This writer has written numerous times in the past that the pages of the book of history relevant to the articles written remain open for new information that may come to light succeeding the articles printed previously. Such is the case with District #4 - Village which was in the article of Oct. 27, 2010. I received from the Greene historian, Margaret (Peg) Ross a photo of the Greene Village Academy on Monell Street. To allow all readers a view of this early education building, the photo is printed in conjunction with the District labeled above. At this time the research previously done reiterated that after 1868 there was no further information regarding the Select Schools in Greene which were in existence from 1857 to 1869. At that time we are assuming that District #4 school was adequate.

Suddenly in 1941 change took place in the education system of New York State when Centralization went into effect, climaxing ten years of agitation with the residents of the Township of Greene. Greene High School was the last school in the county to centralize and one of the last ones in the state with the final vote being 590 for and 386 against the proposed centralization.

As the district schools were abandoned and closed, one by one, the majority of them were sold for dwellings. Windham School in the Town of Smithville was the last one-room school to close in the Greene Central School District in 1955. By that time some two hundred schools in the county were compressed into nine Central School Districts.

DISTRICT #7

The historical information relevant to the above district is frustrating as there is very little documented history regarding this district. The photo which accompanies this article shows the school after it was converted to a dwelling and had the tragic end of burning to the ground in later years with the loss of three children.