The
first school classes in Lake Township were taught by Jonathon
Williams at the home of Otis Allen during the winters of 1842-43
and 1843-44. Williams was one of the first Township
supervisors elected in 1842 when Lake Township was created from
Lehman Township. The Allen School was located next to the
old cemetery on Township Route 779 two-tenths of a mile south
of Route 29.
During
the summer of 1844 the first school house was built on the farm
of Henry Ide.
This may have been the Durland School west of its intersection with
Route 29.
It is still standing but it is covered with a brown asbestos shingles.
In
the winters of 1847-48 and 1848-49 Jonathon Williams taught classes
at the home of Nathan Kocher at the Sandy Bottom area of the
Lake on Queen of Peace Road.
In 1849 a school house, known at the West Corner School, was built
at the site with Eliner Montross as the teacher. The West Corner
School would later become the site of the Laketon School.
In
the winter of 1849-50 the Outlet School was open with Jonathon
Williams as the teacher. The Outlet School is still standing
at the intersection of Legislative Routes 40129 and 40123.
Between
1844 and 1849 there were six schools built in Lake Township. In
1849 there were two male and three female teachers. There
were 108 male and 70 female students. The total cost of
operating the 1849 school system was $120.75.
The
number of schools in the Township varied over time. There
were seven schools in 1875 and eight in 1882. There were
nine schools in 1897 to 1900. There were ten schools in
1901, and six schools from 1906 to 1910. There were eight
schools in 1915.
The
school term from 1849 to 1864 was four months. It increased
to five months from 1865 to 1889. It was six months in
1895. By 1906 the term was seven months which was increased
to eight months in 1915.
In
1856 there were two male and four female teachers in the Lake
Township system.
The salary was $15.00 a month. In 1880 there were three male
and four female teachers and each received $18.00 a month. In
1900 there were six male and five female teachers. They were
paid $25.00 a month. In 1915 there were two male teachers at
$72.50 a month and seven female teachers at $44.29 a month.
In
1873 there were six schools in the Township. In addition
to the Allen, Durland, West Corner and Outlet Schools, there
were the Rock and Sweet Valley Schools.
The Rock School was located on Township Route 679. The Sweet
Valley School was located at the intersections of Township Routes
682 and 577 next to the Methodist Church in Sweet Valley.
At
later dates the Ruggles, Pikes Creek, Green Valley, and Loyalville
Schools were built. The “Rock-Ruggles” or Rock
No. 2 School was located on Township Route 679 to consolidate
the individual Rock and Ruggles school houses which were dismantled. Rock
No. 2 is currently a home.
The
Loyalville School was a two-story school which is still standing
at the intersection of Legislative Route 40115 and Legislative
Route 40128.
The
Green Valley School is located on Township Route 748, a dirt
road, along Fade’s Creek. It is standing but is used
as a storage house on the Lavin property.
The Pike’s Creek School is located at the intersections of
Route 29 and 118 and is being converted into a home.
There
was also a one-room school house along the Lakeside road near
Alderson. Dallas Township also had a large school at Alderson
near the former site of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Station.
There
were also two small schools in the Northwest, Mountain Springs
and Beth Run Schools, which were built to accommodate the ice-cutting
industry in the Ricketts Glen area.
The
Laketon School, which had the earliest high school grades, was
a four-room school house built at the turn of the century on
Queen of Peace Road to replace the earlier one-room school house
at the West corner.
Finally,
the Lake Township School was built in 1925. The Lake Township
School, destroyed by fire in February, 1979, carried grades one
through 12 and in time consolidated Laketon and the one-room
schools.
In
April, 1951, the Lake and Noxen Townships School Boards announced
the creation of the jointure of the two school districts. At
the time of the announcement members of the Noxen Township School
Board were Clarence Turner, Loren Case, Lester Kocher, Elvin
Bean and Franklin Patton. The supervising principal of
the Lake schools at this time was George Taylor.
The
Lake-Noxen Elementary School was dedicated on May 31, 1981. The
school had been completed in early January with students using
the school for the second semester of the academic year. The
construction cost was $2.9 million dollars.