Valley Central High School - Viking Log Yearbook (Montgomery, NY)

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fRightj At first, centralization created an uneasiness among the communities. Now strong feelings of friendship and unity bond the area together. Hhondo Coburn, leon VonWyck and Sally Mojeski share in the wealth of this event. QBelowj Preparing for a class of thirty students requires many extra hours from a teacher. Mr. Edward Hart readies himself for the next day's schedule. ...34 'hw t ,Q fAboveJ After a daily two hour run, weariness overcomes even the most physically fit. Albert Stormes props himself against one of the 1631 lockers before catching the five o'olock sports bus. fRightl Even with thousands of books circulating in English classes, even more sit waiting for the call into action from the English center. Centralization meant more money for more books. R ta, K My , 'lalhawih 1 f -u Q at 45, 4: f J 0.6 ' ' , - .5 Q 1 ,Ji - . fleas f ' Q V I ef ' . A t .4 R . Q., s. V ,A ff if g sf' K Q' 1 fa, , 'E' if . J?-ftgi 25 -A -4 2 - f sl? f , 31327 q N ,ef 5 l s. c Q W- . fc . . 'Vu ay .. , f .f E ' V .ft k.w ' 1 M. , Y V ' , 1,4 0, Lf K. ' it .M t. ratify-it ...f .. 'E' wi.. .. Q x .u w. .. 47 4 OPENING ESSAY

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new ,, , ,. ,z rwtfwazwti ,mv tw ,. if ,+I i' -mi :au 11',',,, -, W, it ,, , list ,V ,l.,, M X! ti .M2A 1 so . 5 1 1 X 1 , Ee. iii' ai? , it 5 he more more they overused Valley score of years score of And still remained the This book twenty looks at ourselves just how twenty years score? The logo for the '79 Viking Log derives from the cover. artwork. Centralization became a historical 'fact in 1959. The logo symbolizes I the conc t that from 1959 to 1979 Valley Central s come through changes to arrive I back at not without difference, 1 T ,..f- ,,.,, WV' PROLOGUE 3 ww' '-.ME s Awmdi 'N' M-thx

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sig fAboveJ With the fusing of schools also came the fusing of budgets. This allows such extras as the brightly colored uniforms of the Valley Central track team. Centralization I - fuses communities Mass-bussing is introduced he centralization war, 1959, was one we'll never read about in history booksg one we'll never be quizzed on. And this is fortunate, for even though it took place in our own community, few of us have ever heard of it. Maybrook, Montgomery, and Wal- den fought the war against New York State, which encouraged the three sep- arate high schools to centralize and threatened to reduce the area's funds if they did not do so. They fought the war against each other - community against community. The reasons against centralization were not always as sensible, as they were personal. A strong feeling of vil- lage pride and a distrust of all other communities lay at the base of the arguments against centralization. Ray Dulye, editor of the Citizen Herald, remembers that the fears ex- pressed by one village, could be found in them all. A mother in Montgomery would stand at a meeting and say, 'I will not vote to centralize, I will not let my children go to school with those thugs from Walden' And a mother attending a meeting in Walden refused to vote for centralization be- cause she did not want her children attending school with the 'punks' from Montgomery. Parents did not stand alone against the state and centralization. Mrs. Di- Bello, who graduated from Valley Central in 1961, recalled what it was like to be a student faced with central- ization. We didn't want it. As a fresh- man, I knew all the seniors. We had a graduating class of twenty-eight that year. There was a closeness . .. Inev- itably, that closeness would be lost with centralization, and no one want- ed to lose it. Centralization promised, besides the threatened decrease in funds, superior facilities for a higher education. In the end it was this promise which over- came village pride and distrust, and swayed the vote, the separate school districts fused into one - Valley Cen- tral. Valley Central as a name for the new district was not easily arrived at. It demanded nearly as much deliber- ation as the decision to centralize in the first place. The villages had decided to join schools, but not hands, neither had they given up the pride they had tem- porarily set aside in their vote to cen- tralize. They hadn't destroyed the dis- trust. Now the three villages scruti- nized one-another's movements, guarding against the possibility of one village gaining an edge over the oth- ers. They had decided to coin the new district's name using letters from the village-names. The fight against cen- tralization over, the fight became, as Mrs. DiBello put it, whether the 'Mont', 'May', or 'Wal' would come first. Would the name be Montwal- brook? or Maywalmont? Then they had to choose school col- ors. They had to figure out how to blend orange and black with gold and black with red and white. In the end they decided to start from scratch and name their new district Valley Central and chose royal blue and white as the school colors. That way, nobody had an edge. Centralization introduced the com- munity's first mass-school bus trans- portation. Mr. Brokaw, who taught at Walden High School prior to central- ization said that with a centrally lo- cated school, everyone walked. There was no need for buses. Today, buses transport from as far as fifteen miles away. Only a few students who live next door to the school walk. OPENING ESSAY 5