ABSTRACT
School boards were given the discretion of removing “all or any such managers” from time to time: they were also to determine the number and stipulate the powers of any body of managers. Where school boards delegated only a little of their work to managers, the matters dealt with became trivial. The regulations for school managers issued by the Reading School Board left little scope for initiative. The archetypal school board clerk was G. H. Croad, who helps office from the formation of the School Board for London in 1871 to his death in September, 1902, a span of thirty-one years. The need for a more expert evaluation of the work and life of a school than could be provided by managers was appreciated by many boards. The system of local management adopted by the School Board for London illustrated the difficulties of management when it was uneasily divided amongst a number of different interest groups.
