junior high school building, would serve infinitely better in its present condition as a junior high school than either of the grade buildings. Its central location is another argument for its use for this purpose. The board seems agreed to put it to this use in about two years. I have repeatedly suggested continuing our present arrangements until that time. It will cost less, a great deal less, even if we have to rent more additional rooms for the high school. Also we could relieve Washington and Lincoln by putting some 7th and 8th grade classes in Jackson and Roosevelt until a central junior high is available.
    Since the failure of the bond issue last June I had consoled myself and other supporters of the issue by saying that possibly we could get something even better out of it, thinking of a more expensive building. Seeing the lavish expenditure in California for schools does cause even $160,000 to appear small. A noted school architect there told me that while we could get the bare essentials we needed for $160,000 that we would be wise to make more liberal provision. That is the California idea and it is good. I believe we should consider future needs. And as I see the matter now should the $160,000 appear inadequate when our completed estimates are received, and since we will surely build on some phase of a unit plan, we might leave some unit such as the shops, the auditorium or the gymnasium to be finished later. When more funds were available.
    I trust I have made clear my reasons for objecting to the use of the Jackson school for a junior high and will not in this article go further into the other questions of local school policy.
AUBREY G. SMITH.
"Communications," Medford Mail Tribune, September 3, 1923, page 4


COMMUNICATIONS
Need New Building

    To the Editor: Who is there that made the trip to Roseburg, to see our boys win the championship for Southern Oregon, that did not return with a heavy heart? It was a great game and a great victory and we were proud of our boys and girls, both of whom had brought glory to us and had added luster to Medford's reputation for doing things well. Yet our hearts were heavy and we felt resentment because we were compelled to bring these fine young people back to the rickety old place known as the Medford high school.
    This is our story, and we tell it for the benefit of those stumbling blocks who have so long prevented the building of a suitable high school in keeping with Medford's needs and spirit and ideals.
    The game at Roseburg, in spite of its importance, and over the protest of our Medford coach, was played in the high school gymnasium instead of in their armory, where it should have been played. They have a fine high school building and the "gym" floor, no doubt, is adequate to the ordinary needs of their school workouts. When marked for basketball, however, it was bounded on the two ends by high walls and became hazardous in the extreme, where such fast play was indulged in. It was natural, therefore, that every onlooker from Medford, who had been accustomed to seeing the games at our armory (where there is some territory outside the lines), should have felt a sickening fear as they watched our players hurl themselves with such force and speed toward those terrible walls. Many were the expressions of fear, only to be met by such impertinent retorts from the Roseburg students as the following, "You'd better shut up. Medford hasn't got any high school," or "Medford has the rottenest hole in the state for a high school. You never saw a gym before."
    Is it any wonder that we felt pity for these splendid, deserving young people from Medford who had done so much for us and for whom we had done so little? The men and women who go serenely about their business each day, with the mantle of this disgrace wrapped snugly about them, enjoying Medford's prosperity and forgetting this greatest need of all, had brought these insults upon their boys and girls.
    Even if roomy enough, the present building is not suitable for high school purposes. It is faulty in lighting and ventilating facilities. Those on whom we depend for the future of our commonwealth are sent in, strong in mind and body, and we are shocked and grieved to note the large percentage who come out bespectacled, with poor skins and poorer nervous systems.
    Where is our civic pride? Where are our civic clubs? The Greater Medford Club is essentially a civic club. The Chamber of Commerce, if anything, is a civic club. Why not join forces, Craters, Rotarians, Kiwanis, college clubs and all the rest, and see to it that we have a high school without further delay. Let us not longer subject our boys and girls to insult and ridicule in addition to impairing their health and retarding their best growth and development. The high school situation for many years has been a disgrace. It is now intolerable--yes, it is criminal. That we have had no decent and suitable high school for the boys and girls of Medford in many years past will ever remain the darkest spot in Medford's history.
MR. AND MRS. DELROY GETCHELL.
DR. AND MRS. E. B. PICKEL.
MR. AND MRS. H. D. TURNER
W. C. JANES.
H. B. JANES.
MR. AND MRS. A. L. HILL.
MR. AND MRS. H. L. BROMLEY.
DR. F. G. THAYER.
MR. AND MRS. F. R. ROBERTS.
FAY E. DIAMOND.
J. V. VAN DYKE.
O. C. BOGGS.
V. H. VAWTER.
Medford Mail Tribune, March 13, 1924, page 4


ORDER CHANGES IN H.S. BUILDING TO PROVIDE ROOMS
    Because of the usual congested condition in the high school and the fact that the new board of education is committed to house, if possible, all the high school students there, the board recently ordered a change in the building which will add more room for the students, which consists of converting the principal's office into a class room, moving the superintendent's and board clerk's office into some other location in the business section, and having the superintendent occupy the vacated superintendent's office.
    At last night's board meeting, at which much business was transacted towards getting the various buildings and equipment in condition for the opening of the schools, September 2, Porter J. Neff offered to rent the board a room 16x20 on the second floor of the new Craterian Theater building for the superintendent's and clerk's office.
    Superintendent Smith will endeavor to have the board sanction placing the desks of the supervisor of music and supervisor of physical education, which have heretofore been in the principal's office, in his new office, in order to afford further relief in the high school building. Superintendent Smith declares that even with these changes the high school will need several more new rooms.
    All the members of the board, including Dr. I. D. Phipps, president, A. H. Miller and Elmer Wilson, the other holdover members, and Harry D. Mills and N. H. Franklin, the new members, were present at last night's meeting.
    Rush work is also going on in some of the other buildings in preparing new rooms and equipment, including two rooms in the Jackson School building for intermediate grades, which will be used to help relieve congested conditions at the Washington and Lincoln schools. The work of completing the new assembly room of Roosevelt School, and alterations incidental thereto, is rapidly nearing completion.
    Mrs. Perry Crawford, president of the Roosevelt School Parent-Teacher Association, and Miss Sara Van Meter, principal of that school, appeared before the board last night and recommended some sanitary and other improvements in that structure's interior. The board took the matter under advisement.
    The board has ratified the selection of Mrs. Bertha Denton of Ashland, a former registered nurse for seven years in Dubuque, Iowa, and for one year head nurse at St. Luke's Hospital at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to succeed Miss Ida Dahl, resigned, as public school nurse in the Medford and Ashland schools, dividing the time equally between each.
    The superintendent and board have a wealth of applications for the two grade teacher vacancies, and several applications for the music supervisor position to succeed Miss Sherwood, who resigned recently to take a similar position in the Snohomish, Wash., schools.
Medford Mail Tribune, August 13, 1924, page 1


    The installation of fire escapes at the Jackson and Roosevelt schools was completed yesterday. Until this year the lower rooms of these two buildings were all that were put into use, but with the completion of the rooms upstairs fire escapes had to be provided. They are the spiral fire escapes and should eliminate practically all danger of accidents in a rush.
"Local Briefs," Medford Mail Tribune, October 3, 1924, page 3


Wants Children's Playgrounds.
    To the Editor:
    Preceding an excellent program, prepared by overworked teachers of overly crowded school rooms in the Roosevelt School on Thursday evening, the board of education was thanked for allowing the parents and teachers to finish and furnish an assembly room in the Roosevelt building. Through some oversight, I am sure, the board did not thank the parents and teachers for their work and donations, nor for the expense saved them and the taxpayers in general through this work.
    Would it not have been wonderful could this money and work have gone towards a gymnasium for the grade schools or impossible utopian idea, a public play ground! This is the only town of its size on the coast which has no place for children to play during the hot summer months. Various organizations in Medford have tried to put the play ground over and failed. Should there be such a divergence of interests between assembly rooms for parents and play grounds for children?
MRS. THOS. J. FUSON,
    Medford, February 20.
"Communications," Medford Mail Tribune, February 21, 1925, page 4


 NEW HIGH SCHOOL NEARLY COMPLETE, MODERN AFFAIR
    Medford has one of the most modern high school buildings in the state, showed a recent inspection of the city's new building now in the last stages of completion on West Second Street at the corner of Holly. The large structure is practically fireproof, and in its equipment has only the best and latest, including automatically controlled electric clocks and heating service, in addition to telephones in the majority of the 32 rooms.
    Opening off of the large auditorium, in the western wing of the building, in which basketball games will be played this winter and assemblies held during school sessions, is the domestic science room equipped with six oak tables, each with a deep sink at one end and two electric range plates on the other. Roomy cupboards extend along the west wall, a short distance from a three-compartment pastry oven. In a special room adjoining is an eight-plate electric range with two warming ovens and a 100-gallon water tank. The larger room is tinted in cream, and under a row of large windows on the east has a long row of radiators. It also has a large glass-enclosed kitchen cabinet.
    Adjoining on the south is the sewing room with eight large tables, a special mirror, filing cabinets and a wardrobe, its equipment thus fashioned. Classrooms of varied nature take up the remainder of the first floor, with the exception of the principal's office, lavatories, dressing rooms for the stage in the auditorium, janitors' rooms and others smaller. Each of the classrooms has a special small clothes closet, which also serves for ventilating purposes, the door being cut several inches above the floor to work with a ventilator in the top of the closet.
    A large stage is attractive in the auditorium and is large enough to take care of a good number of people. It is equipped with all lighting apparatus and is fairly deep. The auditorium will be used for assemblies only on special occasions, as, it is understood, roll rooms will be used instead of the system in vogue here for some time past. Seating arrangements are provided in balconies in the same manner as used in grandstands.
    Chemistry and other scientific courses will be taught in classrooms provided with special desks, some with slate sinks at one end and gas and water jets situated close together on top. A glass aquarium is in one room, in addition to built-in cages apparently for captive small animals used for experimental purposes. Seats for rooms in which classical work, such as English, history and mathematics will be taught, have as yet not been installed. Shades, however, have been up for some time and are of a pleasing yellow.
    The entire lower floor is of concrete, while upstairs corridors are only of that construction, leaving the classrooms to have floors of wood. Each door in the building is sheeted in kalomine [kalsomine?], a heat-resisting metal to give assurance against fire, should it have the slightest opportunity to break out. Boiler metal fire doors are situated at the end of the lower and upper corridors, where they join the auditorium, which is the only room in the massive structure to have wood construction.
    Skylights in several rooms on the upper floor ensure more than ordinary lighting facilities, in addition to large windows. Panic latches on the exit doors are assurance against panics, the doors opening automatically upon application of pressure on latch bars, which extend across the entire door.
    The furnace room in the basement is of especial interest with its intricate apparatus, which makes possible automatic heat control of the entire building by manipulating a few levers. A hot water tank, holding several hundred gallons, is heated by the furnace to furnish aqua pura for boys' and girls' shower baths, the latter on the second floor and the former in the basement. The girls' showers have heavy partitions of concrete.
    The fuel to the furnace is oil from electrically controlled burners, which also equip a hot air furnace used for heating the auditorium, a room too large to receive satisfaction from radiators. An automatic electric charger, which charges batteries used in the telephone service, is already in operation there. Nearby are master controls for the electric lighting, minor controls being situated in various parts of the building.
    An agricultural building in the rear of the high school is not yet as far along as the main building. However, all major work is apparently completed, with activities now centered on the inside work. It will be equipped for the use of manual training and agricultural classes.
    A white marble slab, two by three feet, has been received and will probably be placed in a prominent place about the building in a short time.
    It is inscribed as follows: High School, Erected A.D. 1926. School Board: A. H. Hiller, N. H. Franklin, H. D. Mills, Emil Mohr; Mildred F. Swearingen, Clerk; I. D. Phipps, Ex-Chairman; Tourtelotte, Hummel and F. C. Clark, Associate Architects; Hedges and Huls, Building Contractors; Henry Huls, Contracting Superintendent; William L. Miller, Building Inspector; Keyer and Schmidli, Heating Contractors; Sturges and Sturges, Plumbing; People's Electric Store, Wiring.
Medford Mail Tribune, July 29, 1926, page 3


MODERN SCHOOL FOR OAK GROVE READY TO OPEN
    The new Oak Grove school is rapidly nearing completion for school to start Monday, Sept. 6th. This is one of the most modern, beautiful schools in any community. The two old rooms are so remodeled and finished as to duplicate exactly the well-lighted new rooms.
    Everything has been done to build this school for the future needs of the district and make it a school of high standards and of real service to the community. There is a lovely kitchen and banquet room, a thing so needed in any district; also a nice stage which will please the grown public as well as the children.
    Arrangements are being made for a splendid housewarming and banquet at some future date.
Medford Mail Tribune, September 4, 1926, page 3


Medford School News
WASHINGTON SCHOOL

    A school contest is now on between the ten rooms of Washington. The prize is a half holiday each month to the room having the highest percent in the contest. The plan of the contest calls for four different items to be judged upon. The first is tardiness, second absence, third health inspection, and fourth behavior on grounds, rooms, and marching. Each of the four items will rank 25 percent for the room getting the nighest attainable. The rooms will be ranked in each item from 25 down to 16 according to the amount of tardiness, or absence, or health inspection, or behavior. The amount secured by each room in the four items will be added up each month, and the half-day holiday given to the room with the highest number.
    During the past week the following students have been sent into Miss Andrews' room, 1A, from Mrs. Blanche Banode's beginners room: Albert Gould, Carlin Piatt, Robert Ingram, Jean Culy, Eunice Sandon, Orah Elliott, and Freddie Childers.
    Mrs. George Kunzman substituted this week in the Fourth A room, regularly presided over by Mrs. Precia Medley.
    The invitation announcements of the first P.T.A. meeting in Washington School for the present school year were written by the students themselves in their regular penmanship classes. The announcement is as follows: The first regular meeting of the Parent-Teachers Association of the Washington School will meet in the assembly room, Friday afternoon, 3 o'clock, Sept. 24. Each member is asked to bring a silver contribution which will be applied toward the pledge made at the last state convention by the association for the Doernbecker Children's Hospital in Portland. Be present this first time.
    Last Wednesday the first fire drill was given by the principal. The students were quickly and as quietly as possible marched from the building by the different teachers, while the fire squad, composed of the larger boys of the upper grades, handled the fire. Previous to the hour appointed for the drill, the principal had met with the boys, and upon his suggestion elected from their number Clyde Fichtner fire chief, and Eugene Seeley assistant chief. These two lads being good firemen, as they were supposed to be, selected a fire squad of nineteen huskies, and proceeded forthwith to assign each to a responsible position, same to be assumed double pronto when the fire bell started to ring. As per all prearranged planning all of the fire squad did do just that, and thereby the fire was extinguished even before it had thought or planned to start to ignite. Anyone who could have seen the spot where the fire was supposed to have been could easily have seen that there was no chance for ignition, for water was everywhere. The hose, that hadn't been used since the installation years ago, leaked like a riddle. But that fire squad was quicker than lightning, and one of their number was instantly dispatched to the basement for a "rag" and only a very little was allowed to soak through to the ceiling beneath. But taking it all in all, we had "some" fire drill. The fire squad enjoyed it and can't wait till next month for the next one. The members of the fire squad are: Clyde Fichtner, chief; Eugene Seeley, assistant; Earl Johnson, Charles Thomas, Donald Greene, Russell Lantis, Edward Bennett, Robert Caton, Bernal Slead, Nelson Florey, August Singler, Chester Webb, Dale Forncrook, Claude Smith, Jack Territt, Noel Benson, Leroy Johnston, Elmo Donlava, Donald Stinson, Billy Prentice, Bobby Prentice.
    The Medford Grade Teachers Association met last Tuesday evening at the home of Mrs. Thomas on West Main Street. They were guests of Miss Marguerita Andrews, primary teacher in Washington School, who also holds the office of president of the association. Miss Agnes Mahring, a grade teacher in Washington School, and secretary of the grade teachers association, reports that only a small number of the members were present, but that arrangements were tentatively made for the selection of a study course in diagnostic testing for the winter months.
    Misses Elsie Hall, Loleta Bennet, and Phyllis Roberts are assisting each day in the principal's office with the absentee records of the various rooms. They will continue in this work for the first month when others will take their places. The girls are taking great pleasure in doing this small office work, and it really affords considerable practice in office work which is valuable.
    All parents are reminded of the ruling we have this year that no student should come on the school ground before 8:30 in the morning when the first bell rings. At noon those who go home to lunch should make it a rule not to arrive back for the afternoon session until 12:30. At least that much time should be given to lunch anyway. There will be no playing on the school ground after 3:50 in the afternoons, except when the physical education director has an advertised game scheduled. The reason for this ruling is that there is no one available for supervision, and should anyone be hurt the school board would be held responsible.
    The awards made in the first class district of the school exhibits at the county fair are now available, and students, patrons and teachers of the Washington School will be glad to learn that they secured more firsts, seconds, thirds and honorable mentions than any of the Medford schools and was exceeded in awards only by the junior high school of Ashland. The amount of award money earned by Washington students is $13. The feeling in regard to not exhibiting the school fair work next year unless adequate housing is provided seems to be general among students and the teachers. It is to be hoped that this much-needed exhibit building can be secured for next year's exhibit.
ROOSEVELT SCHOOL
    Owing to the large enrollment of this school, several children have been transferred to other buildings. Some rooms, however, are still overcrowded. Miss Gregory, the second-B teacher, has the largest enrollment of the building, there being 49 in her room. The present enrollment of the building is 309.
    Mrs. Jones, the city school nurse, has been visiting this school last week, examining the children of the various rooms. Miss Jones checked up the beginners who attended the "get ready for school" clinic this summer and reports very satisfactory results.
    One substitute was needed in the Roosevelt School last week on account of the illness of Miss Walton.
    One of the great problems of this school is the taking care of the large number of pupils who find it necessary to bring their lunch, there being nearly one hundred lunch pupils at present. The lunch period is supervised daily.
    Taking everything into consideration, this school is quite proud of its beginning for this year, and is going to try to keep up its reputation of being wide awake and peppy.
Medford Mail Tribune, September 26, 1926, page B6


    Aubrey Smith, former well-known superintendent of Medford's public schools, is now principal of the Daniel Webster grade school, which has 18 school rooms, of Oakland, California, having assumed that position which pays him a salary at least equal to the one he received as head of the Medford schools last September. The family removed to Oakland from here that month.
"Local and Personal," Medford Mail Tribune, November 7, 1926, page 2


DESCRIPTION OF MEDFORD'S NEW HIGH SCHOOL
By E. H. Hedrick, Supt. of Schools
    In the history of the Medford schools, the outstanding events for 1926 are the opening of the new high school building at Second and Vermont streets and the organization of a junior high school in the quarters previously occupied by the high school.
    The new building is a two-story reinforced concrete structure of 32 rooms, thoroughly modern and fireproof, designed by Tourtellotte and Hummel of Portland, associated with Frank Clark of Medford, Oregon. Hedges and Huls of Portland were the general contractors. Subcontractors were: heating, Keyser and Schmidli of Roseburg; electrical, People's Electric Co., Medford; plumbing, Sturgis and Sturgis, Portland. The building was erected at a cost of $185,000, and as it stands represents two units of a future three-unit building. Completed at this time are the main unit housing classrooms, study hall, laboratories, library and office, and a minor unit housing the gymnasium and the laboratories for the foods and clothing classes. Eventually, the plan calls for the addition of an auditorium unit and possibly a few extra classrooms depending upon the city's needs at that time. The present structure will accommodate about 750 students.
    In the way of special features there are two large double laboratories for science work equipped with hot and cold water, gas and electricity. Specially designed lecture rooms, work and stock rooms adjoin each laboratory. Splendidly equipped cooking and sewing laboratories combining with them a cafeteria, where about 100 students are served lunch daily at a cost of 15¢ to 20¢ per pupil, occupy one side of the gymnasium unit. The gymnasium has a seating capacity of about 1200. It is equipped with a stage, shower baths for boys and girls as well as other conveniences.
    The main unit of the building is heated with oil burner steam radiation fitted with the Johnson temperature control which regulates the amount of heat in each room independently of other rooms when desired. As a means of cutting down operating costs the gymnasium is heated separately from the main unit by a hot air and fan system.
    The entire building is equipped with the International system of clocks and gongs operated from a master clock. All rooms are connected with telephones from the principal's office, while all roll rooms, study halls and gymnasium are wired for loudspeaking devices for future installation if desired.
    In addition, the school board provided for the erection of a 80x60 manual arts building, of reinforced concrete, adjoining the main plant to care for the shop and agricultural classes under L. A. Mentzer and C. D. Thompson. For the construction of this building the board was able to appropriate only the $5000 which had been voted by the people in the budget of 1925 for that purpose. Frank Clark, the local architect, came forward and donated the major part of his services in designing the building. With this and some assistance from contractors Hedges and Huls the funds were sufficient to construct the outside walls, floor and roof of the building. Under the leadership of the two instructors, Messrs. Mentzer and Thompson, the boys of their classes completed the building, which is now ready for occupancy. Not only have the shop and agricultural boys completed their future quarters but they have erected additional bleachers on the football field, a bicycle shed 8x50 feet and have assisted materially in laying out the grounds and walks surrounding the plant. Under the direction of Mr. Thompson they have run all grade levels for excavation and filling needed to put the grounds in ideal shape.
    The Medford high school offers full four years work in each of classical, scientific, commercial, vocational and homemaking courses. The course of study and regulations of the school are in printed form and available to any parent or patron interested. The school is under the able management of Principal B. H. Conkle and an efficient corps of 29 teachers (including two who devote part time to supervision of grade work).
Medford Mail Tribune, January 2, 1927, page E5


