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The population growth - Westport counted some 3,000 residents by 1850 - brought many changes in the education system. At the time of Westport's incorporation, the town already had nine school districts: Green's Farms, Compo, East Saugatuck, West Saugatuck, known as Shercrow where a school was originally built in 1812; East Long Lots, West Long Lots, Coleytown, Poplar Plains, and Cross Highway. A school in South Saugatuck was added in 1852. In the late 1890s, a small building in the Cross Highway area was used as a schoolhouse. Continue reading from Klein, Westport, Connecticut: The Story of a New England Town's Rise to Prominence, 101-102
For more than two decades, the Westport school system had consisted of three elementary schools, one junior, and one senior high. The "population explosion" of the 1950s, with its problems of over-crowding and double sessions, created the demand for more schools. Coleytown Elementary was built in 1953 at a cost of $1 million. Then came Burr Farms Elementary in 1957. By 1958, when the new Staples High School opened on North Avenue, the cost had risen further to $4 million. The old Staples was converted to Bedford Junior High School, and the original Bedford Junior High, built in 1926, was converted into an elementary school and renamed Kings Highway Elementary in 1958. Hillspoint Elementary was built in 1961-62, and Coletown Junior, now Middle School, was built in 1965. Continue reading from Klein, 256
Mr. Staples's Westport School (1884, Jul 10). The Hartford Courant (ProQuest)
The View from Greens Farms (1998, Jul 12). New York Times Online. (ProQuest)
