Duanesburg High School - Dusquanox Yearbook (Delanson, NY)

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One of the foreslghts of James Duane founder of the Town of Duanesburg was ed ucation. To a great extent tnrough hls work and aid we have derived our present system of free education ln New York State As early as 1764 Duane designated land in the Town of Duanesburg for a school a church and a Town Hall Christ Church shown on the oppostte page was to be the center of this town plot Prtor to the Revolutionary War there was no system of educauon excepttng the Engltsh Public Schools open only to the wealthy In approxtmately 1787 prompted by the work of James Duane and Governor Chntou the New York State legtslature passed a law providing for appomtment of Regents tn the state A few years later the Regents recommended common schools and on March 26 1849 the legislature allowed free schools to be established This was closely followed by the approval of Union Free Schools It was only four years ago that the school we are now attending was in reality the Delanson Union Free School The schools of Quaker Street Thousand Acres and Delanson united to form the area but wtth the formation of Ihb-UD.10Il Free School they tended to consohdate The present school was built tn 1925 to accommodate the larger enrollment. There is one more tmportant step in our story of education Between 1937 and 1947 there was a general trend towards centrahzanon Earlter people had begun to talk of a central school in Delanson. Tlus idea seemed very remote at first but as enthusiasm throughout the state grew so grew the mterest in our area For approximately twenty years the pro and con tssues of centralization were dis cussed time and time again by the voters of the Delanson area Finally ln July 1951 area school districts united to form the Duanesburg Central School As a result of this centraltzation our present high school is bemg enlarged and modermzed and a new elementary school is under construction Christ Church was bullt during Duane s lifetime and his remams are buried there Although he did not live to see the public education he advocated become a reality it has become a reality in our trme especially with the organization of the Duanesburg Central School I Union Free School in 1923. Previous to this, there had been many small schools in the