Masson Heads for Half-day Sessions – May 1969

Will schools finally reopen this fall?

It’s hard to say at this point. Even if they do, some school systems are pondering ways to reduce the number of kids in the classrooms in an effort to keep them safe.

Which reminded me of the year that Masson Elementary School in Lorain had the half-day sessions to alleviate school crowding.

The article below, which appeared on the front page of the Journal on May 29, 1969, allowed parents of the affected children to voice their opinion of the radical concept.

Some parents were indifferent to the whole thing; others were disgusted.

Hey, regular blog commenter Mike K. is in this photo of my fifth grade class.

I included my opinion of the whole thing back on this post. I noted, "It's suspicious that the decision to do this was made in late May, right after the failure of the $12.5 million building bond issue at the ballot box. I guess the school board had to make their point. 

"Under this new schedule, students who walked to school attended from 7:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., and those who took the bus went to class from 12:45 to 5:45 p.m (which seems pretty late).”

(I also wrote about the half-day sessions on this post.)

I still think the whole thing (which took place when I was in fifth grade during the 1969-1970 school year) was kind of disruptive. Up to that point, you pretty much had the same kids in your class every year, and you got used to seeing them. Half-day sessions caused the kids to be split into two groups: those who walked to school, and those who took the bus.

As I’ve mentioned before, where I lived on Skyline Drive was right on the edge of the bus boundary. The bus went right by our house on its way to Leavitt Road.

Of course, in the present day, parents have so many options of where to send their kids to school that it’s highly unlikely that living in the same Lorain neighborhood means that they automatically go to the same school. And more’s the pity. 


It’s still incredible to me how many buildings there were in the Lorain School System had back then.

There were 17 elementary schools (Boone, Charleston, Emerson, Fairhome, Garfield, Harrison, Homewood, Irving, Jane Lindsay, Lakeview, Larkmoor, Lincoln, Lowell, Masson, Oakwood, Palm and Washington); and 5 junior high schools (Hawthorne, Irving, Longfellow, Masson and Whittier).

I know, I know... it’s time for Alan Hopewell to make the usual remarks about how cool Hawthorne was.

Ah, but "Masson Mustangs are the best,” as the old cheer went.