Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Award Date

1954

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department / School

Education

Abstract

Jeffers, with a population of five hundred and sixteen, is situated in the heart of some of Minnesota’s riches agricultural land. It is located in the center of Cottonwood County in southwestern Minnesota near the junction of state highway number 47 and U.S. highway number 71. Windom, the county seat of Cottonwood County, is located sixteen miles to the south. The South Dakota border is sixty miles to the west and the Iowa border is forty five miles to the south. The school, which serves this progressive community, is presently classified as an Independent Consolidated School District. It is accredited by the State Department of Education and is a member of the Minnesota State High School League, the Minnesota State High School Music League, and the Red Rock Athletic Conference. The six-six plan of organization is in effect with three approved departments in the high school, commercial, vocational home economics, and industrial arts. Five grade teachers, eight high-school teachers, a high-school principal, and a superintendent comprise the faculty. The district employees five drives to operate its five buses, two cooks to handle the hot-lunch program, a janitor, and a full-time office secretary. The present school district includes about twenty-nine sections of land. In January of 1902 the district was officially organized. This same year was a six-room brick school was constructed and equipped. Two rural districts consolidated with the Jeffers district in 1920. The following year a building to house a high school was built and equipped. The district was expanded by consolidation to its present size when all or parts of several districts joined in 1951. To better the educational facilities a $270,000.00 building addition was completed in 1953. Other district-owned property included a four-stall bus garage, a recently acquired six-acre plot on which is located a lighted athletic field, and a house for the superintendent. With school costs and school-tax levies on the rise, the problem of giving relief to the taxpayer and still provide a high standard of education has confronted the administration and school board of the Jeffers school district. This writer, as the superintendent of schools, felt that a study of the factors affecting the financial status of the district would help clarify the problem and aid in finding approaches to its solution. Although considerable financial help is given the school district through state aids, it is improbable that these aids will be increased enough to give the necessary tax relief. It appears then, that the best solution is to obtain a much broader tax base. This can be accomplished only through some form of consolidation. As future action in this area seems evident this study will provide the necessary facts and figures that can be used to take the problem to the people. This study should also serve as a continual source of information for the board in its endeavor to provide a good school at an economical mill levy. Digging into the history of the school and collecting the data necessary to complete this study has served to give this writer a clearer understanding of the school background and likewise result in a better comprehension of the schools problem.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Public schools -- Minnesota -- Jeffers

Format

application/pdf

Number of Pages

57

Publisher

South Dakota State University

Rights

No Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Only
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-NC/1.0/

Download

Share

COinS