JUNIOR HIGH IS ENTIRELY A NEW TYPE OF SCHOOL
    A new type of school, organized in Medford for the first time this year, is the junior high school. It comprises the seventh and the eighth grades of the city as well as the pupils who have been conditioned out of the eighth but have not fully met high school requirements. The full ninth grade is not included in this school for the reason that the building is not sufficiently large to accommodate that number of pupils. However, sufficient ninth grade work is included to take care of pupils conditioned out of the eighth grade.
    In establishing the junior high school the administration had in mind the following objects:
    1. To break up the "lockstep" in education which results from the chaining together of all pupils of all grades of native ability in large classes, and to secure a better adjustment and adoption of the course of study to the individual capacities and needs of pupils.
    2. To enrich the course of study by the addition of such special subjects as cooking, sewing, music and mechanical drawing.
    In each subject, independently of others, pupils are grounded into three divisions, depending upon their performance and ability to progress in that particular subject. Along with this classification the standards of pupil attainment have been raised. Pupils are not to be passed on weak, especially in fundamental subjects. If they need more time to finish the course it is given them. On the other hand if a pupil requires less time than the average to complete a subject he is placed in a fast-moving group and allowed to progress as fast as he is able. The slow-moving grades require about one-fourth more time to complete a subject than the average. The fast-moving groups require about one-fourth less time than the average.
    The slow-moving groups accommodate two or three classes of pupils:
    (a) Pupils who are backward in a subject and find the work difficult.
    (b) Pupils, often underage, whose parents desire them to take more time in school and enrich their course by the election of such special courses as cooking, sewing, special music, manual training, etc.
    The school day is divided into eight periods. The work is departmentalized and the work in each department coordinated through the working together of the teachers under the leadership of the department heads. The junior high school is organized much the same as the high school. It has student body organizations, athletic teams, etc., and although very young, is fast developing a student life and spirit of its own.
    Mimeographed bulletins describing the course of study adjustment, classification of pupils' rules and regulations may be had on application to the superintendent's office.
    The school has 442 enrolled and is being very efficiently handled by Principal A. J. Hanby and a corps of 20 teachers.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 2, 1927, page E5


ENROLLMENT AT HIGH SCHOOL IS RECORD MAKER
With 580 Students Now, the New Year Will Find 650 Total Reached--150 Greater than Ever Before--Honor System Is Adopted.
    Since the beginning of the year in September the Medford high school has enrolled a total of 580 students, an increase of 79 over his time last year. In January the enrollment will be increased by the admission of about 75 freshmen, bringing the enrollment to the 650 mark.
    In the belief that various organizations, class, athletic, literary, student body, etc., have a distinct value and should be encouraged, a period of 35 minutes three days a week are set aside, and during these periods students may hold assemblies, rallies, class meetings or student council meetings. To encourage further independent thinking and acting on the part of the student, it is the policy of the faculty to turn over to the student body, acting through the council, the control of all student activities. Principal Conkle serves as faculty advisor.
    Beginning last year a new method of handling student body finances was inaugurated. From $122,000 to $15,000 [sic] pass through the hands of the various student body organizations during the course of a year. This money represents receipts from athletics, plays, operettas, the school paper, annual, etc. All money collected by these organizations is handled through the principal's office, where the books of each are kept and bills paid promptly by check through that office, all organizations being required to budget their expenditures in such a manner that no deficit will occur at the end of the year.
    In order to encourage scholarship, each six weeks a list of honor students is announced in assembly and given as much publicity as possible through the Hi-Times and through local newspapers. Plans are now under consideration in connection with the introduction of a National High School Honor Society. This society has been accepted in a large number of the better high schools throughout the country. In connection with scholarship should be mentioned the work of the H.E.C.A. (the History, Economics, Civics Association) organized by Victor Sether, membership listed to those students who excel in any one of the subjects mentioned. This organization is an active factor in encouraging higher scholastic standing. Another organization of much the same character is a Junior Chamber of Commerce, under the leadership of Leland Knox. A student must be up in all his class work before he is permitted to participate in various activities. One of the outstanding features of the fall term has been the work of the Girls' League, an organization which included all the girls of the high school. Miss Maurine Carroll, dean of girls, acts as its advisor, and Miss Dorothy Eads is president. The purpose of the organization is to maintain a high standard of conduct among the girls of the high school. Among the accomplishments of the Girls' League, since its organization, have been the adoption of standards of dress for girls attending high school and the adoption of rules of conduct for girls during the school day and in their social relations. To this organization will be due much of the credit for placing our high school on a par with the best in the state.
    The athletic record for the school needs little comment. Under the matchless tutorship of Prince Callison, the athletic teams have won statewide recognition for several years. In the football season just closed Medford won all her games, both sectional and intersectional. In the last game she defeated Grant High School, winner of the Portland league, 24-6. Because of a ruling by the state board she was prevented from playing off a title game with McLoughlin High School, inasmuch as that school was declared ineligible to compete for championship honors. From comparative games, the Medford crew, however, appeared to have had a decided edge over the McLoughlin boys.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 2, 1927, page E5


SCHOOL CENSUS SHOWS HOW THE CITY IS GROWING
    In addition to the high and junior high schools, the district maintains four elementary schools, each housing grades one to six. Washington, the largest and oldest, services the southwest portion of the city. It has 340 pupils enrolled at present; eleven teachers are employed with Raymond Cornwell as principal. Jackson School is located in the northwest portion of the city. Eight teachers are employed for an enrollment of 297 pupils. Mr. H. W. Gustin is principal. Lincoln School serves the north and central part of the city. The enrollment is 256 with seven teachers, and the principal, Miss Ora Cox. The Roosevelt School houses the children in the eastern part of the city, also the children from districts 29, 90, and 120, who are transported to the school in buses. The school has enrolled 251 pupils. Miss Sara Van Meter is the principal.
    The organizations of each of these schools is very much alike. The fifth and sixth grades are departmentalized while the lower grades have regular home room teachers. According to the plan this year the principal of each building has been relieved of two to three teaching periods and is expected to devote this time to closer supervision of the work of other teachers and to do special coaching of backward pupils who are having difficulties keeping up with their classes. They also give special coaching to advanced pupils who may be slated for promotion.
    Another adjustment made this year is a provision made to care for pupils conditioned out of a grade in one or more subjects. Hitherto it has been necessary either to pass such pupils deficient in such subject or subjects or to cause him to repeat the entire grade because of such failure. By carefully coordinating programs of the several rooms it is now possible to avoid such alternatives by promoting the pupil in the subjects in which he has passed and requiring him to repeat in the lower grade only the subject in which he has failed. The work is so planned that more consideration and attention can be given to the needs of the individual pupil. Diagnostic and achievement tests are given regularly, and higher standards of pupil attainment particularly in the fundamental subjects are being insisted upon.
    During the past five or six years the Medford schools have enjoyed a rapid, steady growth. The report for the school year 1920-21, five years ago, showed a total enrollment of all grades and high school of 1675 pupils. For the school year of 1925-26 (ending June, 1926) there was a total enrollment of 2360, an increase of about 41 percent in the five-year period. The total enrollment of the present year cannot be known until June, 1927, but on the basis of present enrollment and census figures, it is estimated at 2550.
    The school census completed in October last showed 3003 persons between the ages of 4 and 20 years living within the district, an increase of 292, or more than 10 percent above that of the same time last year.
    The Medford schools are governed and policies determined by a board of five directors, elected by the people for three-year terms. The present board consists of: N. H. Franklin, chairman, Emil Mohr, C. H. Swigart, Howard Scheffel and Dr. R. E. Greene. Miss Mildred Swearingen is clerk of the board, and E. H. Hedrick is superintendent.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 2, 1927, page E7


SCHOOL CAFETERIA SUCCESSFUL AND SELF-SUSTAINING
    The Cafeteria, which is conducted at the Medford high school under the supervision of Miss Virginia Smith, domestic science teacher, has proven to be very successful and self-sustaining.
    The cafeteria class consists of twelve girls who have charge of the entire preparation of the meals, and although they are always under the watchful eye of their instructor the girls are allowed to use their own judgment in preparing the dishes as that gives them the much-needed actual experience. This experience will not only help the girl student in her home, but it will perhaps be useful to her in case she chooses a college career, where many young women nowadays are studying tea-room management.
    There are five girls who remain at noon and serve to the other students and in exchange for their services get their lunches free. The dishes are washed by girls, who are paid from the money taken in from the meals.
    The food is dished out in the domestic science room and then taken into the sewing room where the students dine.
    The average number of people fed daily averages around 75, which includes the students and members of the faculty, and the money received often averages as much as $10, which makes the cafeteria self-supporting.
    A student can get a good, nourishing lunch for 15 or 20 cents. A sample menu is printed here to give one an idea of what is served:
    Cream of tomato soup . . . 6¢
    Potato salad . . . 5¢
    Toasted cheese sandwich . . . 5¢
    Plain sandwich . . . 4¢
    Maple nut ice cream . . . 5¢
    Cocoa or milk . . . 4¢
Medford Mail Tribune,
February 15, 1927, page 5



    With construction already under way for several weeks, the rebuilding of the Howard School building between Medford and Central Point on the Pacific Highway is showing good progress. Wooden forms are now being removed from a large concrete addition to the original brick structure, which has been partially razed. The increase of families in the surrounding district made a larger school necessary.
"Local and Personal," Medford Mail Tribune, June 14, 1927, page 2


Howard School To Be As Modern As Any in the Valley
    After an expenditure of $10,000 in addition and improvements, the Howard School in Berrydale will be an up-to-date educational institution. The present space is being doubled, and some conveniences are being installed that will be welcomed by instructors and students.
    The new addition is 66x37 feet in size and has been divided into two classrooms opening out into a long corridor on the west. Other innovations and additions are making the Howard School an attractive and commodious seat of learning.
    The brick portion will be kalsomined. New entrances are being made and the entire building is being completed with an artistic design to the end that the the $10,000 is being wisely spent. Gus Guddatt is the contractor in charge.
Medford Daily News, June 26, 1927, page 1


Oak Grove School, April 10, 1927 Medford Mail Tribune
April 10, 1927 Medford Mail Tribune

    On the highway adjoining Hollywood Orchard stands Oak Grove School, or District 69. This fine building is the pride of the district, as it is one of the most modern district school buildings in the county. It is an attractive structure finished in stucco, one story and full high basement (half above the ground), in which are an assembly hall and a kitchen. Improvements were recently completed on the school building involving an expenditure of $14,000. The officers for the past year, I was informed, [are] Mrs. George Andrews, Alva Brockway and Dr. G. B. Dean, C. A. Hiles, clerk. Mrs. Ruth Hood was principal, assisted by Mrs. Mabel Thornton and Miss Murl Coffeen. The Parent-Teachers' Association furnished a model kitchen in the basement, buying utensils, electric range, silverware and banquet tables, which were presented to the school. It is a grade school, graduating the pupils from the eighth grade. It is thought that another teacher may be needed next year and the rooms increased to four.
"Prosperous Ranches, Nice Homes Along the Jacksonville Highway," Medford Mail Tribune, July 9, 1927, page 3

Howard School, January 1, 1928 Medford Mail Tribune
January 1, 1928 Medford Mail Tribune

The Modern New Howard School
    Furnished with the latest equipment, the new Howard School on the Pacific Highway between Medford and Central Point is one of the most modern rural schools in Jackson County.
    Approximately $14,000 was expended to make the new building possible, the old brick structure erected in 1922 being used as the south end. A remarkably increasing school enrollment made the expansion necessary.
    The structure is 124 feet long and 40 feet wide, contains four classrooms and a basement in which is located a large recreation room, heating plant and water plant. The ceilings are twelve feet high, and new ventilating systems, which operate through specially constructed cloakrooms, have been installed in each of the classrooms, which are equipped with new blackboards having a cork strip along the top for the pinning of papers and special chalk holders along the bottom to eliminate all unnecessary chalk dust.
    The outside walls are finished in cream with green trimmings. Two small cupolas on the building, where they are used for ventilation purposes, have gold-colored tops surrounded by gay-colored fireproof asbestos shingles. The yard is to be attractively landscaped with a lawn and shrubs.
    A flagpole donated by the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company was raised directly in front of the building. The installing was done by the California-Oregon Power Company. It is 72 feet high and is set on a specially constructed concrete base which does not allow the pole to rest in the ground. The people and the school board are highly appreciative to the Owen-Oregon company for the gift and the Copco for raising the same.
    While only three teachers have been employed for this year, it may be found necessary to add another to meet an enlarged enrollment. The faculty is composed of Mrs. Minnie Law, principal; Mrs. Alice Owens, intermediate grades; Mrs. C. C. Goldsberry, primary grades. The first two named are residents of Medford, while the latter is a resident of Central Point.
    The school board is composed of Mrs. Ellen Benson, chairman; E. G. Miller, E. E. Stump and Mrs. A. C. Walker, clerk. The district boundary goes as far south as the Owen-Oregon logging railroad tracks, taking in a portion of the sawmill, including the office building near the highway, and on the north runs near the Central Point city limits. Its boundaries on the western and eastern sides are more or less irregular.
    The district was established in 1912 and took in territory which was formerly served by the Medford and Central Point school districts. When the school was opened the enrollment was small, and for some time only one room in the two-room building was used. Six years ago, when Mrs. Walker took over the duties of clerk, the school had only 28 pupils, and the present figures show there are 139 children of school age in the district.
    E. E. Stump had charge of the construction of the new building.
Medford Mail Tribune, October 6, 1927, page 3


HOWARD SCHOOL TO BE DEDICATED BY IRVING VINING
    The Howard school district will dedicate its new concrete four-room school building Friday, October 28th at 8 o'clock. Mrs. Law, the principal, has succeeded in securing the able services of Irving E. Vining for the main address of the evening and feels that the district has been unusually fortunate in having Mr. Vining with them on that occasion. On behalf of the district, Mrs. Law wishes to extend an invitation to Medford, Central Point, Jacksonville and all surrounding districts to attend, hear and enjoy Mr. Vining and also to inspect the new modern building.
Medford Mail Tribune, October 19, 1927, page 3


Jackson County's Public Schools Among State's Finest
CENSUS SHOWS 3276 ENROLLED IN MEDFORD SCHOOLS;
INCREASE OF 11 PERCENT DURING 1927
    According to the Medford school census completed in November last there were 3276 children on the roll, representing an increase of 11 percent over last year. The records for the last four years show there has been an increase in school population of over 43 percent. In that year, 1923, there were 2277 children of school age living within the district.
    During the past five or six years the city schools have enjoyed a rapid, steady growth. The report for the year 1920-21, five years ago, showed a total enrollment in all grades and high school of 1675 pupils. For the year 1926-27, ending June, 1927, there was a total enrollment of 2688, an increase of 60 percent in the five-year period. The total enrollment for the present year will not be known until June, 1928.
    The school system now ranks fourth in size in the state; six school buildings ranging from 9 to 30 rooms are maintained and a total of 95 teachers are employed. It is governed and its policies directed by a board of five members elected by the people. The present board is composed of Emil Mohr, chairman, C. A. Swigart, Howard V. Scheffel, Dr. R. E. Green, and N. H. Franklin. Miss Rebecca Mellors is clerk and E. H. Hedrick is superintendent.
Medford High School
    The Medford high school is under the able management of Principal B. H. Conkle and an efficient corps of 30 teachers, two of whom devote part time to supervision of grade work. Since the beginning of the year in September this school enrolled a total of 625 students. In January the enrollment will be increased by the admission of about 75 to 80 freshmen, bringing the total to about the 700 mark.
    The school offers full four years' work in each of the classical, scientific, commercial, vocational, and homemaking courses. The vocational and trades courses, designed to take care of boys and girls who will probably not be able to pursue their education farther than the high school, are being particularly strengthened. These courses are the agriculture and farm mechanics course under C. D. Thompson; shop work in which the building trades are taught by L. A. Mentzer. The boys of these courses have constructed much of their present quarters, a bicycle shed, two garages, and are now planning the erection of a five-room house on a lot near the high school.
    Homemaking courses for girls are under the direction of Miss Maurice Carroll and Mrs. Wilson Wait. Here the girls are not only taught to make their own clothing, but practically every phase of home planning, management, and operation are studied. In addition the girls of the cooking classes conduct a cafeteria at which from 90 to 125 people are accommodated daily.
    The commercial department handled by Mrs. E. C. Jerome, Leland Knox, and Miss Grace Mooberry accommodated about 175 boys and girls whose interests lie in that field.
    In the belief that various organizations, class, athletic, literary, student body, etc. have a distinct value and should to encouraged, a period of 35 minutes three days a week are set aside, and during these periods, students may hold assemblies, rallies, class meetings, or student council meetings. To encourage further independent thinking and acting on the part of the student, it is the policy of the faculty to turn over to the student body, acting through the council, the control of all student activities. Principal Conkle serves as faculty advisor.
    Beginning last year a new method of handling student body finances was inaugurated. From $12,000 to $15,000 passed through the hands of the various student body organizations during the course of the year, representing receipts from athletics, plays, operettas, the school paper, annual, etc. All money collected by these organizations is handled through the principal's office. All organizations being required to budget their expenditures in such a manner that no deficits will occur at the end of the year.
    In order to encourage scholarship, each six weeks a list of honor students is announced in assembly and given as much publicity as possible through the Hi-Times and through local  newspapers. Plans are now under consideration in connection with the introduction of a National High School Honor Society. This society has been accepted in a large number of the better high schools throughout the country. In connection with scholarship should be mentioned the work of the H.E.C.A. (the History, Economics, Civics Association), organized by Victor Sether, membership listed to those pupils who excel in any one of the subjects mentioned. This organization is an active factor in encouraging higher scholastic standing. A student must be up in all his class work before he is permitted to participate in various activities.
    One of the outstanding features of the fall term has been the work of the Girls' League, an organization which included all the girls of the high school. Miss Maurine Carroll, dean of girls, acts as its advisor, and Miss Ethel Elliott is president. The purpose of the organization is to maintain a high standard of conduct among the girls of the high school. Among the accomplishments of the Girls' League have been the adoption of standards of dress for girls attending high school, rules of conduct for girls during the school day and in their social relations, and publishing of a student handbook and school directory. To this organization is due much of the credit for placing the high school on a par with the best in the country.
New Type Junior High
    The Medford junior high school is the only one of its kind in the state, having an entirely flexible group system of classification in which pupils may advance as fast as he is able in any or all subjects, depending wholly upon their own efforts and ability. No pupil is held back for any other pupil or failed because he is unable to keep up with a given group.
    The pupils in each grade and subject are divided into three groups, based solely upon their ability to progress, fast, average, slow. The fast group finishes the work of a given grade in one-fourth less the than the average group, besides more and broader work. The slow group is given one-fourth more time than the average group. On account of the flexibility of the program a pupil may be in a fast group in one subject, an average in another, and a slow in a third. When one subject or grade is completed another is taken up without loss of time. The adoption of the new plan, which has been in use for one and one-half years, has given an opportunity to raise the standards considerably for the two upper groups, and has very materially cut down failure in the slow pupils, for the reason that more time is given them and the instruction can he adopted to their needs. That the pupils like the new plan is shown by the results of a questionnaire submitted to them by Principal A. J. Hanby near the close of last year. The vote of the pupils was over eleven to one in favor of the group system.
    This same group system has been extended to two departments of the senior high school; namely, English and mathematics, and will be further developed there in the departments where practicable, as fast as it can be worked out.
    The junior high school pupils maintain a full-fledged student body organization: Helen Wilson is president, Loleta Jones and Billy Hagen vice presidents, and Katherine Stearns, secretary.
    A Girls' League with 230 girls under the guidance of Miss Esther VanCamp is also a flourishing part of junior high life. The students also find time to carry on various student body activities, such as athletics, glee clubs, orchestra, girls' league and literary works.
    The football team of the school, coached by Ray Henderson, made a splendid record this year. Thirteen players won their letters, and during the whole season no boy was barred from playing because of low grades. In the face of the standards required by the school this record is a little unusual in junior high school football circles.
Four Elementary Schools
    In addition to the high and junior high schools, the district maintains four elementary schools, each housing grades one to six. Washington has 360 pupils enrolled; eleven teachers are employed with Raymond L. Cornwell as principal. Jackson School has eleven teachers, an enrollment of 315 pupils; H. W. Gustin is principal. Lincoln School's enrollment is 295 with eight teachers, and principal Miss Ora Cox. The Roosevelt School in addition to city pupils also has children from districts 29, 96, and 102, who are transported to the school in buses. The school has enrolled 366 pupils. Miss Sara Van Meter is the principal.
    The organization of each of these schools is very much alike. The fourth, fifth, and sixth grades are departmentalized while the lower grades have regular home room teachers.
    According to the plan in use the last two years, the principal of each building has been relieved of two to three teaching periods and is expected to devote this time to closer supervision of the work of other teachers and to do special coaching of backward pupils who are having difficulties keeping up with their classes They also give special coaching to advanced pupils who may be slated for promotion.
    Another adjustment made is a provision made to care for pupils conditioned out of a grade in one or more subjects. Hitherto it has been necessary either to pass such pupils deficient in such subject, or to cause him to repeat the entire grade because of such failure. By carefully coordinating programs of the several rooms it is now possible to avoid such alternatives by promoting the pupil in the subjects in which he has passed and requiring him to repeat in the lower grade only the subject in which he has failed. Diagnostic and achievement tests are given regularly, and higher standards of pupil attainment, particularly in the fundamental subjects, are being insisted upon.
Teachers Do Professional Work
    A strong feature of the Medford school system is the organization of the teachers into course of study and research groups. Teachers who are handling practically the same work are grouped together under the leadership of a department head, or a capable principal. During the past two years Medford teachers have done much course of study, diagnostic testing and research work that is not only invaluable to the local system, but has attracted statewide attention.
    The arithmetic course of study, adopted for use in all schools of the state of Oregon, was written by Medford teachers. Under the leadership of Mrs. Ruth P. Sether a group of high school teachers produced, within the last two years, what has been pronounced by experts as the best and most thoroughly worked-out high school English course of study in the entire country. It forms the basis, this year, of the work in that subject in the Medford high school.
Statewide Survey of Spelling
    In addition to this work designed primarily for the local system, Medford teachers handled a statewide survey and study of the subject of spelling in which over 35,000 pupils, 400 adult business men, 1500 high school seniors, and 825 teachers were tested in that subject, the results tabulated and studied. The main objects of the study were to measure the present proficiency of the pupils of all school grades in Oregon in the subject, to compare the spelling of the eighth grades with that of modern business men and adults and to suggest ways and means through which the teaching of the subject may be improved in the state.
Continuous Census Unique Feature
    In addition to the regular annual school census, which is taken in October, a continuous census is provided for which keeps the Medford school census always up to date and the school authorities informed of new children arriving within the district.
    This is effected by a cooperation between the city school office and the Patron-Teacher circles of the district. The city is subdivided into 51 small districts, each containing but a few blocks. In each of these districts a resident enumerator is constantly "on the job." Whenever a family with children between the ages of four and twenty years moves into that district the enumerator calls, lists the children and sends the report directly to the central school office, where the children are added to the census roll. If they do not put in an appearance at school within a few days the attendance officer is sent to investigate. The several auto camps in and around the city are canvassed once each week for children who should be in school.
    The operation of this plan has gone far to help solve the problem of getting the transient child in school, and helps the school office to know of the drift of children within the district and greatly aids in making adjustments to meet the housing situation.
    Mrs. B. H. Bryant, who directs the work for the Patron-Teacher enumerators for the school, has recently been made chairman of a committee in the state association having for its object the furtherance of continuous census work in other cities of the state.
Medford Leads in Pupils' Savings.
    Medford leads every city in Oregon from the standpoint of thrift and savings among the pupils, and in the May report at the close of school last year it ranked 27th among all the cities of the United States, showing over 92 percent of all the pupils in the school system maintaining savings accounts. As a result of this record the November number of Educational Thrift Gazette, a magazine published in New York, gave Medford and her school system a front page article with pictures of the local high school, teachers, and students who helped to make the showing possible.
    In the high school 100 percent of the students deposit in their savings accounts each week, and have maintained their average for nearly a year. In the five other schools averages from 75 to 100 percent of the pupils bank weekly.
    The pupils of the school system in less than two years had to their credit a total savings account of $12,229.10. Each pupil's account is an individual one, in his own name. Pupils are in most all cases adding to their accounts by regular small weekly deposits. The Jackson County Building and Loan Association is the depository.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 1, 1928, page F5

SCHOOL BOARD BUYS 15 ACRES JR. HIGH SITE
Purchase Price $19,005 Property on Oakdale Prospective Junior High Site--Move to Provide for Future Needs--School Housing Big Problem.

