Half Hollow Hills High School And Population Growth

The 1950s was when Huntington made the transition from a small town to a bustling suburban center as "former GIs were out of college and married now—earning enough to buy a home. Others, who had started in Levittown, wanted bigger homes for growing families." (From Huntington in Our Time.)   

According to census figures, the 1950 population of Huntington was only 47,506 people, but by 1960 it had mushroomed to 126,595 people.  The mushrooming population strongly affected the school districts.

Half Hollow Hills High School broke ground on their new junior- senior high school building on February 23, 1956, the first one for the recently centralized district.  The Long-Islander described the new building, "designed by architect Daniel Perry [as] an outstanding example of modern architecture," on April 10, 1958 just before its dedication. 

The contemporary building had all the facilities that up to 945 students would need to receive a well-rounded education.  It had 24 classrooms, four specially equipped science rooms, two art rooms, two homemaking rooms, two shops, two music rooms, a library, a three-station gymnasium, an auditorium that seated 550, and a cafeteria, (which overlooked a courtyard), with a modern kitchen.  When it opened, it was home to grades seven through twelve.  But that changed quickly as the town's population kept growing.

On January 14, 1960 The Long-Islander reported that the Half Hollow Hills Board of Education announced changes that would occur in the upcoming school district.  The article explained that, "the high school on Burr's Lane will no longer be able to accommodate all pupils in grades through twelve even on the overlapping sessions now being employed." 

The seventh grade students in the district, expected to number between 225 and 240, would be moved to the then-new addition of the Sweet Hollow Elementary School on Duryea Road in Melville.  In order to accommodate these students, some elementary school students were shifted and the second grade classes were even put on a system of double shifts. 

The Board of Education went on to state that "the problem of space within another year would become so acute that similar measures will no longer suffice."  Studies were therefore undertaken to determine the next steps to be taken to keep the school district able to service all of its students.

Six months later the residents of Half Hollow School District approved the construction of a new 1,000-pupil senior high school at a cost of $2,472,000. This new high school, located on Vanderbilt Parkway just west of Deer Park Avenue, had its dedication on April 21, 1963, and was called Half Hollow Hills High School East. 

All who were interested were invited to take tours of the new building.  The new facility had 20 classrooms, a science wing with laboratories, lecture rooms, storage facilities, art rooms, a home economics suite, three classrooms for business education, a library, lecture-study hall, gymnasium, cafeteria with modern kitchen, and a separate wing with music suite and vocational shops. 

When this new high school was opened, the old high school (open only five years) became the Burr's Lane Junior High School. Burr's Lane was open until 1990, when it was closed due to declining enrollment. At that point Five Towns College moved to the location.  Even with all these changes, the population of the town continued to swell and the district had to keep up.

Just two years after this, on June 16, 1965, the Half Hollow Hills Central School District held a vote on a proposition for new high school construction.  According to The Long-Islander the proposition, "would authorize the expenditure of a sum not to exceed $975,000 in addition to the $4,630,000 heretofore authorized (at a special district meeting held on April 18, 1964) to construct and equip a new high school." 

The district itself was the largest in the township, comprising 34 square miles, and was also one of the least developed pre-World War II, so it was one of the fastest growing as subdivisions were filed for and houses built.  An article in The Long-Islander on February 5, 1970 discussed the extremely rapid rate of growth that the school district experienced. 

It explained that "the student population has almost doubled in five years, from 5433 in 1964-65 to 10,500 in 1969-70."  The article goes on to illustrate this point by explaining that in the 1964-65 school year there were five elementary facilities, one junior high, and one 1,500-pupil high school as compared to the 1970 school year, which had 10 elementary schools, two junior highs, and a high school with 2500 pupils. 

According to a Long-Islander article, at the opening of the following school year the district had eleven elementary schools, three junior high schools, and one high school.  Therefore, the high school that the residents voted on in 1965 must not have been approved.

It is no surprise then that one month after the 1970 article about the growth in the school district, the residents of Half Hollow School District were asked to vote on a proposition approving the purchase of additional acreage for the construction of a new high school.  The Long-Islander explained that, "the request for acreage funds does not stipulate the specific location, since there are a number under consideration.  The school board has held several stormy sessions with residents on the subject of location." 

There were at the time two locations that were possibilities: one, a thousand feet west of the present senior high school on Vanderbilt Parkway and Half Hollow Road not including the corner; the second, south of the West Junior High School on Colonial Springs Road.  The vote was defeated, 2,283 to 1,615. 

A September 2, 1971 Long-Islander article reported that "the district administrators say there will be a lack of high school space in 1972… [And] an ad hoc committee has submitted to the board of education a report on the needs of the district.  They recommend acquisition of land large enough for construction of a new 2,500-pupil secondary school."  At the time of the article, the one high school in the district was home to 2,200 students.

Just three weeks later, the voters of Half Hollow Hills School District were sent to the polls over a $11.1-million construction package.  Included in the package was $750,000 for the purchase of a site located south of Old Country Road and west of Old South Park for the new high school, and $7,750,000 for the construction of a 1,660-pupil high school. Yet again the vote did not pass, and just two months later, on January 14, 1972 the district tried for a third time to get the approval for the construction of a new high school. 

The School Board felt that it was so important to resubmit the proposal because without a new facility, the 1973 and 1974 school year would have to operate with double sessions.  Even given this warning, the proposal was not passed.  The district was facing three issues: shortage of space, shrinking dollars and rising enrollment.

The commencement of the 1972 school year bought with it another article in The Long-Islander, which stated "a total of 12,600 students—7,300 in kindergarten through sixth grade, 2,900 in grades 7 through 9, and 2,400 in grades 10 through 12.  [The] enrollment is an increase of 600 students over the closing June enrollment." It was stated that the board would be going back to the voters again for new high school space in the coming months. 

Finally after seven attempts in five years, they were successful.   The new high school project was passed by a slim margin in January of 1973. The $8.5-million school was built on Wolf Hill Road, just one mile away from the old high school on Vanderbilt Parkway.  In the end the school would have facilities for 1,100 students, with the option for expansion to house 2,000 students.  The plan was for this new Half Hollow Hills High School West to open in September of 1975, and for the first year to house 750 students in grades 10 and 11.  This plan was designed to let the seniors remain at Hills East for their final year.  The following year, the new school would house grade 12 as well. 

The population boom that occurred in Huntington in the 1960s had a great effect on the path that the new Half Hollow Hills School District would take.  And though it took many attempts, the high school system was greatly restructured in the years from 1958 to 1975 and continued after that into the school system we know today.