Back to the history of Rochester’s schools. By 1859, there were eleven school districts in town. They were spread throughout town with the hope that no child was too far from a schoolhouse. Schools had a summer and a winter term. Generally, the different terms would have different teachers.
Each district was a legal entity and owned its schoolhouse. They elected a Prudential Committee-man to oversee the schools. The Committee men were the ones who interviewed and hired teachers, visited the school to check on progress, paid the bills, saw that repairs were made, provided supplies and examined students at the end of the term.
In the Town Report of 1862 while advocating for the school system stated, ” In the constitution of a good school there are three essential elements-good school-houses, good scholars, and here I refer to the moral and social, rather than to the intellectual qualifications, and a good teacher.”
The eleven districts were #1. Centre School, #2. Church School, #3. Cushman School, #4. Davis School, #5. Braley School, #6. North Rochester School, #7. Walnut Plain or Bishop School, #8. Pierceville School, #9. Mantur School, #10. Burgess School, #11 Leonard School. In 1868-1869, the district system was abolished by the state legislature and the municipal system was established. In this system, the town owned all school property and would oversee all aspects of the schools.
The number of schools went from eleven to six and the school buildings went through many stages. New schools were built. Old ones burned down, were torn down, merged their students, or like the Centre School, the small building between Town Hall and the Academy (now the church vestry) were moved to a different lot. The Centre School ended up on the corner of Mary’s Pond and Walnut Plain Rds. where it was repaired. This was in 1882, and the move cost the town $30.00 for the lot and $574.93 for the repairs.
The town went through school overcrowding, school closings, and finally settled on the Waterman School as the town school until Rochester Memorial school was built and the Waterman School morphed into the Rochester Fire Station.
By Connie Eshbach
