When Brookhaven
Town was divided into school districts in 1813, Patchogue District
21 “is to embrace the inhabitants west of Patchogue Stream as far
west as the Islip line.” District 20 “is to embrace the inhabitants
west of Austin Roe’s as far as the Patchogue Stream.”
The first school
district of what is now Patchogue was established November 3, 1813
as a common school district. Eventually, four districts served what
is now the school district of Patchogue, each having its own school
house. There was a small settlement on West Main Street near what
is now Waverly Avenue, and one near the center of the present
village, which consisted of one street, Main Street. Ocean Avenue
was then a lane, having a fence at the end of it a short distance
below Main Street.
In the early years
the schools appear to have made few reports, and in 1852 the school
census showed 609 of school age, 4 years to 21, with an average of
519 in attendance.
Shortly after the
Civil War the matter of consolidating the four districts came up and
a meeting was held March 2, 1869, at which time it was voted to
consolidate, and the district became No.24. At this meeting,
William L. Preston was chairman and Justus Roe, secretary. One of
the first things to be considered was the choosing of a site and the
erection of a central school building. The site on the east side of
Ocean Avenue at Academy Street was purchased from Austin Roe for
$2,000. A short time later a part of this site was sold to the Long
Island Rail Road for $600. Plans for the new building were prepared
by J. R. Smith and the committee visited several schools to get
ideas for the building, and the one at Huntington seemed to suit
them best. The four old schools were sold for a total of $2,200.
The assessed value of the district was $264,000 on June 2, 1871, the
year in which the new building was completed. The new school and
equipment cost $15,824, including fencing of the site. The school
board met for the first time in the new building Sept. 26, 1871, and
the new school was dedicated October 16, 1871.
The reception and
board room was in the west room on the first floor. An early
resolution of the board provided that the room should be carpeted
and furnished with a center table, lamps, ink stands, pens and
paper, spit boxes , and a stove.
A resolution was
adopted in 1871 that the pupils purchase their own text books, which
stood until 1925, when the district voted to provide free test books
for the first six grades.
An early
resolution imposed a fine of 50 cents upon a board member for
absence from a meeting without a good excuse. At one meeting two
members were fined for tardiness and two for absence.
A. M. Drummond was
the first principal from 1871 to 1875, and Davis Baker was janitor
at a salary of $100 a year. Levi Seeley was the second principal
from 1875 to 1881. He was succeeded by Wellington E. Gordon, and he
continued until he had completed 38 years of service in the
Patchogue schools. He retired in 1919 with Sheridan Linn as his
successor.
In 1878 it was
resolved that the pupil who ranked highest in each graduating class
should be offered a position as assistant teacher in the school at a
salary of $100 per annum, no person to hold the position for more
than one year. Miss Annie Mulford was the first chosen to this
position.
The new high
school, located on a seven-acre plot acquired by gift and purchase
was opened in September 1924 with a capacity of over 800 students.
Among the men who
have figured in the history of the schools of this locality perhaps
none stood with more force of character than Brewster H. Saxton. He
was one of “the old school,” and taught the school for some time on
Ocean Avenue, then called “Slippery Lane.” This school was composed
in part of boys who worked on the oyster boats in the bay during the
open season and attended school in the bad weather. Mr. Saxton did
not believe in “moral suasion,” and at one time said, “You may go to
the southern slaveholder and convince him of the injustice of human
slavery, but don’t waste your breath talking moral suasion to the
Bay boys of “Slippery Lane.”