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HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE AND ARTS.

There are six high schools offering courses in household science and arts, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, Hyde Park, also Girls' High and High School of Practical Arts, and sixty-seven rooms in elementary and intermediate schools equipped for instruction in cookery, also fiftysix sewing rooms.

A director, two assistant directors, 81 teachers of cookery and 155 teachers of sewing are assigned to the Department of Household Science and Arts.

EVENING HIGH, ELEMENTARY AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. There are nine evening high schools, Central, for men and boys only (English High Schoolhouse), Girls', Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Roxbury, South Boston and Hyde Park. These schools, whose sessions are on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings, from 7.30 to 9.30, are held in the several high schoolhouses of the districts named. All but the Central High are commercial schools.

There are twenty-four elementary evening schools, including eight branch schools of same in session on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

Evening industrial classes are conducted in the Boston Trade School and three branch schools held in the Brighton, East Boston and Hyde Park High schoolhouses.

CONTINUATION SCHOOL (DAY).

Classes for Boys' Division, with 32 instructors, are held in the Brimmer School on Common St. and at 25 Warrenton St.; for Girls' Division, with 25 instructors, at 25 La Grange St.

All children 14 to 16 years of age employed under an employment certificate are compelled by law to attend the school four hours per week.

DAY SCHOOLS FOR IMMIGRANTS.

There are thirty schools for immigrants where instruction in the English language is provided, classes being conducted daily (except Saturday) for two hours in the forenoon and the same in the afternoon.

SUMMER REVIEW SCHOOLS.

These supplementary schools, one high and ten elementary, for pupils who have been retarded in their studies, were started in 1914. The term is forty days, and the number of pupils in 1924 was 5,761. Of the elementary school pupils 81 per cent won promotion in 1924.

USE OF SCHOOLHOUSES FOR SOCIAL AND CIVIC PURPOSES.

In 1912 the School Committee were authorized by statute to allow the use of buildings under their control by associations and individuals (other than school pupils) for social, recreative and civic purposes at times when

the schools were not in session. Under this arrangement there are now eleven School Centers, each having a manager and largely attended on three evenings and one or two afternoons a week. More than 50 school buildings are also used by Non-School Center groups.

The School Committee may annually appropriate for this purpose a sum equal to three cents on each $1,000 of the City's assessed valuation, which in 1924-25 amounted to $49,536, plus the income from rents of school halls, etc., or $10,377. Besides the renting of school halls for club meetings, entertainments, etc., the basements of 150 schoolhouses are used by the Election Department as polling places, lighting and janitor service being paid for.

PENSION AND RETIREMENT FUND FOR TEACHERS.

The School Committee, by a majority vote of all its members, may retire with a pension any member of the teaching or supervising staff of the public day schools who has reached the age of sixty-five years, also such other members as are incapacitated for further efficient service. If the teacher retired has been employed in the public day schools for a period of thirty years or more, ten years of which has been in Boston, the pension paid amounts to one-third of the annual salary received at time of retirement, but in no case is it less than $312 nor more than $600 annually. If the period of service is less than thirty years, the pension is proportionally less. The School Committee are authorized to provide for these pensions by appropriating annually an amount equal to seven cents on each $1,000 of the City's assessed valuation. The Permanent School Pension Fund amounted to $568,140 on February 1, 1925, and 329 retired teachers were receiving pensions therefrom.

The Boston Teachers' Retirement Fund Association, started in 1900, is paying $120 per year to 309 annuitants and smaller sums to six others, the total amount of its fund on February 1, 1925, being $853,495. At that date 3,594 teachers were each contributing $18 per year to this fund.

BOSTON RETIREMENT SYSTEM.

By Chap. 521, Acts of 1922, retirement of certain City and County employees was provided for, with pensions based on annuity and contributory payments. Every employee in service on Feb. 1, 1923, unless already covered by some other pension law, shall, on the expiration of 60 days from said date, be regarded as a member of this retirement system if no written notice declining such membership has meanwhile been received. An employee already covered by some other pension law cannot join this system except by waiving and renouncing all benefits enjoyed under such other law. All persons who become employees after Feb. 1, 1923, shall be members of this system and cannot receive any allowance other than under its provisions.

