Newly elected officers of the Marshall Hill School Parent Teacher Association in 1968 are, from left, Mrs. Domnick Mennola, secretary; Mrs. Robert Masessa, treasurer; Mrs. W.J. Halbig, former president who became Parent and Family Life chairwoman; Gunther Goss, former Marshall Hill principal who became principal at the new Maple Road School; Mrs. Larry Sedlack, president; Mrs. Roy Farrell, corresponding secretary; and Mrs. George Steifel, vice president. (File photo by Ann Genader)
The first Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meeting in the Township of West Milford School District was held Oct. 4, 1926, at the West Milford Presbyterian Church chapel.
It was a time when small sustaining communities throughout the township were in place, generally, each with its own school, church and general store.
The school in West Milford Village, still standing, later became a Boy Scout meeting place and has been used for various purposes, such as storage for West Milford Library book sales.
Additional PTAs were organized not long afterward at other rural schoolhouses, including Echo Lake and Newfoundland schools.
A year later after being organized, the local PTA at the West Milford Village School joined the Passaic Council of PTAs. The secretary’s minutes from meetings that followed reported the West Milford PTA purchased a “teeter-totter” for the playground Dec. 14, 1927. A slide and two swings were bought soon afterward. Money for the purchases was earned through PTA projects, such as dinners and craft sales.
Walter Terhune was elected president of the PTA on Sept. 20, 1928. He attended the New Jersey PTA convention in Atlantic City, with his total expenses amounting to $26.70.
On Dec. 5, 1928, the West Milford PTA asked the Board of Education to put a fence around the school. After 14 months and often-repeated requests, the fence was erected on Feb. 4, 1930, according to school records. That same year in March, the PTA purchased the school’s first piano for $50 and an additional $12 paid for “cartage.”
PTA dues were 50 cents a year in 1930. A year earlier, the Great Depression began and hard times came, leaving adults with fear and anxiety. Local parents did their best to keep the bad news of the day away from their children, doing all they could to give them a normal childhood.
The Depression lasted until 1939, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced the New Deal, which was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms and regulations.
In June 1933, the banks were closed, and the PTA did not have money to pay their bills. The Board of Education did not have funds to pay salaries either. Teachers were paid about $900 a year and for at least several months during the Great Depression when the school board did not have money available, teachers had to wait a couple of months for their paycheck. Understanding the situation, they waited patiently, making do, like everyone else, with what they had.
Evelyn McKinnon was elected PTA president at the West Milford Village School in 1930. Overcrowded conditions in the school were discussed during the PTA meeting. Many people walked out of the meeting to protest the proposal to put an addition onto the West Milford Village School instead of building a new school, according to PTA meeting minutes.
The West Milford PTA held its first reception for teachers on Sept. 12, 1933, “to help old and new members get acquainted.” In June 1934, five students graduated from eighth grade in the West Milford Village School. High school education available for them at Butler High School. The graduates included Helen Manetas, who became a registered nurse and worked as school district and township nurse. Others in the graduation class were Katherine Hennessey, Mary Sparzani, Edna Mitchell and Cortelyan Coday.
Helen was one of four daughters in the Manetas family. There were also two sons. The children walked to school from the farm, located where the ShopRite store complex and parking lot are now. Peter Manetas, a grandson, visited recently and took photos of the school building to share with the family, based in South Jersey. He is interested in the area where his father grew up and will make another visit.
Mrs. E. Sanders was PTA president in June 1935, when there were just 39 eighth-grade students graduating from the nine small elementary schools scattered across the township. That year in November, the first mention of a centralized township school was heard. The PTA wrote a letter to the Board of Education asking that an eight-room school be built.
Because of a whooping cough epidemic that spread throughout the township, only seven PTA members were present at the March 1937 meeting. With lack of response to the earlier request for consideration of a consolidated school, the topic again was brought up at a PTA meeting on Sept. 11, 1939.
There was more talk about constructing a new school in 1940 and again in 1941. The township’s first consolidated school, the now shuttered Hillcrest School on Macopin Road, was built and readied for a September 1942 opening. The name Hillcrest School was officially designated Dec. 10, 1945. The four names that were submitted to the board for consideration were Sunnyside School, West Milford Township #1, Henry W. Longfellow and Hillcrest.
The PTA presented flags for each classroom and sent welcoming bouquets to each teacher. The late Mollie McFarland was PTA president when Hillcrest School opened. She later was elected as a member of the Board of Education and as a committeewoman on the township’s local governing board, at the time under a form of government that had committee (not council) members. In 1957, she became vice president of the New Jersey PTA.
After Hillcrest School was opened, the small one- and two room schools and the Newfoundland three-room school closed one at a time, with students from throughout the township transferred to Hillcrest School.
The Echo Lake two-room school on Germantown Road, on the site where St. Joseph Parochial School was built, was one of the last to be shut down. The church wanted the property for the parochial school site and bought it at an auction. The parochial school building no longer is used as a school. It houses the church office and has other church-related uses.
Anna Mae Law became Hillcrest PTA president in 1957, Nancy Halbig in 1967 and Mrs. Larry Sedlack in 1968, among many others who have worked with teachers to benefit township children for many generations.