    As a future site for a junior high school the board of education has purchased approximately 15 acres adjoining South Oakdale Avenue and lying north of Melrose [sic] Street, according to announcement made from the city school office Saturday. The tract comprises the following:
    One lot fronting on Oakdale Avenue, purchase from LaMolle Savings Bank, Vermont;
    One lot from Davis, Vawter and Howard, fronting on Oakdale and back on Whitman Avenue;
    The G. C. Garrett lot from the S. T. Howard estate, fronting on Oakdale Avenue;
    One lot from Ray Toft and Rawles Moore, fronting on Oakdale;
    The Bernice Howard lot, fronting on Melrose Street;
    Blocks 1, 2 and 3 of the Howard addition to the city of Medford, comprising 36 lots;
    Also the north half of blocks 2 and 4, of the South Park addition, from W. E. Crews.
    The outside dimensions of said tract of land are as follows: Beginning on Oakdale Avenue for the northwest corner of said tract of land, running thence south 305 feet on the west side of Oakdale Avenue, thence east 1230 feet on the north side of Monroe Street, thence north 630 feet on the west side of high [sic] Street, thence west 816½ feet on the south side of Monroe Street, thence south 300 feet on the west side of Whitman Avenue, thence 370 feet to the place of beginning.
    The purchase price was $19,300, the sale being effected through E. S. Corn, local realtor.
    Attorney O. C. Boggs has been employed by the district to check and merge the titles to the several pieces of land involved in the transaction.
    In speaking of the purchase Superintendent Hedrick stated: "No, it does not mean that an immediate campaign is going to be started for a new junior high school. This purchase by the board is simply a move to provide for the future. It comes as the result of a quiet survey of the school situation which has been going on for some time and represents in our judgment the best thing to do at the present time to take care of future needs. It is not the policy of the present school board to start any premature building campaign with the idea of taking two or three years to put it over. We shall continue as long as we possibly can with present housing facilities and when the time comes that we can go no further recommendations will be made and the decision left to the people.
    "Speaking for myself, personally I doubt, though, if it is generally recognized how near we may be facing the proposition of providing more housing space, and especially is this true for the junior high school. Containing as it does only the seventh and eighth grades, we have now about as many pupils in that building as it ever held in the old days when the high school was there. Last year we had a 10-percent increase in school population; this year we have an 11-percent increase. The old building is badly overcrowded and stands on a site much too small for school purposes. Moreover, since the business district has surrounded it, it is probably too valuable to be held as a school site, even if it were large enough. For this tract, less than a block, the board has already been offered $35,000--about twice what an adequate school site would cost.
    "I do not know whether Medford is to keep on growing at the rate it has been for the past few years or not, but if it does one need not be surprised if he is compelled to think in terms of other school buildings in addition to a junior high school in the not distant future."
Medford Mail Tribune, January 8, 1928, page 1


KIWANIS TOLD OF NEW PLANS IN HIGH SCHOOL
    C. E. Gates retired as president of the Kiwanis Club this noon and introduced R. B. Hammond, new president, who took the chair. "Pop" thanked the members for the splendid cooperation they extended him during the past year, and predicted that the organization would experience a banner year through 1928.
    Hammond launched the first part of his program by appointing the chairmen of the standing committees for the year, allowing them the privilege of choosing their own associates.
    They are as follows: Agriculture, R. G. Fowler; attendance, C. N. Culy; business standards, C. S. Butterfield; Kiwanis education, Olen Arnspiger; membership and classification, W. J. Warner; public affairs, H. O. Frobach; good will and reception, Jack Thompson; music, Billy Ray; inter-club, Vernon Vawter; publicity, S. S. Smith; underprivileged child, Dr. R. W. Stearns; social committee, A. B. Cunningham; high school athletics, O. O. Alenderfer; programs, "Dade" Terrett, and vocational guidance, Glen Fabrick.
    Other new officers of the Kiwanis Club for next year are: vice president, J. F. Watson; district trustee, J. W. Jacobs; treasurer, C. C. Lemmon, and directors, F. C. Dillard, W. J. Warner, Glen Fabrick, J. C. Mann, H. C. Fredette and J. G. Love.
    Each new officer of the organization called upon to say a few words of introduction responded singly, with the exception of John Mann and Bill Warner, who insisted on doing duets in the way of announcements, responses and predictions throughout the meeting. They were dubbed the Siamese twins of the Kiwanis Club and fined mercilessly.
    That he is making a survey of industries of the state and of the Northwest, with the view to incorporating this study in with the regular high school program, was the gist of an interesting speech by E. H. Hedrick, local superintendent of schools. Hedrick urged the cooperation of the various service clubs in submitting information pertaining to the important industries of the state. He declared that the ignorance of the usual high school or college graduate in regard to the administration of these large enterprises was appalling.
    The subject of the gap that existed between school work and a working knowledge of local and state industries was introduced at several local service clubs last week by Glen Fabrick.
    Rev. Mell, new minister at the Christian church, was a guest at the luncheon and responded to his introduction by a few words of congratulation to the Kiwanians for their work accomplished during the past year. Dr. R. E. Green, another guest of the club, was introduced by Vernon Vawter as "one of the four horsemen of the appendix." The attendance prize of the day was given to H. W. Hamlin, and consisted of an attractive cigar lighter donated by the People's Electric Store.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 9, 1928, page 2


HI STUDENTS LAG ON BIBLE STUDY, STATISTICS SHOW
    SALEM, Ore., March 2.--(AP)--Oregon high school students continue to show a decided lack of knowledge about the Bible, according to the results of Bible study examinations given January 20. The total number of students taking the tests was 217, State Superintendent Howard said today, of whom 148 were girls and 69 boys. Of 282 manuscripts submitted, 147 were in the Old Testament and 137 in the New Testament. Only 35 students received passing grades in the Old Testament, while 112 failed. In the New Testament test 34 passed and 101 failed.
    Mode Griffith of Sheridan, who took the examination at Ballston High School, made 100 percent, Old Testament. Mabel Warner and Harvey C. Warner of Irrigon High School each made 100 in New Testament.
    The questions are prepared each year under the direction of the state superintendent and are based on a suggested course of study in Bible for pupils outside of school. The examination is offered in any standard high school that applies for the questions. A student may earn one-half credit of the 15 credits required for high school graduation by securing a passing grade in either Old or New Testament.
Medford Mail Tribune, March 3, 1928, page 6


FACTS AND FIGURES ON MEDFORD SCHOOLS
Medford Schools
(By E. H. Hedrick, courtesy Parent-Teacher Association.)
    E. H. Hedrick, superintendent of the city schools, spoke to the Daddys' meeting at the junior high school, Friday evening, Mar. 23rd on "Some Facts and Figures of the Medford School System." He stated that according to the school census of last October there were 3237 persons in the district between the ages of four and twenty years; about 2600 of these are in the schools at the present time. The high school is the largest with about 700, the junior high second with about 460, Roosevelt is the largest grade school in the system with about 380 enrolled. Lincoln is the smallest with 310 pupils. The Medford school system is now the fourth in size in the state, Portland, Salem, and Eugene being larger. In 1925 there were 74 teachers employed. At the present time there are 96. The district population has increased about 10 percent each year for the past three years.
    The assessed valuation has grown from $5,000,000 to about $8,000,000. This increase has been brought about both by increase of property in the district and the addition of more territory to the district. To run the entire system and to pay indebtedness, Mr. Hedrick stated, requires a budget of about $265,000; of this $199,000 has to be raised by local tax. The school tax levy in Medford reached 28.2 mills in 1926 following the building of the new high school. Since that time the board has been able to reduce it about two mills per year.
    In 1925 the district bonded itself for $185,000 for the erection of two units of a high school building. It had at the time $47,000 old indebtedness. Since 1925 the old indebtedness has been paid and $14,000 of the new bond issue. This new issue is only callable at the rate of about $6000 per year at the present time. Payment of these bonds was spread over 20 years, and the last of them will not be paid until 1944. According to the present valuation of the district it costs about two mills per year to carry this indebtedness and pay interest.
    Mr. Hedrick also discussed the subject of the erection of a new junior high school. He stated that the board had purchased a site, as a provision for the future, but that no campaign was to be started for a building this year. Although the present building is overflowing and an outside room is now being rented, he felt that so far no great damage was being done to the quality of instruction. He further stated that the school board and he felt that it was better to suffer a little discomfort for a time, pay off some more of the present indebtedness and watch the situation awhile before attempting a new building. However, should the present rate of growth keep up in both the junior and senior high school he intimated that the building question would have to be faced within the next two years, because both buildings are filled at the present time. The erection of a new junior high school which would also house the ninth grade would lessen the pressure at the high school by withdrawing over 150 in the freshman class.
Medford Mail Tribune, April 8, 1928, page 7


ELECT TEACHERS OF CITY SCHOOLS FOR COMING YEAR
    Ninety-one of the 97 Medford teachers were reelected for another year by the school board last night. A number of the others had signified that they did not desire to return. Two of these were Mr. and Mrs. Victor Sether, who have already left for Stanford University, where Mr. Sether is to complete the work for a master's degree in education.
    The list below represents the teachers elected by schools throughout the city, although it was stated at the city school office that a number of changes in building assignments would be made for next year.
High School
    B. H. Conkle, Gertrude Butler, Esther Church, Glenna Mae Early, E. M. Hussong, Leland Knox, Vera Nichols, Isabel Wilsie, Horace Terrell, Virginia Wait, Myrna Barrett, P. G. Callison, H. F. Cope, Mary Gilbert, Elizabeth Jerome, Mary Lee Lyons, Marguerite Scott, C. G. Smith, Francis Theis, Wilson Wait, Maude Barrigar, Maurine Carroll, Ruth Ella Dickerson, Zoe Hubbs, Josephine Jones, Leland Mentzer, Beatrice Schuerman, Josephine Smith, C. D. Thompson.
Junior High School
    A. J. Hanby, Edith Brown, B. R. Finch, Marguerite Hammond, Lucile Jackson, Ruth MacCollister, Melba Williams, Maybelle Church, Esther Van Camp, Opal Clark, Janet Ford, Ray Henderson, H. W. Keesee, Grace Sinema, Lillian Wise, Winifred Andrews, Albert Fitch, Annette Gray, Florence Hurd, Dorothy Matheny, Delie Whisenant, Carol Ramsey.
Jackson
    H. W. Gustin, Mildred Henderson, Esther McCollom, Jessie Jensen, Alice Hansen, Jeanne MacNiven, Theone Taylor, Jessie MacNiven, Edith Deuel, Marian Briggs.
Lincoln
    Ora Cox, Ora Tucker, Laura West, Augusta Hellman, Ruth Galliher, Aletha Gray, Golden Starr Scott, Emily Webber, Pearl Turner.
Roosevelt
    Sara Van Meter, Lyle Gregory, Ree Morrison, Freda Schneider, Lucile Abbott, Anna B. Carter, Mildred Aspinwall, Alliean Maxwell, Katherine Hyde, Florence Allen.
Washington
    Raymond L. Cornwell, Avis Anschuetz, Blanche Canode, Lydia Cooney, Marian Beeson, Agnes Mehring, Alice Cromar, Lura Lynch, Beulah Smith, Ruth Bolton, Amy Harding.
    Janitors reelected for the several buildings are:
    High school, Harvey Young, L. R. Bloom.
    Junior high school, E. W. Wakefield.
    Washington, W. R. Bullock.
    Roosevelt, E. A. Cripps.
    Lincoln, P. J. Kirkpatrick.
    Jackson, E. S. Stinson.
Medford Mail Tribune, April 18, 1928, page 3


RAISE NEW FLAG ON WASHINGTON SCHOOL BUILDING
    The cremation of the battered old flag that has decorated the local Washington School for several years and the erection of a new flag in its place constituted an impressive ceremony on the school grounds at one o'clock today. Following a few remarks by the principal, Raymond L. Cornwell, the following program was given, assisted by the Boy Scouts:
"Our Flag" . . . Eugene Moffatt, 6B
Old flag taken down by Boy Scouts
Recitation: "Red, White and Blue," three girls dressed in red, white and blue, Gladys Jordan, Phyllis Hedgpath, Don Kinrred, 3A
Carrying of new flag to Scouts, by the same three girls
Scouts haul up the new flag
Flag salute
Cremation of old flag on altar
"The Color Guard," Jean Quisenberry, 6A
"The Name of Old Glory," Catherine Chaney
    Boy Scouts made the altar for the cremation of the old flag, which was decorated in black with red, white and blue fringe.
    The old flag has flown over Washington School for several years past and was tattered and torn. Having done its service, it was ready to be disposed of in the manner provided for such flags.
    The iron balcony (fire escape) was decorated with bunting, red, white and blue streamers and flags by Mrs. Newton Chaney.
    The new flag was carried in by three small girls of the 3A grade, given to the Boy Scouts, who ran it up swiftly to its position on the flag pole.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 15, 1928, page 3


NEW PRIVATE SCHOOL TO BE BUILT IN CITY
Valley School Association Purchases Four Acres of Land on Siskiyou Heights--Work on Modern School Building to Be Started in Two Weeks.
    Four acres of land in the Siskiyou Heights residence district have been purchased by the Valley School Association, from Dr. J. M. Keene, and work will soon start on a private school, which promises to be one of the best equipped and conducted educational institutions of the kind in this part of the state.
    The school will provide for primary, pre-primary and grade work, the purpose being to prepare children, both boys and girls, for the junior high school. The pre-primary will be for children of preschool age.
    The new school will be in charge of Mrs. Isabel Mosher and Mrs. W. A. Thompson, assisted by Mrs. E. R. Shockley. Mrs. Thompson, who is well known throughout the valley, and has conducted the Valley School the past year, will this summer attend summer school in Berkeley, Calif., to take a special course in the latest methods in primary and grade school instruction. Mrs. E. R. Shockley is an experienced public school teacher, also with a wide acquaintance in the valley. Mrs. Mosher, who is a sister of Paul Scherer of Medford, is moving to the city this summer from Ojai, Calif., where she has been connected with the Ojai Valley School, an educational institution of national reputation which makes a specialty of child training and development. Mrs. Mosher has had wide experience in educational matters, being the daughter of Dr. James A. B. Scherer, former president of Throop College, Los Angeles, through whose efforts and direction this institution was developed into the Southern California Technical College. Before becoming a member of the faculty at the Ojai Valley School, Mrs. Mosher taught for two years in the San Francisco public schools.
    The site of the school, at the end of Groveland Avenue, makes an ideal location--quiet, secluded, far from city traffic and city noises, and with a tract of four acres the school will have ample facilities for playgrounds, project work, and open air classes, whenever the weather permits. A covered recreation shed will render outdoor athletics and exercise possible throughout the year.
    Work on the construction of the new school will start in two or three weeks, and it will be ready for the opening of the school year in September. As the school develops it is possible that students from outside of Medford may be secured, as parents everywhere are coming to realize more and more the importance of elementary school education, which allows greater personal attention to the individual child and the application of the most modern methods in the matter of mental training and character development.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 28, 1928, page 6


NEW PRIVATE SCHOOL OPENS HERE SEPT. 10
Valley School's New Building on Siskiyou Heights Open for Public Inspection This Week--Offer Special Preparatory for Junior High School.
    The Valley School will open its new school building on Siskiyou Heights Monday, September 10th, under the direction of Mrs. Isabel Mosher, formerly of Ojai, California, and Mrs. William Thompson of Medford, assisted by Mrs. Ernest Shockley, also of this city.
    The new school, a photograph of which is shown on this page, consists of five rooms, modern in every respect, particularly regarding lighting and sanitation. There will also be terraces where open-air classes may be held, while a covered recreation shed will provide outdoor exercise for the pupils under skilled direction throughout the year.
    The school will make a specialty of preparing boy and girl students for entrance into the Medford junior high, emphasizing the importance of smaller classes and individual instruction, while a pre-primary department will also be included.
    Although the opening of the school is two weeks off, it already has the largest registration of any time since it was established in this city nine years ago.
    On Wednesday of this week the new school will be open for public inspection, and from that time until Saturday, September 8th, anyone interested in the school is invited to inspect the grounds and building between the hours of ten and twelve a.m., when Mrs. Mosher and Mrs. Thompson will be glad to explain all details regarding the educational program for the ensuing year.
Medford Mail Tribune, August 26, 1928, page 1


2223 STUDENTS CITY SCHOOLS UP TO PRESENT
    The second week of the public school sessions for this year, which began last Monday, will be a short one because there will be no school session next Friday, as that is Children's Day at the Jackson County Fair.
    While the enrollment in all the buildings was much increased last week over last year, there are many pupils both in the high schools and grades who have not yet entered school, but it is known will enter by the end of the first month, and this leads the school officials to stick to their original estimate on attendance in the high schools, when all the enrollment for the year is in, of 700 for the high school and 450 for the junior high. Tomorrow and other days of this week is expected to see many more pupils enrolling in the high schools and grades who have not yet entered school for various reasons.
    With the expected increased attendance tomorrow in the grade schools Superintendent Hedrick and the various principals probably will make some transfers to relieve crowded rooms or classes.
    Only one room yet is needed in the old First Methodist church building, which the school board leased some time ago to relieve crowded conditions in the junior high school, but as soon as it is rendered necessary another overflow room or more will be installed in that building. As to whether a second or more rooms there will be needed for a month yet is problematical at present.
    The enrollment of the schools, which started the first day of last week with 2110 pupils, ended at the close of the school week last Friday afternoon with 2223 pupils. The largest increased attendance over last year was in the senior high school, with 50 new students.
    The enrollment figures of last week were as follows.
    Senior high school, 625; junior high school, 400; Roosevelt high [sic], 450; Washington high [sic], 325; Jackson, 292; Lincoln, 241.
    The installation of the new roof on the Jackson School building will be completed by Monday, it is expected.
Medford Mail Tribune, September 9, 1928, page 3


BASEMENT USED IN SCHOOL OVERFLOW
    In order to take care of the overflow of students in the Lincoln and Roosevelt schools in this city a room in the basement of the Lincoln building has been fitted to accommodate at least 31 boys and girls.
    This is the first [time] in many years that it has been necessary to use the basement of Lincoln as a classroom.
    Pupils from the rural districts who are brought to town each day in special buses will be housed in the overflow room. Miss Eleanor Curry will be the instructor.
Medford Mail Tribune, September 16, 1928, page 8


JAPANESE SCHOOL HELD IN MEDFORD
    A little-known school of this city is the Japanese school which is held every Saturday afternoon under the direction of Mrs. Maru and Mrs. Saito. Twelve Japanese  boys and girls attend, and for fifteen minutes are given instruction in the American and Japanese code of etiquette, and the Japanese alphabet and Japanese singing. A drill in politeness is held, and they learn the Ten Commandments and "The Star Spangled Banner," in English and Japanese.
Medford Mail Tribune,
October 26, 1928, page B2


