EXPLANATION & HOW YOU CAN HELP

The Peabody Public Schools, under the direction of Ms. S. M. "Sudi" Smoller, has embarked on a project to expand the district's Internet web site to include reports prepared by students on the history of the city's existing schools.

A class of twenty-eight eighth grade students on the Aquarius team at Higgins Middle School are involved in the project, which is being conducted by the school department with the assistance of the Peabody Institute Library and the Peabody Historical Society.

In addition to publishing the student works on the Internet, each school history will be published in loose-leaf notebook form so that the future history of the school can be added to it.

The eleven teams of students researchers are seeking rememberances of school days and events from graduates and employees of the Peabody schools to include in their reports.

For instance, did you experience double sessions due to overcrowding in the sixties? Were you one of the teachers who had to leave your job or serve as a substitute because you were a woman who got married?

Can you provide information on Philip A. Dorgan, the namesake of the auditorium at the Center School, or Nancy D'Alessandro, for whom the library at the Samuel Brown School is named? Do you have information on the veterans for whom the houses at the High School are named: John H. Savageau, Tony Lappas and Philip D. Quinlan?

Do you remember the three-story brick Center School before it burned in 1952? Or, do you recall the fires at the Thomas Carroll or Higgins Middle schools? Did you walk your books over to the new South Memorial School in 1952?

Were you a colleague or acquaintance of John E. Burke, J. Henry Higgins or Willliam A. Welch, namesakes of current schools? Were you a pupil of Elizabeth Quinlan, a teacher for 51 years for whom the auditorium in the Carroll School is named?

Do you recollect the flu epidemic of 1918 that closed schools or a holiday from school in1916 to honor long-time Superintendent John J. Connor? Are you a recipient of a scholarship created by Annie I. McCarthy, principal of the Samuel Brown School?

Can you provide information on any of the people who were nominated as namesakes for the West Memorial School: the Marin and Ingraham families; Dr. George E. Mortis, John L. Vagge, Dr. John Lane, Frank J. Lynch, and Alicia B. McNiff?

Students are also seeking information on individuals recognized for distinction with resolutions of the School Committee, including: James H. Kerwin, Willard W. Woodman, Anna Kelley, Alfred J. Hurley, Albert Robinson and Jennie F.D. Nichols.