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The Union Free School
was completed in 1871. In 1873, the Board of Education proposed to change
the district into a Union Free District; this allowed them to have secondary
education in Newfield. In 1895 Newfield became eligible to administer
its own regents, and by 1898 the first class graduated from the Union
Free School. Teachers received better salaries at the Union Free School
than at previous schools. In 1905, an addition was built onto the Union
Free School, and the library at the school contained 190 books.
In 1939, the town
voted to centralize the school district. The new school was constructed
at the cost of $220,000 by the Public Works Association; the cost was
shared by the federal and state governments. This school is part of what
is currently the Newfield Elementary School. In 1939, the Main Street
school was completed and the students made the move from the Bank Street
School. The new school had twelve elementary classrooms and 3 secondary
rooms. The student population of 248 was led by Principal Ed Long. The
school day lasted from 8:10-3:10, and the teachers were responsible for
the students all throughout the day. When the students moved into the
new school, they called it the "palace". The 1940 yearbook started
with the dedication:
"We
come to you from years of musty halls. We bring a wealth of memories combined
with hopes of coming years to fill our album of school days. As we look
foward to hours in your long cool corridors and high ceilinged classrooms.
We dedicate our annual of the past and present to you and to the promise
you give us a fuller school life."
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The students
of Newfield in 1940 felt an immense amout of pride for their new school.
Eero Ruuspakka remembers the cleanliness and the newness of the school.
He remembers how the teachers dressed crisply and professionally.
Herb Emery remembers that the basketball sectionals were held at Newfield
for a number of years because Newield had the best gym around.
Howard Nye,
a longtime resident of Newfield, started teaching high school in
Newfield in the 1940's at the age of twenty. He had gone to a one
room school for seven years and then went on to high school. Nye
graduated high school when he was sixteen and attended Cornell University.
He became a teacher of agriculture. When Nye came to Newfield, Herb
Emery thought he was a student because he was so young.
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Photo
from the 1940 yearbook
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In
1949 the amount of students had overloaded the new school, and an addition
of 8 new classrooms was in order. In 1959 a second addition of a 200 seat
cafeteria and 11 new elementary classrooms was built along with some remodeling
to the original school. In 1962 and 1967, two more additions built containing
a new gym/auditorium, a music room, an elementary library, 9 elementary
classrooms, and one junior high classroom. The population continued to
grow, and soon the school had to hold classes in the Methodist Church
and in the Fire Hall.
In 1974,
a separate high school was built along with a bus garage and some renovations
on the original school at the cost of $3.5 million. The class of 1976
got to graduate from the new building. Lori Wainright Ray, a sophomore
at the time, remembers the joy the students felt when they got to move
into the new school.
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