THANKSGIVING PAGEANT AT VALLEY SCHOOL
    The annual Thanksgiving pageant at the Valley School was given on Wednesday noon at the new school building.
    Under the direction of Tom Swem, the scholars painted and constructed all of the scenery and costumes.
    This year the school decided to give parts of the Zuni Indian ritual of thanksgiving to the sun for bringing forth the fruits and vegetables.
    An Indian tepee and an Indian altar around which the Indian maidens placed their offerings of fruit and vegetables were chief features.
    Those taking part were: Yvonne Shepard, Nancy Clark, Ann Scherer, Charity Hart, Jean Salade, Alicia Ruhl, Emily Scherer, Jimmy Peasley, Junior Patten, Jimmy Henry, Granger Kenley, Robby Conroy, Spencer Weills, David Sheldon, Douglas Janney, Burdett Dodge, Jr., Sammy Scott, Frank Mosher, Billy Salade and David Rosenberg, Jr.
Medford Mail Tribune, November 30, 1928, page B4


CONSTRUCTION OF CLASS ROOMS FOR HI SCHOOL BEGIN
    Following the letting of the construction bids last night by the school board, work was begun today on the construction of two new classrooms in the senior high school to relieve the congestion at that building, and the work will be rushed from now on as, according to the contract, it is to be completed by January 26. The new rooms, which will accommodate from 85 to 100 more students, will be built on the east balcony of the high school gymnasium.
    Although the construction work will be going on daily, the senior high classes will be in session as usual, as the incidental noise, etc., in that part of the building will not be heard, and will only slightly affect the cooking and domestic science classes.
    The construction contract was awarded Wilkinson & Oliver on their bid of $4,100, although E. J. tubbs' bid at $3600 was the lowest but was not considered because it was not accompanied by the required certified check.
    The other bids were as follows: W. W. Merritt, $4655; Clark and Elliott, $546 [sic]; R. I. Stuart and Sons $6200; H. D. Turner, $6700; H. H. Weaver, and W. A. Jones and J. S. Wochnich, $5985.75.
    It is understood that no bids will be asked for the heating of the two rooms, as the board will award the work to contractor Schmidli, who was the original contractor for the high school building heating, as the board thinks it best to have the same contractor do all the heating work. Also, for the same reason the Peoples Electric Store, which had the original electrical contract for the high school, will be given the electrical work in the two rooms. It is also understood that the board has required that these two contractors do the respective work at a reasonable cost, the same as though there was competitive bidding.
    However, bids will be asked for the general wiring of the two new rooms.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 4, 1929, page 3


SECOND SEMESTER TO OPEN MONDAY IN CITY SCHOOLS
    Regarding the approaching second semester of the public schools, the following notice of changes in the teaching faculty and general school news of high school and grades is of interest:
    The second semester will open next Monday, January 28th, and while there will be an increased enrollment in all schools, it is not definitely known at this time just what it will be. Advance registration in the high school is already well above the eight hundred mark.
    The two new rooms ordered constructed at the high school will be completed by Contractor A. L. Wilkinson and ready for occupancy by Monday.
    The resignation of Miss Nettie Mae Hougen from the high school staff has been accepted by the board on account of ill health, and Mrs. Emerson Merrick, a former instructor, engaged to complete the year.
    Miss Carol Ramsey, who last semester taught one-half day at the junior high school, is to be given full time at the high school building with the vocations and industries courses, and freshman history.
    Mrs. W. H. Carpenter, a half-time teacher, has been assigned Miss Ramsey's classes at the junior high.
    In the elementary schools no additional teachers are contemplated at this time. Miss Laura West of the Lincoln School has been given a leave of absence by the school board to visit Europe. Mrs. Walter Cousineau has been assigned as substitute in handling Mrs. West's work.
    Monday forenoon will be given over to promotion and registration of pupils in the elementary schools. This work has already been practically completed in the high and junior high schools.
    First grade pupils who will be six years of age before March 4, 1929, are accepted without question. Pupils who are younger but who will be six by June 7th may apply for admission by test. Parents of such children desiring to enter should call Mrs. Geo. B. Conode, Phone 289-L for appointments.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 25, 1929, page 5


STUDY COURSE FOR HI SCHOOL IS EXPLAINED
    Next Monday is the opening of another semester of school work. There will be many new students entering school, including a large number from the local junior high school.
    There has been much discussion among the students and their parents of courses of study, required subjects, elective subjects, college entrance requirements, etc. To parents who have been out of direct touch with educational affairs for a long period, there are many things which require explanation before they are able to intelligently advise their children regarding these matters.
    A brief outline of the course of study which has been introduced in the senior high school would perhaps not be out of place. This course, which went into effect this year, serves a threefold purpose: It is so organized as to fit in with and provide a continuation of the work carried on by the pupils in the junior high school; it provides a group of courses designated as academic, which are preparatory in nature and give the necessary background for more work to come in college, university or normal school; finally, it makes available by means of vocational courses a variety of practical lines of work which will be an aid to pupils in finding a vocational interest and give them some training in a chosen field.
    It is important that parents have clearly in mind the distinction between academic and vocational divisions. These divisions differ in that the academic division makes it possible for the student to meet the entrance requirements of the universities and college; it further ensures that he is capable and will to do such a grade and quality of work as will make it probable that he will succeed in a higher institution, should he wish to attend.
    The vocational division on the other hand is not primarily concerned with preparation for a higher institution. It offers the pupil a choice among certain lines of work in which he may major, namely commercial subjects, agriculture, shop, home economics. He may also major, if he desires, in history, mathematics, languages or science.
    It is always understood, of course, that a student may transfer from one division to another at any time his work is brought up to meet the requirements of the division to which he transfers.
    In order that the pupil may have every assistance possible in arranging his course and pursuing it successfully, a "counselor system" has been organized and every student entering the high school is assigned to a faculty counselor. With approximately 50 students assigned to a counselor, it is possible for the pupil to have advice and assistance in deciding upon his course.
    It is perhaps unnecessary to remind parents that the pupil, when he enters the senior high school, will not be able to prepare all his work during school hours. Those who are doing the highest grade of work make it a practice to do a large part of their studying at home. Parents who are interested in the progress made by their children may contribute very materially by urging pupils to form the habit of systematic home study. Whenever possible a room should be provided where your boy or girl may work without being disturbed. The manner in which a pupil spends his evenings is frequently the key to his success or failure in school.
    With the increase in attendance in our local high school, there is increasing difficulty in giving a pupil the personal attention which is desirable. There is, for this reason, an increasing obligation on the part of parents to keep in close touch with the work being done by their children. Members of the faculty, particularly counselors, will welcome visits from parents and any information or suggestions which may be of value in carrying on such advisory work.
    A successful school is the the result of cooperation between all those who are concerned--students, parents and faculty.
B. H. CONKLE.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 25, 1929, page 8


NINE O'CLOCK IS 'ZERO HOUR' FOR SCHOOL MONDAY
    Students of the local high school are to attend school Monday morning at nine o'clock, according to B. H. Conkle, principal. Pupils are to report to their home rooms at the usual time, where report cards will be given out. Re-registration will be carried on in the home room also.
    A blackboard will be placed in the lower hall, and will give the numbers of the rooms to which the freshmen will report. It is probable that the afternoon will be spent holding short classes. It is not definitely known whether or not the new rooms will be ready for occupancy.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 26, 1929, page 2


SCHOOL ENROLLMENT SHOWS INCREASE IN ALL CITY BUILDINGS
    Additional information was learned today of the enrollment of pupils in the various schools on the first day of the new semester, and although there was increased enrollment at all buildings, additional registrations may be expected daily until the end of the week.
    At the junior high school 393 enrolled yesterday, and the senior high school enrollment reached 800 that day. The enrollment in the grade schools yesterday was as follows: Jackson, 286; Lincoln, 274; Roosevelt, 316; Washington, 312.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 29, 1929, page 2



    There are 16 one-room schoolhouses in operation in Jackson County, according to figures at the county school superintendent's office, where it was also revealed that there are 11 schools with two rooms and four schoolhouses in the rural districts with more than two. Schools of larger size, including high school, are located in 11 districts.
"Local and Personal," Medford Mail Tribune, February 19, 1929, page 2


BOARD NAMES 92 SCHOOL TEACHERS FOR COMING YEAR
    At a meeting of the school board last night 92 of the 101 teachers in the Medford schools were re-elected to their positions. Several had already notified the board that they were not candidates to succeed themselves. Election of new teachers to fill vacancies will be taken up later.
    Instead of allowing teachers and other employees 10 days on full pay for absence in case of illness, or death, in the family, as has been the case for several years, the allowance will be one-half pay for 10 days beginning September 1, 1929.
    The opening of the next school year was set for September 2, 1929.
    The teachers have until April 25, 1929, to sign contracts. The list by schools is as follows:
High School
    B. H. Conkle, Myrna Barrett, Gertrude Butler, H. F. Cope, Johnnie Fleet, Zoe Hubbs, Elizabeth Jerome, Leland Knox, Carol Ramsey, Josephine Smith, Isobel Willsie, Ruth Abele, Maude Barrigar, Maurine Carroll, Ruth Rickerson, Mary Gilbert, Roland Humphreys, Josephine Jones, Leland Mentzer, W. L. Van Loan, Myrtle Tobey, Virginia Wait, Ralph Bailey, Eula Benson, Esther Church, Glenna M. Early, Maurine Johnson, E. H. Hussong, Josephine Kirtley, Lora Mitchell, C. G. Smith, C. D. Thompson, Wilson Waite.
Junior High School
    A. J. Hanby, Edith Brown, Opal Clark, Annette Gray, Florence Hurd, Ruth MacCollister, Melba Williams, Esther Fleigel, Fay Carver, Albert Fitch, Rose Haldeman, H. W. Keesee, Walter Nitzel, Lillian Wise, Winifred Andrews, Maybelle Church, Janet Ford, Ray Henderson, Dorothy Matheny, Lelle Whisenant, Grace Sinema.
Jackson School
    H. W. Gustin, Jessie Gifford, Yvonne Smith, Theone Taylor, Mildred Henderson, Jessie Mac Niven, Alice Hansen, Marian Briggs, Esther McCollom, Iva Murry, Jeanne Laidley.
Lincoln School
    Ora Cox, Ora Tucker, Emily Webber, Pearl Turner, Lucile Abbott, Marjorie Newberry, Laura West, Golden Starr Scott, Eleanor Curry, Aletha Harrison.
Roosevelt School
    Sara Van Meter, Myra Russell, Florence Allen, Freda Schneider, Louise Basford, Anna B. Carter, Ethel Willits, Mildred Aspinwall, Alliean Maxwell, Priscilla Webb, Grace Van Loan.
Washington School
    B. R. Finch, Avis Anschuetz, Beulah Smith, Lura Lynch, Blanche Canode, Gertrude Parker, Ruth Bolton, Amy Harding, Marian Beeson, Lydua Cooney, Alice Cromar.
Medford Mail Tribune, April 17, 1929, page 3


HONORS GIVEN HEALTHY YOUNG AFTER PARADE
    One thousand school children of Medford, wearing the colors of their respective schools and carrying banners announcing their right to enter the moving exhibition of 100 percent health, marched through the downtown section of the city this afternoon at 1:30. The streets were lined with interested and enthusiastic spectators who applauded the school children as they passed.
    The parade was led by the high school band under the direction of Wilson Waite, which furnished spirited numbers for the parade. Then followed the large body of junior high school boys and girls who have passed the test of perfect health.
    Roosevelt School, with its orange and white caps, was next in line, and then Lincoln, with its blue and gold, Jackson with its green and yellow, and Washington with its blue and white. Many of the little girls in the latter group wore Red Cross symbols across their heads.
    Small yell leaders, dressed in white costumes and wearing jaunty caps, led the various groups in yells that demonstrated by volume as well as by sentiment that they were anything but frail.
    The primary grade children beamed their 100 percent perfection out at the spectators from the trucks which carried them through the long line of march and waved their hands to their admirers on the streets below.
    The trucks were followed by several buses which carried additional small school children. Each school was accompanied by its own teachers who guided the children through the streets, with the assistance of Medford's traffic department and members of the health unit.
    At the exercises at the city park Superintendent of Schools Hedrick acted as chairman. He introduced Mayor A. W. Pipes, who addressed the youngsters and implored the boys to "always keep their hair combed" and the girls "to keep their hair curled."
    Carl Swigart, chairman of the board of education, presented the prizes and Miss Josephine Jones, school nurse, presented the health trophy.
    At the conclusion of the exercises the health children were given ice cream through the courtesy of the Jackson County Health Association.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 10, 1929, page 8


MEDFORD FIRST CITY TO ADOPT MENTAL TESTS
Schools Introduce Plan Whereby Every Student Has Chance to Develop Inherent Ability--Remedial Teaching Also Employed.
    Medford is the first city in Oregon to follow through a definite citywide plan of individual mental testing and remedial teaching whereby every typical child in the system is given an opportunity of a careful, individual examination. During the past year a mental survey has been made throughout the city schools to find the children who for a number of causes are not progressing well. The children who were formerly considered "backward" are to be given an opportunity to bring out the abilities which are inherent within them.
    In every school in Medford there has been found a number of children who do not keep pace with the various studies. These children, who are normal or even above normal mentally, have often been misjudged by parents and teachers, and they are often even confused with the real subnormal group. In reality, they are working under a decided disadvantage, on account of their inability to adapt themselves to our necessarily usual type of instruction of large groups. These atypical children, due to their mental makeup, learn normally, in most cases, by entirely different methods of teaching. These methods vary, and must be discovered and carefully applied in each case. It was for the purpose of discovering these atypical children and the special methods by which they learn, that the survey has been made during the past year.
    During the six weeks just closed a small group of thirteen children, representing all the different grade schools, has been carefully observed, taught and advanced. Four types were dealt with chiefly: these were reading, spelling and arithmetic and speech correction. Practice in writing and composition were given incidentally, as the individual work in reading and spelling were based on the writing method.
    The methods of instruction used differ greatly, of course, from those found in the usual classroom. Each child comes for one-half hour of individual instruction, suited to his particular disability. If his trouble is reading, he also takes part in a general quick drill, consisting of races, games and spirited contest with others who have similar difficulties. The reading room in which the children read or work on various projects was an interesting place.
    Another interesting phase of the summer school has been the work done with speech classes: A number of children, for different reasons, have what is termed a speech defect, and this becomes a handicap throughout life, if not corrected in time. Two types of speech defect were handled, one due to nervous reaction, and the other to malformation of the speech organs, causing faults in articulation.
    One of the most effective methods used in teaching reading was that which was originated by Dr. Grace Fernald and which is being used and demonstrated by her in her course at the University of Oregon at the present time. This method combines the kinesthetic factors with visual and auditory imagery in teaching word recognition to non-readers. The child traces a large script copy of a word until he is able to write and recognize the word from memory.
    This work has been undertaken for six weeks with the idea in mind that the atypical child in the school could, and would, respond to treatment in s special class. The tests given, before and after the six weeks remedial work was taken, show that many of the children made from a half to a whole year's progress in the subject in which he was instructed. Great improvement was made in speed and comprehension in reading. One child, classed as a hopeless non-speller, gained by the writing method as much as nine-tenths of a grade.
    The program of testing and instruction for atypical children is being done to quite an extent in California, but so far is very new in Oregon. The presence of such a program in the city speaks well for the Medford school system.
Medford Mail Tribune, July 21, 1929, page 3


PREPARE SCHOOLS FOR OPENING DAY; EXPECT OVERFLOW
    L. R. Bloom and Harvey Young, janitors at the local high school, have been working during the vacation months on the cleaning of the building, to have it ready for the opening of school. The walls have been cleaned and painted, which makes it possible for them to be washed. The woodwork has also been repainted and the floors varnished.
    Due to the crowded condition of the junior high building, and the large enrollment, the old Salvation Army building has been rented for the school term, and the building has been cleaned and renovated during the last few days. it has been found necessary to hold another class in this building this fall. "The Salvation Army building will not be used for home rooms, but merely for overflow classes," said E. H. Hedrick, city superintendent, this morning. "We seriously regret having to use this building," he further stated, "but due to the present conditions, we find no alternative."
    A new floor is being built at the entrance of the junior high school building by A. L. Wilkinson, local contractor.
    The Jackson and Roosevelt schools have been kalsomined throughout, and a number of windows reglazed at the Roosevelt. Window frames and casings have also been repainted. At the Lincoln School minor changes have been made, besides repairs to the roof, and some kalsomining done. The Washington School has also had minor repair work done, besides the entire building has been cleaned.
    The janitors for the local schools, who have been working all during the summer, and will continue during the school year, are: L. R. Bloom and Harvey Young of the senior high school; E. W. Wakefield of the junior high school, who is also foreman of all the city school janitors; P. J. Kirkpatrick of the Lincoln School; E. S. Stinson of the Jackson School; W. R. Bullock of the Washington School; and E. A. Cripps of the Roosevelt School
Medford Mail Tribune, August 20, 1929, page 3


VALLEY SCHOOL OPENS ON SEPTEMBER NINTH
    The Valley School on Siskiyou Heights will open September 9. There will be two new teachers, Miss Kitty Bragg of Portland and formerly well known in Medford for the pre-primary group, and Mrs. Lillian VanLoan for the fifth and sixth, which latter is being added this year. Mrs. VanLoan has lately been elementary supervisor of the Salem public schools and has organized special work in the high school there.
    Further information may be secured by telephoning Mrs. Mosher, 370-L, on week days.
Medford Mail Tribune, August 23, 1929, page 7


THOMPSON CLASS OF AGRICULTURE AT HIGH SCHOOL
    A part-time school of agriculture, the classes to be given in the afternoons at the Medford High School, will be opened December 1 by C. D. Thompson, local instructor, according to an announcement this morning.
    Free of tuition, the school will be for the benefit of boys between the ages of 17 and 25 who are interested in agriculture. No previous high school training is required. Beginning at a time of year when farm work is generally slack, the course, it is thought, will meet with a hearty response throughout Rogue River Valley.
    A night school for adults in the same subject will be started by the instructor January 1, according to present plans.
    Beginning his tenth year with the local high school, where he is retained on the Smith-Hughes plan jointly by the state and federal government and the school district, Mr. Thompson conducts two regular morning classes at the high school, dealing with farm problems. A constant demand for further instruction in the subject, arranged to accommodate those vitally interested in farm problems who cannot take the regular high school course, prompted the decision to organize the part-time afternoon and night schools.
Medford Mail Tribune, September 6, 1929, page 5


SAVING SYSTEM REOPENS SOON CITY'S SCHOOLS
    The Medford schools will in a few days undertake the program of educational thrift, through the school savings system, which has been used for four previous years. Statistics available concerning the growth of school savings in the last four years show the incalculable value of the system to the students.
    The following figures show the amount of money deposited in the bank, minus the summer withdrawals:
    1925 …………. $ 2,217
    1927 ………….    9,199
    1928 ………….  16,211
    1929 ………….  25,418
    This shows an increase of $23,201 between the years of 1926 and 1929. The number of depositors has increased from 2566 in 1928 to 3800 in 1929.
    The system is being conducted in this city, along with a large number of schools throughout the United States, as well as an outstanding system in Belgium. By conducting this system in the schools students learn the values and methods of regular banking.
    The local high school holds the distinction of being one of three high schools on the Pacific Coast that has 100 percent banking weekly.
Medford Mail Tribune, September 11, 1929, page 1


PHYSICAL ED. IN HIGH SCHOOL TO OPEN FOR GIRLS
    With the completion of enrollment this week, the physical education program for girls will start in earnest in Medford High School next week. There are 204 girls now enrolled, and at least 25 more are expected before registration is completed. Medford High School not only offers but requires two years of physical training for every girl during the first two years in high school. The only exceptions are made in cases of students with physical defects that would cause the physical exercises to be injurious rather than beneficial.
    The physical education program in Medford High School will be opened by giving all the girls enrolled a thorough physical examination. In addition to the main activities a program of corrective exercises is offered for those suffering from remedial physical defects. With the exception of those suffering from physical defects all girls are required to take the same work, and a universal program consisting of gymnastics, folk dancing, health education and intramural sports is followed throughout the year.
    No interscholastic competition is carried on the girls' athletics, but a full list of intramural sports extends throughout the year. The list includes speedball, volleyball, basketball, baseball, track and field and tennis. The students are divided into a large number of teams that compete against each other for the championship in the various sports.
    In awarding letters for participation in intramural athletics the "state point system" is used. A numeral is awarded for earning 50 points, a large letter for 100 points and a large letter with the school insignia for 200 points. In addition to these awards, a gold pin will be awarded this year to the girl who stands highest in athletics, scholarship and student leadership. The girls eligible will be nominated by the head of the physical education department and elected by the faculty. The work of the physical education department has been organized and is carried on by Mrs. Maude Jones.
Medford Mail Tribune, September 13, 1929, page 3


