Footnotes to Long Island History
Rise of School Costs
Noted
May 19, 1955
by
Thomas R. Bayles
In these
days of soaring costs of the local schools it may be an interesting
comparison to look back at the school collectors’ report for 1890 of the
East Middle Island school, District 17.
“Middle Island, Aug. 5, 1890.
“To the
people of School District 17 of Brookhaven town.
“The
collector of said school district hereby presents his annual report as
follows:
“Amount on
hand August 6, 1889, $38.02; received library money from Supervisor,
.55; received Bartlett tax of 1888, $3.80; received amount in tax list
of 1889, $197.10, total, $239.47.
Disbursements were made as follows:
“Paid Miss
V. Hallock for teaching, $151.47; paid Edgar Swezey for 4 cords wood
delivered at schoolhouse, $8.00; paid D. F. Raynor for sawing wood,
$3.00; paid William Risley for kindling fire 70 mornings at schoolhouse,
five cents each time, $3.50; paid bill for painting schoolhouse, $17.29;
balance on hand July 26, 1890, $56.21, total, $239.47.
Henry P.
Hutchinson, School collector.”
The history
of District 17 must begin with 1835, the year it was formed as a
separate district. Previous to that date its territory was compromised
in the two original school districts formed under the State law of
1813. These original districts were described as “Swezeytown and the
northern part of ‘Middletown,” and the other as “The lower part of
Middletown as far west as Isaac Howell’s and north to James Dayton’s.”
The schoolhouse in the first District 11 stood by the Presbyterian
church, and the second district, No.12, covered all the present district
of Yaphank and West Yaphank and the southern part of present District
17. The schoolhouses at first stood on the east side of the Yaphank
road, a quarter of a mile north of the new Yaphank school and opposite
the building formerly known as the Yaphank hotel.
The school
in District 17 was located on a triangular piece of common land acquired
from the town, one and one-quarter acres in area just south of middle
Country road. This building was fitted with a desk running around the
outside of the room and fastened to the wall, with benches of oak planks
with rough legs. These were discarded and modern double desks placed in
the room in 1889. In 1928 the district abandoned the old schoolhouse
that had been in use nearly 100 years and built a new one costing
$19,000 further south on the Yaphank road, which is in use at present.
Amounts
raised for school purposes in different years show how the cost has
increased, ears between 1880 and 1890 it was $150 yearly, 1900 raised
$200, 1910 raised $275, 1919 raised $600, 1921 raised $1,000. 1925
raised $1,500, and in 1929, $5,200, when the new school building was
erected. Now the annual budget for the school in the same building is
over $28,000.