Three separate funds are established by this retirement system, viz. (1) the Annuity Savings Fund, to which shall be paid regular four-per cent deductions from the salaries of employees belonging; (2) the Pension

Accumulation Fund, consisting of annual contributions by the City, determined by actuarial computations on the basis of mortality and service tables approved by the Retirement Board; (3) the Retirement Reserve Fund, to which, upon a member's retirement, shall be transferred the following amounts: (a) from the Annuity Savings the accumulated deductions from the member's salary, (b) from the Pension Accumulation a sum equal to the said total deductions, (c) also from the Pension Acc. in case of the accidental death or the retirement of a new entrant a sum sufficient to provide the pension payable on such account not covered by paragraph (b). To all members leaving the service, not by retirement, shall be returned from the Annuity Savings Fund the accumulated payments of such to said fund.

A member of this retirement system who shall have attained age, 60, shall upon his own application be retired for superannuation within 30 days after the filing of such application, or he may, and if a member of the police force he shall, upon the application of the head of his department be retired for superannuation by the Retirement Board. A member of this system who shall have attained age, 70, shall be retired for superannuation within 30 days, except members of the judiciary, etc.

Upon retirement for superannuation a member of the retirement system shall receive a retirement allowance consisting of: (a) an annuity which shall be the actuarial equivalent of his accumulated payments to the Annuity Fund at the time of his retirement, (b) a pension equal to said annuity, (c) if a member was an employee at the time the system was established and became a member within one year thereafter, an additional pension having an actuarial value equivalent to twice the contributions which he would have made during his prior service had the system then been in operation, together with regular interest thereon. The total pension of any member shall not exceed one half of the average annual compensation received by him during the five years immediately preceding his retirement.

Retirement for ordinary disability shall be made by the Retirement Board upon the application of the head of the department in which the member is employed or of the member or a person acting in his behalf, stating that said member is physically or mentally incapacitated for the performance of duty and ought to be retired; provided, that said member has not attained age, 60, and has had 15 or more years of service next preceding his application and that the Medical Board, after examination, shall report that said member is physically or mentally incapacitated for the performance of duty and that he should be retired. Upon retirement for ordinary disability a member shall receive a retirement allowance consisting of: (a) an annuity which shall be the actuarial equivalent of his accumulated payments to the Annuity Fund at the time of his retirement, (b) a pension equal to said annuity but not to exceed 90 per cent of the pension that would have been provided at age, 60, (c) an additional pension of such an amount as would together with the pension under (b) make up a total pension of 90 per cent of the pension that would

have been provided had he remained without further change of compensation in the service until he reached age, 60, and retired.

Retirement for accidental disability, that is because of an accident occurring during performance of duty and not the result of contributory negligence, is provided for by an extra pension allowance, the whole to be equal to three-fourths of the annual salary received at time of accident. Death benefits are also granted to the dependents of members fatally injured in the service. The Retirement Board constituted by this law numbers three persons, viz., the City Treasurer (the permanent member), one person appointed by the Mayor and the third chosen by the other two, the term of the last two being four years. The Medical Board, needed to decide all questions relating to members' disability, consists of three physicians, viz., a surgeon, a medical practitioner and a neurologist, to be appointed by the Boston City Hospital Trustees on nominations made by the senior medical staff of said hospital.

Pensions and annuities are payable in equal monthly instalments. The foregoing statement presents the outstanding features of the Boston Retirement Act, which consists of 34 sections, was enacted in June, 1922, accepted by City Council on Aug. 7 by vote of 6 to 3, and approved by Mayor on Aug. 22. The Mayor's appointee for the Retirement Board is WILFRED J. DOYLE, the present chairman.

On petition of the Mayor, the minimum pension for members of the system was fixed at $480 per year by Chap. 426, Acts of 1923, to apply in cases where the length of service has been at least 15 years. This Act was accepted by the City Council on May 28, 1923.

