In 1823, a committee arose that seemed like all the others, but it was not. At a self-initiated meeting in August, “the inhabitants of the center school district” appointed a six-member committee to “report on the general concerns of said district.” Within weeks the committee was ready to report that “for several years past, the schools in this District have generally fallen below the common standard in the Commonwealth,” and would not bear comparison with those in neighboring towns. “Ought this state of things be long endured?” the committee asked. “Is it not reproachful to the Center District of the shire town in the county of Worcester?”As part of the solution to this problem, Worcester's first board of Overseers was elected at the end of that year.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
How Worcester got an elected School Committee
This is taken from the excellent A History of Worcester (1674-1848) (p. 120) by Kenneth J. Moynihan, whose columns in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette I continue to miss.
For those interested, the first Board of Overseers elected was:
ReplyDeleteAaron Bancroft
Jonathan Going
Aretius B. Hull
Loammi Ives Hoadly
Levi Lincoln
John Davis
Theophilus Wheeler
Otis Corbett
Enoch Flagg
Benjamin Chapin
Samuel M. Burnside
Frederick W. Paine
They were elected annually.