This Day in History: 1949-11-23

A school improvement plan, estimated to cost nearly $ 700.000.00 was presented to the Board of Education at a special meeting.The special Survey Committee of the Board, consisting of board members J. Bradley Green, Chairman and D. Cameron Bradley and Alfred G. Heflin proposed a comprehensive solution to many of the complex problems facing the District. The major features of the plan calls for the building of a new school on Ridge Road to house the upper grades, consisting of 22 classrooms, a gymnasium and auditorium, shops and home economics rooms and two teachers rooms, two playing fields and a large parking lot. The committee recommended that all children living one half mile or more from the school, should be transported.Repairs were recommended for the Betsy Ross and George Washington Schools and Commodore Perry School would no longer be used for school purposes. Children in grades K-3 would remain at Betsy Ross and George Washington, all others would be bused to the new school. Curriculum at the new facility would be departmentalized for grades seven and eight. Manual training, home economics and gymnasium instruction be added to the programs in grades 4-6. the Board adopted the plan and ordered it printed for distribution to the voters. It was expected to be controversial.