BATAVIA/A reflection on education in the City of Batavia/from the collection of James Owen

Jim Owen has spent fifty-five years as an educator, twenty of those years were spent right here with the Batavia City School District as a substitute teacher. Owen was also student in the district and both his father and mother were teachers in the Batavia City School District. Frank E. Owen was the Director of Music, and his mother Natalie Walker Owen was a language arts teacher and substitute teacher.

“I thought it would be interesting to find out the history of Batavia City Schools starting with the first high school in 1848,” says Owen, as he paged through his scrap book full of historical information.

Most of the photos and articles in Owen’s scrap book were collected over the years with assistance from the Batavia City School District, Historical Collections from Ruth M. McEvoy, books by Sue Conklin and Judy Stiles along with contributions by Middle School students in the Newspaper and Technology Club, past student Joshua Pacino/Class of 2001 and Middle School teachers Robin Watson and Eileen Ognibene.

Paging through the chronologically ordered book, you can see the growth of a public school system with the Village of Batavia becoming a City in 1915. Until 1911, Batavia Public Schools were under the direction of a County Superintendent who was in charge of all schools in Genesee County.

The Union Free School at Liberty and School street was the first high school in Batavia and grew rapidly after the school started to report to the Board of Regents in Albany. Eventually, the first school ran out of room to house all of its students. In 1872, land was purchased on Ross street and a new grade school/high school opened in 1874, where the current gym is located at the Middle School. The building was used until the current Middle School was constructed in 1922-23, which served as a high school until 1961.

As the population in Batavia started to grow, the district realized it was necessary to provide schooling throughout various parts of the Village of Batavia for younger children. In 1884, Pringle School opened (where Pringle Park is currently located). Then in 1891, East, West and William(Lincoln) schools were opened and were soon filled to capacity. In 1885, Washington School was opened (where Reed Eye and Associates is currently located), Pearl street school was opened in 1887.

Three additional school were built in 1928/29, Jackson(which was eventually a Junior High after a gymnasium, auditorium, library and more classrooms were added in 1939), Robert Morris, which was named after the man who played a key role in the Revolutionary War and was responsible for WNY settlements, and Brooklyn School, which replaced the Pearl street school from 1887.

In September of 1956, John Kennedy School was dedicated. The school was named after John Kennedy, a former Civil War soldier, who served as Superintendent of Union Schools in Batavia from 1890-1913

Kennedy was nationally known for creating “Batavia System of individualized instruction” which was widely used in schools and colleges at the time. The system was based on giving students encouragement rather than help. Many of Kennedy’s methods are still used by today’s educators, including classroom aids and the incentive method.

John Kennedy School replaced East school which was built in 1882.

In 1954, a committee started to discuss building a new high school at a new site that was not in the center of a residential area, this idea was turned down twice in two years by voters. Then in 1957, a new study committee was formed complete with informational drives and pamphlets that explained the situation and urged residents to adopt a new attitude about schools. The new group continued to push for a new high school in a new location and the present high school on Ross street be used as a junior high to relieve Jackson School of the number of older students attending there after Pringle School closed in 1954 and Lincoln School closed in 1960.

The push to build a new high school that was not in a residential area was successful, and in 1958 voters approved the recommendation and the Board of Education purchased part of the Krantz farm on State street road and hired builders to design and build the new high school. Ground was broken in January 1960 and during the summer of 1961 the high school was moved from Ross street to State street. (The famous tree in front of the school was originally part of the Krantz farm and is still there today.)

“It’s good to know where we come from because then we have a good idea where we are going,” says Owen. “Its nice to understand our school system and what they were trying to do in the 1840s and 1900’s and students of today should be aware this didn’t happen overnight. There were a lot of people involved with education in Batavia which has been a pretty good school system over the years.”

Owen has taught children in grades Kindergarten through 12th grade over his 55-year career. He graduated from Morrisville Institute of Technology and RIT, receiving his masters from the University of Buffalo. He started teaching in 1966 in Sackett’s Harbor, NY as a business education teacher and also coached basketball. From 1968-1972, Owen taught business education, business law, accounting and typing at Hamburg High School, which is where he had our current governor Kathy Hochul as a student in his typing class. He also served as a JV Basketball coach and Cross-Country Coach at Hamburg for 35 years. Owen then started substitute teaching in Oakfield and Batavia.

“As a substitute, I basically try and follow the plan the teacher leaves to the best of my ability, and I try and keep the kids in some type of order.”

Owen is a history buff and never misses an opportunity to share some local historical knowledge he has gained over his 55-year career.

“Sometimes I get off track like talking about who John Kennedy was, some remember these things years later, on occasion I throw in a little history.

This past flag day, Owen explained to all the students at John Kennedy School which John Kennedy their school was named after and why.

“They thought it was the president and I had to tell them no it was the superintendent who retired in 1913, and the reason he was important was because of his educational system and he was well known all over the world.”

Owen says it has recently become difficult to attract substitute teachers in all districts. He says some feel intimidated.

“The students of today keep my life going because they seem to listen, and they are nice to me.”

A fellow teacher told Owen they overheard two students conversing about having Owen for class one day, “We have a substitute today”, the other student said, “No we have Mr. Owen.”

Owen plans on continuing to substitute into the next school year.

“We have a good program, the school system can get better, we have great teachers and great administrators and great students.”