on October 5, 1909, and was fully reported last year. The final figures are as follows:

Original Complete Contract. Contract. General contract . to g . $123,400 00 $107,515 43

Item 2.— Brimmer district, elementary school, upper grades' As reported last year the Board voted on August 1, 1908, to request the Board of Street Commissioners to take certain land on Ferdinand, Knox, Melrose and Bay streets. This land contained about 37,870 square feet and was offered to the Board for about $155,000. On this particular taking the Street Commissioners made an award of $139,000, and the parcels that have already been settled for have been approximately on the square foot price of this award. Since the original taking the Board deemed it advisable to increase its takings to develop to better advantage the school yards and the adjacent Skinner School on Fayette street. Two small takings, containing respectively 934 and 1,035 square feet, were made, and a small parcel of land, containing 19 square feet, was taken in order to straighten an awkward boundary line. The taking will probably amount to $141,062.98, and this amount deducted from the reduced appropriation, $440,000, as reported last year, leaves $298,937.02 for the building and the various incidental expenses. The appropriation will be insufficient. This, however, was expected when the appropriation was set at $450,000, and it was owing to this fact that the joint board were willing to take $10,000 from it, as an additional appropriation to complete would be needed in any case.

Mr. A. W. Longfellow was appointed architect and, although plans were under way when the report went to press last year, they are only just on the market now. No building that has gone through the hands of this Board has been subject to so much popular attention as this school, and this has resulted in innumerable conferences and in a great many changes and modifications of the original drawings. Even with all these delays it is hard to excuse the amount of time that has been taken in the preparation of plans and specifications.

The building as a forty-room upper elementary, with four rooms allowed for the hall, is allowed forty-four rooms at 30,000 cubic feet, i. e., 1,320,000 cubic feet at 22 cents, $290,400.* Bids for the general building contract were

* The 22 cents were supposed to cover the cost of o foundations, i. e., 2 cents for foundations, 20 cents (as in the Cheverus); for the remainder. In view of the uncertainty of the market the architect was allowed $300,000.

opened January 18, and the contract was awarded on the same date to the low bidder, the Whiton & Haynes Company, in the sum of $229,800. On January 31, 1910, .bids for installing a plumbing system were opened, and the contract was awarded on the same date to the low bidder, Pierce & Cox, in the sum of $14,865. This problem is further complicated now by the proposed widening of Ferdinand street. When the plans were first made provision was made for a possible widening to 58 feet. A still further widening to 80 feet is now under consideration and, if this is carried through, the whole building must be set further to the north and more land bought, which will mean a considerable additional expenditure. On December 29, 1910, the Street Commissioners had a hearing on this subject and on January 18, 1910, informed this commission that they proposed to take no action in the matter. Item 3.−Eliot district, administrative office. This was fully reported last year. Item 4.—Blackinton district, elementary school, upper grades, the Bishop Cheverus School. This item was reported last year. The building was completed and occupied on September 8, 1909. The final figures are as follows:

£ Original Contracts

Contracts. to Date. General contract . . . . . $81,392 00 $80,268 04 Heating contract to do s of 11,975 00 11,975 00 Plumbing contract . e e te 4,875 00 5,040 31 Electrical contract . . go to 4,844 00 4,793 00

$103,086 00 $102,076 35

The cost per pupil of this building is $159.18, and the cost per cubic foot 19 cents.

The original appropriations were $34,000 for the land and $140,000 for building and furnishing. The complete cost of this item was approximately $145,000, leaving a balance of $29,000. Of this balance there was transferred by joint vote of both boards the sum of $10,000 to the appropriation for the addition to the Girls' High School and $18,000 to the appropriation for the Mechanic Arts High School equipment.

Item 5.-Dudley district, elementary school, lower grades, the Nathan Hale School. This was fully reported last year and the building was completed and occupied on September 8, 1909.

The final figures are as follows:

Original Complete

Contracts. Contracts. General contract o e G . $54,765 00 $54,599 35 Heating contract . e g o 6,667 00 6,682 00 Plumbing contract . to o e 3,368 00 3,397 47 Electrical contract . & o wo 2,520 00 2,553 00

The cost per pupil of this building is $140.08, and the cost per cubic foot 20 cents.

The original appropriation was $105,000, and of the balance remaining unexpended, $12,779.73, there was transferred to the appropriation to purchase land in the Phillips Brooks district the sum of $2,200 and to the appropriation for the Mechanic Arts High School the sum of $8,500.

Item 6.—Henry L. Pierce district, high school (Dorchester High Annex). o

This building, having nothing in it that differentiated it from an ordinary elementary school, was rated as such in making the allowance, and when the size of the building was increased it became above the basement an eighteen-room building. In view, however, of the fact that there are a number of rooms equipped in the basement as fully as if they were class rooms and these rooms are entirely above grade, it seemed fair to consider the building a twenty-room building, allowing 30,000 cubic feet like an elementary school and 22 cents per foot. This would have meant $132,000 for the cost of the building and about $105,000 for the general contract. When bids were opened for the general contract the lowest was $122,395. After long discussion with the low bidder and the architects, the Board, being unable to get anything even approaching a deduction of $20,000, and being convinced that the changes that the Board proposed in the plans and specifications represented nearly if not quite that amount, rejected the low bid and awarded the contract to the second bidder, from whom the Board obtained for the various changes a deduction of over $19,000. The figures, including this deduction, are as follows:

Original Contracts

Contracts. to Date. General contract • * . . $125,875 00 $106,666 00 Heating contract . . . & 12,827 00 12,827 00 Plumbing contract . . e G 5,709 00 5,709 00 Electrical contract . . o e 5,889 17 4,626 60

$150,300 17 $129,828 60