Harborfields Central School District


Harborfields Central School District is a school district in the Town of Huntington in Suffolk County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. The district serves four hamlets; all of Centerport, large parts of Huntington and Greenlawn, and a small part of Huntington Station.

History

Schools preceding the modern district

One of the earliest schools in the area served by today's district was the Broadway School in Greenlawn. Initially designed in 1924 and used as a school for decades, it was made into a library into the Harborfields Public Library in 1976. Another early school was the Centerport School. It was designed by James Van Alst who designed schools across Long Island. Today it is still standing as the Centerport Methodist Church.

Centralization of the modern district

The modern school district was formed in 1956 when the districts of Centerport and Greenlawn combined. The partnership of these two communities had been historically significant for many reasons, originally for farming purposes. This formation was caused due to the Huntington Union Free School District, which had previously served Centerport and Greenlawn students at Huntington High School, no longer being able to support these students. The new district opened Harborfields High School in their inaugural year. The name "Harborfields" was chosen by the first students of the new district, and comes from the original names of the two hamlets, combining the "Harbor" of Little Cow Harbor and the "fields" of Oldfields to make "Harborfields."

Elwood merger attempts

Due to the Elwood Union Free School District being very small, the district has made many efforts to merge with neighboring districts. Harborfields has always been one of the most likely partners for a merger with Elwood, due to Harborfields also being a smaller district. Elwood made efforts in 1992 for a merger, but nothing ended up coming from it. In late 2010 and early 2011, Elwood wrote to every district that borders it proposing a merger due to Elwood's extreme money issues, including Harborfields. Harborfields superintendent of the time, Frank J. Carasiti, had been a key figure in education of Long Island for decades and has an elementary school in the Rocky Point Union Free School District named after him. He turned it down, citing his past experience with merger efforts as Rocky Point superintendent.

Schools

The following is a table of the schools in the Harborfields Central School District.
School nameType of schoolAddressGradesPrincipal
High School98 Taylor Avenue
Greenlawn, NY 11740
9-12Dr. Phillip Farrelly
Middle School2 Old Field Road
Greenlawn, NY 11740
6-8Maribeth Corr
Intermediate School625 Pulaski Road
Greenlawn, NY 11740
3-5Jennifer Washington
Primary School95 Washington Drive
Centerport, NY 11721
K-2Kathryn McNally