PRELIMINARY NOTE.

To the Honorable Board of Education of the City of Sacramento: I deem it opportune at this time, when the city of Sacramento has established its government under a new charter materially different from the laws that had governed it, to present a connected history of the department of the municipal government now under the control of this board, up to and including the year 1893. Such a history is of value, not only to the members of this board, and those who will follow, but, in my judgment, to the people, as illustrative of the advancement that has been made in public education in the city.

Much embarrassment has been encountered in gathering the facts necessary for a complete and satisfactory history of the schools, because of the exasperating meagerness of many of the records, and the mislaying or destruction of much material that was of value, and which should have been preserved. It suggests that a system should be inaugurated by the board, and such old papers as exist segregated and pigeon-holed, and future papers properly placed so as to be reasonably accessible. As it is, the papers that have come down to us are in a confused mass, absolutely "without form, and void.”

Heretofore the annual reports have been very general and gave but little information of the condition of the schools. I have designed this report to cover, so nearly as possible, the transactions and progress of the department down to the time the present board took office, to be followed by the current report, which will set out the events and data of 1894. WINFIELD J. DAVIS,

Sacramento, Dec. 26, 1894.

President Board of Education.

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