AMENDMENTS OF RETIREMENT ACT IN 1924.

By Chap. 251, Acts of 1924, the following amendments of Chap. 521, Acts of 1922 were enacted:

To sec. 6 of said Chap. 521 was added this new sentence:- The sums payable by the Commonwealth to the City of Boston on account of teachers retired under the provisions of this act shall be paid into the Pension Accumulation Fund and used to reduce the amount which would otherwise be required for the normal contributions from the City of Boston for the years in which such payments are made.

To sec. 9 of said Chap. 521 was added after the following clause, "A member of this retirement system who shall have attained age seventy shall be retired for superannuation within thirty days, except members of the judiciary," the following words:- heads of departments and members of boards in charge of departments. Such officials, therefore, are not now obliged to retire at age seventy.

Chap. 249, Acts of 1924, amends Chap. 289, Special Acts of 1916 concerning the sums payable by the Commonwealth to the City of Boston as reimbursement for pensions paid by the latter to retired school teachers.

Chap. 250, Acts of 1924, amends sec. 16 of Chap. 32, General Laws and sec. 33 of Chap. 521, Acts of 1922, relating to requirements precedent to the reimbursement by the Commonwealth on account of pensions paid to school teachers.

ORDINANCES ENACTED BY THE
CITY COUNCIL.

REVISED ORDINANCES OF 1914.

13TH REVISION (LATEST).

In pursuance of a vote of the City Council on August 24, 1914, the work of revising and consolidating the City Ordinances was undertaken by the Corporation Counsel and his associates of the Law Department, assisted by the Assistant City Clerk. On November 16, 1914, a draft of the completed revision up to date was submitted to the Committee on Ordinances, who arranged to have printed an appendix thereto showing the amendments and eliminations in the Ordinances of 1898 (12th Revision) and subsequent ordinances, also where the same have been repealed or rendered obsolete by statute.

On December 21, 1914, the City Council, by unanimous vote, enacted the Revised Ordinances of 1914, consisting of 41 chapters with titles as follows:

Chapter 1, General Provisions Ch. 2, the Mayor - Ch. 3, Officers and Boards Ch. 4, Art Department - Ch. 5, Assessing Dept.- Ch. 6, Auditing Dept.- Ch. 7, Boston Infirmary Dept.- Ch. 8, Building Dept., with sub-titles, viz.: Board of Appeal and Board of Examiners Ch. 9, Cemetery Dept.- Ch. 10, Childrens' Institutions Dept.— Ch. 11, City Clerk Dept.- Ch. 12, City Planning Dept.- Ch. 13, Collecting Dept. Ch. 14, Consumptives' Hospital Dept.- Ch. 15, Election Dept.- Ch. 16, Fire Dept. Ch. 17, Health Dept.— Ch. 18, Hospital Dept.— Ch. 19, Institutions Registration Dept.- Ch. 20, Law Dept.- Ch. 21, Library Dept.- Ch. 22, Market Dept.- Ch. 23, Overseeing of the Poor Dept.Ch. 24, Park and Recreation Dept.- Ch. 25, Penal Institutions Dept.Ch. 26, Printing Dept.- Ch. 27, Public Buildings Dept.- Ch. 28, Public Works Dept.- Ch. 29, Registry Dept.- Ch. 30, Schoolhouse Dept.- Ch. 31, Sinking Funds Dept.- Ch. 32, Soldiers' Relief Dept.- Ch. 33, Statistics Dept. Ch. 34, Street Laying-Out Dept.- Ch. 35, Supply Dept.- Ch. 36, Treasury Dept.-Ch. 37, Weights and Measures Dept.- Ch. 38, Wire Dept.- Ch. 39, Regulations Affecting Certain Trades Ch. 40, Prohibitions and Penalties - Ch. 41, Miscellaneous Provisions. The 13th is the latest revision.

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*Copies may be obtained at office of City Messenger, 55 City Hall, 50 cents each.

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