This Day in History: 1952-04-21

The Mahwah School Board rejected the offer of a free school site from Stephen Birch Jr. There were four main objections. (!) the gift in the name of his father might take the form of naming the new high school proposed for the site the Stephen Birch High School. (2) the costs of bulldozing the site was said to be high. (3) the safety danger presented by the fact that the AT&T telephone cable crosses the property. (4) the requirement that the gift be put up to the voters as a separate proposition. The latter would mean that the voters would be committing themselves to build a school on property which the School District did not yet own. A letter containing the Board’s objections was to be sent to Birch. (Bristow)