Looking Back…to School

Hello!  Looking Back… is a new series that will provide readers with some insight as to what was going on in the Town of Rehoboth from a couple of centuries ago to last month. The August and September articles will discuss school matters.

At the northeast intersection of United States Route 44 and Massachusetts Route 118 is a sign that proclaims Rehoboth is the Birthplace of Public Education in North America, as “monies” (more commonly known as taxes) were collected for the benefit of a child’s schooling. Small, neighborhood schools, such as the Hornbine School, built in 1862, were located throughout the town.

The Annual Report of the School Committee of the Town of Rehoboth Massachusetts for the Year Ending December 31, 1919 was twelve pages long. The school calendar consisted of three terms varying in length from nine to sixteen weeks with eight holidays off and a two-week Christmas-New Year break. Summer break, June, July and August, definitely was not a vacation for most children, as they went to work on family farms tending the gardens or caring for the animals. Others sewed, cooked or did household chores.

 Superintendent Mortimer H. Bowman’s report stated that there was a shortage of teachers, not due to war effort, but the increase of prices and low salary offered to them. He wrote that teachers be given comfortable working conditions, receive a salary to afford her a good living and be large enough to lay aside a fair amount for future years (retirement).

As for the school buildings, overcrowding at four schools and full buildings at the other schools created a concern that warranted a new school building of six rooms, each holding 48 students, with room to play outdoors. By consolidating some of the twelve neighborhood schools, he wished to provide music and drawing for the students. With a new school, he hoped to attract desirable and more experienced teachers in the southern part of town.

Over the past hundred-plus years, these schools were consolidated into more modern, larger buildings – Pleasant Street School opened in September 1923, a new Anawan School in 1930 and North Rehoboth School in 1941. Students desiring to further their education past eighth grade would go to high school in a surrounding town near their home.

The town’s population continued to increase by leaps and bounds. Overcrowding at all the schools was evident. In 1951, land was purchased at 317 Winthrop Street for the construction of a new elementary school with ten classrooms, library, health room, storage rooms, front office/principal’s office and combined cafeteria/auditorium/gymnasium. Palmer River Grammar School opened in September 1952. Bob Johnson, Johnson &Sanders Excavating, and crew did the landscaping around the school which included an island of oak trees and grass in front of the school, teacher parking lot and baseball field to the west of the school, a large, grass-covered playground with swings, slides and another field to play baseball, tag or other childhood games. The back boundary is a  pine, oak and cedar forest. A ten-room addition was added onto Palmer River School in 1960.

   Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School opened to the Class of 1961. A Rehoboth High School had been considered, yet many thought that combining two small towns was the way to go in the late 1950s. A suggested location for the School was off of Ralsie Road, near where Cedar Brook School is currently located. Numerous additions and structural changes to the school and athletic fields have occurred over past years.

   Dorothy L. Beckwith Middle School, grades 5-8, opened in 1971 on a piece of land adjacent to Palmer River School. A connecting driveway was added, along with the movement of the baseball field from the elementary school to the rear of the property. Palmer River School, once again over-crowded, moved Kindergarten and first grade students to the vacant Anawan School. When another addition was added to Palmer River, Kindergarten and first grade students returned. This combined campus offers many options for future expansion.

This past school year, the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School Committee voted and named Bill Runey the new Superintendent of Schools for the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School District.