YELLOW SLIPS TO REPORT PROGRESS HI SCHOOL PUPILS
    In  order to bring about closer cooperation between the parents and faculty in prevention of failures, a yellow slip system has been instituted at Medford High School. There are a large number of causes for failure, most of which are preventable, according to school authorities. Despite the nature of the cause in any particular case, it is advantageous to both parents and students to know that work in some courses is unsatisfactory, and the reasons.
    The school year of 36 weeks is divided into two semesters, and each semester into three six-week periods. Report cards are issued at the close of each six weeks. During the third week of the period, yellow slips are filled out for each student doing unsatisfactory work and mailed directly to the parents. The slips show the name of the student and the teacher having charge of the class, and the reason for failure.
    The parents are asked to return the slips to the principal's office, so a check can be made showing that the were received by them.
    In most cases, parents appreciate the service rendered through the issuance of the slips, but in some cases the parents make the mistake of believing that yellow slips are sent as a mark of disapproval. Warning slips are sent to every student doing unsatisfactory work, no matter how justifiable the failure. Parents are urged to get in touch with the teachers in order to learn the cause.
Medford Mail Tribune, October 2, 1929, page 5


STUDENTS DEPOSIT $337 IN ONE DAY AT MEDFORD HIGH
    A total deposit of $337 was made yesterday afternoon at the high school during the second bank day of the school year, with an increase of $66 over the deposits of last week. The banking record of 100 percent was maintained both days.
    This is the fourth year that educational thrift has been carried on in Medford schools, and the success of the work is best indicated by the fact that the total amount of deposits has grown from $2000 in 1926 to $25,000 in 1929. There are approximately 3000 individual depositors in school savings at present.
    According to the National Journal of Educational Thrift, Medford ranks fourteenth in all the school systems of its class in the United States, with a weekly average of 93 percent over a four-year period. The high school has established a 100 percent record which it has maintained for four years. Medford High is one of three schools on the Pacific Coast with this record.
Medford Mail Tribune, October 2, 1929, page 5


BOYS AND GIRLS OF HIGH SCHOOL NEED MORE JOBS
    According to a recent estimate, approximately 75 boys and girls attending Medford High School are partially or wholly self-supporting. To date, approximately 15 boys have been placed in permanent jobs that will last throughout the winter. This number does not include the large group of boys who secured temporary work in the fruit or doing odd jobs.
    The work varies in character and includes clerking in stores, janitor work, soliciting, caring for lawns, putting in wood, etc. There are still several boys who are worthy and willing who have not been placed, and anyone desiring to obtain a high school boy to work in the evenings or on Saturdays is urged to get in touch with the principal's office at the high school.
    Up to the present date, 25 girls have been given steady employment through the dean of girls' office. All girls so employed receive their room and board and in addition some receive as high as $8 to $10 per week. Approximately 15 girls have also been placed in part-time work after school and on Saturdays. The work found for the girls usually consists of housework, caring for children, serving meals, sewing, clerking in stores, and school cafeteria.
    A set of regulations have been drawn up by the dean of girls to aid both the employer and employee where high school girls are hired. These regulations not only explain what the employer can expect from a girl in number of hours spent working and type of work the girl may be asked to do, but also aids the girl in determining what she owes to her employer.
    In each individual case where a girl is placed, the prospective employer and employee are both interviewed by Miss Maurine Carroll, dean of the girls, and the fact determined that conditions of employment are satisfactory to both parties concerned. The success of this plan is evidenced by the fact that only four girls changed employment last year out of a large number placed.
    In the near future a working girls club will be formed at the high school under the guidance of Miss Carroll to help the self-supporting students to solve their problems and better themselves.
    Anyone that has any suggestions to make concerning the system of girl employment desires any adjustments, or wishes to hire a girl is asked to phone Miss Carroll at 1501. The rate set for housework is 30 cents per hour, and for child care 25 cents per hour. Boy employment is handled by Principal B. H. Conkle and girl employment by Miss Maurine Carroll.
Medford Mail Tribune, October 16, 1929, page 6


LIST OF STUDENTS WHOSE WORK UNSATISFACTORY AT LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL
    As an aftermath of the issuance of six-weeks grades at the high school, the unsatisfactory work list has been compiled by Principal B. H. Conkle, personally, with the names of all students whose work has been so poor that it is necessary to bring some pressure to bear, or to give extra attention to determine the causes for the low quality of work being done by them. Pupils with 2 E's, 1E and an Incomplete, 1 F, or 2 Incompletes are on the list.
    Copies of the list are given to the counselors, who in turn interview the pupils and find out as completely as possible causes for the difficulties and remedy them when possible. In some cases the pupil must be given assistance in solving some problem such as poor health, too much outside work, poor home conditions, social activities and too heavy a school schedule.
    Often the parents are interviewed by the counselors to more quickly reach the causes for the scholastic troubles.
    The object of the whole system is to keep a close check on all pupils and minimize the number of students doing unsatisfactory work.
    Pupils who fail to do passing work in two or more subjects are placed on probation, and if work in these subjects is not brought up to passing within two weeks, the pupil is dropped from school. This is done on the assumption that unless a student is passing in a majority of his subjects, he is not doing enough work to warrant his continuation in school.    
Medford Mail Tribune, October 29, 1929, page 3


$4000 STUDIO VALLEY SCHOOL SOON FINISHED
    With a program of construction nearing completion, the Valley School will soon present its new $4000 studio being erected west of the present school building in Siskiyou Heights. The building, measuring 40 by 24 feet, will be used for art work, the presentation of plays, assemblies and the various activities of the pre-primary groups. It will be constructed of hollow tile, the same material used in the main buildings.
    A stage, measuring 10 by 14 feet, will be installed in one end of the auditorium and equipped for dramatic productions. The building fund which has been raised by contribution is in charge of Alfred Carpenter.
    Mrs. Floyd Hart has contributed a flag pole in the school which will soon be erected in front of the building with appropriate dedication ceremonies. The studio building will be completed shortly after the new year, according to Mrs. Isabel Mosher, principal.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 15, 1929, page 8


HIGH SCHOOL BOYS EARN GOOD WAGES
    That over $43,000 was earned during the past year by local high school boys employed through the efforts of the guidance and placement department of the high school was one of the many interesting facts brought out in the talk delivered before the Kiwanis Club this noon by W. L. Van Loan, history and economics instructor, who is now engaged in organizing and systematizing the vocational work of the school.
    Mr. Van Loan said that there were three types of students the school was concerned in placing. The first consists of those who are in actual need of work; the second, those who are in actual need of a home; and third, those who lack responsibility and need some type of work to assure their normal well-being.
    Frank Ross, assistant advertising manager of the California Oregon Power Company, spoke on the value of advertising. Among other interesting points brought out, he discouraged the tendency to "become too highbrow in your advertising campaign." He said that many manufacturers make the mistake of becoming literary when their product is designed to appeal to the class of people who would not read it.
    That the radio as a medium is still too young for advertisers to check properly was another statement made by the speaker.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 16, 1929, page 3


HI STUDENTS USE ANY CONVEYANCE BUT THEIR LEGS
    "The students of Medford High School have come to the point where they will ride to school in anything that runs on wheels, and one, in looking over the school parking space at the west end of the building, finds everything from broken-down baby buggies to new Packards and Cadillacs," says the Medford Hi Times. "It seems as though the general tendency is toward competition, to see who can have the most antique vehicle.
    "There are seventy-five and one-half cars on the parking space and around the school building. The one-half represents Norris Porter's car, or antique, as it is sometimes called. So far the Colvig boys are running a close second to Norris' car while Martin Webb and his Chevrolet are not far behind. There are all types, makes and models, including bugs of various shapes.
    "In seeing some of the new Ford coupes and roadsters some people would instantly feel sorry for the poor fathers and mothers who had to stand a lot of talk before they would consent to letting their offspring have the new car. A person would be of the opinion that if many more such antiques and traps are created life insurance should become compulsory.
    "Some people also think that there should be a law prohibiting the making of any more of the traps and that there should be a special license for those who already have them. They say these cars are a menace to society and should be overhauled at least once before appearing on the streets. Robert Christner seems to take the prize for the car that can make the most noise, while the Emmens boys take the cake for being able to carry the largest number of girls in their new Ford coupe.
    "Although the Colvig boys can carry at least nine or ten in their Ford, Frank Hansen can carry as many in his Chev touring. If you see a green Ford coupe with the paint slightly white in almost every opposed spot, you will instantly know that it belongs to Alan Carley, who was foozled into believing that it was a good paint job."
Medford Mail Tribune, February 27, 1930, page 7

B. H. CONKLE RESIGNS AS PRINCIPAL
C. Glenn Smith, Assistant to Superintendent Hedrick Assumes High School Leadership--Conkle to Study at Stanford.
    B. H. Conkle resigned this morning as principal of Medford High School, and will be succeeded immediately by C. Glenn Smith, assistant to Superintendent E. H. Hedrick. Mr. Conkle will leave for Palo Alto to enter the spring term at Stanford University April 1, in order to receive his master's degree.
    Mr. Conkle has been principal of the senior high school for five years, coming here from Milton-Freewater, where he was principal of the McLoughlin Union High School. He is a graduate of Mount Union College, Ohio, and has done graduate work in Oregon and Stanford universities.
    During his administration the new $185,000 high school was built. He inaugurated the poll system of voting in student body elections, and completely revised the system of financial management of the school, the revised system having proved very successful.
Growth Seen
    Under his leadership and direction the Torch Honor Society was organized, and public speaking as well as debate have gone forward under his coaching. The enrollment of the high school has increased noticeably during Mr. Conkle's principalship, with 950 pupils enrolled at the present time.
    Principal Conkle is prominent in school activities of the state, having been president of the principals' association and president of the state athletic association.
Medford Mail Tribune, March 24, 1930, page 1


Medford School Survey Shows Bad Teeth a Prevailing Defect; Correction Is Urged for Health
By Eva Nealon
    How many members of the younger generation will sport store teeth before they are 30? (This is not an advertisement.) Much talk has been published in magazines, newspapers and other media on the effect of modern foods on teeth.
    They haven't said much about flat feet, but the report of physical examinations conducted in the Medford grade schools for 1929 and 1930, given out Wednesday by Mrs. Josephine Jones, school nurse, shows bad teeth doubling in number any other defects found in Medford's school girls and boys with flat feet next in line. A total of 1188 pupils have defective teeth. There are 479 with flat feet. The examination schedule shows 109 pupils without defects.
    They aren't going to have store teeth and they aren't going to keep flat feet, according to school officials, if they follow instructions given out following examinations. Preparations are now under way for the annual health honor roll program, which will be conducted by Mrs. Jones May 2, during National Child Health Week, and it is hoped most Medford students will qualify to participate in the festivities of the day.
    The first requirement of the Health Honor Roll is an annual physical examination and the correction of remedial defects. These examinations are made by local physicians and dentists, who have donated their time to the work, giving an hour or two a day until the examinations are completed. The laws of Oregon demand that physical examinations be given in the schools each year. Any parent, however, may have a child exempt from the examinations upon application.
    More than 60 percent of the pupils in the Medford high school and more than 90 percent of the pupils in all other schools of this city elected to take the examinations this year, Mrs. Jones stated.
    Besides being free of remedial defects a child must be doing his health chores each day to form right habits of cleanliness, eating, exercise and play before he qualifies for the honor roll. The cooperation offered by Medford parents in the health work, Mrs. Jones stated, is realized in the number of letters received each day concerning the welfare of the child.
    An average of about 150 or 200 corrections are being made each week in order that children may be eligible.
    The health honor roll program Friday, May 2, will open with a parade from the junior high school up Main Street to the Library lawn, where the pupils will pass in review before the grandstand.
    The complete summary of defects found in the 1541 pupils below high school examined this year is as follows: Tonsils 476, teeth 1188, thyroid 419, heart 75, lungs 4, flat feet 479, hearing 59, vision 88 and weight, 220 under and 50 over weight.
    Following the health honor roll program Mrs. Maude Barrigar Jones, director of physical education for girls in the Medford schools, will put on a short program showing the work carried on in her department.
Medford Mail Tribune, April 18, 1930, page 4


BOARD CHOOSES TEACHERS STAFF LOCAL SCHOOLS
C. G. Smith Will Be Principal High School--
Most of Faculty Desire to Remain in City.
    Teachers elected for the year 1930-31 by the school board of Medford were announced this morning by Supt. E. H. Hedrick. The list includes few changes made by the board and most members of the faculty have expressed a desire to return, Mr. Hedrick stated, so the list will probably stand as reported.
    As principal of the high school C. G. Smith will succeed B. H. Conkle, who resigned a short time ago to take his degree at Stanford University. Mr. Smith has been filling the position since April 1st of this year.
    The position of supervisor of physical education for girls remains open, Mrs. Maude Jones having notified the superintendent some time ago that she would not be a candidate to succeed herself in this capacity. Mrs. Jones has held this position for four years, but was married during the past year and desires to devote her time to her home.
    Edward W. Kirtley, a graduate of the University of Oregon, later a student of Chicago, and now principal of the Drain, Oregon, schools, will succeed B. R. Finch as principal of the Washington School. Mr. Finch asked for and received a release in April to complete work for a degree at the university. Since his departure, Miss Amy Harding, an able teacher of the Washington building, has been substituting in the principal's office, but was unwilling to assume principalship duties beyond the close of this year.
    Mrs. Edith Brown, Mrs. Aletha Gray Harrison, Mr. Walter Nitzel had already notified the board that they would not be candidates to succeed themselves. Mrs. Harrison and Mr. Nitzel will enter college, while Mrs. Brown is going in June to join her husband, Leon Brown, who has opened a business in Salem.
    Following is the list of teachers by schools:
High School.
    C. G. Smith, Ralph Bailey, Myrna Barrett, Eula Benson, Gertrude Butler, Merrill Hagen, Maurine Carroll, Esther Church, H. F. Cope, Ruth Ella Dickerson, Glenna Mae Early, Johnnie Fleet, Mary Gilbert, Maurine Johnston, Roland Humphreys, E. M. Hussong, Elizabeth Jerome, Ruth Abele, Josephine Jones, Josephine Kirtley, Leland Knox, Leland Mentzer, Lora Mitchell, Doris Baier, Carol Ramsey, Margaret Schuler, Josephine Smith, Myrtle Tobey, C. D. Thompson, Isobel Willsie. Gertrude Gates, Wilson Wait, Eleanor Ames, Louise Hollenbeck, Marie Ridings and W. L. Van Loan.
Junior High School.
    A. J. Hanby, Delie Whisenant, Winifred Andrews, Luola Benge, Maybelle Church, Marvel Bliss, Albert Fitch, Annette Gray, Rose Haldeman, Ray Henderson, Florence Medaris, H. W. Keesee, Ruth MacCollister, Loye Marshall, Gertrude Parker, Grace Sinema, Lillian Wise, Margaret Arnold, Zoe R. Hubbs, Fay Carver.
Jackson Carver.
    H. W. Gustin, Marion Briggs, Jessie Gifford, Mildred Henderson, Jeanne Laidley, Jessie MacNiven, Esther McCollum, Ivan D. Murray, Grace Reid, Yvonne Smith, Theone Taylor.
Lincoln School.
    Ora Cox, Lucile Abbott, Flora Childers, Maude Harris, Margaret Russell, Ora Tucker, Edith Lindt, Pearl Turner, Emily Webber, Laura West.
Roosevelt School.
    Sara Van Meter, Mildred Aspinwall, Nina Carlon, Anna B. Carter, Eleanor Curry, Alliean Maxwell, Myra Russell, Freda Schneider, Priscilla Webb, Ethel Willits and Gertrude Watzling.
Washington School.
    E. W. Kirtley, Avis Anscheutz, Marion Beeson, Ruth Bolton, Alice Cromar, Blanche Canode, Lydia Cooney, Lysle Gregory, Amy Harding, Lura Lynch, Beulah O'Neal, Louise Basford.
Medford Mail Tribune, April 23, 1930, page 1


EX-SUPERINTENDENT OF LOCAL SCHOOLS SEES MANY CHANGES
    Mr. and Mrs. U. S. Collins and three children of Springfield, Ill. have been visiting relatives and friends in Medford and vicinity the past ten days. Mr. Collins was formerly superintendent of schools in Medford, leaving here in 1916 to take his present school position in Springfield.   
    Both he and Mrs. Collins were greatly impressed by the growth of Medford since their departure and the many evidences of prosperity in the city and valley.
    They motored to the coast in six days, and expect to return in about the same length of driving time, although they plan to make several stops en route. They visited Mr. Collins' brother, Sam Collins of Table Rock, and also Mrs. Elija Hurd, of this city, an old friend of the family.
Medford Mail Tribune, July 22, 1930, page 3


MRS. WILLIAMSON TO OPEN KINDERGARTEN
    Margaret Huntoon Williamson, vocal artist and instructor of public school music, will open a kindergarten in this city September 8 at 109 South Orange Street, she announced publicly today following her recent return from Seattle, Wash., where she has been associated during the summer with Flora McConaughy, who supervises several kindergartens in the northern city.
    The same emphasis placed upon musical and physical training in Mrs. McConaughy's kindergartens will be adopted in the local school. Mrs. Williamson will instruct children between the ages of three and six years and will be able to accept 30 pupils.
    The methods used by Mrs. McConaughy have proved very satisfactory in Seattle, and Mrs. Williamson believes they will meet with the favor of local mothers.
Medford Mail Tribune, August 19, 1930, page 2


MRS. WRIGHT WILL OPEN KINDERGARTEN
    With the opening of public schools in Medford, September 2, a kindergarten will be opened in the beginners' room of the First Presbyterian church under the direction of Mrs. Lena Spilver Wright. The room is now being remodeled and decorated for the kindergarten, which will accommodate about 30 children during the afternoon classes, Mrs. Wright stated yesterday. Classes will convene at 1:30 p.m. Children may be registered with Mrs. Wright at any time.
    A large assortment of equipment for the entertainment of the little folks will be included in the kindergarten. The list of subjects in which they will be given instruction includes: music, language, health education, arithmetic, safety, manual training, reading, nature study, arts (fine, industrial and domestic), social growth, civics, geography and literature.
    Mrs. Wright has had much experience in kindergarten work. She spent five years working in the kindergartens in Chicago and since kept in contact with the work in several cities. She is a graduate of the Chicago Teachers' College.
Medford Mail Tribune, August 24, 1930, page 5

LOCAL SCHOOL TEACHERS GET ASSIGNMENTS
Will Meet for Preliminary Organization on Saturday--
Official List Is Announced.

    Assignment of teachers for the 1930-31 school year, which opens Tuesday, September 2nd, has been made by Superintendent E. H. Hedrick. The teachers will meet for preliminary organization and assignments Saturday, August 30, at 1:30 p.m. Following the general meeting there will be a special meeting of the teachers of the several schools.
    The list, beginning with the high school, follows:
C. G. Smith, principal
Fern Hartsook
Myrna Barrett
Eula Benson
Maurine Carroll
H. F. Cope
Glenna Mae Early
Opal Thompson
I. M. Hussong
Josephine Jones
Leland Knox
Lora Mitchell
Carol Ramsey
Josephine Smith
C. D. Thompson
Gertrude Gates
Louise Hollenbeck
Gertrude Butler
Ralph Bailey
Carin Degermark
D. K. Burgher
Harriet Baldwin
Ruth Ella Dickerson
Johnnie Fleet
Maurine Johnston
Elizabeth Jerome
Josephine Kirtley
Leland Mentzer
Doris Bauer
Margaret Schuler
Maury Gilbert
Isabel Willsie
Wilson Wait
Marie Ridings
Clita Walden
Arthur Schoeni
B. R. Finch
Eleanor Ames, secretary
Junior High School.
A. J. Hanby, principal
Delie Whisenant, assistant principal
Winifred Andrews
Anne Norvell
Luola Benge
Albert Fitch
Marguerite Hammond
Florence Medaris
Raymond T. Cornwell
Loye Marshall
Gertrude Parker
Lillian Wise
Zoe Hubbs
Gladys Benge
Maybelle Church
Marvel Bliss
Annette Gray
Ray Henderson
H. W. Keesee
Ruth MacCollister
Ethel Scott
Grace Sinema
Margaret Arnold
Jackson.
H. W. Gustin, principal
Carla Nerisen
Jeanne Laidley
Esther McCollum
Grace Reid
Theone Taylor
Marian Briggs
Mildred Henderson
Ruth Stewart
Ivan D. Murray
Yvonne Smith
Lincoln.
Ora Cox, principal
Flora Childers
Aletha Gray
Ora Tucker
Pearl Turner
Clare Gumelius
Lucile Abbott
Gladys Bond
Ethel Chastain
Leona Crane
Margaret Russell
Roosevelt.
Sara VanMeter, principal
Nina Carlon
Eleanor Curry
Myra Russell
Priscilla Webb
Eldora Terwillegar
Mildred Aspinwall
Anna E. Carter
Alliean S. Maxwell
Fred Schneider
Ethel Willits
Washington.
E. M. Kirtley, principal
Marian Beeson
Blanche Canode
Helen Noyes
Amy Hardings
Beulah O'Neal
Gortrude Watzling
Avis Anschuetz
Ruth Bolton
Lyle Gregory
Lura Lynch
Louise Basford
Alice Cromar
Medford Mail Tribune, August 28, 1930, page 4


