Mabel Olsen Alexander and Leon Josephson

Mabel, now 98, attended second through eighth grades from 1930 to 1937 before she attended Langley High School.

Leon Josephson, 88, attended first and second grades in 1940 and 1941 before Bayview was consolidated into the Langley Grade School. It was the last South Whidbey school outside of Langley to do so.

 

On April 5, 1886 school for about nine students was held at Deer Lagoon (for it was not named Bayview back then) in the old logging cookhouse on the Weedin property bordering the highway and now owned by Whidbey Telecom.

It was one of only three schools first established on South Whidbey: the first was on the Lyons ranch at Maxwelton; the second was a log cabin schoolhouse built at what would become Cookson’s Corner (near where the old store would be in Austin); and the third was the cookhouse school on the Weedin property.

 

On April 29, 1895 Bayview residents George and Abbie Bump deeded to school district #8 one square acre for building a proper school.

 

This is where the present Bayview School is, but the first school there was a log building which doubled as the community hall. It was located between where the present schoolhouse is on the hill and where Bayview Hall was later built.

The old log schoolhouse was sold to Jack Harvey who moved it to his place. Later Carl Ackerman owned the Harvey property and remodeled the log house.

 

The current white schoolhouse was built in 1904. After it was consolidated with the Langley Schools, it was used by the American Legion, and then Skagit Valley College.

 

From 1995 to 2012 it was used as an alternative high school for the South Whidbey School District.

In June 2012, due to declining enrollment numbers and lack of technological resources at the Bayview location, the school district closed Bayview High School and moved the students to their consolidated facilities on Maxwelton Road in Langley.

Currently, the nonprofit Goosefoot rents the building from the South Whidbey School District with their offices are located there, along with two other businesses. The upstairs classroom is used for educational purposes as the location for Goosefoot’s free business workshops. They also rent the classroom out at no cost to other organizations hosting meetings and educational activities.