Richburg Central School - Quill Yearbook (Richburg, NY)

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TW! Kindergarten, Agriculture, Guidance and Industrial Arts. In the old Union Free School, a classroom was provided for the children to eat lunch. Today we have a modern equipped cafeteria serving hot lunches to approximately 225 pupils every school day. lt was necessary 21 years ago to contract with private individuals or companies for transportation Whereas 6 district owned buses and a station wagon adequately take care of the transportation needs of the Central School today. FUTURE PLANS Our present Board of Education during the war years has been studying what our community might be ten years from now and has arrived at certain conclusions relative to the general pattern of such a program, that our school system should follow in order that we might better serve the youth of our 'fa ENTY YEARS OF community. We, in New York State, are committed to the principle that all the children of all the people, re- gardless of economic status, race, place of residence, or future professional or vocational roles are entitled to an equitable opportunity to obtain a suitable edu- cation, so far as it can be provided in our public schools. This principle has never been fully realized particularly in the field of vocational education. This is especially true in our rural schools because of the sparcity of school population, cost of equipment, and teaching personnel to administer such a pro- gram. A distinguished scholar has observed that educa- tion should parallel the great zones of human activi- ties in which society is or should be usefully en- gaged. To this extent education should be as broad as life itself. If in its administration We are to give practical expression to our democratic philosophy 12. Tennis Court

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PROGRESS AT RICHBURG 10. Smalley School The voters of the Cooley branch school district of the Central School decided on August 12, 19-11 to close their school and bring all their pupils to Rich- burg. In August 19-11 it was decided to buy a station Wagon to be used for school business. This pur- chase brought school conveyances to a total of six. It was decided in October 19-11 to purchase a Radio and Recording Victrola which has proven to be very useful, not only for the classroom instruc- tion but also for various other school activities dur- ing the past six years. In September 1942 the Board of Education spon- sored the Boy and Girl Scout Troops. The sponsor- ship of the Boy Scouts still continues but the respon- sibility of the Girl Scouts was recently transferred to the Richburg Literary Club. Now the schoolhouses of three former common school districts lost their complete identity, when the Bartoo school was sold to Delbert LaFeverg the Smith school to Bradley Producing Corporation in September 19-12, and Babcock school to Roy David- son in September 19-13. On August 20, 19-12, upon order of the District Superintendent of Schools, common school district No. -1, known as the Smalley district, towns of Wirt, Cuba, Friendship and Clarksville, was an- nexed to the Richburg Central School. Upon peti- tion by the legal voter of Common school district No. 2, known fS Upper Obi, in the town of Clarks- ville, Superintendent VV. J. Coyle issued an order annexing this school district to the Richburg Cen- tral School on March 1, 19-13. In lune 19-15 it was decided to share with Boli- var Central School the services of Guidance and Agriculture teachers. In July of the same year Donald S. Childs was employed as the first guidance teacher. In August 19-15 the census indicated a large en- rollment in Kindergarten for September so it was decided to run two half-day sessions. This policy has continued to the present time. Our average en- rollment at present is approximately twenty in each session. In October 19-15 the Cooley school house was sold to H. C. Carpenter. In July 19-16 it was decided by the Board to share the services of four teachers with Bolivar, namely: Agriculture, Vincent Davisg Guidance, Donald Childs, Industrial Arts, Leroy Dodsong and Music, Ray Hessg in as much as the sharing of Agriculture and Guidance teachers had worked so well the past year. At a special meeting of the legal voters of the Central district, in September 1946, the Board of Education was authorized to purchase the Sawyer residence in order that a house would always be available for rent by the Principal of the District. As we come to the beginning of 19-16-47 of the Richburg Central School we might hesitate brieHy to see how far we have progressed in the last 20 years. In September 19-16 the Central School had an enrollment of 105 pupils in the high school and 355 in the elementary school making a total of 460 pu- pils instructed by 23 full-time and 5 part-time teach- ers. In the Union Free School in 1926, there were 58 pupils in high school and 100 pupils in the ele- mentary grades with 7 full-time teachers. The following departments have become a per- manent part of the school curriculum over a period of 21 years: Art, Business, Music, Physical, Educa- tion, Home Economics, Health, Dental Hygiene, 11. Upper Obi School

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PROGRESS AT RICHBURG l l 13. R. C. S.-1947. and achieve that equality of opportunity to which public education has dedicated its services our obli- gations to the most menial of our society are no less than to its most scholarly and most privileged. Every pupil in our schools is entitled to that type of selected experience which will contribute most in preparing him for the immediate problems of lifeg and equip him to enjoy that degree of happiness, social usefulness and self-realization that can be achieved only through a functional education. Such diversification of program as is essential in provid- ing this larger area of service can be realized only in a school of such size as to justify the establish- ment of many specialized courses. The size of the student body, the physical facilities and specialized preparation of faculty members are factors of prac- tical consideration in determining the degree of so- cial usefulness that any school is capable of ren- dering. The Richburg and Bolivar Boards of Education in appraising their own local situations find them- selves confronted by these common problems. They, therefore, decided after considerable research on the matter, to experiment with the sharing of voca- tional teachers from one school to anotherg it has been economically possible and educationally sound to initiate vocational courses in the fields of Agri- culture and Guidance the past two years, and Indus- trial Arts this past year. Next year we plan to con- tinue the above courses and add vocational courses in the fields of motor mechanics and carpentry with an attempt to relate them in a practical way to the types of work that would be encountered in work- ing in the oil fields. VVe hope in the near future, if our thinking proves sound, to progress into more advanced educa- tional courses in keeping with our aim to provide the youth of our area with as equitable and suitable edu- cation as the youth in any area in the state.