The Susquehanna Valley Central School District - a Brief History
The consolidation of the Susquehanna Valley School District was completed in 1950. The district encompasses 57 square miles and contains approximately 15,000 residents. The district includes most of the Town of Binghamton, all of the Town of Conklin, a significant portion of the Town of Kirkwood and small sections of both the Town of Vestal and the Town of Windsor.
Prior to the consolidation of the district, pupils were taught in one and two-room school houses. After passage of the State Education Reorganization Plan, these facilities were replaced and the Susquehanna Valley Central School District was born. Brookside Elementary in the Town of Binghamton was built in 1958. That same year, Cedarhurst Elementary was constructed in the Town of Kirkwood (an addition was added in 1966). The Francis P. Donnelly Elementary School in Conklin, named for the district’s first Superintendent, opened in 1964 and was completely renovated in 1991. Cedarhurst was closed as a school building in 2006.
Our two remaining elementary schools house students in grades Pre-K-5. Students from grades 6-8 attend the Richard T. Stank Middle School, opened in 1966. Susquehanna Valley High School, educating students in grades 9-12, was originally opened in 1958. The first completely “in-house” classes of K-12 were taught during the 1961-1962 school year and the class of 1962 was the first to complete 13 years of education entirely within the district.
Presently, the district accommodates approximately 1,800 students and staff. Capital projects approved by voters in 1998, 2008, 2013 and 2016 have enabled significant improvements and modernization of our facilities, including the district’s first-ever swimming pool, a synthetic turf multi-purpose stadium field, additional classrooms, a new state-of-the-art high school library/media center, technology upgrades, updates to electrical, heating and ventilation systems, roof replacements, access control and monitoring upgrades, a new buildings and grounds maintenance facility and concessions stand, a new bus storage facility at Brookside, improved handicapped accessibility, district-wide window replacements, upgrades to the original house lighting system in the high school auditorium, replacement of student lockers and much more. Our most recent project involves extensive elementary classroom renovations, significant security upgrades and considerable site reconfigurations.