Editing Freeport, New York (section)

===Schools===
[[File:First school in Freeport, NY plaque.jpg|thumb|left|Plaque marking the first public school in Freeport, NY; located at the corner of North Main Street and Church Street, in front of the cannon.]]

[[Freeport Public Schools]] (FPS) operates the community's public schools.<ref name=":0" />
[[File:Archer Street School Historic marker 20240919 132535.jpg|thumb|Archer Street School Historic marker]]
For the 2009–10 school year, there were 6,257 students enrolled in Freeport's public schools.<ref name=NYSEDAOR>NYSED, [https://www.nystart.gov/publicweb-rc/2010/89/AOR-2010-280209030000.pdf The New York State District Report Card Accountability and Overview Report 2009–10] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323021029/https://www.nystart.gov/publicweb-rc/2010/89/AOR-2010-280209030000.pdf |date=March 23, 2012 }}, ''New York State Education Department'', February 5, 2011. Retrieved April 21, 2011.</ref> The children of Freeport, in grades 1–4, attend four magnet elementary schools, each with a different specialty: Archer Street (Microsociety and Multimedia), Leo F. Giblyn (School of International Cultures), Bayview Avenue (School of Arts and Sciences), and New Visions (School of Exploration & Discovery). In grades 5 and 6, all public school children attend Caroline G. Atkinson School on the north side of the town. Seventh and 8th graders attend John W. Dodd Middle School.  The Middle School is built on the property that housed the older Freeport High School, but not on exactly the same site. The old high school served for some years as the junior high; then the new junior high was built on what was previously parking lot and playground, and the old building was torn down. In 2017, The school remodeled, with an added track and field.  A Catholic school, the De La Salle School, is run by the Christian Brothers and accepts boys from grades 5–8.

Children in grades 9–12 attend Freeport High School, which borders the town of [[Baldwin, Nassau County, New York|Baldwin]] and sits beside the Milburn duck pond, which is fed by a creek, several hundred yards of which was diverted underground when the high school was built. Freeport High School's mascot is the Red Devil, and its colors are red and white. The school has track-and-field facilities.<!-- up to here not cited --> One unique feature of the school's curriculum is a science research program run in cooperation with [[Stony Brook University]]. The school offers numerous advanced placement courses and was a pioneer in distance learning at the high school level. Roughly 87 percent of the high school's graduates go on to some form of higher education. A community night school for teenagers had 236 students as of 1999.<ref name=Rather />

