In the continuing history of District #14 - The Union Free School this writer is quoting verbatim what Mr. Ubele documented in this ongoing saga:
“Resolved that the Board of Education be, and hereby empowered to sell the old school building, and the old school site at a price of not less than $500.00, the proceeds of such sale to apply on the purchase of the new site heretofore votes; old site bounded and described as follows:
DISTRICT NO. 14, OF GUILFORD
“All that tract or parcel of land situate in the Town of Guilford aforesaid and bounded as follows, to wit: Beginning at the Southeast corner of land conveyed by said R. A. Morse to Edward S. Bradley, now owned and occupied by R. M. dark on the West line of lands conveyed by said Morse to Dr. Clark; thence South along the West line of said Clark land six and one-half rods; thence Westwardly about eight and one-half rods to centre of road as fenced out by said R. A. Morse for a public highway; then along the centre of road six and one-half rods to Southwest corner of lands conveyed by said R. A. Morse to Bradley, as above; thence East along the South line of lands conveyed as above described to said Bradley about eight and one-half rods to place of beginning containing about fifty-five rods of land, be the same more or less.”
Continuing and excepting and reserving all school furniture, stoves and bell. Possession will not be given until close of the school year. A resolution was passed that the tax of $3,500.00 was voted on at a special meeting April 25, 1900 for the construction of a new school to be raised in installments. A vote of 37 was taken with 31 ayes - 6 nays and signed by N. D. Bartle.
It was finally settled! A new Union School was to be built at last! Five members were appointed to a committee to prepare plans and submit them to the Board. This committee comprised of 2 carpenters (builders), the President of the Board, and 2 qualified voters from the District. This school not only served the hamlet of Guilford, but additionally many of the surrounding districts who chose to be included in the new District. The remaining districts would use the High School for those who wanted to further their education beyond the 7th grade of the numerous one-room schools in their respective districts. Guilford Union School would continue to serve from 1900 until the middle 1930s as the Guilford Elementary School and High School.
Continuing to the year 1931 the graduating class consisted of four students who with additional help published the first Year Book, appropriately named “The Pinnacle.” Additional help aside from the lower class students were the merchants in both Sidney and Norwich. These four students. Henry Shapley, Lucile Ryan, Patricia McPherson and lastly Dorothy Fagan were the driving force behind this publication. Continuing the Junior and Sophomore Classes were mixed together. In the publication, for unknown reasons, the first names were omitted. The photograph (we do not have) gives us the names of Crispel, Pfeil (Juniors), Place, Manwarring, Melton, Randall, Lorimer, Keach and Schlafer. The Freshmen class was larger and the photo documented 25 in that class in 1931, later the classes became much larger.
The new school would be two story wood with offices and classrooms both on the first and second floor. A four-sided roof was topped with a cupola in the middle, including a bell to ring the students to school. Question of history - was the old bell removed and installed in the new Union School?
With the site being chosen by the Trustees, after all the arguments, bickering and quarreling the site was set on high ground on Winsor Avenue (now School Street) and was located just to the left of the side entrance of the new school. This would be the side entrance on the east side of the school? With poor attendance in the early years the Union School thrived. More and more of the Common School Districts saw the economics of centralization and a local High School, thus transferring their students to the Union School.
Still in 1931 there were 5 or 6 district hold-outs, their trustees of these local Districts, in direct response to their local population still wanted to maintain control over the education of their children. They stubbornly clung to the old system of Common School Districts. As the Union School was an accredited High School, those School Boards made one concession; they agreed to send their graduate to the High School for advanced courses. This agreement was a satisfactory arrangement by all concerned.
“Time heals all wounds” and a more true statement was never said referring to the long, long fight for the Union School. The Union School continued to grow and the student body continued to expand. The proponents of the new school were vindicated and soon all realized that the school was a necessity. With future consolidation in the offing, the need for a larger and more complex building was fast becoming apparent. Nevertheless it would be some years before final consolidation was effected. This embattled school existed as a viable bastion of learning till the mid 1930’s. Then it changed again!
With this the documentation of the Union School is complete and we next turn to what became to be known as The Guilford Central School. As this writer has written before: “to be continued.”