To Read Sachem's History from 1800-1947
The History of the Consolidation and Centralization of Sachem Schools Part I: 1800 to 1947 Written by Kenneth Brady, The Local Studies Committee of Sachem Schools Retyped, edited and digitized by Chris R. Vaccaro (2013) On April 21, 1955, citizens from Farmingville, Holbrook, Holtsville, and Lake Ronkonkoma voted to form a central school district, later named Sachem. Although these residents decided to unify by an overwhelming majority, 707 to 26, the results were not surprising; rather, the people were responding predictably to internal forces, such as the rapid growth of population in Brookhaven and Islip Towns, and to external pressures, such as the manipulation of public opinion by the State Education Department, a combined weight which made the creation of a new attendance unit almost inevitable. These events, however, only sparked the reorganization movement in the community. Actually, the taxpayers had been well prepared for this venture by the Legislature in Albany, which had worked for years to equalize opportunities for pupils living in rural New York. To understand the origins of the merger, therefore, one must examine how the area school systems were structured during the early years of settlement when our villages were sparsely inhabited. A Brookhaven Town map enables us to visualize the surroundings in 1797: five houses and four roads are drawn north of “Rockonkeny Pond”; four homes and two thorough fares, “Horseblock” and “Granny,” are shown at “Bald Hills,” or Farmingville; and, the entire Holbrook and Holtsville of today is described as “Barren Land.”1 Population density, therefore, though minimal, probably determined the location of our first school, which was erected in 1800 at the Five Corners in Lake Grove.2 It is more interesting to speculate, however, on what may have influenced the residents to construct this frame building when they did.
[Show full text]