The saga of Millburn's Washington School.

It opened on Millburn Avenue, across from the town hall. Probably build around 1900. I went through the school's 7 grades as did my father. 

In the early 60''s the B o E decided the school was antiquated and a new one was build on Spring Street at a cost of a couple'a $million. The school served the kids in the south Millburn district for about 10 years. In 1970, there was a decline in school population and it was decided to close one of the town's schools. There were two schools that had been built, probably in the 30's. They had exposed steam radiators and smaller classrooms. Instead of closing one of those schools, the district closed Washington School. 

The Washington School neighborhood was joined by two residents from Short Hills and we sued the Board of Ed. I was lead plaintiff.  

We lost the case. The court ruled that the Board had the authority to use its facilities as it saw fit. That, no matter how assholic the decision might be.

For 45 years, the building served as a state funded school for deaf children. Then it sat vacant for several years.

Today, I drove by the school at 3:00 p.m. About 100 kids were leaving the building. I am pleased to see that Washington School is once again open as an elementary school for the neighborhood's kids.

I am just sorry that my kids didn't get the benefit of the newest building in the district.

I think the Washington School is just 5th grade now.    

bub said:

I think the Washington School is just 5th grade now.    

Interesting... the number of kids pouring out of that building --- only 5th grade?

Also interesting - the neighborhood from Mechanic Street to Duncan (Shop Rite area) was mostly working class -- town employees, mail men (they were only men at that time) cops and such. There are now a large population of Asian people moving in so as to get their kids into the Millburn school system.My mother's house sold in 2017 for $00k.

I am amazed to see neighborhood houses listed in the Sunday Ledger that sold for over $1m. 

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

Interesting... the number of kids pouring out of that building --- only 5th grade?

Also interesting - the neighborhood from Mechanic Street to Duncan (Shop Rite area) was mostly working class -- town employees, mail men (they were only men at that time) cops and such. There are now a large population of Asian people moving in so as to get their kids into the Millburn school system.My mother's house sold in 2017 for $00k.

I am amazed to see neighborhood houses listed in the Sunday Ledger that sold for over $1m. 

there’s about 100 kids in any given 5th grade school around here. In fact in every grade.

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

Interesting... the number of kids pouring out of that building --- only 5th grade?

Also interesting - the neighborhood from Mechanic Street to Duncan (Shop Rite area) was mostly working class -- town employees, mail men (they were only men at that time) cops and such. There are now a large population of Asian people moving in so as to get their kids into the Millburn school system.My mother's house sold in 2017 for $00k.

I am amazed to see neighborhood houses listed in the Sunday Ledger that sold for over $1m. 

The developers have long been tearing down the old houses and building those two house attached things, which I find to be kind of garish.  Some of the houses in that neighborhood are/were post-war ticky tacky but some of the older ones are/were quaintly charming and I'm sorry to see them go.

”Interesting... the number of kids pouring out of that building --- only 5th grade?”

Packs of kids.

This explains it:   https://was.millburn.org/o/was/page/principals-message

dickf3 said:

”Interesting... the number of kids pouring out of that building --- only 5th grade?”

Packs of kids.

This explains it:   https://was.millburn.org/o/was/page/principals-message

That's some ...t. When I was a 'ute, we had..... let's see. I learned to read by the 5th grade. I didn't do too good in math. I made a globe for history on Columbus's view of the world. It had England, Spain, China, Africa-- it was crayoned in dark red because it was the dark continent and nobody knew what was in it. And South America which was also red because nobody knew what was in it. My grade was "Needs work."

Gym... I was the second smallest kid in the class so I didn't do too good in gym.

Back to math. It was maybe 10 years later. I had a part time job with the Union County Park Commission, running the trap & skeet range. The end of the work day involved calculating what was sold, the number of shooters and their fees and so forth. Come to find out, My 5th grade teacher, Mr. Harris was working for the county at one of the pools. It had been closed for repair so he was sent to be my assistant.

At the end of the day, he is watching me adding and multiplying all this stuff. "Ya still ain't got it kid."

-- and we both had a good laugh. He was one of my favorite teachers.

Music... I had the voice of a boy soprano angel so I did good on that.