Huntington PTA Council Celebrates School Year

The Huntington PTA Council’s annual luncheon at the Huntington Country Club was an upbeat gathering last week. Retiring PTA Council President Sara Baliber and PTA Council delegate Chris Flewelling were both recognized for providing more than a decade of service to district PTA organizations

Incoming PTA Council President Colleen Perfetto spoke briefly along with new Huntington UFSD Superintendent Beth M. McCoy and new district Deputy Superintendent Christopher J. Hender.

The end of year PTA Council luncheon is a Huntington tradition. It celebrates the success of individual building PTA units, which this year raised tens of thousands of dollars to support a long list of activities.

The 2024/25 PTA Council will once again be led by President Colleen Perfetto, Co-Vice Presidents Keri Harris and Kacey Knauer, Recording Secretary Katie Becker and Treasurer Jennifer Tullo.

Mrs. McCoy and Mr. Hender both thanked PTA members for the “amazing” work they did this past year and have always done throughout the district’s history to enhance the educational experience for students on every grade level.

The Origins of Huntington’s PTA

Huntington UFSD has one of the longest and proudest traditions of any district in the country. For 101 years, the Parent Teacher Association, or PTA as it is widely known, has been an active partner with the educational professionals responsible for educating the tens of thousands of students who have moved through district classrooms.

The forerunner of Huntington’s PTA was formed in 1923 at what was then known as Lowndes Avenue School in Huntington Station. After the building was doubled in size over parts of 1926/27, the school was renamed in honor of former President Theodore Roosevelt. The dedication ceremony drew dignitaries from across the town and was even attended by Mr. Roosevelt’s widow, Edith and his fifth child, Archibald.

Nucleus of Parents Met in 1923

“The nucleus of the first PTA of Lowndes Avenue School/Roosevelt School, consisting of about six parents, met together in Room 115 to discuss ways and means of providing free milk to a large number of undernourished children whose parents were economically unable to supply their children with the necessary amount of milk for good health,” wrote Roosevelt Principal Agnes B. Bailey in 1958. “This was about 1923.”

The parent’s milk campaign was the start of something special in Huntington. “At this time we were buying milk in quart bottles (retail price) and serving it in paper cups,” wrote Mrs. Bailey. “The front of our auditorium was the area used for this purpose.”

The group’s first organized fundraiser was a roast beef dinner prepared and served on the second floor of the old four-room School Street School. It was located across the street from the current Jack Abrams School parking lot (the one with the basketball courts on the south side of the building).

Parents from Two Schools Affiliate

After a period of rapid enrollment growth, Lincoln School was erected on E. 9th Street in Huntington Station adjacent to St. Hugh of Lincoln Roman Catholic Church in 1923/24. (Woodbury Avenue Grammar School was built at the same time.)

By 1925 the parents of Lincoln’s students had affiliated with parents from Lowndes Avenue School to organize the district’s first PTA. “The first two years this organization included parents and teachers from both Huntington Station schools,” according to Mrs. Bailey.

By 1927 “the parents in Roosevelt School felt they could do more for our children working as a separate unit, so they withdrew and formed their own PTA,” wrote Mrs. Bailey, who served the district as a principal for 36 years, longer than anyone else.

“Our PTA over many years has contributed much to the welfare of our children,” wrote Mrs. Bailey. “I recall programs of free milk when needed, graham crackers with milk for all children, [and] the purchase of a radio. During the war, a program was set up to supplement family budgets; in some cases eyeglasses, tonsillectomies, and many other necessary and worthy causes.”