Oak View Elementary School

Oak View History

Special thanks to Lilliam Isaac, OV's Administrative Secretary for many years, for obtaining many of the documents below.

• Early Years
• SBJ Article
• The Fire
• Principals

The Early Years

From a 1957 new teacher orientation brochure...

Oak View Elementary School: 1948-1957
by Ernest Woodchek, Trustee, 1948-1955

Welcome to Oak View!
We are happy to have you with us.
As a trained teacher, you will know what to expect professionally now that classes have begun.
But has anyone told you the story of Oak View?
If you will bear with us, we would like to relate some of the highlights in Oak View's history. Perhaps our story will help to orient those of you who are with us for the first time, and to refresh the memories of our "older" teachers.

We think the history of Oak View is unique in the annals of education. As a plant, it has served as a guide for other schools throughout the nation. Oak View's facilities were written up in considerable detail in the School Board Journal in September 1949. (To see this article, click here.) Similarly, the school has been acclaimed by the Arlington (Virginia) school board as containing the "maximum of good planning features at a minimum cost." And Oak View received the Washington Board of Trade biennial architectural award in 1949.

As the focal point of community interest, it is only necessary to point out that the school was built in a community whose members are well above average in intelligence; a community composed of personalities from all parts of the United States who bring to this school a diversity of firmly implanted ideas about how their children should be educated.

OakView opened September 20, 1948 after ten years of active prodding of County authorities by the citizens of the community. In 1937 an item for a school site appeared for the first time in the County budget. The first plans for the school appeared to be adequate, but had to be changed three times to fit the County budget. Finally, after ten years of hauling and pulling between the County authorities and the community, ground was broken and construction of a ten-room building was begun December 18, 1947.

By the time the school opened there were 475 pupils to be accommodated in a building designed for 350. Although 70 pupils were transferred back to other schools during the first week, it was still necessary to eliminate the sixth grade (where enrollment was very light). And by the end of that first year, enrollment had increased to 555.

Almost the first action of the Parent and Teachers Association of Oak View was a protest to the Board of Education that the school was "completely inadequate." The Association urged that steps be taken at once to expand the existing building. Without some such action by the Board of Education the school was faced with two problems: either to re-district, or inaugurate double sessions. Our dilemma was readily recognized by the Board of Education, and , in 1949, budgetary provision was made for four additional rooms to the school. Pending completion of the addition, however, the school was faced with over-crowding. With an enrollment of 555 it was necessary to put the first three grades on half-day sessions. The addition was completed in December 1949 and occupied by classes immediately after the Christmas holidays.

In the beginning, the boundaries of the school district encompassed all of the territory roughly within the area bordered by what is now Northwood Park on the east, Sligo Creek Parkway to the west, Indian Spring golf Course to the north, and Piney Branch Road to the south; The school had both "walking" and "bus" children. This meant an additional problem as far as the lunch period was concerned. In one period of twenty-one days, early in 1950, the cafeteria served 5724 lunches in spite of the fact that it had an estimated capacity for only 2100. It was inevitable, therefore, that some relief had to be given to the small cafeteria included in the original ten-room building.

Again in 1950 and 1951, the Oak View PTA clamored for more space. As a result of the activity of the PTA and interested citizens' groups, the County authorities began a serious study of the area looking toward the eventual building of additional school plants in the vicinity. This was probably the peak of community interest in the school and its problems. Regular and special meetings of the PTA were held. A mass meeting was organized jointly by the various citizens' groups. Some newspaper headlines which drew attention to the problem read:

CITIZENS TO STUDY CROWDED FACILITIES AT OAKVIEW
500 CITIZENS PROTEST CROWDING OF OAKVIEW--ASK FOR MORE SPACE
PROTEST MEETING TO BE HELD BY FOUR CIVIC GROUPS

All this activity finally brought about two solutions for OakView. First, the Board of Education included in its 1952-1953 program provision for an eight-room addition to Oak View. Secondly, Eastern Suburban Junior High opened its doors in January 1952, and plans were immediately adopted by the Board of Education to transfer all "bus" children form Oak View to Eastern.

