VIII. Comparative statistics of the schools for the years 1860–61, and 1865-66.

[A.] List of academies in which teachers' classes are to be organized in 1866-67.

[B.] List of School Commissioners and City Superintendents. [C.] Report of the trustees of the Thomas Asylum for orphan and destitute Indian children.

[D.] Reports of Superintendents of Indian schools. [E.] Statistics of Indian schools.

[F.] Statistics of Teachers' Institutes.

[G.] Special reports of School Commissioners and City Superintendents.

SCHOOL DISTRICTS AND SCHOOL HOUSES.

The number of school districts in the State, as reported, was : In 1866....

In 1865...

Showing an apparent decrease of...

11,738

11,780

42

There are, in fact, only 11,387 school districts in the whole State, exclusive of those within the cities, as the following statement will show:

From the earliest years of our school system new school dis tricts have been formed and old ones consolidated, annulled, and renumbered each year; and in giving the numbers by which they are known, little care has been taken to preserve the series of each town complete. From this neglect, difficulties have long been experienced by this Department, by the supervisors, and by the various officers to whom has been entrusted the duty of making the final apportionment of the public moneys. For instance, in towns having each only ten school districts, the highest district number in them should have been ten; but, in fact, in some it has been a larger and in others a smaller number, varying from seven to twenty-five. In some cases there have been in the same town two, sometimes three, and even four districts designated by the same number. There are in the State 610 districts, each of which is divided into two or more parts by the line or lines separating the adjoining counties, thus forming what are known as joint school districts, the parts of which lie in two or more counties. These joint districts are thus divided into 1,232 parts, from each of which a report should be made by the trustees to the School Com

missioner in whose commissioner district it lies, and to which the Commissioner is required to apportion a part of the public school money received by his county. The law very properly requires that every joint district shall be designated by the same number in every county in which it lies in part; and the number by which it is designated cannot be properly or legally changed except by the concurrent action of all the Commissioners to whom the trus tees are required to report. But in many cases it has been the custom of the local school officers to give to that part of each of these districts, lying in their respective counties, such number as they might choose, without the co-operation of the officers in the adjoining county or counties. Thus, in different counties, the same district has been known by different numbers; and it has been difficult to ascertain from the abstracts of the local officers what parts of joint districts really belonged to the same district, and how many joint districts there were. That some of these parts have been reported as whole districts from year to year is more than probable, and this, it is believed, will account for any errors in the number of districts reported for any previous year. In July last I sent to the School Commissioners a circular, in which the renumbering of the districts was directed, and the proper mode of doing it carefully described. It was in some instances imposing an onerous task upon these poorly paid officers, but the necessity of correct data, upon which to apportion the school moneys, was imperative, and they could perform this duty with less delay and trouble than their inexperienced successors. It affords me pleasure to report that each of these officers performed his part fully, and that the whole work has been satisfactorily accomplished; and that, except in three or four cases, in which the district numbers were fixed by statute or other controlling circumstances, the school districts are now numbered in every town in regular and consecutive order, from one upwards, without break or duplication; that a schedule of the school districts in each town has been transmitted to this Department, and a duplicate deposited in the town clerk's office, showing, in case of each district therein, the old district number and the new one, whether the district is free or not, whether joint or not, and in case of every joint district, the name of the town in which the school house is situated, and also the name of every other town in which the joint district is numbered. The schedules made by the Commissioners of adjoining counties have been compared with each other, and with the records

