USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > Woodbridge > History of Education Woodbridge Township 1664 - 1964 > Part 2
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* See page 21.
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1902-The New Dover School was closed.
1904-Carteret School #10 replaced School #2.
1906-Carteret left Woodbridge and formed the Borough of Roosevelt. This included School #10.
1909-Schools were overcrowded. Classes were held in the Hungarian Parish House and the firehouse.
1909-Introduction of manual training in schools.
1910-Plans were approved for a new high school on Barron Avenue. John Pierson & Son of Perth Amboy were the architects. Ira Crouse was the general contractor, and John Reed of New Brunswick was the heating contractor.
April 17, 1911 - The Locust Grove (#5 School) was closed.
Sept. 11, 1911 - Official opening of Woodbridge High School. The original faculty was John H. Love, Supervising Principal; Miss Edith Whitney, Vice Principal; Isaac Gilhuly, Edith Brandon, Viola Dunham, Ruth Braley, Helen Homes, Anna Shoemaker, Leona Van Ripper, Frank C. Ryder, Nellie Hamil, Anna Keegan, Edith Scott, and Edith Hinsdale. (See chap.I p. 11 for the history of the high school).
1912-The Avenel School became School #4.
1913-The Hopelawn School became School #10.
1915-Night Vocational School was started. Three dollars a night was charged for mechanical drawing, cooking, and sewing. (Vo- cational education is discussed at length in Chapter V).
1916-The impact of World War I was felt in Woodbridge, and military training was introduced in the high school.
Feb. 4, 1916 - Iselin School #6 on Green Street was destroyed by fire caused by an overheated furnace while the pupils were out- doors for recess.
March 21, 1916 - A new Iselin school building was approved, costing $18,000. Also, on this day, a four-room addition for the Port Reading School was authorized costing $16,000.
1917-Physical education was made compulsory.
1919-Number 11 School was constructed.
1919-The first school nurse was appointed.
14
--
Chemistry Class-1913
15
1919-Manual training, domestic arts, and music were introduced into Woodbridge schools.
1921-Construction was begun for a Sewaren school on the corner of Sewaren Avenue and Sherman Street.
1922-Construction of the Colonia School began.
1925-An addition to the high school was opened containing an auditorium, chemistry lab, physical training room, gym, and cafeteria. Arthur C. Ferry was named principal.
1926-A portable school building was erected to relieve School #9 in the Hagaman Heights section of Port Reading.
1926-Summer schools were organized in the high school and in School #11.
1926-The elementary schools in Keasbey, Hopelawn, and Fords were grouped into the South Side schools of the township. The re- maining schools became known as the North Side.
1930-Superintendent John H. Love suggested a junior high on the site of an old building on School Street for grades seven to nine, leaving Barron Avenue for grades ten to twelve. This pro- posal, and another for an addition to School 11 for grades one to six, were both impossible, because of the depression.
1931-Strawberry Hill School (#3) replaced the Rahway Neck School.
1933-School #15 was erected in Iselin.
Sept. 1933- Double session in the high school was begun as a "tem- porary measure."
June 30, 1933 - John Henry Love resigned after thirty-five years of service.
Sept. 22, 1933 - Victor C. Nicholas assumed the duties of superin- tendent of Woodbridge schools.
1937-The Town Committee charged the Board of Education with "be- trayal" and wanted to abolish it as a money-spending agency.
October, 1938 - The first Boys' Day, now known as Youth Week, was sponsored by the Woodbridge Lions' Club.
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January 26, 1941-The Locust Grove School, located near the Clark Township School, was destroyed by fire. It had not been used as a school since 1911, but served as a landmark because it was one of the oldest buildings in the country.
1943-An influenza epidemic caused the closing of schools for a time.
1944-Dr. John P. Lozo was appointed principal of Woodbridge High School.
April 29, 1949-The Board of Education had an informal conference with Assistant Commissioner of Education Anderson to discuss the possibility of constructing a new high school.
1956-School 18 in Iselin was opened. Construction was started on the Hoffman Boulevard School in Colonia and the Menlo Park Ter- race School #19.
September 1956-Woodbridge High School on Kelly Street was opened at a cost of $3,125,000. However, due to unprecedented school population growth, it proved to be inadequate and the double session was continued until September 1964.