Until the third addition to the school was finished, kindergarten had to be postponed in 1952, and the first and second grades went on half-day sessions--the former in the morning; the latter in the afternoon.

With these changes, the school could at last settle down to a more or less administrative routine and concentrate chiefly on educating our youngsters. During this period of expansion and growth the school was exceedingly fortunate in keeping together a teaching staff whose capacity and willingness to carry on despite the frequent inconveniences and disruptions earned the admiration of the entire community.

The school had its lighter moments: the PTA "carnival" and the school "fall frolic"--both of which have become traditional; the Halloween parade; the fathers "surprising" the School Board by building a bridge across Long Branch Creek at Melbourne Avenue; and a weekly Saturday work group of parents to clear a 5000 square feet of play area adjacent to the school--to cite a few examples.

Meanwhile, the school has continued to be the target for visitors from abroad as well as from all parts of the United States. For instance, the cafeteria came in for high praise from a group of experts who were attending an annual convention of the national School Service Association.

The school was tentatively named the "Flower Avenue School". But soon after it opened, a referendum of parents, teachers and pupils unanimously chose the name "Oak V iew" because of the grove of oaks in which the building was located. This name was readily agreed to by the Board of Education.

It is to the credit of everyone concerned that the "conflict of ideas" which characterized the early years of the school proved to be the stimulus for an ultimate parent-teacher relationship which has been the strength of the school.

Any recitation of the events in the life of Oak V iew would be incomplete without mention to two outstanding personalities in its history. The late Dr. Edwin W. Broome, Superintendent of Education for Montgomery County, saw clearly the part that Oak View would play in our community. Mrs. Loretta Alderton, our principal, had the capacity to interpret Dr. Broome's vision and the dedication to see it through. It is to those two individuals that the school owes a deep debt of gratitude.

Today, Oak View begins its tenth year. With your help, it will continue its role as the main bulwark of present-day community life.

The Fire, Part 1

Arson is Suspected!

Arson is Suspected at School

Circumstances surrounding the $200,000 fire at Oak View Elementary School, Silver Spring, on Monday, strongly point to arson, according to Silver Spring Fire Chief David B. Gratz. Fire and police officials are working on information that a boy was seen in or near one of the blazing classrooms by a teacher who spotted the fire.

Flames swept through the school less than 40 minutes after the 600 students had finished classes and gone home for the day. Teachers, attending a faculty meeting, and a group of Girl Scouts, were discovered but all escaped injury.

The 19-year-old elementary school on East Wayne Ave. next to Long Branch Park in the Highland View section of Montgomery County will not be completely repaired until at least September. Four classrooms were destroyed and eight others damaged.

Fighting the blaze for more than an hour befoe bringing it under control, more than 100 fiemen were on the scene, from all three Silver Spring stations, as well as Takoma Park and Chillum.

The Fire, Part 2

Arsonist is Found!

Boy Kept After School Started $200,000 Blaze

A 9-year-old boy told a Montgomery County Juvenile Court Justice that he started a $200,000 blaze at the Oak View Elementary school last week because his fourth grade teacher kept him after classes for talking out of turn.

The fire on May 23 burned out a wing of the school at East Wayne Avenue and Walden Road, Silver Spring. The boy, too young to be charged with arson, was accused of "committing a delinquent act" by police two days later.

The boy appeared at a hearing Monday and told Judge Alfred D. Noyes he found a lighted cigarette in the school playground after he was kept in for 10 or 15 minutes at the end of the school day.

He said he re-entered the building, threw the cigarette on a couch in a second floor teachers'lounge, saw the couch start to smolder, then returned to the playground and stayed until fire engines arrived.

The Court has ordered psychiatric tests for the boy.

Judge Noyes said the child has displayed evidence of emotional problems both at home and school. His parents, who are co-operating fully with the Court, have kept him out of school since the charges were filed, Noyes said.

The burned out wing of the school has been declared unusable for the rest of the school year.

About 250 pupils in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades are being taken by bus to other schools in the area. First, second and third grade pupils are attending classes in undamaged parts of Oak View.

Oak View Elementary School Principals