On June 18, 1901 District #16 Sandy Point came into existence as a separate district. School had been held there off and on for several years but it was part of district #8. The description is a very long detailed one, it included a small part of Sec. 1, 12, and 13 along the shoreline, all of 2, 11, 14, half of 15 & 16 and a small portion of Sec. 3 all in TWP 29N, R3E. On Aug. 29, 1902 Joseph and Maria Brown donated about 1 acre of land just east of the present Langley city limits. A schoolhouse was built there shortly. I have been unable to determine how many years this existed as a school. It was later called the Sandy Point hospital and later yet a nursing home. It is a private dwelling now.
In 1903 March 20 issue of Island County Times under the heading “Clinton Clippings”, it says the new schoolhouse is now finished and school will start April 6, Mrs Daly teacher. Deer Lake location
So it will end up that there will be eventually three schools at the Deer Lake vicinity.
“The year 1904 sees another school to be built. This time in district #8 again. This one will be the final and still standing Bayview school. It was started in the summer of 1904 but not completed in time for the school in the fall, some of those helping to build this school were E.H. Millman, R.G. Hall, C.O. Melendy and F.E. Peterson. In the Newell notes column a dance and basket social was held to raise money to purchase a bell for the new school house. The sum of $74.50, was the largest amount ever raised at Useless per the Is. Co Times Jan. 20, 1905.
In March of 1905 Miss Carrie A. Temple started teaching a four month term in the new schoolhouse. The old log schoolhouse was sold to Jack Harvey and he moved it to his place. Later Carl Ackerman owned the Harvey property and remodeled the log house. This information came from Cliff & Beatrice Thompson’s four part series of the History of Bayview school in the 1941 Whidbey Rec.
On the 7th of July 1906 a petition signed by twelve petitioners in the Saratoga area asking for a school. It was approved by the Supt. of schools on Sept. 4, 1906. This was district #19. The boundaries were from the center of the west line of Sec. 33 going west on the center line of Sec. 32 & 31 of TWP 30, R3E continuing west through the center line of Sec. 36 & 35 in Twp 30, R2E to the shores of Holmes Harbor thence north following the shoreline around Rocky Point going east to East Point thence southeast along Saratoga passage to the west line of Sec. 33, then south to point of beginning. The first school was built in the Fall of 1906 by Murdock McLeod, Levi Shook and a few others. It was a one room shake shack built like a lean-to with a dirt floor. Mr Leighton was the teacher. The ten pupils were Austin Marshall, Ruth Malcomb and Marjory McLeod, Ellen Asta, Edward and August Gufibrandson, Fern and Florence Leighton. The following year a one room schoolhouse was built on lots 41 & 42 block B donated by the Saratoga Improvement Co. This was below and a little east of the(late)store. Most of this information on the Saratoga school has been taken from an article written by Mrs Harold Ahlstedt and published in the Aug. 18 1938 edition of the Whidbey Record. She was the student Ellen Asta in 1906. She gave a very interesting account I have only given the bare essentials. South Whidbey and Its People/ Vol. 11 also has a good account of the Saratoga school.
On .April 2, 1907 the school authorities granted permission for another new school district #20. It was taken out of districts 8, 10,11, 12, 13 and 16. It included all of Sec. 28, 27, 21 & 22 and the south half of sec. 15 and 16, all in TWP 29N, R3E .Charles Peek donated 2 acres of land in the NW 1/4 of the NW 1/4 of the NW 1/4 of Sec. 27. Deed dated Nov. 27, 1907.] Henry Monnger along with volunteer help, completed the school known as Woodland. In an article in the Island Co. Times it says it was opened and “christened Jan. 18, 1908”. The first teacher was Miss Etta Kraber. I couldn’t find an exact list of the first pupils, but these are the families that had children of school age within district #20: Craw, Newell, Crisp, Allington, Kyllonen, Morse, Dickinson, Feek and Tulin.
Meanwhile in District #12 Langley, on July 15, 1907 a deed “was given by Jacob Anthes for lots 3 and 22, block 9.” Another school building was built shortly after so this made 2 in close proximity to each other. A better account of these schools is given in Vol. Ill Langley The Village by the Sea.
The next and last school district to come into existence on South Whidbey was district #22 known as Ingleside. There will be several schools being built yet in the various districts but no new district numbers until consolidation. District 22 was everything south of the section line between 5 & 8,1 4 & 9, 3 & 10, 2 & 11, and 1 & 12. This school is covered very well in Vol.II South Whidbey and its people. It is only being mentioned here to follow through with the aim of this article to place the schools as they came into existence in chronological order. As Vol. II says the school first started in the Gardiner’s home, sometime around 1910 the first school was built, according to the report another one was built later. The only thing I am sure of is that several of my cousins were going to school in a building through May of 1935 that later became Baileys store. It should be mentioned here that there were numerous boundary changes over the years to the various districts.
The year 1910 was a year of major importance for South Whidbey schools. This was the year of the first consolidation. Oct. 14, 1910 consolidation in this case did not mean that the kids all moved into one central location. They kept going to their separate schools but they were all called district 202 with headquarters at Langley. These are the schools that the school superintendent decided would be under the leading of district # 202. 8,11,12,13, 16, 19 and 20. District #10 refused to be a part of it and later district #8 withdrew. District # 11 of Deer Lake didn’t really like it either but didn’t withdraw.