December, 1956-Mr. Victor C. Nicklas, Superintendent of Woodbridge Schools, died. He was succeeded by Patrick A. Boylan.
1959-1960-Three new junior high schools were constructed to ac- commodate, with the Barron Avenue School, the number of pu- pils in attendance on a full-day basis.
1964-Summer school re-instituted for elementary and secondary education; a summer music school instituted with lessons and experience on Band and Orchestra instruments as well as piano; jointly sponsored by Board of Education and Township Recreation Dept.
September, 1964-The second senior high school in the township-John F. Kennedy Memorial High - opened; Miss Mary P. Connoly, principal.
September, 1964-Avenel Junior High to be opened.
The organization of secondary education in Woodbridge Township underwent still another revision with the adoption of a 6-3-3 plan in 1959. However, a three-year high school was not a true innovation, since it had been in operation until 1897. At that time the addition of so many new courses to the curriculum in order to raise the academic standards made
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Original Woodbridge High School-1911
WOODNAINEC
Woodbridge Senior High School-1956
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it necessary for pupils to remain in high school the fourth year to com- plete the requirements.
To accommodate the 6-3-3 plan, the Barron Avenue School in Wood- bridge was converted into Woodbridge Junior High School and three new junior highs in Colonia, Fords, and Iselin were built and ready for use in 1959-1960.
As the township population has continued to grow, so the school population has increased correspondingly, making necessary a second senior high school, the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial High School, in the Iselin area, a junior high in Avenel, and a new elementary school, #26 on Benjamin Avenue, Iselin. These were ready for use in 1964. Additions to schools #19, 21, and 22 were built during the same year.
Old school #9 in Port Reading was turned over to the Town Council to be sold on bid to whoever will maintain it as a school.21 It was sold.
WOODBRIDGE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Before 1911, high school classes had been held in School #1. With the introduction of the four-year high school in 1897, enrollment became so large that a separate building was needed. The governor of New Jersey, Mr. J. Franklin Fort, laid the cornerstone of the school on Barren Avenue on October 6, 1910. It was opened in 1911 and was to be the high school for Woodbridge Township until 1956.
As the enrollment increased, additional rooms were built from time to time. In 1925, an auditorium, gymnasium, six class rooms, a physics lec- ture room, the supervising principal's office, and the chemistry laboratory were added to Woodbridge High School. Previously, the chemistry labora- tory consisted of a table lowered from the ceiling of a classroom. In 1932, an annex, housing five classrroms, was built in back of the Barron Avenue School to accommodate the rise in high school enrollment caused by the return to school of those who could not find employment due to the de- pression.
1956 marked the opening of a new $3,125,000 schoolbuilding, Wood- bridge Senior High School, where St. George Avenue and Freeman Street converge.
As originally constructed the academic wing accommodated forty- three classrooms, including well-equipped chemistry and physics labora- tories. The library, located on the second floor, accommodates more than
21 The Independent Leader, March 12, 1964, Sec. 1, p. 1.
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ten thousand books and reference materials. One of the most prized items of reference in the library is the New York Times on microfilm, a gift of the Class of '60. This microfilm library has been added to generously by gifts from classes more recently graduated.
The administrative wing was intended to provide a space for a cen- tral office, administrative offices, offices of the department heads, guid- ance center, and a publications room. 22 4
A third wing houses workshops, a home economics suite, art rooms, an auditorium seating over twelve hundred, and triple gymnasiums equipp- ed with three basketball courts, showers, and locker rooms.23
The school year 1964-65 will see another great change in our school system. At that time, and for the first time in the history of this township, we will have a second senior high school with the opening of the John F. Kennedy Memorial School in the Iselin area. And, too, for the first time since the school year 1932-33, every public school in the township will be on a full-day session.
That there is "nothing so constant as change" is indeed well illu- strated in this history of our school system in its growth and development to meet the needs of Our People, Our Purpose, Our Progress .*
Reflection upon the changes which have taken place within our school system within the last eight years (since WSHS was opened) gives proof to this observation.
1956- 8th grade was housed in the high school
1957- 8th grade was transferred to Barron Avenue.
1959- 9th grade was transferred to Junior High School Buildings. 1964-10th grade through 12th was divided into two high schools.
