The Coolidge Corner School, formerly known as the Devotion School or Devo, and soon to be known as the Florida Ruffin Ridley School, is a public K-8 school located at 345 Harvard Street, Brookline, Massachusetts, United States. It is a part of Public Schools of Brookline. The school was founded in 1892 on land formerly owned by Edward Devotion and later by his grandson, another Edward Devotion. The land was purchased by the town from a later owner. The Devotions' 18th-century house is preserved by the Brookline Historical Society and stands amidst part of its original gardens in the school's forecourt.
Demographics
The school is attended by over 800 students from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade, and is the largest of eight public elementary schools in Brookline. The school emphasizes diversity, with English being a second language to over one third of the student body, among which about 40% are English Language Learners. Roughly 37% of students are non-white or multiracial.
The school was reconstructed and enlarged. For the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 academic years, the student body was split between two temporary buildings, termed Lower Devotion School and Upper Devotion School. The principals of Lower Devotion were David O'Hara and Jennifer Buller, and the principal of Upper Devotion was Monica Crowley.
History
The school built in 1892 was named for the second Edward Devotion, who decreed in his will that any money left over after the payments of his debt and funeral expenses be given to the town for use "towards Building or Maintaining a School as near the Centre of the said Town as shall be agreed upon by the Town." Although the money was long gone by the time school was built, the school was apparently named for him in recognition of his original request, although no records from the 1890s survive discussing the naming. The school was attended by John F. Kennedy from 1922 to 1924. Albert Edward Scott, “Scotty,” was a Brookline newsboy and a graduate of the Devotion School. As the US entered World War I, he enlisted in the United States Army, at age fifteen. On July 23rd, 1918, at the age of sixteen, he was killed in action in France. Albert Edward Scott was a member of Company H, 101st United States Infantry, Allied Expeditionary Force. As his citation reads, “For extreme gallantry and risk of life, in combat with an armed enemy force,” Albert Edward Scott was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, an award second only to the Medal of Honor. Until 2005, the school librarian was award-winning author Norman H. Finkelstein who wrote the book The Other 1492. Another former librarian, Christine McDonnell, is an author of many popular children's books including Dog Wants to Play and Ballet Bug. She retired in 2014. In 2018, a citizen-led movement endorsed by Brookline's Town Meeting and School Committee began the process of renaming the school, in recognition of the fact that the estate of Edward Devotion sold for his bequest included a slave. In May 2018 the name was changed to the Coolidge Corner School pending a new name. As of September, 2020, the school will be called the Florida Ruffin Ridley School following the vote of Town Meeting in November 2019.
