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Because of the critical shortage of shops and classrooms, many trades which should be offered, are not. Even more serious is the fact hundreds of high school students are denied admission to vocational courses because there is no room. The principal at M. M. Washington reported that 109 applicants (1 out of 4) were rejected last school year (1964-65) because they could not meet minimum admission standards for the trades offered. She gave assurance that if there were room for more classes in the "easier" trades, they would have been admitted. Because there was no room, they dropped out of school or enrolled in the regular high school, where their chance of failure and eventually dropping out is exceedingly great. Thus, those who may need vocational education most are not getting it.

The Washington schools have just barely scratched the surface of post-highschool vocational education-again, because of a lack of shops and classrooms. It is proper that the needs of the high-school-age students be met first; if not, they will quit school. However, thousands of Washington young people who have finished high school or who have dropped out in recent years want and need vocational education, but cannot receive it until classrooms and shops have been provided.

Our Nation has been engaged for many months in a "war on poverty." Our frontline of attack should be vocational education. Incidentally, there is no more effective or economical way of making taxpayers out of "tax takers."

EXHIBIT B

DIGEST OF PRESENT VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL FACILITIES IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

(By Dr. Duane R. Lund)

The following summary of observations was prepared after visiting every classroom, storage room, office, and shop in each of the five vocational high schools operating in the District and the Armstrong Adult Education Center.

BURDICK VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

This building was constructed around 1940 and is in excellent condition. The students and teachers have taken good care of both furuiture and equipment. The halls, rooms, and shops show the mark of good housekeeping. "Vo-ed 1963" funds have provided excellent equipment with more to be added this year. Principal Etta Warehime said, "I have just one problem-space.'

More than 100 qualified applicants for business courses were turned away last year because there was no room.

No storage space is left; only a few closets remain; each is filled with books, classroom supplies, and janitorial supplies.

There is no physical education program; there is no gymnasium.

The old locker room has been converted to a classroom for child care. It is dark and it is small.

The old laundry room is now a classroom.

The school is proud of its program in dramatics, but the only stage they have is a raised platform with drapes in a small auditorium. There is no "off-stage" area. There are no backdrops; there is no room to store flats. There is no stage lighting as such.

The bedroom of the home economics suite is now used as a classroom. Girls who take course work in this suite must go down the hall and practice making up beds (hospital beds) in the nurse's office.

Lighting throughout the entire building is inadequate and below standard.

CHAMBERLAIN VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

This building was intended to be a junior high school; it has not lent itself well for conversion to a vocational school. It was constructed in 1940 and is in pretty fair condition. The equipment is mostly new and more is on the way. The old equipment is very old.

Especially good relationships exist between the school, business, and labor organizations. There is no placement problem. Principal Whitney reported that there were no problems he knew of which could not be solved if he had more space.

Last spring, 587 freshmen applied for admission to Chamberlain; 265 could not be accepted for this school year. Many of those who were rejected did not meet minimum qualifications for the vocational courses in which they were interested. The principal and Director Volland pointed out, however, that if there were room, vocational training more appropriate for the slow learner could

be offered.

Because of the shortage of academic classrooms, about one-half of the shop facilities are being used about one-half of the time.

There is a girls' physical education program, but because there is no locker room the girls dress on the stage behind pulled drapes and leave their clothes on chairs. The girls do not take showers; there is no shower room.

The boys in the cadet program use their shower room for a classroom and walk to Watkins school and use that recreation area for drill space.

The gymnasium also serves as an auditorium, but because it is so small,

it holds only one-half of the student body at one time.

The out-of-door activity area is too small for most organized games or sports. Repair of electrical appliances is taught in a converted storage room.

The offset pressroom is jammed with equipment; students and the instructor have a difficult time moving about.

There is no space for storing paper for the print shops; savings incurred by buying in quantity cannot be taken advantage of.

As in all schools visited, the lighting was poor and well below standard.
The cafeteria is used for classes at least 4 hours each day.

The boy's locker room is small and inadequate.

The home economics suite has been converted to photography rooms; the conversion was awkward.

Because the bakery shop is small, classes must be limited to 12 students. The cosmetology room serves 20 girls. When 20 customers are added, there is little room for the instructor to move about.

There is but one science room and one science teacher; all who want or who need science courses cannot take them.

Vocational courses often require related subjects such as drafting 1 hour per day. Because there is only one drafting room and because this is used for vocational drafting, it cannot be offered as a related subject to those who need it. Because of the room shortage, most academic teachers have an average of 40 to 45 children each hour in their classes.

