We know that Mohonasen stands for three Iroquois Indian tribes. 

The Mohawks, Onondaga, Seneca

NEWS FLASH!
We need to know why the `o` was changed to an `a`!!!

Generation Y has just recently received an email from an alumnus. She informed us that when she was in Draper Middle School in the 1970s, her social teacher, Mr. Gold [now retired], told the class how Mohonasen got its name. He said that his classmates came up with the name.

She also said that the Indian tribe name, Onondaga is spelled with an `o` [the third letter]. She said the powers that were took the liberty of changing the third letter `o` to `a` to make the name Mohonasen. We would like to thank her very much for the email teaching us more about the history of how Mohonasen got its name! 

Do you know why they changed the `o` to an `a`??? Was it a spelling error? Was it intentional?
Email Us!

...April 14, 2003 ... We've got another anonymous submission... Here's the answer...
Here is another piece of trivia. The student body originally voted to have the school colors as turquoise and gray but the powers to be ( Mr. Millman, Hessig, etc. ) put the squash on that. They did not want the football team running out on the field dressed in turquoise, so orange and black it was.
Thanks for your input! ...No wait. This new info seems to come from the Class of 63! YES...Turquoise and gray... Doug Morris, '63 Thanks for your news Mr. Morris!

Back when the new district was forming, there was a contest to name the district. Bob Baluch (Class of '61) won with his idea to combine parts of the names of three Iroquois tribes. His original submission was Mohonosen. Somehow it the name became Mohonasen.  

 Mrs. Hadsell remembers that a 4th or 5th grade class had won the contest for naming the new school district. She also remembers pasting the original letter proposing the name "Mohonasen" into the school board minute book, probably early in the fall of 1956. We haven't had a chance yet to search those microfilmed records.

We originally wrote this: There was a contest to name the school and many of the high school girls wanted the name, Pressley High School. This was because Elvis was all the rage back then. The rumor is they stuffed the ballot box and almost won. Were you there then? Is this rumor true? Send us your knowledge to tell us if this is true!Do you have information about high school girls stuffing the ballot box? Let us know.

We received a few emails that have let us know that the ballot stuffing is just a humorous rumor. However, it does seem that quite a few students came up with the idea of Presley. This was a sign of the times and Elvis' popularity.

The name Draper Middle School was named after the old Draper School on Draper Avenue.  The name Draper came from a man named Andrew Draper.  Andrew Draper was the Commissioner of Education in the early 1920's.   Andrew Draper also cofounded the New York Library Association in 1890. 

In 1901, in district eight, Draper School was a one room school house with 30 pupils.  In 1904 on Guilderland Avenue, the school held 65 pupils.  In 1909, an addition to make room for the constant growth of community was necessary. In 1910, Earl B. Zimmer, a native of Schoharie, became princpial. The school had 164 students in September, and grew to 204 by June of the same year.  The present site was purchased in 1913, and a new building was started. Soon, four rooms were finished and the two schools were in use until May of 1914, when the old school, on Guilderland Avenue, was destroyed by fire.  Four additional rooms were completed to care for an amount of 320 students by 1920. The school enrollment had grown to 529 students which required building 8 additional rooms and an auditorium. The High School was organized in 1920, taking the name of Draper High School after Andrew S. Draper, Commissioner of Education.

Here's some neat history on a man that actually worked for Andrew Draper...

Early morning on March 29th 1911, a fire raged throught the NYS Captitol.  New York's copy of the the Emancipation Proclamation, housed in a safe on the Capital's first floor, was saved, along with other priceless historical documents.  Harlan Hoyt Horner is credited with saving the copy of the Emancipation Proclamation from the 1911 Capitol fire.  Horner was a State Education Department official, who was awakened early on March 29th. Having worked as Secretary to Education Commissioner Andrew Draper, he knew about the collection of priceless historical documents that were kept in a safe in the Education Department's offices on the Capitol's first floor.

-- by John White & Stephanie Tommasone & Cristina

Maintained according to Mohonasen Central School District Web Publishing Regulations by Club Generation Y,  Kathy Verzoni, Advisor, Draper Middle School 2070 Curry Road, Schenectady, NY 12303, (518) 356-5555 ©2000 Mohonasen Central School District- All rights reserved. Last modified on 10/06/03