Parkman Parochial Demolished, New Amish School Planned
The historic Parkman Parochial School on Newcombe Road in Parkman Township saw its last day on May 7.
The school, torn down last Tuesday, was no longer large enough to accommodate the Amish students in the area, said neighbor Ruth Troyer.
Built in 1949, it was the first Amish school opened in Geauga County at a time when Amish educational culture was under fire, said neighbor Samuel Weaver.
“Back then, there was so much dissension,” recalled Weaver, who was born in 1947 and attended a school on Bundysburg Road.
“We wanted our youngsters to only go through eighth grade,” he said. “The law said they had to go until they were 16.”
Today, Amish school children attend class until they graduate from eighth grade, usually around the age of 14. Many will attend first and second grade in a public school so they can learn English, then they join classes in the Amish schools.
Weaver said there are 114 Amish schools in the settlement that covers Geauga, Ashtabula, Trumbull and Portage counties.
The footprint of Parkman Parochial School measures about 45-feet-by-60-feet and there were no backhoes used to excavate the cellar in 1947.
“The basement was dug with horses and a slip scoop. That was the way they did it,” Weaver said.
The lower room was used for hanging up coats, shucking off muddy boots and washing hands at the pump, he said.
About 36 children were enrolled in the Parkman Parochial School when it let out for the summer in April, he said, adding he heard there have been as many as 80 students there at one time.
He lives with his family across the road and several of his 44 grandchildren attend Parkman Parochial School, he said.
Restrooms and a couple of playground slides are the only structures left on the parcel.
As soon as permits from the Geauga County Building Department and the state are signed, construction for a larger Amish school will begin on the site, said Parkman Township Zoning Inspector John Spelich on May 13.
Weaver added, “We’ve got crews all lined up. In two weeks’ time, the building will be up.”
