Phelps Central High School - Highlights Yearbook (Phelps, NY)

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TO THE P.C.S. FAMILY: As each of you reads this yearbook, you will take pride in the accomplishments of our school's activities. We aim to give all activities an equal chance to prosper, we don't want to over-emphasize certain activities at the expense of others. We like our share of championships and top ratings, but we are more interested in seeing more boys and girls in activities that develop their best skills and teach them to work and play in a cooperative way. As we near the goal of every pupil successful in some worthwhile activity, we shall be nearer the time when everyone will have a share in building the best of school spirit. It is your school only when you help make it better through what you give to it. To the yearbook staff, congratulations on the unique book you have given us. The quality of the book has improved so steadily since that first yearbook in 1937 that the job of the following year's staff is made exceedingly difficult. You accepted that responsibility well. To the seniors, our first class to .come all the way through the central school, I salute the records that you have made. More than an average number of you have left feats of scholastic and activity skill that will give succeeding classes something to shoot at. And I must laud the class spirit that led to your New York trip. Who can deny that that trip was a pacemaker! As all of you read this book and re-read it through the years, I am convinced that your thoughts will re-echo my own, H1951-52 was a great year together in P.C.S. GROVE A. NAGEL, Principal. 5

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74du'eea Zeww of e educational history of Phelps. The class of 1952 will ge the first class ever to complete its entire schooling in Phelps Central School, Th' ear marks a milestone in th f lection held on September 29, 1938, thirteen former rural dis- lt . . trictsqsaiidrflild olcd Plheleps Union and Classical School were comblned to give Phelps the advantages of a centralized school system. as broken for an addition to the existing seh001 D b 31, 1938, ground W i ' on elgentlhilt time many changes in the old building were already underway. The Egfdjsnviere Binoved downstairs, trading places with the library, the lab was installed in 205, which at that time was the commercial room. In the summer of '39 the familiar tile was placed on the corridor floors of P.C.S., the auditorium was enclosed, and the 201 and 202. old study hall was made into two new rooms, After a flag raising ceremony on the morning of September 18, 1939, the Phelps Central School family of 700 pupils settled down for work and play-in a space suffi- cient for only 400. Grade pupils came for only half a day, the typists worked on rehearsed in the Methodist Church, and the Class of '52, at that time members of Phelps' first kindergarten, met in the Presbyterian Church. the stage 3 the band The entire school was occupied for the first time on November 27 of that same year. The students were almost awed by the gymnasium and locker room set-up the homemaking classes' model apartment, the spacious commercial room, and the low cost cafeteria meals, all of which are things we take for granted today. On January 29, 1940, about a thousand people attended exercises held in the audi- torium formally dedicating the new central school. But the community continued its growth and the school once again became so overcrowded that the need for expansion could no longer be denied. Since there was no room for an addition to the main build- ing, a new edifice was erected on the former playground. This loss of playground facilities resulted in the adoption of the single session day in Phelps Central School. In September 1951, the ultra-modern new elementary school opened its doors. Its 15 spacious rooms provide facilities for 400 pupils from kindergarten through the third grade to study, work, play, eat, and learn. We quote from an article on the new central school which appeared in the 1940 Highlights: The boys and girls of the school have this year shown a new zest in school respect, spirit, and co-operation. From now on, the success of the Phelps Central School depends on the way that we show the people of the community that their confidence in us was not misplaced in providing us with these improved facilities. To that end, we, the members of the student body pledge ourselves. fulnigdtmgiiilgdgiars of centralization have we answered this challenge? Have we 6 fflflpx