Remembering Southdown School’s Founding Principal

Less than two years after stating there appeared to be no need for any further elementary school construction to cope with the post-war “baby boom,” Huntington School Board members found themselves in the midst of a looming space crisis. Hundreds of new students were pouring into the district and classrooms were needed – fast.

The district decided to go with a plan that resulted in three schools of similar design being erected in the northwest, northeast and southwest quadrants of the district. School officials identified a large plot of land available between Southdown Road and Huntington Bay, which at the time was known as the McKeeson-Brown property.

The parcel, which was essentially open space and farm-like in nature was determined to be well-suited for an elementary school. In 1953 the district purchased an eight acre piece of the large tract at a price of $4,000 per acre. Plans were drawn up for a 13 classroom building, which although still unfinished, opened in September 1954.

Southdown Elementary School’s first principal was James J. Sherman, who had been working at Great Neck Junior High School as an assistant principal. Mr. Sherman dove into his work, putting in place what was quickly viewed as an exceptional educational program and laying out the framework for operations and activities that won over teachers and parents in short order.

Mr. Sherman was 40 years old when he took command at Southdown. At the time of his appointment as principal, he had been a Huntington resident for eight years, residing at 37 Maple Place. He grew up in New Paltz, New York and graduated from the State Teachers College there. After earning his teaching credential, he taught social studies to seventh, eighth and ninth graders in Katonah, NY for eight years, also serving as the student council advisor and JV boys’ basketball coach.

These were the days when a teacher needed only to complete a college course of study to earn certification. A degree wasn’t required. But, Mr. Sherman attended evening, weekend and summer classes at New York University and eventually earned a BS degree in elementary school administration.

With World War II raging, Mr. Sherman was drafted into the US Army, earning $21 a month as a private. He completed basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he taught fellow draftees map reading, first aid and various Army fundamentals, while he himself was being trained for service.

Just as quickly, he was taken into officer’s candidate school and shortly thereafter shipped off to Hawaii and assigned to a company of Hawaiian and Filipino troops. The company would see action at Guadalcanal and in the Bouganville campaign on New Guinea in the Solomon Islands, both of which featured some of the bloodiest fighting in the Pacific theater.

He later served as an assistant regimental plans and training officer in the 298th Infantry division and as personnel officer in a replacement depot. After Japan surrendered, Mr. Sherman was discharged from the US Army as a captain. He headed back to his teaching job in Katonah.

After obtaining a Master’s degree at Columbia University, Mr. Sherman worked at Plattsburgh State Teachers College as a teacher in the laboratory school there with an emphasis on developing curriculum for elementary grade levels.

Deciding to leave his position at Plattsburgh, Mr. Sherman landed a job at Great Neck Junior High School as a social studies teacher, adding duties as the student council advisor. Following four years in the classroom there, he was named assistant principal of the school, staying in that post for three years before taking over as Southdown’s first principal.

The building was not yet finished, but the district needed it and it was opened while work continued. Mr. Sherman welcomed four teachers from Woodbury Avenue School and hired eight others. The initial enrollment was 340 students. Within four short years it swelled to 550.

“It has gone well,” Mr. Sherman said in May 1955 about Southdown’s opening year. “The staff at Southdown has been very helpful in taking on added duties created by the situation and the parents are most cooperative. Now we want to develop a program for the children, which will include a continued refinement of the basic curriculum, a richer all-school assembly schedule and a club program. We’re working on that now. There’s been fine support by everyone since the day the school first opened, and that always makes the job easier.”

Mr. Sherman, whose wife Charlotte worked as a kindergarten teacher at Woodbury Avenue School, stayed at Southdown for 15 years before retiring when classes ended in June 1969. He remains the longest serving principal in the school’s history.