Richburg Central School - Quill Yearbook (Richburg, NY)

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PROGRESS AT RICHBUR6 pressure brought to bear on any rural district consid- ering centralizing. All the Board members, who have taken part in the centralization, should be com- mended highly for the way in which they attained a reality-the Richburg Central School. As a result of this business-like procedure the following common school districts, Nos. 2 CPine Grovej, 5 CWirt Centerl, 7 CCottrellD, 8 CPleas- ant Valleyj, 10 CDimmickD of the town of VVirt, and Union Free School district No. 1 of the towns of Wirt and Bolivar, at a meeting on June 29, 1926, voted and organized as a Central Rural School district. The new school district was des- ignated as Central School District No. 1 of the towns of Wirt and Bolivar, Allegany County. The Board of Education chosen by the people to head the new centralization consisted of: Floyd Saunders, president, James S. Johnston, Clarence F. Allen, Herbert L. Wightxnan and Henry Millis. At the first meeting the new Board appointed Wilfred J. Coyle as the first Principal of the new Central School. Elmer Cowles was appointed clerk and tax collector of the Board and Gerald Wight- man, treasurer. ln the first year of centralization, transportation of pupils from outlying districts became an immedi- ate problem. The P. S. 85 N. R. R. Co. contracted to provide railroad transportation for the pupils from Wirt Centerg the train to arrive about 8:15 and to return at 4:00 P. M. The O. B. S. Trac- tion Co. contracted to furnish transportation for the pupils from the Cottrell district. L. A. Wightman contracted with the Board to furnish transportation for those living in the Dimmick and Pleasant Val- ley districts. Harold Steiner contracted to provide transportation for the Pine Grove district. During severe winter weather it was necessary to bring the pupils from some sections of the district by horse and sleigh. 3. lnavale School 4. Dimmick School As early as December 1928 it was found that the new school building lacked suihcient storage space so, an additional' room, size 16 x 11 feet to be used for storage, was added to the present building. After many discussions in regard to increasing the educational services, it was decided in August 1928 to initiate business and physical education departments that fall. Seven typewriters were pur- chased and Priscilla Broadwell was employed as in- structor. Miss Iva Jackson was employed as the first physical education instructor. In January 1929 the people residing in the Dim- mick School district decided to close their school and bring all their pupils to Richburg. This school, al- though a part of the original centralization, had been kept open for the first six grades. The Board of Education decided in the spring of 1929 that their school enrollment was increasing to such an extent that they should still further increase their educational offerings and as a result it was de- cided to open music and art departments in the fall. Dorothy LeChien was employed to this position and opened these departments in the Richburg Central School in the fall term of 1929. At the annual school meeting in August 1929 the School Board was authorized to dispose of the dis- trict school houses known as Pine Grove, Wirt Cen- ter, Cottrell, and Pleasant Valley. This was the beginning of the loss of identity of the old common school districts in our community. In the state of New York, previous to central rural school districts, there were approximately ten thousand common school districts, however, the increase in central schools to the present time has cut the number of common school districts more than half. It was decided in the spring of 1930 to employ a man as physical education director full-time. Ira Brown was employed to this position and continued to serve the district well for eleven years. 3

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1 4 TWENTY YEARS OF 1. Old School-1925. In the past twenty-two years we have seen the beginning and continuous growth of Central Rural Schools in the rural districts of New York State. The primary objective of these Central schools has been to give the rural youth of New York State a more equitable educational program in comparison with the educational advantages of youth in the city districts. The small community of Richburg feels proud that they were pioneers in the Central School move- ment, the second Central School in Allegany County and the nineteenth Central School in New York State. We, also, feel happy knowing that we have been able to give the youth of our community for twenty-one years the many advantages that a Cen- tral Rural School affords. ln the year of our Lord 1925, the year preceding the centralization, found an inadequate wooden siructure school building which was unsuitable for accommodating the one hundred and fifty-eight pu- pils then attending the Richburg Union Free School. Of these one hundred and fifty-eight pupils, fifty- eight were in high school and one hundred in grades one through eight. A total of seven teachers, four for grades and three for high school comprised the faculty of the Richburg Union Free School in 1925-26. This would be considered an understaffed faculty today. Because of the condition existing in the school at this time it was decided that the district needed a better school for the youth of their community. In March 1925 at a meeting of the Board of Educa- tion, an architect was designated to draft tentative plans for a new Union Free School building, which were to be presented to the Board as soon as they were ready. ln August 1925, at a special meeting of the Board of Education, a contract was signed with A. W. E. Schoenberg of Olean as architect for the new school building. At a special meeting of the legal voters of Rich- burg Union Free School, on the 15th day of Sep- tember the voters of the district authorized the Board of Education to cause plans and specifications to be prepared and to proceed with the erection of a new school house on the present site owned by the school district. The Board of Education, at that time, consisted of: Floyd Saunders, Presidentg Howard Thomson, Frank Qwens, Clarence Allen, Claire Miller, James S. Johnston and clerk, Alice VVoodard. After bids had been submitted and contracts let, the ground work for the new school was started in March 1926. As the new building progressed, the Board of Education began to discuss the possibility of taking advantage of the new Central School State Aid law passed by the New York State legislature in 1925, provided that they could interest enough rural districts to consolidate with them. It was be- lieved that by forming a central rural school dis- trict, Richburg and the surrounding community stood to gain considerably more financial aid from the State and at the same time would be able to offer a much better educational program than could be offered in a Union Free School. With this thought in mind the School Board or- ganized committees to contact the voters of the pro- posed Central district, to explain the advantages to be gained through centralization and answer ques- tions relative to the plan. Throughout the history of the Richburg Centralization it has always been the plan of the Board of Education to present the matter as a business proposition showing that the advantages outweighed the disadvantages, with no 2. Pine Grove School 'uf' i

