Ilion High School Rebuilding Post 1963 Fire

(Photo courtesy of Observer Dispatch, April 22, 1965.)

CONSTRUCTION ADVANCES - With a complement of about 80 workmen of the John McKay Construction Co. of Oneida, the construction of the new $1,281,000 Ilion Junior-Senior High School is moving fast. McKay assured the Ilion Central School Board of Education that the building will be completed in December, 1965.

NEW SCHOOL OPENS - Yesterday marked the opening day of normal sessions in Ilion Junior-Senior High School after nearly three years of split sessions, from 7:15 to 5:30. Imagine what it would be like if you had to go to school from 7:00 until 12:00 or from 12:00 until 5:00. You're thinking "Yeah right"! Well, for almost three years,the students at Ilion Junior-Senior high had to.

(Photo by Arline Abrams from the Observer Dispatch, February 3, 1966.)

On April 21, 1963, split sessions began because a terrible fire destroyed the school. Students in grades 10-12 went in the morning, and students in grades 7-9 went in the afternoon.

The total cost for the reconstruction of the school was $1,281,000. The new school was constructed by the McKay Construction Co.

Regularly scheduled school days were to start on January 31, 1966, but because of the of "Blizzard of 66", school was delayed for another two days. Some students were happy to get back to a normal day of classes, but some liked the idea of having the afternoon off.

Newspaper phtotos are reproduced
with permission of the Utica Observer-Dispatch