Valley School Will Open with 50 Pupils Sept. 8th
    The Valley School, a children's day school on Siskiyou Heights, will open Monday, September 8, with about 50 pupils enrolled. This is the sixteenth year the school has been conducted, and will be the third year in the new building. The studio, built during the last school year, provides a place for presentation of dramatic and musical programs.
    The school has grown rapidly in the past several years, having originated when three parents desired that their children have individual attention. The first school was conducted in a room at the Hotel Medford.
    Since then the attractive five-room building has been erected at Groveland Street in the Siskiyou district. A recreation shelter is also a part of the school, where physical activities may be carried out on rainy days.
    Faculty members include Mrs. W. L. Van Loan, principal; Miss E. Marie Foss, Miss Katherine Starr and Miss Naomi Hohman. All the members have had special training in connection with their duties at the school and are quite capable of directing the students' education.
    Miss Foss, a graduate of the Oregon Normal School, who took advanced work in the University of Minnesota, will be in charge of the pre-primary and primary children. She has had five years' experience in primary work and has had special work in art.
    Another graduate of Oregon Normal School as well as the University of Oregon is Miss Starr, who will have charge of the music and dramatic work, and has already made a number of plans for programs during the winer, which will make it possible for all pupils to participate.
    French and nature study will be the special work conducted by Miss Hohman, who has her degree from the University of Oregon. She will also have charge of the intermediate grades.
    Mrs. Van Loan, principal, has had advanced work at the University of Oregon, having graduated from the Oregon Normal School. She will teach the advanced group and supervise all playground activity. Mrs. Van Loan was formerly with the Salem school system.
    Alfred S. V. Carpenter is chairman of the board of trustees, the other members being Floyd Hart, F. Corning Kenly, Dr. George Dean and David Rosenberg. Members of the board of managers are Mrs. Wheldon Biddle, chairman; Mrs. Alfred S. V. Carpenter, Mrs. Milton Feasley and Mrs. Floyd Hart.
Medford Mail Tribune, August 30, 1930, page 8


630 HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS LISTED FOR OPENING DAY
    Yesterday's enrollment at the senior high school was reported this afternoon by Principal C. G. Smith as 630 students. There were 189 in the freshman class, 158 sophomores, 170 juniors and 113 seniors.
    No report had been made on today's attendance and additional registrations, Mr. Smith stated, as the work was being carried out slowly and accurately, to avoid mistakes. A number more are expected to register soon who have not entered yet, due to employment.
    An assembly was held this afternoon at the school, at which time general announcements were made and Miss Harriet Baldwin, new music instructor, introduced the "get acquainted" song. Prof. R. R. Bailey outlined plans for extracurricular activities, and told about the forensic work that would be carried out.
    Coach Darwin Burgher will meet all boys interested in football after school, after which the order of the "M," the letterman's organization, will meet.
Medford Mail Tribune, September 3, 1930, page 3


SCHOOL OFFICES WILL EXPAND IN MEDFORD CENTER
    Carpenters are busy today preparing the former offices of Dr. E. J. Carpenter on the third floor of the Medford Center building for the extension of the Medford School District offices, which has been necessitated by lack of space in the high school building for several department headquarters. The offices to be occupied are directly across the hall from the present offices of School Superintendent E. H. Hedrick.
    They will be used as headquarters for the school health nurse and supervisors of physical education, art and music as well as the mimeograph department and storage space.
    The supervisors will spend only a small amount of their time in the offices, but will make them their headquarters after school hours and on Saturdays.
    New shelves are also being added to Superintendent Hedrick's offices to help solve the storage problem.
Medford Mail Tribune, September 12, 1930, page 5


COUNSELORS HELP TROUBLED PUPILS AT MEDFORD HIGH
    Pupils who are having difficulty with their school work at Medford High School hold conferences with their faculty counselors and their problems are talked over.
    A system of counselors to help guide pupils through high school, look after their registration problems, and iron out scholastic difficulties is being looked upon favorably by a large number of Oregon high schools. Although only 23 percent of the schools having more than four teachers which answer a recent questionnaire have a counselor system; 62 percent of them look upon it as desirable.
    This information is contained in a report which will be made to the Oregon State High School Principals' Association at Salem Saturday by C. G. Smith, principal of Medford High. As head of a committee on pupil guidance he has drawn up an extensive survey of work done in the state in this field. Mr. Smith left today for Salem to attend the semi-annual conference of school heads. Paul T. Jackson of Klamath Falls is president of the association. H. P. Jewett of Central Point is a member of the committee headed by Mr. Smith. Other members include Lewis Clark and Lee Mallory of Klamath Falls, and Dr. J. R. Jewell of Oregon State College.
    Recommendations for an organized system of counselor and guidance work will be made at the convention, which starts Friday. The Medford system, Mr. Smith points out, has functioned satisfactorily and has materially cut down on the number of failures in the high school in recent years. Closer contact between the pupil and the teacher is made possible, with attendant advantages to both.
Medford Mail Tribune, October 16, 1930, page 12


VISUAL EDUCATION PROVING POPULAR AT MEDFORD HIGH
    Visual education, a popular form of putting subject matter across to the student by means of slides or pictures, is proving an aid to the high school faculty.
    Several illustrated lectures have already been given this fall. The past week Miss Carol Ramsey used the projection machine to show pictures of Arabia and Palestine, and Arthur L. Schoeni to show pictures of Greece and the development of land, sea, and air transportation. Miss Clita Walden is preparing an illustrated lecture on the fishes which swim in the seven seas, to be presented to her biology classes.
    Medford High School has a projection machine which throws the image on an opaque screen from an ordinary photograph mounted on cardboard. This makes the use of pictures much easier since magazines furnish a good source for pictures. Moving pictures and slides may also be used by schools for pictorial presentation of material. All members of the history department faculty present two lectures a semester with pictures. The value of pictures in education is recognized by teachers, since a picture conveys at a glance what it would take many words to describe. They are especially valuable in the teaching of history and the sciences.
Medford Mail Tribune, November 13, 1930, page 9


Medford School Expansion Plans Outlined for Board by Superintendent Hedrick
    That some of the present housing conditions in the Medford schools are inadequate both as to capacity and equipment and the building program originally planned for next summer to take care of these conditions be commenced at once is the substance of the report
which Superintendent E. H. Hedrick will put before the board Wednesday evening.
    Six major recommendations have been submitted in the report and are as follows:
    I. That the sites of the present junior high school and the old Washington elementary school be sold and as much as possible of these buildings be salvaged and either sold or used in new construction, as thought best. This could not be done of course until new buildings are available to house the school children.
    II. That the present high school building be completed according to the plans made in 1925, by the addition of an auditorium and at least two additional class rooms, and that the building be occupied by the junior high school (grades 7, 8 and 9).
    III. That a new high school of about 30 rooms, with gymnasium and auditorium to house grades 10, 11 and 12 be constructed on the South Oakdale site, now owned by the school district.
    IV. That a new Washington school of about 15 rooms with a combined gymnasium and auditorium be erected on the site now owned by the district at South Peach and Dakota streets.
    V. That an addition of four rooms be made to the Roosevelt school.
    VI. It is further recommended that a bond issue of about $275,000 be voted immediately and construction commenced at once, by January 1st, 1931, if possible.
    The first three of these recommendations are discussed by Supt. Hedrick as follows:
    I. Tho old junior high school building and site are recommended for sale because:
    1. The building is much too small to house the junior high school.
    The maximum capacity of this building is 450 pupils, whereas the junior high school (7, 8, 9 grades) now numbers 750 pupils. The overflow pupils we are housing in the old Methodist church building on Bartlett Street, in the senior high school building, and by renting the Armory for boys' physical education classes for half-day sessions.
    2. The building is inadequate and unsuited to its present purposes:
    (a) It stands on a site less than one block in size in the business district. It has almost no playground space and presents a traffic problem dangerous to children.
    (b) It has absolutely no gymnasium nor physical education facilities, no laboratories worthy of mention, and an auditorium too small to seat even the pupils who are at present housed in the building.
    3. Good business administration demands that the building be abandoned.
    (a) The school district is now paying out about $1000.00 per year in rent for outside quarters because of the inadequacy of this building to meet the present school needs.
    (b) If the building is not disposed of within the next year or 18 months it will be necessary to pay out from $8000.00 to $10,000.00 for major repairs. A new roof will be required, some new floors, new toilets, repairing, refinishing and the like.
    (c) Finally, the building occupies a site of ground in the business district; although entirely unsuited for a school, it is nevertheless too valuable to he held by the district for school purposes. Two years ago, the board was offered $35,000.00 for this site alone. It should be worth that amount at this time. This means that if the old building were off the site, $35,000.00 or about that could be made available for building construction, as the district now owns enough suitable sites to take care of its needs. Further, it is estimated that there is at least $3,000.00 of salvage in the old building. This would come mainly from brick in the walls, the boiler, steam heating system, and some other material which could be used again.
    II. It is recommended that an auditorium and at least two extra class rooms be added to the present senior high school building and that it be used for a junior high school. This construction will probably cost about $35,000.00. When the building was erected in 1925 it was not completed at the time for the reason that sufficient funds to accomplish that end were not available. Only two units of a future three-unit building were then constructed. The extra room originally planned has been badly needed for the last two or three years, and if we are now to place the junior high school in this building, there will be only a few less pupils at the start than there are in this building at present. Lacking an auditorium as it does, the building has always been out of balance and we have naturally found it difficult to use.
    Here are the reasons why I am recommending that this building be taken for a junior high school instead of a senior high school: The way I view the matter, this school district is, in any event, faced with the proposition of erecting a new building for reasons already pointed out. Now, it can build either a new junior high school and leave the senior high school where it is, or it can build a new senior high school and take the present high school for a junior high school. (The total building cost will be about the same in either event.) I am recommending the latter, and for the following reasons:
    1. The present high school building is not well planned as a senior high school and can be better adapted to junior high school than it can to senior high school purposes.
    2. It occupies a site which is rather too small for a senior high school, with its larger athletic and other activities. The site on South Oakdale contains about 15 acres instead of eight acres and is therefore much larger and better adapted to high school use because more space is needed for athletic and other high school activities than is needed for junior high school purposes.
    3. The school is located near the present junior high school population center and is on the whole more accessible to all pupils in the district than any other site which could be chosen. The other site, which is here proposed as a senior high school site, lies somewhat farther from the population center of the district and to the south. It is on South Oakdale and Melrose streets.
    Since the northern part of the city is rather the industrial section, and since a smaller percentage of the pupils from an industrial section usually attend high school than is the case from the more settled residence sections, it is a safe prediction that the junior high school population center will continue to lie north of the senior high school center as it does now. The mathematical center of the junior high school population of the city for 1926, according to a survey made by the city superintendent's office, was on Fifth Street, between Grape and Holly streets, and the senior high center was about 100 feet to the south of it that year. According to the 1929 survey, three years later, these two centers were over 400 feet apart, lying northeast and southwest of each other.
    4. Furthermore, since one of the two schools must be located more remote from the population center of the city, it is better that it be the senior high school for the further reason that pupils of a senior school are always fewer in number than those of the junior high school, and on the average, older, larger, and better able to take care of themselves.
    III. It is recommended that a new high school be erected on the beautiful South Oakdale site which the school district now owns. This should be a building of about 30 rooms with gymnasium and auditorium and will cost in the neighborhood of $210,000. It would have an initial maximum capacity of about 800 pupils, and while it should be a complete and well-balanced building respecting the functions it will be called upon to serve, it should be so constructed as to make provisions for the addition of future class rooms when needed. It would house the senior high school (grades 10, 11, 12) which now number about 550 pupils.
Medford Mail Tribune, November 25, 1930, page 10


HARD QUESTIONS FIRED AT SENIORS
    Who was Hannibal? Is a tariff a tax on exports? Who said "Don't give up the ship!" Fifty questions on social science, mathematics, physical science, English usages, and spelling were given all seniors in Medford High School this afternoon. The tests, drawn up by department heads in the school, were designed to find out how much knowledge the seniors have of fundamentals taught in school.
    Another test will be given in the spring and a comparison made of the two to see if progress has been made by the students.
    These tests will also be used in determining senior ratings covering their academic grades over their four years of high school.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 3, 1930, page 3


SELECT CLARK AS ARCHITECT NEW SCHOOLS
Blueprints Ready for Contractors' Survey by January Is Word--
Work to Be
Rushed.
    Frank C. Clark, architect of this city and member of the state board of architecture, has been assigned by the school board to draw plans for the new high school and grade school made possible by the passage of the $265,000 bond issue last Tuesday by an overwhelming vote.
    Clark said this morning that he would start at once on preparing the plans and specifications for the structure and expected to have them ready for bids by contractors by Wednesday, January 10. Actual work will start shortly after the letting of the contract.
    The new county courthouse, to be erected on the site of the present Washington School, will not be started much before midsummer, members of the county court said this morning. The county will have to wait until the work of dismantling the Washington School has been completed, and that cannot be done until the end of the school year,
    The county court is studying plans, specifications, type of building, material and the other numerous details that have to be considered. No decision has been reached upon any of these factors, also no architect has been selected. It is probable with the 1931 budget out of the way the county court will spend most of the spring months arriving at decisions.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 18, 1930, page 1


110 TEACHERS RE-ELECTED TO SCHOOL POSTS
School Board Selects Personnel of Teaching Corps Last Night's Meeting--
Few Changes or Transfers
    Re-election of 110 teachers, who will serve in the Medford school system next year, was announced this morning by Supt. E. H. Hedrick, following the meeting of the board held last night. Several teachers were not candidates for re-election and had so notified the school board prior to the meeting.
    The board has not contemplated any increases in the teaching staff, Mr. Hedrick also stated, but several necessary transfers from the senior to the junior high school will be announced at an early date. The junior high school will house all members of the seventh, eighth and ninth grades next year and will therefore demand a larger teaching staff. It will have the largest enrollment in the school system. The several teachers who will be transferred to the junior high school building are listed today with the high school staff.
    The complete list of re-elections reads:
High Schools
    C. G. Smith, Eula Benson, Maurine Carroll, Carin H. Degermark, Johnnie Fleet, Glenna Mae Early, Josephine Jones, Lora Mitchell, Marie Ridings, Clita Walden, Isobel Willsie, Carol Ramsey, Ralph Bailey, Gertrude Butler, Harriet Baldwin, Doris Baier, Fern Hartsook, E. M. Hussong.
    Josephine Kirtley, Gertrude Gates, Josephine Smith, Arthur Schoeni, E. M. Kirtley, Ruth Ella Dickerson, Myrna Barrett, D. K. Burgher, H. F. Cope, Mary Gilbert, Maurine Johnston, Elizabeth Jerome, Leland Mentzer, Louise Hollenbeck, C. D. Thompson, Wilson Wait, B. R. Finch, Margaret Schuler, Opal Thompson.
Junior High School
    A. J. Hanby, Gladys Benge, Luola Benge, Annette Gray, Florence Medaris, Ruth MacCollister, Gertrude Parker, Zoe Hubbs, Delie Whisenant, Anne Norvell, Marvel Bliss, Marguerite Hammond, H. W. Keesee, Loye Marshall, Grace Sinema, Lillian Wise, Winifred Andrews, Maybelle W. Church, Albert Fitch, Ray Henderson, Earle Brown, Ethel Scott, Margaret Arnold.
Jackson School
    H. W. Gustin, Mildred Henderson, Iva Murray, Theone Taylor, Marian Briggs, Ruth Stewart, Grace Reid, Jeanne Laidley, Carla Nerisen, Esther McCollom, Yvonne Smith.
Lincoln School
    Ora Cox, Aletha Gray, Freda Schneider, Clare Gumelius, Lucile Abbott, Ethel Chastain, Leona Crane, Gladys Bond, Ora Tucker, Margaret Russell.
Roosevelt School
    Sara Van Meter, Anna B. Carter, Myra Russell, Ethel Willits, Mildred Aspinwall, Eleanor Curry, Flora Childers, Eldora Terwilliger, Nina Carlon, Alliean Maxwell, Priscilla Webb.
Washington School
    Avis Anchuetz, Blanche Canode, Lysle Gregory, Beulah O'Neal, Marian Beeson, Alice Cromar, Amy Harding, Gertrude Watzling, Ruth Bolton, Helen Noyes, Lura Lynch, Louise Basford.
Medford Mail Tribune, April 15, 1931, page 7


PLAN ADDITION TO ROOSEVELT SCHOOL HOUSE
Two Class Rooms and Combined Gymnasium, Auditorium to Be Added with Funds from Site Sale
    Plans are being prepared by Frank C. Clark, local architect, for an addition to the Roosevelt School, it was announced today by Supt. E. H. Hedrick. The addition, which is a part of the school building program approved by the people of Medford last January, will comprise two additional class rooms and a combined gymnasium and auditorium.
    The gymnasium will be very similar to the one planned for the Washington School. It will be 60 by 90 feet overall and includes a stage, dressing rooms and lavatories. The play space will be large enough to take care of the physical education work and provide sufficient floor room for a minimum size basketball court.
Need Play Space
    "Roosevelt," said Superintendent Hedrick, "is one of our schools which has had no play shed and has suffered from an almost total lack of indoor play and physical education facilities. We hope to remedy this condition before another year as well as make the necessary enlargement of class room space to care for the large number of pupils housed there.
    "Brick to be salvaged from the old Washington School will be used in the construction, and the design of the present building will be carried out in the new addition.
    "Work on wrecking the old Washington School or constructing the proposed addition on Roosevelt is expected to commence as soon as school is out, June 5, if the city bond issue for the purchase of the old Washington property for a court house site carries Friday. If it shouldn't carry the school district, of course, would necessarily be held up on this part of the program."
    The polls will be open at 1 p.m. Friday for the bond election and voting will continue until 8 p.m. The four polling places are: First ward, public market, South Riverside; second ward, Washington School, corner of West Main and South Oakdale; third ward, Fichtner garage, corner Sixth and Fir; fourth ward, city hall, corner of Sixth and North Front.
Medford Mail Tribune, April 29, 1931, page 1


HEALTHY YOUNG STAGE PARADE RECEIVE PRIZES
Washington School Has Highest Percentage on Honor Roll--Jackson 2nd--
Treat Ends Program

    Girls and boys, numbering 1198, marched through the streets of Medford this afternoon in one of the largest health demonstrations ever presented by the Medford schools, to receive their reward for fulfilling the qualifications of the annual health honor roll.
    The Washington School, with the highest percentage on the honor roll, received the $10 prize, and the Jackson School, with the second highest percentage, was awarded the second prize of $5. The health inspection cup, awarded the school having the highest percent of health chores completed, went to the Roosevelt School whose rating was 99.4 percent.
    The parade formed at the junior high school building and continued down Main Street to the city park, where the children marched before the reviewing stand, under the direction of B. R. Finch. Motion pictures of the lineup were taken by Horace Bromley of the California-Oregon Power Company.
    Dr. R. E. Green, chairman of the school board, presented the prizes and Mrs. Josephine Jones, school nurse, the health inspection cup.
    The main address of the afternoon was given by C. A. Meeker, vice-mayor. Band music was played at intervals by the high school band under the direction of Wilson Wait, adding much to the festivity of the occasion.
    On the reviewing stand were seated: C. A. Meeker, vice-mayor; Dr. Green, chairman of the school board; Mrs. R. E. Green of the Public Health Association; Miss Mildred Carlton, president of the Public Health Association; Drs. R. W. Sleter, E. R. Durno and W. W. P. Holt, examining physicians; Dr. B. C. Wilson, county health officer, representing the Kiwanis Club; Dr. L. D. Inskeep, city health officer; Dr. C. H. Paske, president of the Southern Oregon Dental Association; Mrs. C. N. Culy, representing the Parent-Teachers’ Association, and Mrs. Jones, school nurse.
    The American Legion Auxiliary and the Business and Professional Women's Club were also represented.
    The complete list of schools and their representation for the day reads:
    Percent on health honor roll from each building: Junior high, 62.46; Jackson, 80.16; Lincoln, 63.85; Roosevelt, 75.82; Washington, 88.51.
    Number in each building on the health honor roll: Junior high, 256; Jackson School, 249; Lincoln School, 228; Washington School, 302.
    Health inspection cup: Jackson, 97.02; Lincoln, 98.72; Washington, 98.76.
    Following the program the children were treated to ice cream. Those not on the health honor roll were also treated and dismissed at 2:30 o'clock.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 15, 1931, page 1


HOWARD SCHOOL HIRES SAME TEACHING STAFF
    At a meeting of the directors of the Howard School last night, teachers were named for the ensuing year and are the same as last year.
    Frank Newton will continue as principal and teacher of the seventh and eighth grades. Mrs. Frank Newton will teach the primary grades. Mrs. Cora Gustin will teach the third and fourth grades and music while Guinevere Kerns will continue as teacher of the fifth and sixth grades.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 22, 1931, page 5


Public Bids Farewell to Washington School,
Once Building Pride of City
    Through a doorway opened for the last time to the public, residents from all sections of Medford entered the Washington School Friday evening to view again the rows of desks from which they graduated, one to another, in the early days of their education, before they fall under the hammers of wreckers next week, when the seat of learning will give way to the affairs of court.
    Hostesses for open house were Miss Amy Harding, principal of the school, and her staff of teachers. Hundreds of guests were led from room to room, up stairways and down, over boards more accustomed to the trudging of smaller feet.
    Vine-framed windows, through which many leading citizens gazed longingly upon the neighboring park back in the old days, were glimpsed again. Lost spelling bees, forgotten tardy slips, and marbles "for keeps" returned to importance. And the cares of the present-day business world faded away in favor of remembered baseball games.
    Dreams of touchdowns, followed by glory, returned to many; success in the world of art and letters to others. Hopes of uniforms, some of them realized, were recalled, along with first fears of the echo of Teacher's voice.
    Mothers and fathers of children who recently started down the pathway of learning in the old brick building, which has maintained its position in the heart of city traffic, joined the visiting throngs.
    Next week the vines which have protected it from the hurry-scurry of the business world, attempting to conceal its purpose, will be torn away, and brick by brick the Washington School will be razed.
    Its successor is already under construction on Dakota and Peach streets and will house the many children who have added, subtracted and taken their morning stretches on Main and Oakdale when school opens for the fall term.
    The new Jackson County Courthouse will stand on the old Washington School plot.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 31, 1931, page 6