Chamberlain, as is true of all District vocational high schools, does not have an athletic field and must play all of their games "away.'

There is no library.

The small gymnasium permits only a limited intramural sports program. Much enthusiasm was reported for those sports activities which space permits.

BELL VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

This building is in very good condition. It has been well cared for. The students must be proud of their building to take such good care of both the rooms and the equipment.

Principal Baltimore was especially proud of the exploratory program offered all sophomore students at Bell, whereby each child is required to take 2 weeks of each course offered in the school. It is expected that in this way the students will be better prepared to make a vocational choice. The principal feels that 2 years is enough preparation for most of the vocations taught in his school; 3 years is customary in the other four high schools. Space is a problem here at Bell, too. All applicants cannot be accepted. If there were room, less difficult vocational training would be offered to take care of many of the students who now cannot qualify for instruction in the vocation of their choice.

The building is used day and night.

The welding shop is a converted dressing room.

Plumbing is taught in former physical education facilities.

There is no room for spectators in the gymnasium and all games must be played away. This is apparently true for both football and basketball games in all District vocational high schools. In spite of this handicap, Principal Baltimore pointed with pride to the boys who were practicing football on a small, dirt field across the street from the school; they were last year's city champions. There is a library, but it is smaller than an average classroom.

A librarian is available only part time; this is also characteristic of the other vocational schools in the District.

PHELPS VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

Phelps was built as a vocational school, yet the shops are small and many facilities important to adequate vocational offerings are missing. As in the other schools, much ingenuity and creativity has been demonstrated in finding space so that as many children as possible be given an opportunity for a vocational education. Yet, many are turned away. Principal Posey reported that in 1964-65, 532 freshmen applied for admission; 295 were accepted. For this year, 1965-66, 762 applied and 320 were accepted.

The principal was enthusiastic about the significant success of a tutoring program carried out in cooperation with the Catholic University. Students with special academic problems such as reading or arithmetic showed gratifying progress when given individual attention. Principal Posey felt that this program would have been even more successful if there had been a more quiet and more private place for this tutoring. For lack of more appropriate space it had to be done at long tables set up in the halls.

The halls used for tutoring are used for other purposes than merely as a place in which to pass between classes. At Phelps they also serve as a gymnasium. Shuffleboard patterns are painted on the floor. The track team sets up hurdles here during spring practice after school. There is no other gymnasium.

An extensive new facility for teaching gardening, landscaping, and greenhouse work has been planned and approved for Phelps. Its location next to the National Arboretum lends itself well to the teaching of these subjects.

There are only three offices in the school; the principal's and two others.

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is shared by the counselor and the assistant principal. It is very small and there is no private place wherein the counselor can work with students. the nurse's office. This, too, is small; there is no room for beds.

A single science lab serves the entire student body.

Forty-eight boys are taught in a single drafting room.

Thirty boys study tailoring in a shop intended for 12.

One-half of an already small library has been sacrificed for a classroom.
The old boilerroom is now a small locker room.
The cafeteria is used 6 hours a day as a classroom.

It is the only room which can be used for school assemblies, but only half of the student body can be in the room at one time. There is no stage for programs or for dramatics; yet, both take place here.

Four classes are held each day in the teachers' lunchroom. This room is also used before school in the morning for band practice and after school each night for choral work.

Yet, with all of these deficiencies, the administration, staff, and student body are apparently making the best of the difficult situation and a remarkably high level of vocational educational opportunity is offered in the limited space avaialble. This can be sincerely said of all vocational high schools in the District.

ARMSTRONG ADULT EDUCATION CENTER

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This facility places an emphasis on such post high school vocational program as manpower training. Again, new equipment is used in a very old building. We may expect the demand for post high school education in the District of Columbia to increase radically this decade.

EXHIBIT C

Hon. JOHN L. MCMILLAN,

STAPLES PUBLIC SCHOOLS, Staples, Minn., September 30, 1965.

