Carmel High School (Carmel, New York)

"For schools of the same name, see Carmel High School".

Carmel High School is a public high school in Carmel, New York. It currently serves grades 9-12.It is the only high school of the [http://www.ccsd.k12.ny.us/ Carmel Central School District] ,which includes part of Carmel,and part or all of several nearby towns,mostly in Putnam County, New York but including a small number of students from Dutchess County.

School athletic teams are known as the "Rams" and this motif is repeated in a number of school institutions,such as the student newspaper "Ram Report" (formerly "Ramparts").However,the traditional name of the yearbook,through 1970,was "Carmelian",after which advisor Jack Clarke encouraged each succeeding class to give the yearbook a new name,continued by his successor Peter Travaglini.In recent years a constant name has again been kept.

Principals

As the District consolidated,the position of principal of the high school only gradually separated from that of Supervising Principal of the district,which in the 1960s became Superintendent of the District with the abolition of the position of County Superintendent of Schools.Until the 1960s the District was based in the High School building.

*Robert Kristeller(died 2002),who took charge of the High School in 1943,the year the collection of newspaper clippings maintained by the High School Library began,was the last Supervising Principal and first Superintendent,retiring in 1970.
*Joseph Z. Dawson,who became Vice Principal with responsibility for the High School in 1948,took the title of Principal in 1954 and retained it until 1973 when he became Superintendent after the sudden death of Kristeller's second successor,Richard R. Meehan.
*David D. Odell succeeded Dawson,on an acting basis in the 1973-74 school year and formally the following year,but in 1975 returned for personal reasons to the less stressful job of Assistant Principal.
*John F. McGuckin,a former Mayor of Toms River, New Jersey,served as Principal from 1975-78.
*F. James MacDonald,who would return to serving the Carmel district as a member of the Board of Education in the 21st century,succeeded McGuckin.
*Diana Bowers succeeded Macdonald.
*Kevin Carroll is the current Principal.

History

The history of Carmel High School traces back to the one-room schoolhouses that once dotted the towns of Carmel,Kent,and Patterson,descending most directly from "Carmel School District Number 7",which served the hamlet of Carmel proper.

Previous Buildings

In 1853,Carmel District Number 7 obtained the two-room building of a private school on the shore of Lake Gleneida that closed.This structure was used until 1893 when the City of New York claimed the lake shore (the lake being part of its reservoir system) and obliged all structures on that side of Gleneida Avenue (Carmel's "Main Street",today one end of New York State Route 52) to be moved or demolished.Some buildings were moved straight across the street on rollers,but the schoolhouse was moved down nearby Brewster Avenue (today part of U.S. Route 6) and two additional rooms were built under it.

Both growth (additions to the building in 1899 and 1918) and accreditation (as a Union School in June 1899,a Middle School in October 1900,a Senior School in January 1904,and finally as a High School in June 1906) followed as neighboring districts consolidated;the district became "Union Free School District Number Ten".The school continued to serve all grades from 1 to 12.The "First Annual Commencement" was held June 22,1908 at the Mount Carmel Baptist Church,according to an invitation reproduced in the 1899-1999 Alumni Directory;the centennial of this was commemorated in 2008,though the school had existed before 1908 and the present building's 75th anniversary had been commemorated as a school anniversary in 2004.

In 1924,a fire devastated much of Carmel's business district,destroying among other buildings the hotel of Smalley's Inn (which survives today as a restaurant) and the headquarters of Putnam County National Bank (which built a new stone main office).The entirely wooden schoolhouse was felt to be unsafe.Arrangements were made for a new school,"entirely fireproof",to be constructed in 1929 at a cost of $250,000.

Today nothing remains of the Brewster Avenue school but disused steps in the grass along Route 6.

The Present Building

The new building was constructed on Fair Street,which meets Route 52/Gleneida Avenue near the site of the 1924 fire (and a later 1974 fire).The site was adjacent to the then Putnam County Fairgrounds (now included in the current campus,the fair having ended long ago).The school moved over the Easter vacation of 1930.

The oldest section of the building gives the school its address,30 Fair Street.This main door facing the street (no longer the most-used door) was only for faculty and members of the senior class,all younger students being obliged to enter by one of the doors at the two sides of the building,marked "Boys" on the left and "Girls" on the right (the latter remains but the former was removed in the most recent addition).

The red brick and concrete motif of this construction was continued in all of the numerous later additions to the school.

1936 addition

By 1936,Union Free School District Number Ten had become "Carmel Central School District Number 2" according to the plaque on a new addition constructed by the Public Works Administration.(The district would not shed the "Number 2" until the 1970s when Carmel Central School District Number 1 formally became the Mahopac school district).

Not only had small districts nearby continued to consolidate,a process that did not finish until the 1950s,but kindergarten was added as the Grade 1-12 school became a K-12 school.

The new addition extended back from the roofline of the original part of the building,but as it extended downhill it had a lower floor.It also began a tradition that the school library would be relocated every time the main building was added to.The original library became a classroom,the librarian's office a department office;the new library in the rear wing later became two classrooms,the adjoining librarian's office another department office,but wooden doors with lettering designating their original purpose were still there in the 1970s.Also included were a gymnasium and workshop.

1950 annex

A separate one-story building was constructed in 1950 that for a time took some of the lower grade students.Over the years its purpose has changed,thus in the 1970s it was "the English annex" and after the 1980 addition it succeeded a converted garage next door (which reverted to its original purpose) as "the music annex".

