DALMATIA - The original Dalmatia school building was destroyed in a fire eight decades ago, and the building and property only became an elementary school 55 years ago.
The 2012-13 elementary school yearbook features a brief history of Dalmatia Elementary School aand the elementary schools at Leck Kill and Trevorton.
Prior to 1865, the one-room schools taught mainly German, but when the state adopted the free system, a school was built on the current property at 162 School Road to comply with English-taught education.
The original Dalmatia school was destroyed by a fire in 1932, and a new building - which is still standing - was built in 1934, opened in 1935 and had a grand dedication in 1936.
The building started out as Lower Mahanoy Township Consolidated School, housing elementary grades through high school. In 1948, an addition was added to the building.
In 1949, Lower Mahanoy Township High School joined with Herndon High School and Pine Park High School (now Leck Kill) to form Mahanoy Joint.
The Dalmatia building continued to house elementary through high school grades until 1958, at which time the high school students moved to the current Line Mountain High School building. At this time, it became known as Dalmatia Elementary School.
In 1966, Mahanoy Joint and Trevorton districts merged to form Line Mountain as part of the Pennsylvania School District Reorganization Act of 1963, a mandated initiative to combine smaller school districts into larger schools in the interest of cost efficiency and better educational opportunities.
At the time of the jointure, the former Mahanoy Joint High School became Line Mountain High School and the former Trevorton High School was converted to a middle school. Dalmatia was one of four elementary schools in the district at the time, along with West Cameron, Leck Kill and Trevorton. West Cameron Elementary School closed in 2001.
In 2007, due to intense community opposition, the school board voted to keep the three elementary schools open and renovate each building.
It cost $9.6 million to renovate the high school in Mandata and add a seventh- and eighth-grade wing in 2009, $7.4 million to renovate Trevorton Elementary School in 2009 and $1.1 million to renovate Leck Kill Elementary School in 2010.
However, when it came to Dalmatia, the cost to renovate ($6.3 million) was only $1.7 million less than building a completely new building.
With continued increases in salaries due to contract negotiations, the district's contributions to health care and pension benefits and general operating expenses, combined with a governor's budget announced in 2011 that would take state subsidy back to 2007-08 level funding, Superintendent Dave Campbell said it made sense to explore the consolidation option again.
It was decided last year to close Dalmatia and Leck Kill elementary schools at the end of the 2012-13 school year, and send those students to Trevorton Elementary.
Trevorton Elementary School will be renamed Line Mountain Elementary School.