Haskins, Isaacs, Warner Made Music History
in Washington School Band
(By Eva Nealon)
    Brick by brick the Washington School is disappearing under the hands of hurrying wreckers, whose work is only halted by rainstorms which howl about its lowering shell. Walls which cast a proud shadow over fields of foxtail and chaparral back in '96 are giving way to civilization. Jarred by the vibration of heavy traffic down Main and Oakdale, they take their place upon the ground, soon to be occupied by a new courthouse.
    On one jagged side the lower half of a group of letters remains to spell for a few more hours the title of the building to the public.
    The belfry is completely gone, and with it the echoes of "noise" Leon Haskins brought from his old bass horn. And the boards on which Wilson Wait sat to sound his trumpet as Medford's best-known citizens marched into school with pockets loaded with paper wads and nails.
    "There weren't any dirty cords [chords? words?] in school then," the former students stated this morning, "but there was some band."
    Wm. F. Isaacs played the baritone horn, and Wm. Warner played the snare drum. Saxophones had not invaded the student ranks, and there were no "Piccolo Petes" in the gang.
    The school building housed all grades from the first through high school, and the principal ruled all.
    The shoes of N. L. Narregan, one of the most frequently mentioned masters of the early days, will never be forgotten, especially by Clarence Meeker, he admitted yesterday.
    A short time before Mr. Narregan joined the staff a principal had been thrown from the windows of the building which preceded the Washington School, by student force. Mr. Narregan took the new job prepared to meet the offenders and continued to command their respect.
    He traveled from room to room for inspections, and all the "timid" boys feared the approach of his squeaky shoes, which sounded a warning. Then one day Mr. Narregan joined the rubber-heel fad, and his approach was not announced. That day holds a prominent place in Mr. Meeker's memory.
    Several similar events are recalled by Frank Isaacs, who says he got a licking every day and had it coming. He helped transport more than one cow to the belfry on Hallowe'en nights and contributed his share of paper wads to decorate the ceiling.
    Several worn spots in the official "blacksnake" of the school are also accredited to Shorty Miles.
    The jackrabbits which inhabited the neighboring chaparral bushes furnished the boys and girls much fun until the lot was cleared for a baseball diamond, several report. The wooden water tower, which stood where the city library is now located, also distracted many eyes from readin', writin' and 'rithmetic.
    Several teachers share first honors in memory with Professor Narregan, according to interviews with local business men. They are Della Pickel, Alba Galloway, Professor Gregory and Grace Hall, who is now superintendent of schools in Lake County.
    The list of fellow pupils, whose names are woven into various stories of the old days in the rapidly disappearing building, reads like a social and business directory of the city.
    Among those who watch the razing of the structure, crowded from its location by the progress of the business district, and recall first struggles with the multiplication tables, are John Wilkinson, James Stewart, Clara Wood, Ralph Woodford, Fred Strang, Virgil Strang, Mrs. J. H. Cochran, Miss Mae Phipps, Mrs. "Doc" Butler, Mrs. Volney Dixon, Mrs. Dade Terrett, Mrs. Hal Platt, Treve Lumsden, Vernon Vawter, Mrs. E. C. Gaddis, William Vawter, Mrs. Leon Haskins, Scott Davis, John Johnson, Mrs. Leon Howard, Mrs. C. A. Meeker, Mrs. George Kunzman, and hosts of other well-known people.
Medford Mail Tribune, June 17, 1931, page 3


CITY SCHOOLS TO OPEN ON SEPT. 8, RULES OUTLINED
General Teachers Meeting Scheduled for Next Saturday--
Registration of Pupils--Tuition and Special Classes.
    School days will soon be here again--Tuesday, September 8, elementary, junior high and senior high will open in Medford. And with the opening two new buildings will be occupied for the first time, the high school on South Oakdale and the new Washington School on South Peach. Two new classes rooms and an auditorium added to the Roosevelt building will also add interest to the new school setting.
    Tuesday morning pupils in grades one to six will register at 9 o'clock when they arrive at their respective buildings. Most of the incoming junior high school pupils are registered. Pupils who are new to the system or for some other reason not registered are asked to present themselves at the school Friday between the hours of 9 and 4. Tuesday morning they will receive assignment to classes, roll rooms, lockers and the like, when they meet with their counselors.
    Thursday and Friday have been named as registration days for high school pupils who have not already registered. They will be assigned to classes and full periods beginning Tuesday morning, September 8.
    A general teachers meeting for all Medford teachers will be held Saturday at 2:00 p.m. Following this teachers will meet with their respective principals in planning the year's work..
    Pupils who will be six years of age before six weeks after the opening of school, or before October 10, are accepted without question; younger pupils who will be six during the first semester may be accepted provided they show by test a mental age development of 6½ years. Parents of such children who desire to enter them should call Mrs. George B. Canode, phone 1573-L, who has charge of testing such pupils, between now and September 5th.
    The boundary lines of the wards served by the four elementary schools are as follows:
    The high school and junior high school each serves the whole city for the grades each represents.
    The four elementary schools house grades one to six. Roosevelt School serves all the territory on the east of the Pacific Highway. The Lincoln School serves that portion of the city west of the Pacific Highway and east of the S.P.R.R. tracks. The Jackson School serves the west and northwest part of the city lying west of the S.P.R.R. tracks and north of Main Street or Jacksonville Highway. The Washington School serves the southwest part of the city, or that territory lying west of the railroad tracks and south of Main Street.
    All pupils from the given districts are expected to report to their own respective schools for the opening day. Following registration, where it can be shown that individual parents or pupils will be better accommodated by attendance at some other school, a request for transfer may be filed with the school superintendent, but until a transfer can be, or is, effected a pupil must attend the school to which he is assigned.
    According to the board's order tuition for non-resident children is fixed the same as last year at $6.00 per month for elementary and junior high school pupils, payable in advance. For high school pupils, it is $10.00 per month. High school pupils living in a school district which does not support a high school have
their tuition paid by the county. Non-resident parents who are in arrears on tuition from last year must square the account before their children will be accepted into the Medford schools for this year. Non-resident parents who pay taxes in the Medford School District No. 49 will receive credit on their tuition bill to the amount of the school tax they pay.
    Some change is being planned in handling the education of crippled children. Heretofore teachers have gone to the homes, giving each child private instruction, which has enabled a teacher to meet only about four pupils a day. This means that two or three teachers have been required on either full or part-time basis. This year a room is being fitted up in the new Washington School to take care of these children, and parents of most of them have signified a willingness to transport them.
    According to Superintendent Hedrick there will be several advantages in this new plan, provided it can be carried out. In the first place it will be cheaper for the district. In the second place it will enable these children to have the companionship of other children. In the third place it will relieve mothers who have been tied down with the care of these children for two or three hours each day.
    Children who are not able to be transported will be taught in the homes just as before.
    The atypical and special children will be handled at the Washington School the same as last year.
Medford Mail Tribune, August 30, 1931, page 8


LIST OF TEACHERS MEDFORD SCHOOLS FOR COMING YEAR
    Although a number of teachers in the Medford public schools are returning, several new names have been placed on the list, announced by Superintendent E. H. Hedrick. The following have been named for the various city schools:
High School
    C. G. Smith, Ralph Bailey, Myrna Barrett, Eula Benson, Wilma Manley, D. K. Burgher, Maurine Carroll, Harriet Baldwin, H. F. Cope, Carin Degermark, Doris Baier, Geraldine Bliss, Fern Hartsook, Maurine Burgher, Glennie Early, E. M. Hussong, Elizabeth Jerome, Ruth Swanson, Josephine Kirtley, La Vera Moe, Leland Mentzer, Lora Mitchell, Gertrude Gates, Louise Hollenbeck, Marie Riddings, Josephine Smith, C. D. Thompson, Clita Walden, Arthur Schoeni, Wilson Wait, Wendell S. Stout, A. J. Hanby, E. M. Kirtley.
Junior High
    B. R. Finch, principal, Gladys Benge, Luola Bengeton, Annette Gray, Virginia Wait, Ruth MacCollister, Gertrude Parker, Zoe Hubbs, Carol Ramsey, Walter Nitzel, Delie Whisenant, Marjorie Kelly, Marvel Bliss, Marguerite Hammond, H. W. Keesee, L. W. Marshall, Grace Sinema, Lillian Wise, Ruth Dickerson, Helen Winters, Winifred Andrews, Maybelle Church, Albert Fitch, Ray Henderson, Earle Brown, Ethel Scott, Margaret Arnold, Margaret Schuler, Grace Colborn.
Jackson School
    H. W. Gustin, principal, Marian Briggs, Carla Nerisen, Mildred Henderson, Ruth Stewart, Ivan Murray, Grace Reid, Yvonne Smith, Theone Taylor, Jeanne Laidley.
Lincoln School
    Ora Cox, principal, Gladys Bond, Ora Tucker, Margaret Russell, Lucile Abbott, Aletha Gray, Leona Crane, Clare Gumelius, Freda Schneider, Ethel Chastain, Priscilla Webb.
Roosevelt School
    Sara Van Meter, principal, Anna B. Carter, Myra Russell, Ethel Willits, Mildred Aspinwall, Eleanor Curry, Flora Childers, Eldora Terwillegar, Nina Carlon, Aileen Maxwell, Ruth Shangle.
Washington School
    J. C. Tucker, principal, Ruth Bolton, Helen Noyes, Lura Lynch, Louise Basford, Avis Anscheutz, Blanche Canode, Lysle Gregory, Beulah O'Neal, Annie M. Watkins (crippled children), Marian Beeson, Alice Cromar, Amy Harding, Gertrude Watzling.
Medford Mail Tribune, August 30, 1931, page 8


New High School Gives Students Art Training
    It looks like ordinary Southern Oregon mud, but Miss Louise Hollenbeck, art instructor at Medford High School, says someday it will be the nose or the ear on a miniature head. The modeling of busts out of clay is one of the new features which will be taught to art students at the new high school this year because of the added facilities available.
    Included in the variety of things which the embryo artists will make will be wood blocks, linoleum cuts, lamp shades, book binding, and card and poster making.
    Besides the 20 new adjustable drawing desks with birdseye maple board on them, the art room in the new school has two copper-lined bins to mix up the clay for modeling, ample storage space for students' equipment, and wall boards for art displays as improvements over the equipment afforded in the old building.
    Art courses are taught with the idea of giving the student something he can use after he graduates. Beginning students start in with freehand lettering and work up to making signs and posters for school, community and commercial use downtown. At Christmas time they work out block prints for their own Yuletide cards and put in the winter months working out perspectives on still objects. Spring sees them out of doors sketching scenes. The class this year will finish up by studying color harmonies and may have training in bookbinding.
    Advanced art classes start in with creating their own designs in tiles, to be made later out of clay. Linoleum cuts, using buildings as their motifs, will be made during the year and printing of colors on cloths for hangings and pillow covers also introduced. Wood-block prints in two colors and making and painting parchment shades round out the work.
    The art department takes on a colorful air with its displays of student work and the young artists moving about the light, cheerful room in their artists' smocks. Miss Hollenbeck devotes her mornings to the art work at the high school and supervises art in other city schools in the afternoons. About 40 students are handled in the two art classes.
Medford Mail Tribune, October 6, 1931, page 3


New High School Trains Girls in Kitchen Arts
    The days when girls' cooking classes in high school learned to fry an egg and turn out a pan of biscuits and call themselves finished cooks passed out of style along with the horse and buggy.
    A visitor who looks into the kitchens and cooking room of the new high school will find there a neat and orderly array of ovens, electric and gas stoves and mixing boards that would do justice to any college domestic science laboratory.
    When the new school was built, school officials demanded and got an equipment different from any other school in the state. It was built especially for use in the Medford school, and gives it one of the finest workrooms for cooking instruction in the state.
    Twelve individual electric plates, with 12 electric ovens to match, and gas stoves and refrigeration in the kitchen from the major equipment where the girls learn the tricks of getting up a meal.
    Punch and cookies made by the girls in the foods classes will be served all visitors at open house Friday.
    Girls taking the first year course in foods start in learning about table service and the food value of various foods. Cleanliness, sanitation and orderliness are stressed from the beginning. They learn to cook foods for breakfasts and serve them to each other in class. Following this, they are taught how to prepare lunches and suppers, the year being closed by a brief study of the girl's responsibility in the home and something on laundering.
    Mrs. Gertrude Gates, instructor, begins the second year foods class with canning fruits. Food so preserved is served to the high school students, who eat daily at the cafeteria operated in connection with the school kitchens. Several women of Medford have had special orders of canning put up by the girls in the classes.
    The next step is cooking a seven-course dinner and learning to prepare meats and vegetables. The girls get actual experience serving family style or formal dinners by acting as waitresses at banquets about the city. Budgeting the food expense and the study of balanced menus, hospitality and social etiquette conclude the second year work.
    Third year cooks prepare the foods for the cafeteria and practice cooking in large quantities.
    Besides cooking, Mrs. Gates also teaches a new course in practical house management this year. Students study the home and its development, budgeting expenses, correct clothing, foods, problems of education, travel, and savings. They also plan and furnish a model home. Child care and guidance, home care of the sick and how to feed invalids and children are other things which are presented the girls in the class.
    All foods courses are elective and the girls who enroll in them do so because they are interested in the work. All work is planned from the standpoint of practicability, and only things that will be useful to them in their after life are taught to them.
Medford Mail Tribune, October 7, 1931, page 4


Student Stenographers Type to Music at High
    Any casual visitor walking down the corridors of Medford High School some morning or afternoon would imagine himself approaching a concert by Sousa's military band if he believed his ears.
    Martial airs, such as the Marseillaise or Yankee Doodle, float through the halls at all hours of the day as the students in the commercial department learn to typewrite. Mrs. E. C. Jerome, typing instructor, for years has taught rhythm to beginners on the keyboard by having them time their strokes in unison with the beats of the music.
    Slow pieces are used first and the tempo gradually stepped up as the typists improve. Visitors at open house this Friday will be treated to an exhibition of typing to music as one of the features of the entertainment for the evening, which lasts from 7 to 10 o'clock.
    Enrollment in the typewriting classes this year is the largest in the history of the school. Forty-one typewriters are kept busy from 8 o'clock in the morning until late after school has dismissed. More than 200 students are taking the beginning or advanced work. One special class of beginners, under Miss LaVere Moe, starts to work an hour before school takes up.
    Students in the second year group take up typing of business letters, carbon copies, envelope addressing, tabulating, stencil-cutting, billing and preparing legal papers, all practical work which will be of use to them if they enter the stenographic field. Each student is given the amount of work he is to cover each six weeks' period and is allowed to progress at his own rate under the "contract plan." Thus speedier students are not held back to the level with slower ones.
    Exhibits of typing, shorthand, and bookkeeping work done by the students will be on display Friday. Miss Lora Mitchell and Miss Moe, together with Mrs. Jerome, form the commercial department faculty.
    Students in the high school Commercial Club are planning to earn enough money this year so that they can rent calculating and bookkeeping machines for use in the bookkeeping classes. The school does not own any as yet. Members of the school chamber of commerce, which is being reorganized this year by Miss Moe, are planning to do mimeographing work for downtown business men, making a charge only large enough to meet the expense of doing the work.
Medford Mail Tribune, October 8, 1931, page 8


HEDRICK, ERCEL H.
    School Superintendent, Medford, Oregon
b. Merlin, Oregon, Oct. 24, 1888; educ., Oregon State Normal School, 1909 and 1915; University of Oregon, B.A. 1916; M.A., 1929; Phi Delta Kappa. Married Helen E. Norcross of Central Point, Oregon, June 11, 1923; children, Eva Eileen, William Norcross, and Lola Helen. Supervisor, rural schs., Douglas Co., 1911-14; principal, Monmouth High School, 1916-18; supt., Central Point Schools, 1919-22; supt., Heppner schools, 1922-25; superintendent Medford schools, 1925 to date. Served as Sergeant, 213 Field Signal Battalion, U.S. Army, World War. Overseas. Member State Text Book Commission. Member National Education Assn.; Oregon State Teachers Assn.; Commercial Club. Mason. Royal Arch Mason. Scottish Rite. Shriner. Legionnaire. Kiwanian. Republican. Protestant. Home: 503 South Oakdale. Office: City Hall Bldg., Medford, Oregon.
Capitol's Who's Who for Oregon 1936-37, page 252


LINN, GLENN L.
Principal, Medford Junior High School.
b. Portland, Oregon April 5, 1906; son of William E. and Maud D. (Morton) Linn; educated public schools; Pacific University A.B. 1929; University of Wisconsin; Alpha Zeta, Phi Alpha Tau, Blue Key; m. Lucille Davis of Sherwood, Oregon Aug. 22, 1931; children Penny, Cheryl; began as science instructor Tigard (Oregon) Union High School 1929-37; superintendent of schools Umatilla 1937-40; principal Medford Junior High School 1940 to date; Lion (past secretary, president, director); past president Junior High School Principals Association; director YMCA; vice-president Jackson County Oregon Education Association; Mason; Republican; Episcopalian; home 119 Washington; office 2nd and Oakdale, Medford
.
Capitol's Who's Who for Oregon 1948-49, page 346


Details of School Openings in Medford Told by Superintendent
    All Medford public schools will open Monday, September 19, City School Superintendent E. M. Hedrick reminded parents today.
    Pupils for grades one through six will report to their respective schools at 8:50 a.m. for registration. Elementary enrollment is to be completed by noon and pupils will be dismissed for the day. Regular grade school classes will commence on Tuesday.
High Schools Start
    On the other hand, Hedrick reported, junior and senior highs will start Monday with their regular programs throughout the day. Students in the secondary schools had been registered previously. Classes begin at 8:30 a.m. at the senior high and at 9 a.m. at the junior high.
    New additions on several of the four elementary buildings will not be completely ready for the opening day of school, according to Hedrick, but temporary measures will be used to handle all students in a full daily program.
    Two elementary school districts will transport children to Medford. Dewey will deliver pupils to Roosevelt School. Kenwood will deliver to Lincoln.
Furnish Books
    Textbooks are furnished to pupils of the elementary and junior high schools. These will be distributed at time of registration in the several schools of the city. In high school a rental system for textbooks is maintained.
    Medford city schools provide several forms of special education to serve needs of handicapped pupils in the district. Parents having children who are physically handicapped, or who need any form of special education and who were not in Medford last year, should call the city school offices (phone 4068) next week so that provision may be made for them.
    The room for the physically handicapped will be moved this year from the junior high school to Washington School but will not open until September 26. Mrs. Catharine Walker is the teacher.
Other Rooms
    Two other special adjustment rooms for remedial instruction will be open this year. One taught by Mrs. Loma Hanson for grades 1 to 6 will be located in Jackson School; the other for grades 7 to 9 will be in the junior high school.
    The following elementary schools house grades ones to six: Roosevelt, Lincoln, Jackson and Washington.
    Roosevelt School serves all territory east of the center line of the Pacific Highway. Lincoln School serves that portion of the city west of the Pacific Highway and east of the Southern Pacific railroad track.
    Jackson School serves the northwest part of the city, that portion which lies west of the Southern Pacific railroad tracks and north of the center line of West Main Street and the Jacksonville Highway.
    The Washington School serves the southwest part of the city or that territory lying west of the railroad tracks and south of the center line of West Main Street and Jacksonville Highway.
Report To Schools
    All elementary pupils should report to their own schools Monday morning as determined by their residence. The junior high school serves the entire city for grades seven, eight and nine. The senior high school likewise serves the entire city for grades ten, eleven, and twelve.
    At the senior high new teachers are Helen Coulter, Jean Harlow, Valborg Duckstad, Paul W. Parr, Frank E. Roelandt. Arthur E. Scott and Vern F. Wolthoff. New at the junior high are Clifford McLean, C. Gordon Morris and Leslie Palfrey.
New Elementary Teachers
    New elementary teachers are Norma Elder, Mary Howell, Lucille Hulburt, Anna Reed, Ruth Jablonski and Ernest Ludwig at Roosevelt School; Mary Gestring, Zola Jordan, Robert Raymond and Catherine Walker at Washington School; Robert Baccus, Kathryn Crandall, Donald D. Lavis, Loma Hanson, Faye Manley, Ruth Meniketti, Alice Ward and Margery Wilson, Jackson School and James Akerill, Letha Backes, Myndret C. Busack, Hazeldean Hohensee and Marion Rice.
    Other faculty members are:
    At the high school, Principal Lester D. Harris, Josephine Kirtley, Constance Schauer, Juanita Anderson, George Barnum, Louise Basford, Robert J. Bennett, Grace Berg, Ryder Berg, Scott Brill, Elsie Butler, Marjorie Butler, Melba Chehack, Olivia Claypool, H. F. Cope, Delphie Cox, Olive Curry, Gertrude Fredrickson, Paul Gasparotti, Ruth Gray, Hazel Hatley, Yvonne Keith and Alberta Loiland.
    Alex McDonald, L. A. Mentzer, I. A. Mirick, Jacquoise Moore, Mabel Nansen, Robert Newland, Laura Phillips, Lee Ragsdale, Leslie B. Robertson, Elizabeth Settle, Jo Anne Smith, Fred Spiegelberg, Robert Stedman, DeVere Taylor, Johnnie Van Scoy, Lorraine Veidt, Delie Whisenant, and Dorothy Wilson.
At Junior High
    At the junior high, Principal Glenn Linn, Ethel C. Scott, Ann Drysdale, Maxine Berryman, Melvin Boldenow, Hazel Bosshard, Larry Brunette, Don Darneille, Darrell Davis, Louise Davis, Agnes Deaver, Ruth Ella Dickerson, Lois Dorland, Annette Gray, Cecelia Gustin, Thelma Halverson, Lucille Hill, Gertrude Holmes.
    Albert Huntemann, Bernice Kunzman, Ray Lewis, Gladys Loyd, Ruth McCollister, Maude Robinson, Mildred Rogers, Maxine Smith, Niles B. Smith, Dorothy Sneed, Ethel Thompson, Vern Voss, Marjorie Votaw, Virginia Wait, Marvel Yung and Dolores Yunker.
    At Roosevelt, Principal John Childers, Edamae Adamson, Mary Coffin, Esther Fliegel, Eleanor Hamilton, Norman Hillyer, Elizabeth Rice, Louella Schneider, Kathleen Silver, Frances Weaver.
At Washington
    At Washington, Principal Kenneth Hulburt, Marion Beeson, Ruby Clark, Leona Crane, Georgia Davis, Roy Gilbertson, Lysle Gregory, Benita Gundry, Grace Kirtley, Kathryn Larison, Alice Lynch, Frances McNeil, Myrtle Patterson, Dora Mae Shepard, Jennymae Sherwood, Gertrude Watzling, Margaret Wilson and Laura York.
    At Jackson, Principal H. W. Gustin, Ruth Bolton, Nina Carlon, Eunice Gray, Alliean Maxwell, Precia Medley, Shirley Mitchell, Ivah Murray, Ruth Stewart and Della Weber. At Lincoln, Principal Vincent P. Bevis, Yvonne Dugan, Norma Ebnother, Ann Laura Honts, Esther Keen, Mary Norvell and Marjorie Shelton.
Medford Mail Tribune, September 16, 1949, page 6


