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<br />the three which lead in this item would stand sixth in the cost per
<br />pupil but for State aid which reduces it to the fourteenth. When it
<br />is considered that expense of transportation precedes the beginning
<br />of actual education in the school -room, it is clear that the high cost
<br />per pupil is due to an item not of direct educational value. Omit-
<br />ting the cost of transportation, Lexington's rank in cost per pupil
<br />would be sixteenth in the county. Standing two hundred and sixty-
<br />fourth amongst three hundred and forty-six towns and cities in the
<br />State, and thirty-fifth amongst those of the county, in the amount
<br />spent on schools for each one thousand dollars of valuation, Lexing-
<br />ton spends on schools only three dollars and eighty-five cents out of
<br />nineteen dollars and fifty cents, the tax per one thousand of valua-
<br />tion. At the same time it should be borne in mind that our town
<br />is one out of twelve in Middlesex County that receives no State aid.
<br />SCHOOL EXPENDITURES
<br />Teacher's Salaries,
<br />Transportation,
<br />Fuel and Care,
<br />Supervision,
<br />Supplies,
<br />Sundries,
<br />Repairs,
<br />Permanent Improvements,
<br />INCOME.
<br />Balance of 1902 Appropriation,
<br />" Hancock School Sanitation,
<br />" High School Accounts,
<br />Total balances from 1902,
<br />FOR 1903.
<br />$16,076.25
<br />2,243.77
<br />5,703.06
<br />34.65
<br />1,760.15
<br />629,04
<br />394.88
<br />375.80
<br />$27,218.60 $27,218.60
<br />$ [,569.69
<br />226.25
<br />119.96
<br />$1,915.90
<br />138
<br />Appropriation for 1903, $24,000.00
<br />Received from Out of Town Pupils, 611.88
<br />Gifts, 29.17
<br />$26,557.95 $26,557.95
<br />Deficit, $661.65
<br />In our last annual report we recommended an appropriation of
<br />$25,000 to meet the cost of conducting the schools for the year, and
<br />we were disappointed and embarrassed when the Finance Committee
<br />advised that $23,000 only be appropriated. Their reason for this
<br />reduction was that there were two unexpended balances from the
<br />previous year, namely, $1569.69 on general account, and $226.25 on
<br />the Hancock School Sanitation Account, both of which (with any
<br />balances that might remain from the High School Construction and
<br />Furnishing Accounts) were, on their recommendation covered into
<br />the general school account for 1903; but, as we pointed out when
<br />the question came before the annual town meeting, the first and
<br />larger of these two balances existed only because of the peculiar
<br />conditions, arising from the great coal strike, which made it impossi-
<br />ble to buy the year's supply of fuel in the fall, and simply postponed
<br />it until the new year, and we expressed the belief that the unex-
<br />pended balance would barely suffice to pay for the fuel properly be-
<br />longing in the 1902 account. In this our forecast proved correct,
<br />there being a balance of just seventy-two cents remaining after the
<br />bills for coal and wood were paid.
<br />The coal strike, which compelled us to close the schools a week
<br />earlier than usual in December, in order to economize fuel, was re-
<br />sponsible for another deferred charge properly belonging in 1902,
<br />for the week thus lost had to be added to the last term of the school
<br />year, and the item of $368.75 for teachers' salaries for this extra
<br />week was far from being covered by the balance of the Hancock
<br />Sanitation appropriation. Finally, the balance of $119.95 which
<br />came to us from the new High School appropriations failed to cover
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