Washington Standard April 10, 1875
Olympia School District #1
Ed. Standard: Will you please publish the enclosed report for the past six months’ term of the Olympia District School. . . .
N. Crosby, Esq., Clerk Board of Trustees, Olympia School District No. 1.
Sir: The contract entered into between the Trustees of this district and the undersigned teachers has been fulfilled. The Public School opened on the 5th of October, 1874, and closed on the 1st of April, 1875. During this time two legal holidays have occurred, leaving 118 working days in the two terms.
The School Census Marshal reports 245 persons in the district between the ages of 4 and 21 years. Of this number, 101 are mentioned in the report and 42 have attended school elsewhere. Thus 143, or 58 percent, have attended public school during the year.
Section 15, Chapter 4 of an act, entitled, “An act establishing a common school system for the Territory of Washington,” approved Nov. 14th, 1873, says: It shall be the duty of every teacher of a common school to procure a certificate of qualification and good moral character before entering on the duties of a teacher. It shall be his or her duty to keep a register of the children attending school, their age, the time when they begun, the time they continue and of the daily attendance, and with the same he or she shall give a list of the textbooks principally used in his or her school, and said register and list of books shall be in duplicate and filed with the clerk of the district, at the close of every term, properly certified to by the teacher, the one copy for the use of the clerk, and the other shall, by the clerk, be furnished to the county superintendent with his annual report.
In compliance with the requirements of this section of the school law, a daily record has been kept with the following result:
Name: Age: Entrance: Attendance: Absences: Tardinesses:
Amelia Dittman 8 Jan. 4 49 11 20
Emma Dittman 6 49 11 20
[Editor’s Note: The Dittman sisters were chosen because they later on to teaching careers in Thurston County, including schools in the Yelm area]