In preparation for its 100-year anniversary, several retired Island Trees School District employees have volunteered to work with Superintendent Richard N. Segerdahl and his secretary Dottie Bassimer to plan a district-wide celebration. Over the course of the last few months, these individuals have been reviewing thousands of old photographs, news articles and district documents and have compiled the information into dozens of displays to be shown at an upcoming district-wide party in celebration of the past century.

In honor of its 100th anniversary, the district has planned a variety of events. Prior to a district-wide party and parade, all of the schools in the district will enjoy their own parties as well as tours.

A district-wide party is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 25 at the Island Trees Middle School from 7 to 9 p.m. Invitees include residents, current and retired staff, alumni, present and former board of education members and guests. The party will feature numerous displays of pictures of present and former students and staff, as well as former residents and farms in the area. Hors d'oeurves, vegetable platters, soda, cake and coffee will be served at the party. A short ceremony will be held in the All Purpose Room at approximately 8 p.m. This is also the evening of the district's Homecoming Dance.

On Saturday, Oct. 26, the district will host a parade in conjunction with Homecoming. The parade is set to start at the middle school and is scheduled to leave at noon (all parade participants are asked to arrive at the back parking lot of the middle school by 11:15 a.m.). The parade will make its way through the community and end at the high school, to help celebrate "Island Trees Homecoming" and the homecoming football game is scheduled to start at 2 p.m.

A special newsletter regarding the 100th anniversary of Island Trees has been sent home to all district residents. Additional copies of the newsletter have been printed and will be used in classrooms to help students learn about the history of the district.

Former and current teachers, administrators, employees, alumni and residents are looking forward to the scheduled celebrations, to rekindling old acquaintances and discussing fond memories of time spent in the Island Trees School District.

The school district of Island Trees, once known as "the Isle of Trees," started with a small school known as the "one-room schoolhouse," which was located near the current site of the Toys R Us store on Hempstead Tpke. The land that the school was built on was donated by heirs of the Stewart family.

John T. Walsh settled on Hempstead Plains and became one of the founding fathers of the district. Descendants of the Walsh family, John Walsh's great-great-great grandchildren, still attend the school district today. The school district was officially formed on Sept. 2, 1902 and the one-room schoolhouse was opened on Jan. 25, 1904. The first trustees of the school were authorized to spend no more than $1,500 to build the schoolhouse.

The one-room schoolhouse was constructed on three-quarter acres of ground and the little white building housed three generations of students. There were 25 seats in the room and blackboards lined two walls. A coal stove provided heat during the winter months and drinking water was supplied by a well. Students first used an outhouse located behind the school and later two outhouses were built on either side of the building.

The first teacher hired for the schoolhouse was John Martin from Sayville. His salary was $400 yearly and he taught at the school until he became hard of hearing and eventually became a dentist.

In 1906, a special meeting of the school board trustees was held to vote on the formation of a path, which would run from the schoolhouse to the highway (Hempstead Tpke.). Students who attended the one-room schoolhouse in the early years had to remain home in the early fall to harvest crops and again in the spring to plant them.

In 1919, trustees voted to make school improvements, including the installation of a new water pump, painting the school inside and outside, oiling the floors and putting shades on the windows. In 1922, a new floor was installed in the school and a cellar was dug under the school. There was some discussion at this time about putting in a furnace or some other type of heating system in the future. Soon after, Trustee Oscar Streeseman made a motion to build a new coalhouse for the school, repair some bricks under the school and move the windows from the west side of the building to the east side.

By 1925, the cost of running the school district had tripled from its 1913 budget of $750 to $2,487.68 and by 1930 the total cost of running the district had increased to $2,800.20. The increased costs came from paying high school tuition and transportation to the Farmingdale School District, as in 1931 a special school board meeting was held to discuss the possible expansion of the schoolhouse due to increased student population and in 1934 the trustees decided to keep grade six in the one-room schoolhouse and to move the seventh and eighth graders to Farmingdale.

The first electricity was brought to the schoolhouse in 1937. The district had to pay $1,389.59 for the poles on Hempstead Tpke. and another $54.40 for two extra poles to be installed on the school grounds. In 1938, George Chilson was awarded a bid of $110 to wire and furnish electrical fixtures for the one-room schoolhouse.

In 1941, the first telephone was installed in the schoolhouse for an installation cost of $2.50. That same year, the first playground equipment was built for the schoolhouse.

In order to cooperate with the local war council, in 1942 the trustees agreed not to evacuate pupils from the school during an air raid drill. The first air raid drill was on Jan. 27, 1942. That year, a second door was installed on the northeast side of the building at a cost of $62. In 1945, $505 was paid to the Farmingdale School District so that Island Trees students could attend high school there. The total cost of running the district in 1946 was $9,045 and the tax rate was set at 69 cents per hundred. A special board meeting in 1947 resulted in a unanimous vote not to centralize the school district.

Since there were only 15 students in attendance at the one-room schoolhouse in June of 1948, the state closed the school.

Geneva N. Gallow, after whom the current Geneva N. Gallow School in Island Trees was named, was hired as the teacher/janitor of the one-room schoolhouse in 1936. In 1940, the school board agreed to pay her $150 a month for her teaching duties plus $25 a month for her janitorial duties. They also agreed to her request to be paid her teacher's salary over 12 months instead of 10. In 1942, her salary was raised from $1,500 to $1,600 a year.

At Mrs. Gallow's request, a janitor was hired in 1943 to maintain the schoolhouse. Also in that year, a "victory tax" was deducted from her salary and her salary was ultimately raised to $1,800 that September and in December of that year the school had to close for early recess due to sickness in the school and the community.

Throughout the 1940s, gym classes were held outside, weather permitting. Mrs. Gallow would conduct running races from telephone pole to telephone pole on Hempstead Tpke.

The Geneva N. Gallow School was finished in 1955 and shared the 11-acre site with the Karopczyc School. The school was closed in 1991 due to declining enrollment. Today, Nassau BOCES leases portions of the school, which also houses the district administration offices and the Island Trees/SCOPE Preschool Program.