City Schools Office Moved After 20 Years in City Hall
    After 20 years in the city hall, the offices of the Medford public schools have been moved to a new location.
    The school administrators are now in their new $50,000 building on Monroe Street, between Whitman and J streets, and they expect to be operating "almost as usual" by Monday, Superintendent E. H. Hedrick said Saturday. Nearly everything but the large office safe was moved to the new quarters Friday. The safe was moved there Saturday.
    This summer marked the 20th year that the school offices had been in the same location at city hall--the north end of the second floor. Prior to that the administrators had their offices in the old high school on Bartlett Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues, the Craterian building and, most recently, in the Medford Center building.
    The offices were located in the Craterian building when Hedrick became school superintendent in 1925. They were almost immediately moved to the third floor of the Medford Center building, where they stayed until 1932.
    Hedrick pointed out that the new offices are rent-free to the schools. Previously they paid rent to the City of Medford.
    The public schools' former quarters in city hall will be occupied by the engineering and building departments after fairly extensive remodeling, City Superintendent Robert Duff said Saturday.
Medford Mail Tribune, June 29, 1952, page 7


Construction of Two New Medford Schools on Schedule
Completion Aug. 1 Expected; Costs Met  by Bond Issue
Junior High, Grade School Work Described
    Construction of Medford's new elementary and junior high schools is progressing on schedule, and both structures are slated to be ready for the opening of school next fall.
    Completion date for both buildings is Aug. 1.
    The two projects, together with improvement of the present junior high school building, are being paid for through a $1,600,000 bond issue approved by Medford voters.
    The new construction amounts to $1,250,000, and another $170,000 has been set aside to provide equipment for the two buildings.
Walls Raised
    About 90 per cent of the concrete walls for the new [Hedrick] junior high school, and East Jackson St., between Pearl and Keeneway sts., is now in place, according to E. H. Hedrick, superintendent of the city schools.
    About one-third of the roof has been completed, and ceiling insulation and lathing is being installed. Freezing weather, which has slowed up other major building projects in the area, is delaying brick veneer work on the new junior high school.
    At the new grade school, located about one-fourth mile south of Stewart Ave., walls are up, the roof is on, windows have been put in place, the boiler is set, and more than half of the lath work is in place.
Plastering Started
    Plastering has started and about one-fourth of the brick veneer is in place. Here again, freezing weather has slowed work.
    When classes start next fall at the new junior high school, it will be used by an estimated 450 pupils in the seventh through ninth grades from Roosevelt and Lincoln School areas and from Dewey and Kenwood districts, which transport their youngsters to Medford.
    Temporarily, the building also will accommodate fifth and sixth graders from Roosevelt School. These pupils will be housed in the north wing at the east end of the building.
    The new junior high will be of reinforced concrete outer walls with Norman brick veneer and aluminum sash. The building is a one-story structure at the east end, the high side of the site. As the building stretches westward, with the roofline level, the slope of the ground enables it to pick up another story underneath, and finally, a third story.
23 Class Rooms
    The building has 23 class rooms plus a boys' gymnasium, girls' gymnasium, cafeteria, kitchen, band and orchestra room, library, shop, men's rest room, women's rest room, health room, and office section.
    The gymnasium has been planned to be extra large for a junior high school to enable it to care for large attendance at games, events, and conventions of community interest. It will provide for a seating capacity of about 2,500, and features fold-away bleachers.
    Heating for the building will be provided by steam, with sawdust as fuel. Shielded fluorescent lighting will be used in classrooms.
Contractors Listed
    General contractor for the junior high school is Don Knight Company. Don R. Smith Company has the plumbing and heating contract, and the electrical contract is held by Electronic Service.
    More than 400 youngsters will attend the new elementary school, which has been named Jefferson School, when it opens next fall.
    At the present time the building is reached by an extension of South Holly St. Later, according to Hedrick, it also is planned to reach the school by an extension of South Oakdale Ave.
    Jefferson School will service pupils in grades one to six in the southern portion of the Medford school district. It will relieve overcrowded conditions at Washington School, and also will receive some pupils from the South Pacific Highway who are now attending Lincoln School in north Medford.
13 Rooms
    The new elementary school is a one-story structure of reinforced concrete with brick veneer and aluminum window sash. It includes 13 class rooms, plus a library, gymnasium, cafeteria, kitchen, health room, rest room, toilets, and office section.
    The building will have steam heat, with sawdust as fuel, and will be lighted by shielded fluorescent lighting in the class rooms.
    Louis Kowolowski has the general contract for the building. Plumbing contractor is Hawk Plumbing Company. Modern Sheet Metal Company has the heating contract, and Electronic Service has the electrical contract.
    Keeney and Edson, Medford, are architects for the new junior high school, and Howard R. Perrin, Klamath Falls, is the architect for the new Jefferson Elementary School.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 23, 1955, page 10

CAN YOUR BABY SITTER PASS THIS TEST?
By LESLIE CAMERON

    The city of Medford, Oregon, with a population of about 25,000 people, probably can honestly claim that it has the most competent and reliable baby sitters in the country.
    They are all teen-agers and graduates of a high school baby-sitting course that has been taught since 1955 by a "faculty" made up of a police captain, the director of safety and first aid, the dean of girls, the school nurse and a member of the P.-T.A.
    Before a teener can become a certified sitter, available only through an employment office in the high school, he or she must be able to cook and serve simple meals, prepare a variety of baby formulas, bathe, dress and diaper a baby, apply first aid for cuts and minor injuries, and give artificial respiration.
    And before the would-be sitter gets a "diploma," he or she must pass a written examination and two oral tests with a mark of at least 85 percent.
    How do you think you, or the sitter you hired last week, would make out on the following questions taken from these tests? Score 5 points for each correct answer. If you score less than 40 you'd have a hard time getting a baby-sitting job in Medford, Oregon.
Are these statements true or false?
    1. If you hear strange noises, or think someone is prowling about the house, don't call the police until you're sure you're right.
    2. It's all right to let a stranger into the house if he tells you that he is a friend of the family.
    3. If you get lonely, don't call some of your friends on the phone and hold long conversations.
    4. Leave the latch off the door so your employers can get in if they arrive home late and you should fall asleep.
    5. In an emergency it is all right to leave the child alone for a few minutes.
    6. In case of fire, first call the parents and then the fire department.
    7. If the phone rings while you are bathing the baby, wrap the child in a blanket and take it along with you while you answer the call.
    8. If you have given a child a dose of medicine and he doesn't retain it, give it another dose.
    9. It is not necessary to check on a sleeping child oftener than once an hour.
    10. Give a restless child any toy he wants if it will help him get to sleep.
Answers
    1. False. Always call the police if you are in doubt about strange noises.
    2. False. Never allow anybody but members of the family into the house.
    3. True. Don't tie up the phone. Your employers may want to reach you.
    4. False. Always keep doors locked and shades drawn when you are alone.
    5. False. In an emergency, always take the child with you if you leave the house.
    6. False. Get the child, or children, out of the house, call the fire department, then the parents.
    7. True. Never, under any circumstances, leave a baby alone in its bath.
    8. False. It might be dangerous to repeat the dose.
    9. False. The sitter should check up on the child at least every half hour.
    10. False. Never give a child sharp toys on which he could hurt himself, or toys small enough to be swallowed.
American Weekly, March 2, 1958, page 2


Griffin Creek School Has Interesting Past
Parent District for Medford Was Organized in '54
By JANET GUCHES

    School district 2, the Griffin Creek school district, has one of the oldest and most colorful histories of any in the southern part of the state.
    Its boundaries now encompass a fertile little valley and the hillside homes adjacent to the southwest foothills in the Rogue Valley. Originally, however, district 2 included what is now the Medford district and many of the surrounding districts.
    It is interesting to note that in the Oregon centennial year, just 105 years after organization of district 2 in 1854, the district has recently been consolidated with the Medford district, which was created in 1884 by a division of district 2.
Minutes of Meeting
    In the courthouse at Medford is a record book which sets forth, in beautiful Spencerian hand, minutes of the first meeting organizing the school in September, 1854. The Jacksonville school district had been formed two months previously in July, 1854.
    At the time the meeting was held by a few of the early pioneers residing in the southwest corner of the valley, settlement of the Rogue Valley was still in its infancy. Medford was not yet thought of, although Jacksonville was a thriving community composed largely of gold miners with a large number of Chinese who had come to work the "diggings."
    Gold had been discovered near Jacksonville a few years previously, and the pack trail for transporting the gold and to bring in supplies from California territory ran southeast along the foothills and across the mountain pass of the Siskiyous.
Through Griffin Creek
    The pack trail ran through the area now known as Griffin Creek. Gradually, some of the miners gave up digging for gold for the more profitable digging to raise food. [Farming preceded the discovery of gold in the Rogue Valley.] All food products were at a premium (flour $50 a sack, wheat $12 a bushel) and some of the pioneers saw an opportunity here. [Prices only rose to that neighborhood during the starvation winter of 1852-53.] Many of these cleared away the manzanita and sagebrush in the part of the valley now known as Griffin Creek for their fields.
    Many of the settlers who were following the Applegate Trail to the Oregon country to avoid payment of the high river barge toll to the north stopped off and liked what they saw in the Rogue Valley. [There was no "barge," and there was no toll. One of the reasons for the development of the Southern Route was to avoid a dangerous raft trip down the Columbia River.]
    Among these was the Burrel Griffin family, who established a residence here in November, 1853, one of the first settlers in this section. [The Griffins moved to the Rogue Valley in 1852. His cabin was burned by the Indians in August 1853.] The family emigrated from Missouri, first settling near Scio, Ore.
Origin Griffin Home
    The original Griffin home in this section was on the site of the home now owned by Mr. and Mrs. John Darby. Mrs. Darby is a granddaughter of Burrel Griffin. The Griffin farm included 640 acres which was acquired through a donation land claim and the farm included much of the area now known as Griffin Creek. Because Mr. Griffin was prominent in early-day activities and because of the size of his holdings, it was only natural that the creek flowing through the valley and the territory surrounding was called "Griffin."
    By the fall of 1854, there were a number of log cabins housing settlers in this section, and they soon became concerned about the education of their children. From the minutes contained in the early school record book, it seems a meeting was called and plans made to establish a school. Although the Jacksonville school was ready to go, it was too far to send children there, and every available horse was needed for farming.
Two Difficulties
    The two biggest difficulties to be surmounted in organizing the school were the Indian raids and the deep mud in the winter and spring. [The only Indian raids in the Griffin Creek area were in August 1853. Otherwise, the difficulty was the fear of Indians, not actual attacks.] The wagon trails were so muddy and the clay so thick in some places that no one could do much traveling during the winter months. Many went for supplies using a sled attached to front wheels of their wagons.
    However, despite these and many other problems, school opened in September, 1854, in half of the log building which was used as a supply and way station for pack trains going over the Siskiyous.
    This log building was located amid the brush approximately where the South Stage and Griffin Creek roads now converge.
    The first school was known as the "Van Dorn" school. There is no record of why it was called Van Dorn, but presumably it was because of a Van Dorn family living in the district. [Isaac Van Dorn was a prominent Griffin Creek resident who served as superintendent of the local road district for many years. His son Benedict Van Dorn married Eliza Griffin, a granddaughter of Burrel B. Griffin. Schools were often named for the donor of the ground they sat on.]
Pioneer Cemetery
    A grave in the pioneer Griffin Creek cemetery bears the Van Dorn name. This cemetery located on the hillside to the right of Griffin Creek Rd. a short distance above the Grange hall was originally established by Burrel Griffin for members of his family, and the first grave was dug for Mr. Griffin's grandchild in 1859. Gradually friends and neighbors asked to be buried in the cemetery and there are now between 60 and 70 graves.
    The records show 12 children attended the Van Dorn school when it opened in September, 1854. There were 31 eligible children in the district. Minutes of the first school meeting listed boundary lines for the district running from the boundary of the Jacksonville district to Bear Creek, then known as Stuart Creek, north to the Gates claim, south to the mountains including the Hamlin, Herrin, Frick and Whitworth claims. This included all of the area now encompassed by the Medford district and much of the area of a number of other districts.
    That next summer, Indian raids were particularly ferocious. Nearly all of the settlers lost their homes, among them the Burrel Griffin home. About the only cabin left standing was the Hamlin home, located near the town of Phoenix. [The cabins in the Griffin Creek area were burned in 1853, not 1855. See Burrel Griffin's 1853 claim for damages.] While the men were working in the fields, mothers watched for Indians and many times took their children to hide in the tall grass. Because of these tragedies, no school was held in the year 1855-56. [The only Jackson County houses burned by Indians in 1855-56 were a few along Rogue River on October 9, 1855. Tensions along Griffin Creek during the war of 1855-56 precluded school sessions, but there was no actual violence in the area after 1853.]
School Started Again
    In 1857 school was again started by subscription. The year previously, $117 had been received from the county to operate the school. Not many children were able to attend this year and finally, an Indian raid destroyed the log station housing the school room. [The natives had been removed from the valley in 1856.]
    In 1858, a new one-room school was constructed in a grove of trees on the Heber claim. This was located a little northwest of the original school and was approximately at the corner of what is now the Hull and Walz roads. The school was known as the Heber Grove school and listed Burrel Griffin as clerk.
    The Heber claim had originally been located in the Jacksonville school district but the early records contained a marginal notation that in 1855 Mr. Heber petitioned to be listed in District 2.
'Imperfect State'
    Here school was held sometimes two months a year, sometimes more, as conditions allowed. The school record book lists as excuse for not holding school the full year the "imperfect state of things."
    In 1856 the Rogue River Indians made their last raid on the white settlers in the Griffin Creek area [the only "raids" after 1853 were raids on crops] and were then taken to a reservation in the Willamette Valley. [The Coast Reservation was--on the coast.] Indians then inhabiting the valley were the Chesta Scotons, who apparently were not so warlike. [The Scotons were one of the tribes removed to the coast. No organized bands remained. The only Indians remaining in the valley were a few native individuals and some resident Klamaths and Modocs.]
    One of the "old-timers," now dead, who attended the Heber Grove school used to tell of the tall, silent Indian who used to appear regularly at the school door, fold his arms and observe school activities, much to the discomfort of the teacher and amusement of the children.
    The toll road was built across the Siskiyous in 1857. [The Siskiyou Wagon Road Co. was incorporated and the road built in 1858.] Prior to this only a narrow, steep and rocky trail made by the Indian ponies and immigrants led the way across the mountains. [The natives had very few horses until the 1850s; the trails were worn by Indian feet, not ponies.]
25 Attend School
    By 1861, 25 children out of a possible 40 were attending school and classes were held 180 days. In 1866, there were 54 pupils with an average attendance of 25. The teacher was paid $110.95 and incidental expenses for the school were listed as $473.98.
    David Redpath was listed as clerk. The Rev. T. F. Royal was listed as superintendent of schools for the county. By 1875, the district listed 73 boys and 46 girls attending school and by 1879 there were 130 pupils with an average daily attendance of 41. There were 40 pupils who did not register.
    The first directors for District 2 were listed in 1881 and included J. P. True, John Dollarhide and C. Mingus, all old family names in the Rogue Valley.
    At this time, Phoenix was known as Gas Town. Amid the sagebrush was only a log building or two where the town of Phoenix now stands. One of these buildings was a boarding and eating house run by a woman known by all who traveled by as a loud and vociferous talker. She talked so much that she became known as "Gassy," and it wasn't long until the place was called "Gastown." [Phoenix was known as Gasburg, never "Gastown" or "Gas Town." According to witness O. A. Stearns, the name dates from 1855. The name "Phoenix" arose as early as 1856, but the name "Gasburg" survived into the 20th century as a jocular reference.]
Population Grows
    As the population grew, a flour mill was established there and supplied much of the valley with flour. Later a fire destroyed the mill and a good deal of the town. It is reported by old-timers that the Phoenix Insurance Company paid off so well and so promptly that the people out of gratitude named the town "Phoenix," others say it was called Phoenix after it was rebuilt because like the Phoenix bird it rose out of the ashes. [There was no devastating fire or insurance payoff. The accepted version of the name origin is that the town name was inspired by an insurance plaque on the post office wall.]
    The town of Medford was beginning to be settled, built up near the railroad tracks which had been extended through the valley. Some say the name came from Medford, Mass., and others say it was derived from "Middle Ford" as the settlement was first called. [Both sources influenced the form of the name, but Medford was never named "Middle Ford" or "Middleford." The original 1883 town plat survives and is labeled "Medford."]
    February, 1884, saw Medford district 49 formed, using a large portion and many students from the Griffin Creek district. Today the Medford district has far outstripped its parent district.
First Generation
    Some of the first generation to attend district 2 have now graduated. This included Nick Kime, who before his death told many stories about early school days and whose children and grandchildren still live in the area. Mrs. Belle Griffin is another.
    In 1889, Gus Newbury, then a young man whose family had come to Jacksonville, was hired as teacher. He later became a prominent attorney and a colorful figure in the valley. His salary to teach all eight grades was $200 and for this he also dug a well, built a wash house and two privies. This year desks were purchased for the first time. In 1890 school was held only 3 months, and pupils living outside the district were charged $2.50.
    By the beginning of the new century, the school at Heber Grove was much too small, and in 1901 a new school was started at a cost of not more than $1,000. In fact, a motion was made and carried that the new school could cost no more than $1,000.
Donated Land
    The new school was built on land donated by Mrs. Kime to the school district, and the original building is now incorporated as part of the present Griffin Creek school. [The original building and additions burned on December 12, 1969.] However, the district was then called the Enterprise district. No reason is listed for the change of names from Van Dorn, to Heber Grove to Enterprise and now Griffin Creek.
    The Nick Kime family had a large section of land in this valley and Mrs. Kime gave a portion to the school with the stipulation that it must be used only for school purposes and was to revert back to the Kime estate and heirs if the land was ever used for any other purpose. Many of the students who went to this school, which was completed in 1902, are now living in this area and include Wilbur Kime, Mr. and Mrs. John Darby, the Loflands, L. D. Minear and many others.
    In 1902, there were four homes from Kings Highway to Griffin Creek Rd., and [they] were occupied by the Gordon, Kime, Morrison and Bashford families. There were six families living between South Stage Rd. and the Grange hall.
Continued to Grow
    The school continued to grow once again after the loss of many to the Medford district and by 1912, 74 were attending and school was held the full nine months each year. More classroom space was needed and so by 1915 two schools were maintained, one, called the Rosedale for the lower four grades, was constructed and is now the Griffin Creek Grange hall. The upper grades attended the present school.
    It was about this time that the first school bus was operated by a district. This consisted of a white bus drawn by two white horses and was used to transport pupils between the two schools operated by the district, according to John Darby, who was the school clerk in 1915.
    The horse-drawn school bus was operated until automobiles began to be used extensively and then various drivers contracted with the district, using Model T's in some instances, to haul children between the two schools and finally to take high school students to Medford.
Water from Well
    During this time, and for many years, water for the school was obtained from a well with a manually operated pump where you "pumped with one hand and drank from the other," according to former school board members.
    With the advent of public health sanitation regulations and as school standards to obtain financial aid became more strict, it was necessary to make a number of improvements. This was felt to be too expensive for two schools, so the improvements and additions were made to the lower school and the Rosedale school was discontinued in the fall of 1941.
    The district has experienced a steady growth through the years, with almost a phenomenal growth during the past 10. Most of the large farms have been subdivided to provide homes for families who have moved into the Griffin Creek district. It is no longer an agricultural district but has become a residential district with the majority of the parents employed in Medford.
    Every few years additions have had to be made to the school, all built onto or around the original 1902 building. Today there are 13 classrooms and 15 teachers, a cafeteria, health room, a gymnasium and office. Also employed are four cooks, one maintenance man, two custodians, three bus drivers and a secretary.
    Throughout the 105 years, many self-sacrificing public-spirited citizens of the Griffin Creek district have served without pay on the school board--some as many as 25 to 30 years--and many long hours have been spent guiding the destiny of Griffin Creek school and the children.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 3, 1959, page 12




Last revised March 14, 2024