BUILDING SCHOOLS A BIG BUSINESS

YOUR SCHOOLS AND HOW THEY GREW

THE PROBLEM:

EXPANDING

PUPIL POPULATION

ust 9100

est. 10300

est. 11600

est. 12800

est. 13600

STATEMENT OF E. J. O'LEARY, SUPERINTENDENT, GARDEN CITY SCHOOLS; ACCOMPANIED BY ANDREW BERTHA, ASSISTANT TO SUPERINTENDENT, GARDEN CITY, MICH.

Mr. O'LEARY. We would like to take the position that H.R. 7140 should not be enacted and that section 304 (a)(3) of Public Law 815 and 308 of the same act and Public Law 874 be renewed in their present forms.

Garden City is a bedroom district in the arsenal of democracy area of Detroit. Korea brought about a tremendous impact of people into the area.

This school district had only 56 classrooms, 26 of which were temporary. Had there not been a tremendous growth of the area, then there would not have been the need for Federal assistance.

We believe that these laws should be kept on the books as a standby because we know not when there will be another hot war from the present cold war.

Garden City has grown in the past 10 years from 1,813 children to 9,800 children; from a population of 7,000 to a population of 35,000; from 56 classrooms, 30 of which are permanent-type rooms, to 306 classrooms, and from an assessed valuation of $7,424,000 to $49,638,000. There has been an increase in assessed valuation per pupil from $4,095 to $5,801.

Mr. BAILEY. Let's have those figures again, please.

Mr. O'LEARY. An assessed valuation per pupil growth of $4,095 has increased to $5,801. The bonded debt 10 years ago was $671,000. The current debt is $8,610,000.

I might say that in addition to that, there is $5,900,000 in interest to be paid on top of that $8,610,000, so it is a tremendous debt when you also include the interest.

The ratio of debt to assessed valuation has risen from 9.03 percent to 17 percent. Children have been on half-days all of the years up to the time that we were able to effect a constitutional amendment.

We received our first Federal aid in the 1952-53 school year in the amount of $340,001.50. Each year we got approximately $400,000 to $450,000. Despite the Federal aid and bond issues of 1953 and 1955, including the 1949 bond issue, the school district was not able to build enough classrooms to house the youngsters and so we initiated the action with schoolmen, the Builders Association of Detroit, and other interested people to try and amend the constitution of the State of Michigan.

The situation was this: Michigan had in its provisions that you could bond up to 15 percent of the assessed valuation. The actual limitation without excessive interest rates was 8 percent, the actual bond market situation. The maximum that you could sell was about 12 percent, if you expected someone to buy the bonds. Compared to other States, some States have only 2 percent that they bond for schools, and many States have only 5 percent, so that Michigan, under the other situation, had considerablye more than many of the States. We still could not bond sufficient to house our youngsters. What I proposed was that the State of Michigan amend the constitution and raise the 15 percent limitation. This ended up in the State $100 million school bond program. It was joint resolutioned in the legislature of January 1955.