Ybor City Tape

Wilson interview

 15

 W: Yeah, I was hired by the trustees.

 M: I've looked a lot at the school board minutes back in those

 days and they're so cut and dry I don't get any of this.

 W: Well, there wasn't much school board. The school board, ...

 the only thing the school board had at that time we had

 thirty-five or thirty-seven, thirty-seven separate school

 districts in this county. And originally it was sixty-five.

 And over each of those school districts they had a set of

 trustees of three people. And they collected and spent-the

 district The county school board only had the

 schools out in the county that were not in any incorporated

 area you might say. But they still had the trustees in

 every school or school district. Now if a school was, one

 school was in a district, that was the only school, then you

 had a set of trustees for that school.

M: Right, right.

W: But in district 4 which was Tampa, we had a set of trustees

 for all of the Tampa schools.

M: What was the school board like in those days--the people them-

 selves?

W: Oh, god, I don't remember too much about that.

M: What did people used to say? What were some of the issues -t

 in those days the school board would be concerned with?

W: Well, of course, one of the the school board was concerned