CITY OF BOSTON. In School Committee, December 11, 1860. At the Quarterly Meeting of the School Committee in June last, the following orders were referred to the Committee on Salaries: Ordered, That the District Committee of the Boylston School be authorized to employ a teacher of Sewing in said school, at a salary not exceeding three hundred dollars per annum. Ordered, That the Committee on Salaries consider and report upon the subject of making the salaries of all the teachers of Sewing alike. Your Committee, from the date of reference to the present time, have given to these orders much time and attention, involving, as they do, the whole question of the compensation of the teachers of Sewing. A correspondence has been had with the masters of all the girls' schools. The action of this task upon the pupils attending to it has been examined and considered. Many facts and opinions have thus been obtained, of interest to themselves, and doubtless also to the whole Board. Sewing is taught in twelve of our schools, viz: the Adams, Lyman, Wells, Franklin, Lawrence, Lincoln, Bigelow, Chapman, Hancock, Everett, Boylston, and Winthrop. Of the masters of the girls' schools, two are opposed to the presence of sewing in the schools, one indifferent, and the remainder in favor of the task. There is a great inequality in the number of sewing pupils at the various schools; for instance, the Adams has sixty-five sewing pupils; the Lyman has fifty-nine; the Wells has fifty; the Franklin has ninety-nine; the Lawrence has ninety-six; the Lincoln has ninety-six ; the Bigelow has one hundred and twelve; the Chapman has ninety-eight; the Hancock has one hundred and forty; the Everett has one hundred and sixty-five ; the Boylston has one hundred and twenty-one; and the Winthrop has three hundred and fourteen. There is great diversity in the amount of time given to this branch, in the several schools. While at the Winthrop, sixteen and one half hours per week are devoted by the sewing teacher to her pupils, at the Hancock and Lawrence but twelve hours, at the Boylston and Franklin but eight hours are so used, while at the Adams, Lyman, and Chapman, only six hours per week are thus occupied. The discipline of the schools does not appear to be in any way impaired by the presence of sewing. In view of these facts it will appear, doubtless, to the whole Board as it did to your Committee, quite unfair to pay, for instance, to the sewing teacher of the Lyman School, who has but fifty-nine pupils, and who consumes but six hours per week in instruction, the same salary which the sewing teacher of the Winthrop should receive, who has three hundred and fourteen pupils, and who devotes sixteen and one half hours per week to her task. Your Committee considered that a reference of the subject of salary involved a reference of the amount of time also which each sewing teacher should give her pupils. Your Committee, therefore, in the order to be submitted, recommend the salary which each sewing teacher shall receive, and also the amount of time to be consumed in instructing her pupils. The Board will remember that for the last school year, the salaries of the sewing teachers of the Winthrop and Hancock Schools were severally $300, and the salaries of all other sewing teachers $200 each. Respectfully submitted for the Committee on Sal aries. EZRA PALMER, Chairman. Ordered, That the salaries of the sewing teachers for the present school year, be as follows, and that the teachers severally devote to instructing their pupils the time assigned in this order. The sewing teachers of the Adams, Lyman, and Wells Schools shall teach sewing ten hours each week, and shall severally receive one hundred and seventy-five dollars for the present school year. The sewing teachers of the Franklin, Lawrence, Lincoln, Bigelow, and Chapman Schools shall teach sewing twelve hours each week, and shall severally receive two hundred dollars for the present school year. The sewing teachers of the Hancock, Everett, and Boylston Schools shall teach sewing sixteen hours each |