ORIGINAL
Robert Allison donated land for the original school built in 1784 near the old Episcopal church, by the old Albertson cemetery on Knowlton Road. However, this school became overcrowded, so land was purchased from John I. Blair and a school was built on Valley Road along the edge of the mountain. This school had seats for 90 children and one teacher. However, the average attendance was only 37 students, although there were 86 students of school age in the district in 1879. Eventually the small one-room schools were closed and only two schools remained, one at Columbia and one at Delaware. Both schools had grades Kindergarten to 8th grades, so the children in the northern part of the township went to the Columbia School and the others went to the Delaware School. High School students went to Belvidere. In 1934, on New Year’s Day, the Columbia School burned. At about the same time, the Delaware School burned. Mr. Halsey offered land to the township to build a central school near Delaware Lake but it was decided to rebuild both schools on the same locations as before. Both schools were built to be identical two-room schools, except that the plans were reversed. Grades K-4 were in one room and grades 5-8 were in the other room.