The first meeting of the committee of managers of the Rushden Non-provided (National) schools was held in the Church-rooms on Tuesday evening, when there were present the Rev. W. R. Morse, Messrs. G. S. Mason, G. Miller, and G. Skinner (foundation managers), and Messrs. J. T. Colson and W. H. Wilkins representing the County and District Councils.

Election of Chairman

On the motion of Mr. Colson, seconded by Mr. Wilkins, the Rev. W. R. Morse was elected chairman.

Mr. Morse, in accepting the position, said that the Education Act had reduced the number of managers, and by this means they had lost several useful members. On behalf of the foundation managers he welcomed the addition of the representative managers.

Messrs. Colson and Wilkins replied and said that, strong as their objection was to certain features of the Act, their first duty would be towards the children and to the efficiency of the schools.

Contracts

The Chairman reported that there had been some correspondence with the County Education Committee as to the manner in which the cleaning, lighting, and heating of the schools should be contracted for in the case of the day and evening schools. Any loss in carrying this out would have to be borne by the managers. It would only be for one year, and could then be varied if necessary.

With regard to the terms offered, the representative managers said, that at the outset they wished it to be clearly understood that they would not hold themselves responsible for any expenditure not provided for by the Education Committee.

Correspondence

In reply to Mr. Wilkins, the Chairman stated that there had been no specific instructions received from the Education Committee as to correspondence. Hitherto Mr. Morse had been correspondent to the managers, with Mr. G. S. Mason as secretary and Mr. Miller as treasurer.

It was resolved that these appointments should be continued, and that Mr. Mason should be correspondent to the Committee.

The Teaching Staff

Mr. Mason submitted a list of teachers’ salaries and qualifications.

Mr. Wilkins asked whether the teachers would be required to perform any extraneous duties.

Mr. Mason said that under the new conditions a formal agreement would have to be entered into with the teachers. He believed that most of the teachers were members of the Teachers’ Union, and they had suggested that the forms prepared by the Union should be used for the purpose. The foundation managers approved of the agreement, which specially excluded the teachers from extraneous work. They were awaiting instructions from the Education Committee as to the parties in the agreements.

Messrs. Wilkins and Colson expressed themselves satisfied.

Requisitions

The Chairman said that forms of requisition had been received from the Education Committee on which to set out the stores required by the schools for the next six months. They were at present in the hands of the Headmaster. He thought it would be impossible to properly keep the estimates down to an annual expenditure of 2/6 per scholar as required by the Education Committee.

Mr. Mason stated that so far the expenditure had been 4/- per head per scholar.

It was decided to support the requisitions of the Headmaster and leave the responsibility of curtailment to the County Committee.

The Name of The Schools

The question arose as to the name of the schools.

Mr. Mason said they were originally called Church Schools, but for some unexplained reason the Education Department had altered it to National Schools. It was agreed to continue the latter name.

Periodical Meetings

The question as to the periodical meetings was deferred, but it was agreed to hold the next ordinary meeting on the 3rd Tuesday in November.