School bells will soon be ringing throughout the area. Though the bells don’t sound the same as they did through many years of calling children to the schoolhouses, and sounding their release, they are still the signal to start and end school days. The bell and clapper type hung in the bell towers of nearly every school, as they did in churches, and the ringing brought forth a multiple musical sound. A totally new system took the bell in the tower’s place years ago. Electronically-generated, computer-programmed, shriller, non-musical, but getting the job done.

According to Joan Wheal Blank’s, “Around Hughesville,” part of a “Postcard History Series, there was a time in America when only children of parents who could afford to pay tuition could go to school. The Free School Act of 1854 provided funding to offer education for all, an opportunity that provided a better future for all

children. Other information garnered from Blank’s book included the following:

Hughesville’s first school was built in 1818. The school that sat on the corner of Main and Academy Streets, called Wolf School was built in 1875, and remodeled in 1889 when rooms were added to house the 265 students enrolled that year. Over 50 other schools also held classes in surrounding townships. The Wolf School was used for classes until 1972 when it was demolished and apartment buildings put on the site.

A school at Picture Rocks offered classes for children of all ages and in 1896 the first high school class graduated. In 1921, Picture Rocks School became one of the first vocational high schools in the state. Many different schools in the area are mentioned in Blank’s history, including the Mapleton School in Shrewsbury Township; Penn Township’s Sugar Run School; the Lores School; the Steck School, located southwest of Hughesville; the McCarty School (often referred to as the “Fribley” School); and the Derr School in Penn Township. The Derr School was one of five one-room schoolhouses that was operating during the latter 1800’s. Schools were open for only four months and the cost of educating a student at that time was estimated at 48 cents a month. The teachers were paid between $15 to $21.25 per month (with the men receiving a higher salary than the women did). There were actually 57 schools operating in the Hughesville area between 1800-1930. That’s a lot of bell ringing!

Presently, the East Lycoming School District operates four public schools: Hughesville Junior-Senior High School; Ashkar Elementary School; Ferrell Elementary School; and Renn Elementary School. The schools serve over 1600 students.