22 With the new addition in 1963, the department heads' offices and publication room were transferred to other parts of the school. The guidance center was enlarged, and conference rooms were provided.
23 This area underwent some revision in 1963 when a ""D" section was added to the building to provide much-needed space for science and language labs and business education classrooms.
* See Appendix - Charts 1, 11, and 111, Woodbridge Township School System pages 59, 60, 61.
20
Bell Atop The Tower In Old School- # 1
21
1963-64
1956-57 ( 8 full time & 8 partime) 84 approx. 159
# of teachers in H.S.
# of teachers in township
350 approx.
800 approx.
# of pupils in H.S.
2161
3765
# of pupils in township
8000 approx.
20,000 approx.
# of elementary schools in township 17
27
# of junior high schools
0
4
And thus the history of education in our township has been recorded. The time, interest, money, and care which have been expended to this end bespeak the belief in the motto carved into the lintel above the auditor- ium door of the Barron Avenue School building, "Liberty is the Fruit of Knowledge." An earlier motto, not nearly so evident but equally sagacious, is molded into the bell atop the tower of the old School #1 on School Street; "Wisdom is better than gold".
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CHAPTER II The Free School Lands
" ... All persons as well as the freeholders,1 as others the free- men and inhabitants admitted in the said corporation or township, shall contribute according to their estates ... one hundred acres ... for the maintenance of a free school, which said land shall not be allionated, but shall remain from one Incombatant to another for- ever. Which said land ... shall be exempted from paying of the Lord's Rent or a half penny per acre, or any other rate of taxes forever."2
With the above words and the institution of Woodbridge Township on June 1, 1669, provisions were made for the education which the settlers of the new town held as indispensable; the land set aside would be con- tributed by all and would be forever tax free.
It is interesting to note, at this point, the connection between this early provision for a public school and the famous Northwest Ordinance of 1785, which also established free education. As we have seen above, in 1669, the people of Woodbridge Township, having come from New England and being used to the custom of free public education there, were guaran- teeing their children an education through the same formula. The North- west Ordinance also was based on the New England model of townships, providing that one section in each should be sold for the benefits of common schools. Thus we can see the strong influence of the Puritan love of education, in one small New Jersey township in 1669, and in the North- west Territory in 1785.
Because general location had been agreed upon, but not properly sur- veyed, the Township soon had quite a problem to contend with- certain people were living on the Free School Lands with the intention of eventu- ally claiming it. In September, 1682, an aroused public met for a Town Meeting at which they resolved to prosecute all persons refusing to leave these lands; in addition, Captain Pike, John Bishop, Sr., Thomas Bloom- field, and Samuel Morse were appointed to enforce this resolution as well as to declare illegal all patents held on the property. On October 10, 1682, the committee, acting as instructed, began a surveying struggle that was to continue through the next thirty-three years-they attempted to define the Free School Lands as consisting of twelve acres of marshland and
1 As used here, the word "freeholder" is the Old English term meaning c landowner.
2 "Section Four", Woodbridge Charter of June 1, 1669.
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PARKWAY
STATE
COLONIA
PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD
GARDEN
LINCOLN HIGHWAY
TURNPIKE
AVENEL
MIDDLESEX ESSEX
ISELIN
READING
PORT
RAILROAD
WOODBRIDGE
PARKWAY
FORDS
STATE
GARDEN
FREE SCHOOL LANDS
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eighty-eight acres of upland. By 1701, the people of Woodbridge Township had realized the necessity of having the school land surveyed properly be- fore any of the common land could be divided; and they appointed a com- mittee to "lay out the same in such place or places as they in their dis- gression shall judge best, most convenient and beneficial for the town in general."3 Slightly contrary to the plans of the previous committee, this group then set aside one hundred acres4 of upland with no marshland. By the landmarks of today, this area is bounded by the Pennsylvania Rail- road, the Garden State Parkway, the Reading Railroad, and in part by the Woodbridge-Edison Township line in the area of Iselin. "All is within the - confines of the Township of Woodbridge, except for a small sliver extend- ing into Edison."5 (See the map of the Free School Lands p.24.)
