Superintendent's Report. WILMINGTON, DEL., July 25th, 1889. To the Board of Public Education: GENTI EMEN:- The following is my Annual Report of the Schools under your charge for the year ending July 31, 1890. I invite your attention to the usual Number of school days in the year according to the rules of the Board, Number of days the schools were taught,. 206 194 It will be noticed that the number of days the schools were open was twelve (two weeks and two days) less than the number required by the rules. One of these days was on account of the Wilmington Fair, two on account of the Wilmington Teachers' Institute, two at Christmas time, five for a spring vacation. Formerly the spring vacation was allowed by rule, and it seems to me that it would be better to give this vacation regularly by rule than some years to give it by special action of the Board and other years not. From the 2d of January to the 1st of July is too long for a continuous term. SCHOOL HOUSES. Number of school houses in use, Increase for the year,. Number of school rooms used for Day Schools, Increase of rooms used, . 26 I 175 7 Number of sittings for study in all the Day Schools, . 8008 Male teachers of High School Classes, Female teachers of High School Classes, 175 4 7 Female teachers in the Grammar and Primary Schools, 164 . Schools, . Increase, Average number belonging to the Grammar and Primary Schools, Increase, Average daily attendance in the Grammar and Primary Decrease, Per cent. of attendance in all schools of the average num 8856 I 20 6734 74 5937 84. ber belonging, . 88.4 Per cent. of attendance in the High School Classes of the average number belonging. 96. Per cent. of attendance in the Grammar and Primary 88. I Per cent. of attendance in all the schools of the whole. number enrolled; . 67.4 The number of sittings in the schools at the end of the year was 8008. At the opening of next term there will be an increase of 388 sittings over the number at the end of the year, making the whole number 8396. 432 of these new sittings will be in new school No. 25, and 216 of them in the additions to No. 3 and No. 12, making 648 new sittings; but the closing of No. 21, No. 22, No. 23, and No. 24, which are old dwelling houses, will reduce the number 260, leaving a net increase of 388. When the new colored school now building in the Ninth Ward is ready for use, there will be a still further increase of two hundred sittings. The average number of pupils belonging during the year was 7001, and the largest number belonging at the end of any month 7219. The school accommodations will therefore be ample for a large increase of attendance next year. There will be only one district, that centering about Tenth and Walnut streets, not well provided. For several years the little children of this district have been compelled to go too far to get into school. In the number of pupils enrolled and in the average number belonging, there was a small increase over the year ending June 1889, but in the average daily attendance there was a decrease. The average attendance was considerably reduced by the influenza, as is shown by the tables of attendance for the months when it prevailed. The measles also diminished the attendance at several of the primary schools very much for a time. The change of the rule for marking daily the work of pupils probably had, as is explained in another part of this report, something to do with the reduced average attendance. It seems that a good many people have yet to learn that absence from school one day in a week results in the loss of much more than one-fifth of the benefits resulting from attendance every day. |