Wyomissing Area High School - Colophon Yearbook (Wyomissing, PA)

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The population in American schools up to this time has been forever increasing, just as regularly as ideas on how an education should be obtained are constantly changing. So it was that when the Wyomissing Schools started to over- flow with an excess student body, the School Board began to think about revising the educational sys- tem of the borough. Either the present buildings had to be en- larged or an entirely new structure erected. A i This idea in its first conceived form, after putting up a new building to house the ele- mentary pupils at the western athletic field, was to maintain two separate grade schools, one at each end of the borough. Since, however, the national birth rate showed a sharp de- crease, such action seemed unnecessary. The second plan of giving up the grade building altogether and housing the entire en- rollment in the high school was also abandoned when it was discovered that the costs for the necessary additions would have been enough to construct a whole new school. Even at such an expense the renovated high school would have been out ot date and not well adapted, for ideas on the modern school layout have undergone radical revision in the past twenty years. April first, Nineteen hundred thirty-nine Page Eight

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Now . . . the Grade School xxx We knew Ibm portal Demoted Alla' 11121 one If r Page S

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May first, Nineteen hundred thirty-nine The only alternative, therefore, in order to obtain the maximum amount of good for the least amount of money, was to construct a new roof for the upper grades and to move the elementary students into the Wyomissing Boulevard structure, antiquated as far as meeting high school needs was concerned, but very well suited for grade usage, ln the spring of 1937, the Muhlenburg Brothers were selected as the architects of the pro- posed institution. A special election was held in August, 1937 at which time the affirmative wishes of the borough on a 3260000 bond issue were determined, Through the generosity of Messrs. Thun and Ianssen a site was donated opposite the athletic field, and, with the aid of the federal government, which promised to give forty-five cents out of every dollar of cost, the go-ahead signal was flashed. With the turning of the first shovelful of earth on September 20, 1938, under the super- vision of the general contractor, 5 - Edward A. Reider, residents of Wyo- t missing began to look forward to a new era in education.