Schools in 1877

St. Charles Herald, 11 Aug 1877

School Board Proceedings
The members of the Board of School Directors assembled at the Courthouse this 4th day of August, 1877.  Present---Messrs. Sarpy, Kenner, Essex, Darensbourg, and Baudouin.
Absent---Messrs. Rost, Bougere, and McCutcheon
The minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved.
The president then presented the following circular:
Department of Public Education, State of Louisiana, New Orleans, July 17, 1877
To Emile Rost, president of the Parish Board of School Directors in and for the parish of St. Charles:
Dear Sir--Be pleased to inform this office of the amount of outstanding claims of past years against the school fund in your parish, and of the measures which your Board have adopted for ascertaining and settling  the same. A separate statement of the amount due for schools open in 1877 is also requested, with a memorandum of the months during which the schools have been in operation. Information of this character is needed before apportionment for 1877 can properately be paid to your parish. Be pleased to mention also what books, forms, papers and balances of funds have been recovered from your predecessors, and what other forms, etc., are needed by or for the officers of your Board and teachers of your schools. Very respectfully yours, etc., R.M. Lusher, State Superintendant.
In answer to the above circular, the Board stated that the only outstanding claim of past years against school funds of this parish, so far as has been ascertained, is a bill bearing date of April 3, 1876, for the sum of two dollars ($2) due the St. Charles Herald for publishing a notice that the public schools would open on the 3rd April, 1876. The amount due for schools open in 1877 is $337, and this is for the month of June only. There were seven schools open in March and two more in April, 1877. These continued in operation until the 30th June. The amount turned over by the former to the present Treasurer, as per his own statement dated August 2, 1877, is $48.86. The former Secretary has turned over to us all the books, forms and papers in his possession, consisting of record, minute and account books, and all the forms necessary to carry on and transact the business of the schools.
On motion of Mr. Youngs, a committee on school houses, purchases, and supplies was appointed with instructions to examine the school houses belong(sic) to the parish, determine upon and change the location of the schools, lease suitable buildings for the same, and report their action in the premises to the Board at its next meeting.
Messrs. Youngs, Kenner, Essex and McCutcheon were appointed on said committee.
A petition from the citizens of the second ward, residing between Labranche and Davis plantations, praying that a school be established near St. Dennis station on the O. & T. R.R., and recommending the Bell Baptist Church be used for same, was presented by the Rev. Wiley Jones to the Board for consideration.
A note from Mrs. Caulfield, tending an invitation to the Board to attend a distribution of prizes to the pupils of her school, to take place on the 13th inst., was then read, after which the Board adjourned to meet again on the 18th inst.
T.T. Baudouin, Secretary