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    The History of the Wappingers Central School District:
     
     
    Wapp Jr
     
    November 30, 1937: A meeting was held to consider the centralization of the school districts of southern Dutchess County. 

    September 1938:  A vote approved the centralization, and the Wappingers Central School District was created. The District was comprised of 11 schools from the towns of Wappingers, Poughkeepsie, Fishkill, East Fishkill, LaGrange in Dutchess County and the towns of Kent and Phillipstown in Putnam County. One of these original 11 schools, Fishkill Elementary school, is still in operation today.
     
    1940: The Wappingers Central School "main building" opened as a K-12 school in the village of Wappingers Falls. The school was created as part of President Roosevelt's Work Projects Administration during the Great Depression. The hand-trimmed moldings and cabinets in the school library are evidence of the many highly skilled craftspeople who were put to work on the building.
     
    1950s: The school district grew larger with the addition of the Stormville, Old Hopewell, East Fishkill Number 6, Gayhead and Shenendoah districts. At the same time, there was considerable population growth. Consequently, five new elementary schools were built: James S. Evans, Fishkill Plains, Vassar Road, Brinckerhoff and Oak Grove.
     
    January 28, 1960: Voters approved a new senior high school to be built on Myers Corners Road in Wappingers. The new school was named in honor of Roy C. Ketcham, President of the Board of Education, who had been part of the centralization movement in 1937 and had served as a member of the Board for 25 years. The former main building was renamed Wappingers Falls Junior High School. 
     
    1963: Wappingers JHS is enlarged.
     
    1966: Van Wyck Junior High School and 4 additional elementary schools -- Sheafe Road, Gayhead, Myers Corners, and Kinry Road -- were built. Voters also approved an addition to Roy C. Ketcham and the construction of another new senior high school to be built on Route 52 in East Fishkill.

    1969: John Jay Senior High School opened.