GOVERNANCE Directors Annual Reports to BOT 1940

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 05: GOVERNANCE – BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Series 07: DIRECTORS
Director’s Annual Report to BOT 1940
Glyn Morris, PMSS Director, 1931-1942

Laurel House II construction. [laurel_hse_II_434.jpg]

GOVERNANCE Director’s Annual Reports to BOT 1940
By Glyn Morris, Director, and Arthur Dodd, Principal

TAGS: Governance, director’s annual reports to BOT 1940, PMSS Board of Trustees, Glyn Morris, building renovations and construction, publications that mention PMSS, Mary Rockwell Hook, improved roads, Cumberland Valley Rural Electric Cooperative, Arthur W. Dodd, vocational survey class, Cooperative Group pageant, Community Group, The Pine Cone, word-books, sight-singing, Carnegie Library of records, summer Library work, day students, Youth Guidance Institute, Infirmary, summer programs, Chapel services and speakers

The Glyn Morris 1940 Director’s Annual Report is presented here as a typewritten copy of the original report. It is believed that it represents an accurate accounting of the original that was presented to the Pine Mountain Settlement School Board of Trustees.

[NOTE: Trustees’ letters and reports that are not an official part of the Annual Reports may be found on pages for the individual trustees’ correspondence.]

CONTENTS: Director’s Annual Report to BOT 1940

001 [Page 1] Glyn Morris, PMSS Director, describes the aftermath of Laurel House [I] fire; Thanksgiving Day in new Laurel House; list of “special accounts of various phases of the School’s program” in publications, such as Mountain Life and Work (January 1939), the rotogravure section of the Louisville Courier-Journal (September 15, 1940), Kentucky magazine (Winter 1941), and others. The School is rated grade “A” for the second year by the Kentucky State Department of Public Instruction.

002 [Page 2] THE PLANT. Improvements to the School’s buildings; new design of Laurel House II and a thank-you to Mrs. Inghram D. [Mary Rockwell] Hook, School Architect and Board member; construction of girls’ house, which is a memorial to the late Mrs. Grace M. Smith; renovation of Boys’ House;

003 [Page 3] New bathrooms in several houses; renovations to Practice House; Jubilee House’s completion and home for the doctor; other renovations to Infirmary, Zande House, barn; roads improved with limestone; the mine re-surveyed; PMSS joined the Cumberland Valley Rural Electric Cooperative. He hopes the Board will approve replacement of Big Log and Far House [I].

004 [Page 4] REPORT OF THE PRINCIPAL. Arthur W. Dodd reports that the teachers and a staff committee are working to insure “greater adjustment between student and staff as well as more coordination among teachers.” Description of changes to the vocational survey class and the Cooperative Group, which presented a pageant of the cooperative movement’s history, supervised by Miss [Gladys] Hill and Miss Hackman.

005 [Page 5] Descriptions of changes to the Community Group; to The Pine Cone’s correlation with English, Journalism, and Printing classes. Student interest has increased with the use of word-books by teachers for Printing, Woodworking, and Mechanics; sight-singing in music and use of the Carnegie Library of records. Summer Library work was done by graduate librarians, secured by Dr. John Barrow, head librarian at Berea College. Approximately 30 day students attended PMSS, which provided remedial teaching.

006 [Page 6] The staff constantly does critical evaluations of the programs, aiming to more finely adjust student and school “without sacrificing fundamental disciplines and loyalties to those things which transcend the immediate present.”

007 [Page 7] PINE MOUNTAIN YOUTH GUIDANCE INSTITUTE [Glyn Morris]. The Institute, “still in its evolving stage, but with quite definite accomplishments noted, continues to be an important part of Pine Mountain’s community service…[reaching] out to the entire County.” Morris refers to the “Findings” and the rapid growth of the Institute. “The Harlan County and Harlan City School systems are encouraging their teachers, numbering over 400, to attend the next Institute by providing a subsidy for each teacher with which to cover expenses.”

008 [Page 8] He lists other achievements by the institute: enlargement of the Planning Council, establishment of a trade school near Harlan, creating a recreational program for youth, improving record forms used by Harlan County teachers, expanding the hot lunch program in elementary schools.

009 [Page 9] MEDICAL. The Infirmary and personal care by Miss [Grace] Rood is preferred by the community “to the impersonality of an urban hospital.” Two dentists set up a dental trailer at PMSS and cared for 125 students and neighbors. The Infirmary also serves “as a valuable training center for our girls…,” some who may decide to choose nursing as a career.

010 [Page 10] SUMMER PROGRAMS. Description of the Annual Young People’s Conference sponsored by the Cawood Presbyterian Church; Kiwanis Camp for underprivileged children; and the Associated Junior Work Camps of America.

011 [Page 11] RELIGION. Report of the students’ increased participation in Chapel services; the addition of Bible study to a course in ethics. A staff committee has been studying the place of religion at Pine Mountain “for the purpose of increasing…, in a sound and wholesome way, the School’s consciousness of God’s presence everywhere.” Morris lists the guest speakers in the 1940 Chapel services:

Dr. Francis S. Hutchins, President, Berea College
Dr. Clark Bailey, Harlan, Ky.
Miss Suen-i-Wu, Ginling College, China
Rev. Matthew Smith, Harlan, Ky.
Rev. Richard Baker, The Cabin, Line Fork, Ky.
Dr. E.J. Weekes, Berea College