Chairman, Committee on the District of Columbia, U.S. House of Representatives, House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

DEAR CONGRESSMAN MCMILLAN: During the week of September 20, I met with the administrators of the District of Columbia schools and the representatives of Odell-MacConnell Associates, school consultants from Palo Alto, Calif. The consultant firm is under contract to the District Board of Education. One of their specific assignments has been to develop educational specifications for a proposed Vocational-Technical-Occupational Center. The consulting firm, the local school administration and I are in general agreement as to the facility needs of the vocational education program of the District. I am confident that the

final report of Odell-MacConnell Associates will set forth specifications for the kind of Vocational-Technical-Occupational Center which will effectively meet these facility needs. In our correspondence and in our discussions we have had little difficulty in reaching unanimous conclusions in regard to the needs of the District or the kind of construction necessary if the young people of the District are going to have opportunities for vocational education comparable to the youth of other large cities in our country.

The final recommendations of Odell-MacConnell Associates will call for a 30to 40-acre site. Either of the proposed sites on the Anacostia River could be this large if the Park Service would release that many acres. A smaller site might be satisfactory if the center were to have several stories rather than the campus type of development now proposed.

I personally feel the campus design is preferable. Educationally speaking, the school could do a better job than if forced into a "sky-scraper" type of construction. It is not easy to develop shops in multilevel construction. Furthermore, the campus plan could be developed over a period of several years if all of the construction funds were not made available at the outset.

The design of the Center would be based on "curriculum clusters" wherein instruction would be offered in related trades. The following centers would be constructed as separate buildings under the campus plan or stacked one above the other if there is only enough space available for a single building:

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If the complete facility could not be constructed now, then the above centers are listed in a priority of need. These priorities were tentatively agreed upon in our discussion this past week. The proposed physical relationships of these curriculum clusters to one another is illustrated in an addendum to this letter. This facility is designed to educate about 5,000 daytime students. This is nearly double the number of students now enrolled in vocational high schools in the District. Yet, this is not an unrealistic estimate when compared to total enrollment figures in District schools of more than 150,000. This facility would make room for the many students now being rejected. It is also true that a new, attractive facility will mean many more applications for admission to vocational

courses.

Now, what of the cost? Square foot needs have been recommended by the consultants for each shop and classroom. This total, for all curriculum centers, is 725,830 square feet. Construction cost estimates by the local school administrators and by the District Commissioners Office, vary from $17 per foot to $27 per foot. If the architect should determine the higher figure as the more accurate, then construction costs would be estimated at $19,597,410. Equipment costs in a vocational facility are usually about fifty percent of construction costs or, in this case, about $9,798,705. Another $3 million would have to be added for architect's fees, consultant's fees, etc. This would bring the total to more than $32 million not including site.

When this Center is in operation, a broad program of vocational education will be available to the youth of the District. As an addendum to this letter, I have listed the trades in which instruction is now given in the vocational high schools of the District. These would be continued, but the educational offering within each trade area would be broadened to provide opportunities for those less talented and, on the other hand, at the opposite end of the vocational spectrum provide training of a more technical nature to challenge the more gifted young people interested in each specific trade or occupation. Training for additional occupations would also be possible in the proposed facility. The demands of our modern economy for technician type training (approaching the engineer level) could be met in the new vocational center. There is also a growing need

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in our society to train and to retrain those who would normally work in jobs which are being replaced by automation. The proposed center would make possible vocational training at these so called "lower levels." For example, a gas station would be included in the autopower curriculum cluster for the training of filling station attendants.

The facility will be sufficiently flexible to offer training for periods as short as 1 or 2 weeks or as long as 2 or 3 years.

It is the thinking of the District school administration, that the proposed new facility will gradually and eventually develop for the most part into a posthigh school center. This may take two decades or more. Some vocational education, such as secretarial training, will always be offered at the high school level. However, the national trend has been clearly in the direction of posthigh school vocational education. As the Washington, D.C., high school program becomes more truly comprehensive, it will become less necessary to offer vocational courses to hold young people in school. We realize that any transfer of the vocational program to the post-high-school level will have to be gradual and undertaken with extreme caution or the high school dropout rate will become even more serious instead of being diminished.

If the proposed Vocational-Technical-Occupational Institute were to be constructed in toto and in the immediate future, what would happen to the five present vocational high schools? Three alternatives are now being considered by Dr. Hansen and his associates:

(a) They may be retained and used as modified vocational high schools, or to augment or contain certain specialized vocational curricular offerings.

(b) They may become special schools designed to salvage students for the regular programs at the VTÔ Center. Such schools would be heavily staffed with guidance and counseling personnel, teachers akin to those found in the Peace Corps and dedicated to providing an environment where secondary-aged students may learn to improve their basic educational and social skills. A program constructed along the lines advocated at the North Carolina Advancement School might be considered. There, a majority of the students are put in remedial reading

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