FLASHBACK TO 1918: Miss. Louise D. Baggs Reappointed As School Superintendent

April 10, 2022

A regular feature looking back at what was being printed more than 100 years ago in the Bristol Daily Courier. This week’s entry comes from the April 10, 1918 edition of the newspaper.

Bristol Teachers Want More Salaries; Miss Louise D. Baggs Succeeds Herself

It is a matter of self congratulations to Bristolians, in general, that their representatives in the School Board rose to the occasion and reappointed Miss. Louise D. Baggs as school superintendent for the ensuring four years, at a salary of $1,500 per annum.

This reappointment is regarded as an instance of one of those rear occasions where real merit and sterling ability receive proper recognition. The present incumbent has been universally recognized as an unusually efficient and her administration has been one of unqualified success.

This was really all of the business transacted at the meeting which was called for this purpose alone and attended by the directors, but with the curtains pulled down, they informally discussed the question of increase in the salaries of the teachers.

The high cost of living is the result of the local condition which has arisen since the Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation has located in the vicinity. The high wages paid, and the demand for board and lodging has greatly increased the price to such an extent that many of the teachers are now paying from eight to ten dollars per week for board, which has seemingly made an increase in their salaries an imperative necessity.

The teachers, having heard that the board would consider the question of salaries at their meeting last night, held a meeting themselves yesterday afternoon and drew up a petition which they all signed and in which they furnished an exhibit of their actual expenses during the year, showing that the salaries received were hardly sufficient to cover the cost of board and clothing alone. The petition closed with the request that the Board would consider a twenty-five to thirty-five percent increase.

The board realizes the justice of the claim made by the teachers for the increase in salaries, but it feels that it would be better to make a flat increase all along the line rather than to adjust the salaries upon a percentage basis and then to make a sufficient raise to the tax rate to cover additionally expense. No definite action was taken as the discussion was only informal, but during the coming month, the President of the School Board and the Superintendent will go over the matter and the teachers, and the board will settle the question officially at its May meeting.

So many male teachers have gone into the army that the scarcity of the teachers is constantly increasing and in order to keep the schools in operation, towns and cities everywhere are raising salaries to an enormous basis.

Several teachers in the local schools have received enticing officers and it is probably that the local board will have its hands full to provide sufficient pedagogues to keep the schools in full operation next year.

An advertisement from the April 10, 1918 edition of the Bristol Daily Courier: