Lost red Keds high-top sneakers, charred timbers that stood the test of time, a grandfather clock that kept on ticking and construction proposals that barely passed the cost-conscious public are some of the milestones that define the creation and growth of the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake School District.
On Wednesday, Sept. 19, town of Ballston historian and high school history teacher Rick Reynolds donned two hats one a Revolutionary War-era three-cornered hat to give the Magical History Tour, an energetic bus tour of all five school locations to adult scholars. They included the district superintendent, Jim Schultz, board of education members, new teachers and staff members.
Reynolds took on the persona of Samuel Meredith, his great-great-great-great-grandfather who was a presidential staffer under Thomas Jefferson.
`It’s a history teacher’s dream to be related to someone famous,` said Reynolds, who wore a heavy vest and starched wig during the two-hour tour.
Before the thoroughfare
The district’s colorful history began with one-room schoolhouses, one still standing on Middleline Road off Route 50. The tiny, window-overloaded shed is now a storage garage for the homeowners next door.
`Early on, there were 15 to 20 one-room school houses,` said Reynolds. `This all changed in 1803 when the prestigious Ballston Academy opened on Kingsbury Road.`
The boarding school was the place for the early education of children who would go on to be college presidents, state senators and leaders in their communities.
The old adage, `when I was a kid, I walked a mile in the snow to get to school` rang true for children during this time.
`My students today ask, what about snow days? I tell them, there were no snow days,` said Reynolds. `This is a great example of the generation gap.`
In the early 20th century, the district’s smattering of schools soon dealt with what would become a consistent theme in the town’s history: overcrowding.
`At this time, the schools provided a good education for the rural kids of Ballston, Charlton and Glenville,` said Reynolds. `But with technology, they realized teachers couldn’t instruct at all grade levels, so the schoolhouses were combined to form the first consolidated district in New York state.`
That building is now Steven’s Elementary School.
The School of Agriculture and Homemaking
In 1916, community leaders based their placement of the next school on a very scientific and necessary principle: the location of a water source.
`They used dowsers to find water, and set their boundaries,` said Reynolds. `Fortunately, two men snuck out in the night and moved the stakes marking the building’s footprint off the dirt roadside. Most building constructed 100 years ago are built right on the road; we were lucky these men had foresight.`
The school was opened, with boys enrolled in the school of agriculture and girls in the school of homemaking. In 1920, the first graduating class of two students received their degrees. From 1916 to 1925, tuition was a wallet-busting $25 per year.
In 1925, the district became the first centralized district in New York, but fate tossed a curve ball five years later, when the school building now Steven’s Elementary was engulfed in flames of unknown origin.
`A little girl across the street watched the fire, and while she probably wasn’t too concerned about her school burning, she was terribly upset she had forgotten to take home her new Keds sneakers,` said Reynolds. `This reminds us that history isn’t names, dates and places, it’s the story of people who let us know where we’ve all come from.`
Reynolds led the bus passengers into the Steven’s building, down clammy stairs into the basement to peer into the walls and see burned timbers that still make up part of the building’s foundation. In the main office, a grandfather clock donated by the class of 1924 remained intact after the blaze.
`Why this clock survived the fire is unknown,` said Reynolds.
A new company comes to town
Heard of the General Electric Company? In the late 1940s, the arrival of the corporation brought a flood of young families, and forever changed the landscape of the district.
`The early 1950s was a time of great growth of suburbia in the town of Ballston, and there was somewhat of a conflict,` said Reynolds. `The rural farmers here were faced with newcomers working at GE, and they didn’t want to mix.`
Fiscal conservatism took the forefront, and the proposal to build another school ` now Pashley Elementary ` went to the polls three times before receiving the go-ahead. The school opened its doors for students in grades one to six. There were still one-room schoolhouses, one of them still standing on the corner of Route 50 and Gleason Road. The site bears an empty hole on its uppermost point; a large bell was moved to the courtyard at Pashley. Green with age, it is a historic tribute in the grassy gardens at Pashley.
`This bell was used to signal recess, and one lucky kid could run up the stairs and ring the bell,` said Reynolds. `It was a great honor.`
Also in the outdoor Pashley courtyard is a 350-pound white marble Polar Bear, the school’s mascot, gifted to the district by one of the school’s supporters.
The end of an era
The last one-room schoolhouse closed in the 1950s, when more than 1,000 new homes popped up in the area. In 1955, again with a construction proposal returning to the polls pared down several times from its original estimates, the public approved a plan to create the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School.
The high school was opened in 1955.
`We found a time capsule last summer from 1955 that we didn’t even know existed,` said Reynolds. `We’ve replaced it with a new one the students put together for future history enthusiasts to enjoy.`
The high school auditorium was dedicated to Art Mengle, who was instrumental to the school’s completion. In the front courtyard at the high school stands `Freedom Circle,` a tribute to fallen soldiers. The high school opened for students in grades 7 to 12, and was immediately bursting at the seams.
`Every single one of our schools was overcrowded when the students arrived,` said Reynolds. `There was simply no way to keep up.`
As early as 1916, the district’s board of education was formed. In 1944, the district had 510 students enrolled. By 1954, that number swelled to 2,500.
`That was why we kept building,` said Reynolds.
Two schools with exactly the same floor plan were built, Charlton Heights Elementary and Glen Haven Elementary, which is now the Hostetter Building for district administrative offices. At Charlton Heights, a mural depicting the history of the district was painted by Bob Garling, who was a leader in the district’s expansion plan. The painting traces the years through the 1970s, with kids getting on school buses carrying the classic books `Charlotte’s Web,` and `Heidi.`
Incredibly, overcrowding continued to have an impact on the educational offerings.
`Kids had to split up their days, with those in senior high going to class in the mornings, and kids in junior high attending afternoons,` said Reynolds. `This was fine with the kids, but the parents were going out of their minds.`
In the 1960s, swampy land was purchased for erecting the middle school, and once again, the construction planned was whittled down for taxpayers faced with inflation. Overall costs were cut by $100,000.
`Technology for building on swamps wasn’t great back then, but there are few cracks in the foundation today; it has withstood the test of time,` said Reynolds.
The middle school opened in 1963 to accommodate 1,000 students. Within a couple of years, 1,375 were enrolled.
`There were so many students, staircases were designated up or down,` said Reynolds. `Kids today can’t understand not being able to go against the stream.`
Enrollment stabilizes
In the 1970s, town development and population slowly declined. In 1981, the Glen Haven School was closed and administrative offices were moved to the site.
`The last 20 years have been relatively stable, but recently, slowly inching up again,` said Reynolds. `With the advent of AMD and growth in Malta, the next chapter of the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake district is yet to be written.`
Superintendent Schultz said he gleaned many historical tidbits from the Magical History Tour.
`Not many people know the history, and we don’t want to lose it,` said Schultz. `It’s in the books, but this makes it all come alive.“