Strong Allegiances to Warde & Ludlowe Added to Neighborhood Loyalty

Alumni and students of Andrew Warde and Roger Ludlowe high schools have always felt a strong allegiance to their schools. Even today, there is a tremendous rivalry between the students of Fairfield Warde and Fairfield Ludlowe high schools.

Any talk of redistricting or altering school boundaries has almost always been met with vigorous opposition from both sides, especially from the Ludlowe side of town. That was certainly the case 40 years ago, when a select group of loyal Ludlowe parents and students voiced their displeasure at potentially being redistricted to Warde.

In letters mailed to parents of about 125 students involved in a proposed boundary change from Roger Ludlowe to Andrew Warde, Dr. Joseph Zapytowski, superintendent of schools, announced that he would not recommend a high school boundary adjustment for the 1972-73 school year. An additional year or two of study was needed for any long-term recommendations, he said. That's according to a published story which appeared on this date, February 3, 1972.

The action was taken following a series of meetings with parents and the Board of Education during which strong objection was raised to changes which would have shifted some pupils from the Osborn Hill School, Holland Hill School, and Dwight School neighborhoods to Andrew Warde High School. Concerns were also voiced by parents about continuity of pupils from Tomlinson Junior High School to Ludlowe High School.

Dr. Zapytowski said that while attendance at Ludlowe was expected to be about 2,200 --- or 200 above the listed capacity --- the preliminary investigation suggested that the expanded Ludlowe would be able to handle the enrollment projected for the next year or two with minimal difficulty if course election patterns didn't shift dramatically.

"A year or two of experience with the new facilities should provide a more definitve conclusion regarding a reasonable operating capacity for Ludlowe and Warde," Zapytowski said. He said the concern about continuity from junior high to high school would be considered during the expansion of junior high facilities.

"Recent trends, Zapytowski added, "now lead us to the conclusion that our earlier estimate of 4,200 pupils as a maximum high school enrollment in this decade will probably prove to be conservative.

"We already foresee about 4,300 pupils in the years from 1975-76 through 1977-78, and almost 2,200 of them will be at Ludlowe. There are also some unpredictable factors which are not part of our normal projections, and most of these could lead to even higher enrollments, especially at Ludlowe."

The superintendent added that, after long and detailed analysis, it was determied that adding two houses to Warde and one house to Ludlowe would be the least costly way to provide room for about 1,000 high school pupils beyond existing capacity. The high school building committee was asked to expand Ludlowe to a capacity of 2,000 and Warde to 2,200 pupils.

"A more precise determination of capacity can best be made a few years after the new facilities have been in use," he mentioned. Dr. Zapytowski also said that transportation needs and costs, problems of family inconvenience, recent trends in course selection by high school students, junior high school enrollment, and the potential for new housing in areas considered for boundary change were studied.

This writer attended Osborn Hill School and Andrew Warde High School many years ago. Today, however, the boundary lines have been altered. Children attending Osborn Hill School will eventually move into Ludlowe High School, which my son attends. Here is the current high school boundary map for Fairfield.

If a boundary change was proposed today, I'm all but sure the Osborn Hill School parents would not want their children redistricted to Warde. I have always felt the Ludlowe parents, students, and alumni to be elitist, and that seemingly hasn't changed at all over the last 40 years.

Paul