in this Department, and when found to be incorrect have been returned to the Commissioners for correction, until the schedules have been made to harmonize. These schedules have been properly arranged, and a summary for each Commissioner district made and attached to the schedule for the towns of which it is composed. From these summaries for Commissioner districts, summaries for the several counties have been made, and from these a general summary for the entire State. These schedules and summaries have been bound in a volume and placed among the permanent records of this Department for future reference. The Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction has devoted more than four months of earnest labor, by night and by day, to the errors in the numbering and reporting of school districts. The aggregate time devoted to it by the Commissioners would be years. The result will be of importance in the proper apportionment of the school moneys in the future, and in getting correct statistical returns to present to the Legislature. From it we learn, what has not positively been known before, that the actual number of school districts and parts of joint districts, to which school moneys may be apportioned, is 12,009, exclusive of those in the cities; that of these, 10,777 are whole districts (that is, districts lying wholly within the same county), and 1,232 parts of districts, composing 610 joint districts, or districts the parts composing which are in two or more counties. By adding to the number just mentioned the number of whole districts, we have in the entire State, excluding those in the cities, 11,387 districts instead of 11,427, as reported by the local school officers. There are also three separate neighborhoods, the school houses of which are in adjoining States, one in the town of North Castle and one in the town of Lewisboro, Westchester county, and the other in the town of Independence, Allegany county.

The number of school houses, and their classification according to the material of which they are chiefly composed, is as follows:

Their number and classification, as reported in the years 1856

From this comparison, we see that in ten years there has been a decrease of 126 log houses and 53 stone houses, and an increase of 67 frame and 207 brick houses. The apparent increase in the total number of houses has been, during the ten years, 55. Considering Elmira and Newburgh as classed with the rural districts, as they have been until the past year, the increase has been in the rural districts 170 brick edifices and 15 frame, and in the cities 37 brick, 12 frame and 1 stone house; while the decrease has been, in the rural districts 126 log and 54 stone houses. There has been in the rural districts, in the aggregate, a net increase of 5 houses, and in the cities a net increase of 50 houses. The school edifices are steadily improving, but measures should be devised to accelerate this improvement.

The demand for superior school accommodations has been more urgent in the cities, while many of the rural districts have been consolidated into union free school districts, by which one new and commodious house, well furnished and divided into small apartments, is substituted for two or three very poor ones. In other districts, poor, dilapidated buildings are reported one year under the head of "frame," and the next year under the same title, while in the meantime the old houses have been replaced by new and substantial structures of the same kind of material. These figures are not, therefore, relied upon to exhibit the improving condition of these houses. Reliance more certain may be placed upon the sums spent for school house sites, for building, repairing, furnishing and insuring school houses, and for fences, out-houses, &c., as shown in the following table:

The reported value of school houses and school house sites

was as follows, viz:

The average value of the school houses and sites is as follows:

In the cities...

In the rural districts

$22,346 47 492 12

The amount of money expended for school house sites, for building, repairing, purchasing, hiring, and insuring school houses, and for fences, out-houses, &c., was as follows, viz:

The provision of law authorizing the School Commissioner and supervisor to condemn dilapidated school houses, and declare them unfit for use, is executed by these officers with discretion, and is resulting not only in the replacement of these buildings by new and comfortable houses, but in keeping others in repair.

The reported aggregate valuation of the school houses and sites in the rural districts is $480,875.92, while their average valuation is $492.12. If we exclude from this aggregate the value of those in the villages, the average valuation will be considerably less. From the same reports we learn that there are 1,074 districts not owning a school house site. It is believed, however, that a majority of these districts are in actual legal occupancy of the sites by virtue of leases or adverse possession for more than twenty years. There are also 9,372 school houses not separated from the street or highway by any fence, while the sites of only 1,577 are in any manner inclosed. It also appears that while there are 8,464 districts having what the trustees call a privy for the school, there are 2,305 that have none. And it is not questioned that in more than half of the former cases these appurtenances are so dilapidated and destitute of proper vaults as to be unfit for use. To neglect to provide these necessary accessories to a school house is an offense against good morals and common decency, and I regret that truth compels me to report a condition so revolting, so common, and so discreditable.

I am not unmindful of the fact that during the last forty years the people of most of these school districts have been cutting down the forests and otherwise subduing the earth; that they have been building roads, bridges, and canals, court houses, pris