Newspaper Clipping

scrapbook_2_p040.jpg

Title

Newspaper Clipping

Description

A newspaper clipping, "South Side To Mark 50th Milestone as High School, June Graduates to Stage Pageant Depicting Half-Century Of Educational Progress."

Creator

unknown

Source

Jean Colley Scrapbook. The Phillips House Museum, Rockville Centre, NY.

Rights

May be subject to copyright restrictions.

Language

English

Type

text

Identifier

scrapbook_2_p040

Spatial Coverage

Rockville Centre, NY

Text

South Side To Mark 50th
Mile stone as High School
The Rockville
1890.
That was the year that things tarted to happen. The student
population grew by leaps and bounds; the taxpayers voted to build
a new schoolhouse and, by the following year, the charter for South
Side High school had been granted and the academic departmen t admitted
to membership in 'the University of the State of New York.
This June, at the commencement
exercises of the senior high
school, the 50th anniversary of the
academy department's entrance
into the state regents sy tem will
be commemorated. Students ar
p r epar ing a pageant to show the
history of the schools in the village.
The program is the fir t of
the "vitalized" commencements
which will supplant the tradi- i
tional plan of having a guest:
peaker tell the graduates what
they are about to face in the
world.
\ Old chool house Torn Down
In 1890, when the morning
chool bell called the pupils to I lass in the old frame building on
College place, 1J50 children res
pond ed. That number compares
with the 3,000 pupils today enoiled
in the five elementary, and
junior and senior high schools.
The choolhouse is barely remembered
by a few older residents
of the village today, having
been torn down to make way for
I'e St. Agnes educational and re1
ous center that stands on the
ite today.
The pupils could go as far as the
igh th gr ade, after which they
.ere forced to go into New Y~rk
CI ty or elsewhere for higher. 111str
uc ion. The regents exammatio
ns for academic students w~re
t~l':: en in Flushing until -the admlson
of the Rockville Centre
\1:10'11 ~nto the state system. This
~.~fnt t v-ccurred in 1891, when the lllie
0of the school was listed as the
Sou th Side Union school. It was
n ot until November 5, 1898, that
th e South Side High school became
known under that name.
Fir t E tablished In Area
The South Side High school was I
th e first to be established in what 1
is now Nassau county, although
many communities soon followed
suit . . f
It was at the annual meetmg 0
th e school board in 1888, that a
mmittee composed to W. D.
hittemore, John T. Davison and
. S. Roberts was named to solicit
subscriptions for a fund to
place the school under the regents.
In that year, there were four
teachers on the staff, and the exenditures
amounted to $2,735.08
f which $1,410.51 was raised b.y I
at ion , Last year, the axpendi- I
U! es totaled $540,852.
t the annual meeting in 1889,
i was reported that the committee
had collected $200, and $700 addi-
"ional was voted for purchasing
,f books and apparatus so that the
-egents requirements could be met.
In July, 1890, the taxpayers votd
43 to 24 to build a new schoolouse
"which would amply proide
for the needs of the district
or years to come and which, ~t
e same time, would be a credit
and an honor to the community,"
;n the words of the late Superintendent
of Schools William S. Cover
t , who compiled a history of
h . r-hool v tern.
On Th building that was can truct.,
ed, facing College place between
Clinton and Park avenues, is the
present municipal building. On
February 20, 1892, the new school
was opened. Only three years
later, it was found that the school
facilities were being taxed to capacity,
and the Clinton school was
erected.
It is interesting to note that the
price paid for the site of the high
school on College place was $3.69
per front foot. The property is
now worth about $50 a front foot.
When the voters decided to build
a structure to replace the frame
house, the members of the board
were r. F. Wilson, president; Robert
A. Davison, W. M. Hawkins and
W. H. Cornell. When the school
was opened in 1892, the board consisted
of Wilson, Davison, Hawkins,
A. E. Ives and Samuel O. Wright.
Frank W. Lindsley was principal
of the school, and there were five
teachers on the staff.
The Clinton school site co t $8.40
per front foot, showing that value a! .the property in the village was
rising rapidly. In 1906. additional
land adjacent to the Clinton school
cost $17.64 per foot.
Covert Named Superintendent
Mr. Covert, who served as principal
.from 1905 to HU8, became
supermtendent of schools when the
d i s tri ~ t was made a superin tenden
cy in that year. Floyd B. Watson,
an. instructor, wa made the
first- prm.cIpal of the high school.
~t that time, the population of the
VIllage :vas 4,500, -wh lle today the
POpula!lon of the schools alone is
two-thirds of that. Mr. Wat 'on
1S now superintendent, and Paul
T. Wohlsen is principal of the high
school.
The "academic" gr ades are 9
10, 11 and 1.2, the 9th being th~
final year of junior high school and
the . 10th: .Ll th, and 12th being the
senior high chool ye ars.
,TWO pupils of the graduating
class are writing the pageant for
the commencement program. They
are Ruth H!nners and Dorothy
Brennan, assisted by other members
of the enior class. They
ha e been contacting former mem-
Ibel'S pf the board of education and
o~d time 1 esidents to get a true
~IctUl'e of the system's growth. In 50 year since being gran te d its academic
charter, South Side High school and th e Rockviii,.
c;,.ntrp. . chools have zrown consider ably .
June Graduate To Stage Pageant Depicting
Half-Century Of Educational Progress
VI w-Bt.ar Photographer
Bottom,- r igh t , Ruth Hinners and Doroth y Brennan,
students who are wr iti ng the commencement
pageant which will portray th e 50 year of th e

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unknown, “Newspaper Clipping,” Edith McIntosh School of Music Digital Scrapbook: A Community History Project, accessed March 19, 2024, https://edithsmusicrvc.com/items/show/172.