As early as 1886, Freeport's schools began the then-unusual policy of providing their students with free textbooks. In 1893, the newly incorporated village constructed a ten-room brick schoolhouse. Also in the late 19th century, the community was among the first Long Island communities to establish an "academic department", offering classes beyond the elementary school level.<ref>{{Harvnb|Smits|1974|pp=31, 33}}</ref>
[[File:Seaman Ave school No2 historic marker Freeport NY 20211021 201721359.jpg|thumb|Seaman Ave school #2 historic marker Freeport NY]]
Freeport saw its share of the social, political, and racial turbulence of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The 1969–70 school year saw three high school principals in the village's only high school, succeeded in August 1970 by William McElroy, formerly the junior high school principal, who came to the position "in the midst of racial tension and a constantly-polarizing student body";<ref name=Seabrook>{{cite news|author=Seabrook, Veronica |title=McElroy Sees Change Evolving|newspaper=Flashings (Freeport High School newspaper)|date= May 15, 1972|pages= 3–4}}</ref> McElroy backed such initiatives as a student advisory committee to the Board of Education and, in his own words, "made [him]self available to any civic-minded group" that wished to discuss with him the situation in the school. By May 1972, he could claim success, of a sort. "Formerly, a fight between a black and a white student would automatically become racial; now a fight is just a fight—between two students."<ref name=Seabrook />
[[File:Trubia Rifles 20211027 171357366.jpg|thumb|left|Trubia Rifles & Dedication Plaque]]
The Freeport High School newspaper, ''Flashings'', founded 1920, is believed to be the oldest high school paper on Long Island.<ref name=Wilgoren>{{cite news|author=Wilgoren, Jodi|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E02E3DC113DF934A25752C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all|title= Lessons: High School Students Learn About Freedom of the Press|newspaper=The New York Times|date= November 17, 1999|access-date= November 15, 2008}}</ref> It has won numerous awards over several decades.<ref name=SPLC-Flashings>{{cite journal|url= http://www.splc.org/report_detail.asp?id=524&edition=3|title= High School Censorship (Students fight for free press: Editors to retain control over newspaper despite school officials' efforts)|journal= Student Press Law Center Report|volume= XXI|number= 1|date= Winter 1999–2000|page= 18|access-date= November 13, 2008|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090621132257/http://www.splc.org/report_detail.asp?id=524&edition=3|archive-date= June 21, 2009|url-status= dead}}</ref> From 1969 until 1999, it operated under "free press" guidelines unusual for a high school newspaper, with an active role for the students in picking their own faculty adviser and with ultimate editorial control firmly in the hands of students.<ref name=Wilgoren /><ref name=SPLC-Flashings /> Throughout that time, Ira Schildkraut functioned as faculty adviser.<ref name=Wilgoren /><ref name=SPLC-Flashings /> In 1999, the school administration removed Schildkraut from that role and attempted to establish themselves as censors.<ref name=Wilgoren /><ref name=SPLC-Flashings /> That last decision was turned back by the school board after it drew attention from, among others, ''[[The New York Times]]'' and the Student Press Law Center. However, the dispute's resolution did reduce the student journalists' role in selecting their own faculty adviser and increased the faculty adviser's editorial authority relative to the student journalists'.<ref name=SPLC-Flashings />

From about 1970 to 1973, the town and Freeport High School achieved recognition because of the performance of its math team ("The Mathletes") in regional inter-school math competitions and performance on advanced mathematics tests, including the [[International Mathematical Olympiad]] and those from the [[Mathematical Association of America]] (MAA).

In addition, in about 1970, Freeport High School became one of the few schools in the country then to have a general purpose computer on the premises dedicated to student use and teaching programming, an [[IBM 1620 Model II|IBM 1620]] donated by IBM.  The 1620 was later replaced by remote access to a [[DECsystem-10|DEC System 10]] then, later, an on-site [[PDP-11|PDP-11/40]] running the [[RSTS/E]] time sharing system, also dedicated to the students.  Much credit for the team and computers goes to FHS math teachers and to the Freeport School District's head of Mathematics, Joseph Holbrook.

In June 2008, 16 people were arrested after violence erupted in the high school.<ref name="2008 violence">{{cite news|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/newsday/access/1495736721.html?dids=1495736721:1495736721&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jun+17%2C+2008&author=LAURA+RIVERA&pub=Newsday&edition=&startpage=n%2Fa&desc=FREEPORT%3A+16+arrested+in+Freeport+High+School+melee |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090621134037/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/newsday/access/1495736721.html?dids=1495736721:1495736721&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jun+17%2C+2008&author=LAURA+RIVERA&pub=Newsday&edition=&startpage=n%2Fa&desc=FREEPORT%3A+16+arrested+in+Freeport+High+School+melee |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 21, 2009 |author=Rivera, Laura|title=16 Arrested in Freeport High School Melee|newspaper=Newsday|date=June 17, 2008}}</ref>

In a 2010 ''Newsday'' story regarding Long Island eighth-grader scores on [[Regents Exams]], which have traditionally been given to students in ninth grade and up, Freeport was ranked in the highest tier.<ref>{{cite news|author=Hildebrand, John|url=http://www.newsday.com/long-island/education/number-of-li-eighth-graders-taking-regent-exams-jumps-1.2045896 |title=Number of LI eighth-graders taking Regent exams jumps|newspaper=Newsday|date= June 22, 2010|access-date= October 4, 2011}}</ref>