For several years after this initial controversy on the subject of the Free School Lands, little was done beyond declaring that they were to "remain unmolested, laid in 'common fields' and planted with corn."6
On January 28, 1714, a committee of four was appointed unanimously to take "special care of the school land, in that manner as shall seem most advantageous for the end it was laid out for, and also to agree with those that have now got timber cut upon it."7
In July of 1715, it was determined that a committee of five men, head- ed by Thomas Pike, would re-survey the Free School Lands in addition to other duties of caring for the said land. The freeholders also resolved to sell the "one hundred" acres, but they found that only by an order from the General Assembly could such a sale be made valid. On March 28, 1716, the township of Woodbridge voted to set out two acres of the proper- ty for the new town of Rahway. Then, again, on January 3, 1717, the town- people met and resolved that it would be more convenient and advantage- ous to sell the land. John Kinsey and Moses Rolph were appointed to petition the General Assembly to pass an act permitting such a sale; however, this action was not carried out, and the land was not sold.
3 J.W. Dally, Woodbridge and Vicinity, p. 144.
4 It was later discovered that the area which the committee described actually contained about 163 acres.
5 "Graham vs. Edison Township", Reports of Cases Argued and Deter- mined By the Supreme Court of New Jersey, vol 35. p. 546.
6 Dally, op. cit. p. 148.
7 Ibid, p. 181.
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At this point in its history, the school land was given, from year to year, into the hands of appointed committees and leased for terms not ex- ceeding ten years. (This was determined by a ruling in 1735.) The follow- ing table8 illustrates how the school fund collected from the rent of this property increased from 1764 until 1776 (the principal in 1764, was ₺ 361. 10s. 9d., and the interest accruing amounted to L 72. 17s., making a total of L 434. 7s. 9d.):
Year
L (Pounds
.s (Shillings)
d(Pence)
1764
434
7
9
1765
465
5
3
1766
533
8
2
1767-69
1770
740
1771
794
1772
850
--
--
1773
900
-1
1774
985
4
10
1775
1,063
14
11
1776
1,162
12
6
( During the days of the Revolutionary War, although no account of the expenditures has yet been found, the amount of money put into the fund was decreased; and it is assumed that the balance was absorbed for mili- tary operations.) On March 11, 1766, the motion to apply the interest of the Free School Lands fund for the "schooling of poor people's children" was raised, but defeated, at the Town Meeting. Ironically, by 1789, the in- habitants were using not only this interest, but also that from the tax on dogs, for educating these children. The situation remained very nearly the same -- with short-term leases allowed on the land, committees of free- holders supervising it, and fund being used to educate underprivileged children-until 1805. In that year, however, the township itself rented the property for use as a poor farm until other land was obtained for this pur- pose from the Port Reading trustees in 1919. In 1920, the inhabitants of the poor farm were transferred to their new home, and the Free School Lands were vacated once again.
In 1769, the freeholders of the town had appealed to the head of the colony for a charter which would organize a committee specifically en- trusted with the care of the Free School Lands, and which would define that committee's duties and powers; the people of Woodbridge Township had discovered that a small group with clear instructions could care most efficiently for the property. As the document which grants these requests so clearly states of its purpose:
8 Dally, op. cit., p. 183
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" ... the said Freeholders find themselves unable and without authority properly to settle the accounts with such persons as have from time to time been appointed to receive the rents and issues of the said one hundred acres of Land or to prosecute such persons as from time to time have committed waste and trespass on the same or to build a school house or to make pro- vision for the maintenance of proper masters and teachers and to make and obtain proper laws and instructions for the good governing of the said schools and have therefore prayed our letters patent under our Great Seal of our said province of New Jersey to incorporate the said Freeholders of the town with such Powers, immunities, privileges, and jurisdictions as may be thought requisite and necessary for the more effectual promoting and the better order and governing the said school and /or schools in the said town of Woodbridge ... "9
The first ""Trustees" of the Free School Lands of Woodbridge Township, as the new committee was called-John Moores, Nathaniel Heard, Moses Bloomfield, Benjamin Thornall, Ebenezer Foster, Joseph Shotwell, and Robert Clarison-and their successors henceforth were to be "one body politic and corporate" and were to have "perpetual succession in deed and fact and name."10 The charter of the school land gave to the com- mittee full power to "acquire, hold, and sell or otherwise dispose of real and personal property with the right to sue and be sued and the specific authority to demand and collect moneys arising out of the school lands re- ceived by persons previously appointed."11 Plenary power was also granted for the engagement of teachers and for the maintenance of the schools themselves. The trustees were to be elected, and still are, once every three years, on the first Tuesday in March, at the Town Meeting. In the event of a vacancy, a freeholder was to be nominated, elected, and chosen by the freeholders of the Township as a replacement.The charter and its legal contents were declared to be forever valid.