1953 and 1957 additions

In 1953 a new gymnasium was constructed within the L formed by the original building facing Fair Street and the 1936 wing extending back from it.This resulted in the older gymnasium being called "the old gym" or "the small gym".This building did not rise to the old roofline,windows from the auditorium at the center of the 1929 section affording a view over its roof.

In 1957 an extension was built that provided an external entrance and box office for the gymnasium and a weight room upstairs.This brought the right-side wall,as viewed from Fair Street,flush with that of the old building,the L now becoming an oblong albeit of uneven height.

During this period the Kent School was constructed in the Town of Kent in 1954 and added to in 1958,so the High School ceased to be a K-12 school (it had previously educated all students in the entire consolidated district except those attending the old elementary school in Patterson which served only that part of the district).As the lower-grade students departed certain parts of the high school building (now serving grades 7-12) were re-purposed.

1965 addition

Nonetheless,enrollment in the district continued to grow and the school was crowded.In 1963 district voters approved a $1.8 million dollar bond issue that covered both the construction of Kent Primary School (which took the lower grades from the Kent School,renamed Kent Elementary School,and opened in November 1964) and an addition to the High School (which opened in January 1965).

This involved a substantial expansion of the school complex further down Fair Street from Gleneida Avenue,into the now-former Fairgrounds.The two-story addition attached to the lower levels of the 1936 wing and was T-shaped.Beyond this a residence known as the Klock House was acquired,and Supervising Principal Kristeller and his staff moved there in 1964.A new parking lot surrounded the new addition and this house.

The head of the T was classrooms,principally science laboratories.The shaft of the T was a double-loaded corridor on the lower level and had windows facing Fair Street on the upper level,while the farther side was home to the new library.On the lower level of the shaft the streetward side hosted the cafeteria and kitchen and the farther side was wood and metal shops (the basement of the 1936 wing became art classrooms).

1970s renovations

In 1970 the George Fischer Middle School opened,and the 7th and 8th grades moved there from the high school,along with the former assistant principal for the "junior high school".The Middle School included a larger,more up-to-date auditorium than the High School,and ever since then the High School's music production workshops,dramatic plays,concerts,and other events that had used the old auditorium have been held at the Middle School.The auditorium was renovated,its floor levelled and stage lowered,to become the new library (the balcony was used for storage).The library constructed in 1964-5 became mathematics classrooms though a door sign saying "Library" remained through the 1970s.

In 1971 the Mathew Paterson Elementary School opened replacing the old Patterson School,which replaced the Klock House (now informally dubbed "the white house") as the District Office,the house becoming home to the High School's special education programs.

1980 addition

In December 1977,a district referendum approved a new gymnasium-and-classroom addition totalling 67,200 square feet,at a cost of $5,800,000.This structure was constructed on the former Robert Kristeller Field (a football field in the middle of an athletics track) to the rear of the main building and connected to the 1965 and 1936 wings by skywalks.

The new gymnasium remains one of the largest in the area and hosted the New York State high school gymnastics championships in March 2008.The 1953 gymnasium became the cafeteria,the 1936 gymnasium became the guidance office,the 1965 cafeteria became the library (combined with the kitchen).

The recent library was then partly restored to its former purpose,a raised stage erected within the proscenium,as "Kathryn Casey Hall",named for the longest-serving teacher in school history.It has no fixed seating but can be used for lectures and exhibitions but not elaborate productions requiring an equipped auditorium or theater.

21st century

Pressure for expansion continued,not so much because of enrollment growth (the 1978 and 2008 graduating classes both numbered about 350) but the need to accommodate students and state mandates more comfortably.A $44 million bond issue that would have added to all the district's elementary schools and the high school (where a laboratory wing between the 1936 and 1980 wings was proposed) failed,but after some years and turnover in board of education membership,in 2004 a $16 million bond issue to add to the middle school and high school was passed,with the new additions promised in 2006.

After troubles with the contractors,the middle school addition opened in January 2007 with renovations following,and the high school addition during the 2007-08 school year with renovations of the older parts following.

The new addition was located between the 1965 addition and Fair Street,with the Klock House being demolished to compensate for the lost parking space and special education being accommodated in the 1950 annex and main building.As had been the thrust of the defeated proposal,the main purpose of the new addition was up-to-date science laboratories (most of the 1965-wing laboratories being converted to regular classrooms) with the addition of a new library.The most recent library (ex cafeteria) was to be renovated as art classrooms,and the guidance office moved out of the 1936 gymnasium to make room for a student lounge.

Future development?

Despite the fairly stable size of the student body there is still some sentiment that the school's lack of an auditorium is a drawback.The only room in the building capable of assembling the entire student body is the gymnasium,and it is sufficiently uncomfortable as a poor-weather site for commencement ceremonies that the 2008 ceremony was held in Danbury, Connecticut at Western Connecticut State University with the indication that this would continue rather than betting on fair weather on the school's athletic fields.The site proposed for the defeated science wing remains vacant but the problem of parking has not been resolved.

References

*Carmel High School Alumni Directory 1899-1999,Bernard C. Harris Publishing Company 2000 (with material contributed by the Carmel School District Education Foundation).
*Carmel Showcase,former newsletter of the School District,special historical issue circa 1973.
*Various plaques now and formerly displayed in various parts of the building.
*Newspaper clippings maintained by the school.