Digital Bob Archive

JANUARY, 1918 - PART 4:

For the school year 1917-18, for the first time in several years, all 12 grades of the Juneau Public School were under one roof. They were in the brand new three-story building on Fifth Street, the present playground site. The building was not completely finished when school opened on September 10, 1917, but classes were able to move in. The dedication ceremony was held on October 12.

With the opening of school, Superintendent of Schools Arthur M. Mathews announced that the junior high school system would be instituted for the first time in Juneau. The junior high would have its own assembly room and study hall. Some of the classes would be taught by members of the senior high school faculty, but the junior high would also have two teachers, Jane Brenneman and Marie Nelson, assigned to it.

Teachers in the grammar school were Blanche Dyer, Evelyn Sullivan, Mamie Wheeler, Harriett Case, Ruth Sheeland and Dorothy Gilcrest. On the senior high faculty were Miss Margaret Scott, principal; Miss Fay Wenk, Miss Gertrude Hellenthal, Mrs. L.S. Combs, Miss Mary Dresser and Vernon C. Genn. Joseph F. Sumpf was hired as musical instructor to direct the high school band, and F. Handley Wells was the instructor in vocal music.

Schools were an important part of the local scene in 1918; there were, in fact, twelve schools operating within the present Juneau City/Borough boundaries during the 1917-18 school year.

The largest ones were the two city schools, operated by the municipalities of Juneau and Douglas. The Juneau Public School had 14 teachers in all and an enrollment of 72 in the high school and 276 in the grammar school, for a total of 348. The Douglas Public School with nine teachers had 42 enrolled in the high school, 164 in the elementary school for a total of 206.

There were two schools, one in Juneau and one in Douglas, operated by the U.S. Bureau of Education for Native children. Enrollment figures for those two schools in 1917-1918 are not available, and that is also true for the two St. Ann's Parochial schools, one in Juneau and one in Douglas.

The Territorial Department of Education, created in 1917 with Lester D. Henderson, the former Juneau Superintendent of Schools at its head, operated a total of six schools in the area. Four were regular schools, one each at Treadwell, two teachers and 58 pupils; Thane, two teachers and 33 pupils; Perseverance, one teacher and 13 pupils, and Mendenhall, one teacher and ten pupils.

In addition, the Department of Education operated a Citizenship Night School in Juneau and Douglas. At Juneau the enrollment was 20 men and 11 women and at Douglas it was six men and 19 women. These schools, which ran for 24 weeks during the school year, were designed especially for men and women who needed to know more about the government of the United States in order to become citizens, but courses were also offered that year in English, Spanish, typing and shorthand.