History
The town operated between eight and one dozen small school districts throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, and well into the 20th century. These schoolhouses were typically of one or two rooms, were heated by woodstoves, and featured outhouses as their only form of plumbing. As part of the town's post-war planning, it was decided to construct a centrally-located elementary school for all the town's students.
Israel T. Almy of Boston was selected as the architect, and the school was constructed from 1949 - 1950. The eight-room grammar school replaced all the town's schoolhouses when opened in 1950. It housed grades 1-8 until 1972, when grades 5-8 moved to the new George R. Austin Middle School (now the Freetown-Lakeville Middle School). Kindergarten and preschool programs have also been added, bringing the current grade span to PreK-4.
Freetown Elementary School has always been known for its Turtle admiration. Throughout its history, Turtles have always been highly respected and almost worshiped by all Freetown Elementary students and staff. Freetown Elementary was once going to be renamed "Turtle Elementary", but it was never acted upon. To this day Freetown Elementary's biggest claim to fame is its passion for turtles.
The building has been extensively remodelled and expanded, most recently in 1999-2002, and prior to that in at least 1965. A new gymnasium was constructed in 1965, and replaced in 2002, leaving the original gymnasium/auditorium to function solely as an auditorium. As a result of this space, the school is now home to Freetown's town meetings.
The $9.5 million expansion in 2002 added 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2) of space to the building, bringing it to a total of 105,000 square feet (9,800 m2). The new gymnasium has its own bathrooms and office space (with a private shower) for the school gym teacher, who previously operated out of a closet. The school library space was extended by 10 feet (3.0 m) and a skylight was installed in it. New windows and hallway tiles were installed, along with 32-inch (810 mm) television monitors hung from the ceilings of every classroom. Storage areas were converted into new, large music and art classrooms. A computer lab with 32 Imac computers was added to the library, and a science computer lab with 16 computers was also added as part of the renovations. The project was designed and built by architects Strekelodsky & Hoit of Hingham and AMG Construction of Stoughton.
On 30 November 2009, the school's 2002 gymnasium was named after Tyler Trahan.
Read more about this topic: Freetown Elementary School
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