The Genesis of Huntington’s PTA

The PTA, as the Parent Teacher Association is widely known, has a long history in the Huntington School District. It has been active for nearly 90 years and worked tirelessly to improve the educational experience of all students.

The forerunner of the PTA was formed in 1923 at what was then known as Lowndes Avenue School. After the building was doubled in size in 1926/27, the school was renamed in honor of former President Theodore Roosevelt. The dedication ceremony was attended by Mr. Roosevelt’s widow, Edith and his fifth child, Archibald.

“The nucleus of the first PTA of Roosevelt School, consisting of about six parents, met together in Room 115 to discuss ways and means of providing free milk to a large number of undernourished children whose parents were economically unable to supply their children with the necessary amount of milk for good health,” wrote Roosevelt Principal Agnes B. Bailey in 1958. “This was about 1923.”

The parent’s milk campaign was the start of something special in Huntington. “At this time we were buying milk in quart bottles (retail price) and serving it in paper cups,” wrote Mrs. Bailey. “The front of our auditorium was the area used for this purpose.”

The group’s first organized fundraiser was a roast beef dinner prepared and served on the second floor of the old four-room School Street School. It was located across the street from the current Jack Abrams School parking lot (the one with the basketball hoops on the south side of the building).

After a period of rapid enrollment growth, Lincoln School was erected on E. 9th Street adjacent to St. Hugh of Lincoln Roman Catholic Church in 1923/24. (Woodbury Avenue Grammar School was built at the same time.)

By 1925 the parents of Lincoln’s students had affiliated with parents from Roosevelt School to organize the district’s first PTA. “The first two years this organization included parents and teachers from both Huntington Station schools,” according to Mrs. Bailey.

By 1927 “the parents in Roosevelt School felt they could do more for our children working as a separate unit, so they withdrew and formed their own PTA,” wrote Mrs. Bailey, who served the district as a principal for 36 years, longer than anyone else.

“Our PTA over many years has contributed much to the welfare of our children,” wrote Mrs. Bailey. “I recall programs of free milk when needed, graham crackers with milk for all children, [and] the purchase of a radio. During the war, a program was set up to supplement family budgets; in some cases eyeglasses, tonsillectomies, and many other necessary and worthy causes.”

Mrs. Bailey was in a unique position to see the genesis and growth of Huntington’s PTA. Her career in Huntington began on September 7, 1921 as a fourth grade teacher at Lowndes Avenue School. The next year she moved to the eighth grade level. In 1924, only her third year in the district, she was elevated to principal of the school.

Known as a no-nonsense principal, Mrs. Bailey was stern looking in appearance. She ran the school with an iron hand. Prior to the opening of Robert K. Toaz Junior High School in 1939, Lowndes Avenue/Roosevelt School accommodated students from kindergarten through eighth grade.

After 36 years as principal, and 38 years in the district, the 65-year old Mrs. Bailey decided it was time to call it quits. She sent a letter to Superintendent J. Taylor Finley on March 23, 1959, announcing her intention to resign for the purpose of retirement, effective at the close of the school year in June.

“The parents of our PTA have always been cooperative with one primary objective in view – that of the welfare of children,” wrote Ms. Bailey.