Other Schools

OTHER SCHOOLS

Up to 1884, little interest was taken by the people of Florida in their public schools. Apathy and poverty made progress slow. In the villages the citizens had to depend on private schools, or eke out public funds by subscriptions. The public school at DeLand was merged with DeLand Academy for a few years and the public money used in its maintenance. It was a combination to assure good teachers for all the children. While DeLand Hall was being built, classes were held in the public school on Indiana Avenue and in the Baptist Church. As soon as the academy became well established, it was considered unwise to continue the 

arrangement which included so many small children. By 1892 changes had been made in the school law which aided its efficiency. More money was raised by taxation, provision made for high schools and the length of the school term increased. A great awakening followed, until Florida is now one of the most progressive of the southern states in education.

A new school had been built in DeLand on the corner of Church Street and Amelia Avenue. In 1898 under the energetic management of Judge Bert Fish, it had acquired nine grades, five teachers and one hundred and ninety pupils. When this building was burned, the school was moved to the present site on North Clara and West Rich Avenues. The plant now comprises five buildings. The elementary school on Boston Avenue opened in 1927, is of the finest type of modern architecture, practical, complete and artistic. R. H. Adams is the able supervising principal. There are sixty-nine teachers and an average enrollment of fifteen hundred pupils. Classes are grouped according to the ability of the pupils as determined by special tests. There are a variety of courses: home economics, manual training, commercial, music and art. The schools are fully standardized and accredited. There are three schools for colored children under the management of U. P. Bronson. The faculty numbers eighteen teachers, the pupils five hundred and seventy-two. The course of study is from the primary through the tenth grade. There are departments of domestic science and manual training that have aroused much interest, and lifted the standard of the schools. Better buildings are needed and expected in the near future.

"The Beelar Private School on the North Boulevard is specially designed for business training. It had a most interesting beginning. The Beelar school was established with a little crippled bootblack as the first, and at that time, only pupil. His tuition fee of $2 a month was paid in dimes he acquired at this trade. The fee was the sole income of the teacher, and even in those days it required real management to make less than fifty cents a week cover food requirements. To solve the problem, Mr. Beelar found it necessary to resort to doing his own cooking which was done in the school room where the teacher also had his bed. That method is still followed to this day by Mr. Beelar, though the culinary branch has been enlarged into a very thoroughly equipped home economics department in which young women are taught the fine points of homemaking and food preparation."

Excerpt from, The History of DeLand and Lake Helen, Florida 

Written by, Helen Parce DeLand

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