OF THE

TRUSTEES, SUPERINTENDENT AND TREASURER

OF THE

IOWA REFORM SCHOOL,

TO THE

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE.

SEPTEMBER, 1879.

[PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.]

DES MOINES:

F. M. MILLS, STATE PRINTER.

1880.

REPORT.

To HIS EXCELLENCY, THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF lowa:

SIR-IN making their Sixth Biennial Report to the General Assembly, the Trustees of the Iowa Reform School, would intelligibly, and thankfully recognize the care of God, through whose blessing the institution has enjoyed good health. good crops, good credit and good fortune.

CHANGE OF SUPERINTENDENTS.

Two years ago the Board were satisfied that the School would be benefited by a change of superintendents. They accordingly sought out E. H. Winans, a man of experience in finance and matters of education, and well known in the State.

He took charge February 1, 1878. The career of the School under his superintendency, has been gratifying to the Board, satisfactory to the community where the School is located, and has secured the commendation of the press, and people who are acquainted with the affairs of the School under its present administration.

OLD DEBT.

At the date of our last report, a debt had accrued against the School to the amount of $7,461, as per that report. This debt continued to increase until it was more than $9,000, February 1st, 1878, when the new Superintendent took charge. From that date to the present, no new debts have been created, the expenses have been careful and judicious, the funds of the institution have so accumulated as to enable the Board to pay off the principal of outstanding debts that related to the support of the School. Two parties only refused to accept the principal of their claims without interest; for this reason their claims. amounting to $430.45 were not paid. A small amount is yet due for

material used in the erection of the main building; this we cannot pay without diversion of funds from the purpose to which the acts of appropriation had directed them.

The friends of the School have often asked how such savings could be made from the meager support of the School without injuriously affecting the health and happiness of the inmates.

Our reply is: though the living has been plain and economical, the boys having been better fed and better clothed than for several years previous, comparing well with the food and clothing of farmer boys through the country, the savings have been from careful buying and cash payments, by advantageous sales of produce from the farm, by prompt collections of money due the institution, including $2,068.50 from the former defaulting treasurer, Col. Vestal. From all these sources, as well as by savings from the monthly appropriations for support, such a fund was secured. Add to this the fact that the purchasing power of money has been greater during these two years, than ever before in the history of the School.

While in the immergency of our debt and the astringency of the times, we heartily commend the economy of the Superintendent. It would be unjust to the School to ask a like economy to be carried through another biennial term. The meager library is almost utterly worn away. The furniture is of the plainest possible sort, carpets are thread-bare and moth-eaten, harness and farm implements badly worn, maps and school charts we have none; music and singing books have been furnished by private contributions.

REPAIRS.

The last Legislature appropriated $1,000 for repairing of buildings and machinery, called a contingent fund. This sum has been partly expended, and will be wholly so before this report reaches you; but it was wholly insufficient to keep so many buildings and so much machinery in good condition.

The property to be kept in repair cost more than $100,000.

Less than one per cent of this cost, yearly expended, cannot keep the buildings in repair. We therefore recommend, as a necessity, the appropriation of $2,500 to keep the buildings in repair, in both the boys' and girls' departments.