Woodfern School

Well, that didn't last long. The Hillsborough Township Board of Education began the 1959-60 school year with a brand new building - Sunnymead - but by March they were meeting to appoint an architect to draw up plans for not one, but TWO additional elementary schools. Once again the board was desperately trying - and ultimately failing - to get ahead of enrollment increases caused by the residential housing boom.

Woodfern School architect's model,
31 May 1960 Courier News

One of those two new schools, Woodfern - had been on the drawing board for more than three years, since the school board had purchased the property on Woodfern Road back in 1956. But those plans were put on hold when the board acquired the Sunnymead property. The new proposal was to build two schools - a sixteen-classroom school on Woodfern Road, and a twenty-classroom school on 31 acres to be purchased on Triangle Road.

8 June 1960 Home News

On June 7, 1960, township voters approved a bond issue of $787,000 for construction of the buildings, and $218,000 for furnishings, equipment, wells and sewage systems, landscaping, and architect and related fees. Just like at the Sunnymead School, the plans only called for the basic classrooms, offices, and nurse's office - no large cafeteria, multi-purpose rooms, or gyms.

25th Anniversary Celebration (more than two years late!)
9 June 1988 Courier News

Because the new schools weren't expected to be completed until January 1962, the school board was forced to convert two rooms at Sunnymead for classroom space, one of which was the kitchen, and utilize one room each at the Flagtown Firehouse, and the Rescue Squad building when schools opened in September 1960.

Construction took a bit longer than expected, but because costs were less than expected Woodfern School was expanded from sixteen to twenty classrooms, making it a true twin of Triangle School. Four classrooms opened on March 26, 1962, and both schools opened fully in September for the 1962-63 school year. It was to be the first time in years that every Hillsborough student would actually go to school in Hillsborough, with none being bussed to Montgomery Township.

Woodfern received its first addition in 1987 - a $784,000 multi-purpose room - part of an $8.27 million construction bond approved in December 1984 for various expansion projects.  The school expanded to its current size as part of a December 1991 $13.4  million construction referendum for improvements throughout the district. Woodfern added a cafeteria, music room, art room, three classrooms, and two small group instruction rooms. Also included was the conversion of the original small all-purpose room to a library.

Woodfern became the third current Hillsborough Township school to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2012.