Page:History of Public School Education in Arizona.djvu/117

Rh For the year 1898–99 it was reported that 90 normal graduates were employed in the public schools, and in 1899–1900 the number was 89.

The legislature of 1899 granted an annual tax of 1½ cents on the hundred for the normal-school fund and appropriated $3,500 to pay the accumulated indebtedness. In its report on the workings of the institution the visiting committee of the trustees for that year considered the development of the school as “worthy of commendation” and then fell into a discvussion of the whole subject, which showed the trend of the school itself and of the times:

By this arrangement the Territory succeeded to an extent in supplying the need of high schools. Those who could afford and had the disposition went to the normal school at Tempe or to the university at Tucson for their academic and high-school courses. In this way the high-school facilities of the Territory were greatly enlarged.

In 1899 a second normal school, located at Flagstaff on the Santa Fe Pacific Railroad and known as the Northern Normal School of Arizona, was organized. The genesis of this institution is interesting. Its beginnings go back to an act passed in 1893 looking to the creation of a school for delinquent boys.

In that year such a school was actually provided by law and was to be formally known as the Reform School for juvenile offenders. A building for this purpose located at Flagstaff was commenced and