The Chaires School

The Chaires School is an old schoolhouse located in the unincorporated area of Chaires, Florida.

History

1920s

As the Chaires area became more settled and the land more open, the community of Chaires began to grow. In response to the needs of this agrarian community, a small schoolhouse was built for the education of the white children. This schoolhouse served this entire area of the county as the nearest other school was located in Tallahassee. In 1928, however, this school in Chaires, known as Station One, was deemed no longer suitable for the needs of the district. The school building had deteriorated. It desperately required a new roof. The building was outdated as it did not even have indoor plumbing. It regularly flooded when there were heavy rains. Most importantly, it was simply too small for the growing number of students.

On March 12, 1929, the Board of Instruction agreed to buy a suitable site from Mr. David Green (D.G.) Chaires, a descendant of Green Hill Chaires. The Board accepted the proposal and bought six acres of land for seventy-five dollars an acre from D.G. Chaires. This is the site where the current Chaires school was established.

On June 23, 1929, the new and only white school for Chaires District Number Three was completed and ready for occupation. It had been modernized with a coal heater, electricity and a fresh well. The students walked over to their new school leaving behind all the old desks, chairs and other equipment. Station One, and all that was left behind, was turned over to the blacks in the community. Mr. Virgil Townsend, with a salary of $175 a month, became the first principal of the Chaires School. The school went up to the eleventh grade and had three teachers (Mr. Thompson, Mrs. Maggie Patterson and Miss May Bird Carmine) when it first opened. As the years passed the community grew and so did the school. However, throughout its seventy-six year history, the Chaires School has fluctuated in its grade level. Often students were bused to Leon High School as the Chaires School was not always accredited above the junior high level.

The Chaires community continued to be plagued by floods but the school held up well. In 1947 and 1972, heavy rains created flooded roads that were virtually impassable.

1940s-1950s

The community and the school also continued to grow. As the area became more populous, attendance began to expand. The inevitable once again happened. The school was too small to meet the need. This time, however, the community elected to simply add on to the original structure. The Chaires School, therefore, received a new addition in 1948. A second "addition" to the school was a new batch of students in the sixties. Desegregation had technically become a law by 1954. A large portion of American schools, however, were not obeying the law.

As time passed the school has been used for other activities that were important to the community. In the fifties, for example, Chaires School was "designated an Emergency Federal Civil Defense 200-bed hospital."'

1960s

The Chaires School became integrated in 1967 when black students from the old Station One School choose to go to Chaires. By 1968 Station One was closed and all area students attended Chaires School or were bused elsewhere.

As an important community structure, the Chaires School has been used for purposes other than strictly education of children through books. Being in a rural area, the school in the past has successfully integrated important aspects of this rural life. Not only have the students had classes such as shop and sewing but they have also benefitted from some very practical offerings at the school. Children at Chaires over the years have raised their own chickens, tended their gardens, planted trees, and experienced "Pioneer Day" where they engaged in activities such as churning butter.

1970s

In the seventies the school became a Community School and center which, therefore, gave it the privilege of housing a branch of the Leon County Library.

The Chaires school has undergone many changes over its seventy-six years. It is known as [http://www.chaires.leon.k12.fl.us/default.aspx Chaires Elementary School] and houses over 900 students.