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TWENTY YEARS OF sl' . . 5. Cottrell School The number of pupils from the rural districts were increasing to such an extent that the Board felt that someone should be employed to prepare and serve hot lunches for the youngsters who remained at school for their lunch period. Mrs. Bruce Corn- wall vvas employed to begin this program in Octo- ber 1930. At the annual meeting in August 1931 the School Board was given permission to sell the Dimmick school building. It was also voted at this meeting that the school district would begin in the fall to furnish free textbooks to all the pupils of the Cen- tral District. A dental hygienist, Lucille Hardman, was em- ployed in September 1931 for the first time to clean pupils' teeth. This service was discontinued after the next year and was not revived until the fall of 19-15, at which time it was made a part of the pu- pils' physical examination in the fall of each school year. March 1932 brought the beginning of instrumen- tal music instruction. Rlr. Vincent Norton was engaged for this position for two nights a week and practice sessions were held in what is now known as the Town Hall. Miss lvlary Alice Sloan was employed as the first certihed Librarian in the spring of 1932 to begin work when school opened that fall. In the spring of 1932 due to increased enroll- ment and services rendered to the pupils, a serious discussion resulted with relativity to building an addition to the original structure. lt was decided to build an addition in the near future. So much interest was shown in instrumental music since its initiation two months previous that the Board deemed it necessary to provide instru- ments for the participating music pupils. The first instruments bought were bells and a base viol. At the end of the school year of 1932 the Board of Education discussed the furnishing of transpor- tation in District owned buses. Sales representatives from several companies were called in to discuss the merits of their product. ln July of this year it was decided to buy one Studebaker and two Dodge buses. Since there was no District owned garage at this time, drivers were employed with the understanding that they were to furnish a heated garage for storage of the bus which they were driving. ln August 1932 it was decided by the Board to open a Home Economics department and lVIiss Ma- rion Simpson was engaged as the first homemaking teacher. ln as much as there was not sufficient room to accommodate this department, the District purchased the Carl Benjamin residence back of the school, which became the home of the first home- making classes in the Richburg Central School. Interest in music became so great during the year that it was decided in the spring to hire a full-time instrumental teacher. Philip Austin was engaged as instructor and began work in the fall of 1933 and served well in this position through June 1941. On the 7th day of December 1933 the School Board called a special meeting of the qualified vot- ers of the district to vote on the question of building an addition on the present Central School building in order to properly care for the needs of an ex- panding school. At this time the voters of the dis- trict authorized the Board of Education to purchase the land, owned by Gerald Wightman and Carl Benjamin, adjoining the school and to proceed in building an addition to the present school building for cafeteria, homemaking and necessary classrooms. On October 1933 lvlr. Schoenberg was engaged as architect for construction of the addition to the building. Sealed bids were accepted by the end of October and work on the building began immedi- ately. The addition was completed in the spring of 193-1. ln June 1934- it was decided to engage the serv- ices of a part-time school nurse, starting with the fall semester in September. It was at this time that the schools in the State began to feel that there should be a definite time when parents could come to visit school, meet and converse with teachers relative to their child's work. As a result, in October 193-P the Richburg Central School had their first Parents Night. ln January 1935 it was decided by the Board to purchase an additional bus to meet the increasing needs of transportation in the district. This brought the total of district owned buses to four. During the winter of 1935 and from time to time in the next ten years we hnd the School District purchasing a considerable number of musical instru- ments, which gave to many pupils the opportunity to learn to play instruments which would have been too expensive for many a family budget. ln this