In 1949, the Trustees of the Free School Lands conveyed about thirty acres of the now vacated property (only the few deserted buildings of the old poor farm remained on the land) to the state for use as part of the Garden State Parkway; and the decreased acreage sank into public oblivion for about six years. In December, 1955, however, the Trustees entered in- to a contract to sell the Free School Lands, or the greater portion of them,
9 The Charter of the Free School Land in Woodbridge of June, 1769.
10 Ibid.
11 "Graham vs. Edison Township", Reports of Cases Argued and De- termined by the Supreme Court of New Jersey, vol. 35, p. 548.
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to a manufacturing company for $275,000. At this point, Arnold S. Graham, a Woodbridge taxpayer and resident, instituted the action of attacking the proposed sale as illegal and beyond the powers of the Trustees; he also claimed that the price was grossly inadequate. Joined as defendants were the Townships of Edison and Woodbridge, the Borough of Metuchen, the Trustees of the Free School Lands, the Boards of Education from Edison, Metuchen, and Woodbridge, and the various other municipal and state cor- porations. Although several months later the agreement of sale was can- celled because the ""vendee" was unable to obtain title insurance, the proceedings continued in an effort to define the Trustees' power, the quantity of the land itself, and its rightful ownership. In 1961, the Su- preme Court of New Jersey decided that the benefits of the property were to go for public education purposes in the present confines of Woodbridge Township; no other municipality (neither Edison nor Metuchen) had any interest in the land. 12 As to the question of actual ownership, the Wood- bridge Board of Education, the Trustees, and the Township of Woodbridge agreed to collaborate in any action since they all were concerned with the land's most advantageous use.
In the Woodbridge Independent Leader of August 17, 1961, an an- nouncement appeared, stating that Mayor Frederick M. Adams and the Town Committee favored the sale of the Free School Lands as an in- dustrial park: the proceeds of the sale would go toward the Board of Education's school construction program, thus easing the tax burden of the landowners of the township. It was also suggested that such a sale would bring much needed ratables into the Township. In Mr. Adam's 1963 mayorial campaigns, he again stressed the need to subdivide the school land into individual ten to fifteen acre sites, to provide a diversified in- dustrial park for clean industries. His opponent and the present Mayor of Woodbridge Township, Walter Zirpolo, however, did not include this plan in his program; and the preoccupation of the Township with the action con- cerning the often-disputed land greatly decreased until the time of this writing when rumors of its potential sale are again appearing in the press.
12 Graham vs. Edison Township op. cit., p.550
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CHAPTER III
STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
The State Board of Education, created and established by an Act of Legislation October 19, 1911. has the responsibility for the general super- vision and control of public education.1 There has been a State Superin- tendent of Public Education since 1846.2 The New Jersey school system is considered a "home rule," with the local board strong, operating under a minimum of state control.
The State Board of Education, established in 1866, consists of ten members; the 1911 Act set up standards for membership: at least two mem- bers must be women, no political party may be in majority, no two mem- bers may come from the same county, and candidates must be citizens re- siding in the state for at least five years. 3
The members are appointed by the governor with the advice and con- sent of the senate for a term of eight years. They receive no salary, but their expenses are paid by the state treasurer upon the warrant of the state comptroller. The State Board of Education has certain rights and duties:
1. To frame and modify the by-laws for its own government and to elect its president and officers.
2. To prescribe and enforce rules and regulations necessary to carry out State school laws.
3. To prescribe rules and regulations for teachers' institutes.
4. To decide appeals from the decisions of the commissioner.
5. To make and enforce rules and regulations for the examination of teachers and the granting of $5 certificates or licenses to teach.
6. To prescribe a uniform and simple system of bookkeeping for use in all school districts and to compel all to use the same system.
7. To appoint, upon application, a supervising principal over schools in two or more districts when advisable and to apportion the ex- pense among the districts.
1 New Jersey Statutes Annotated, Title 18:2 -- 1.
2 Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey - 1963, p. 219.
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