On March 27, 1897, Jane A. Ruley, the first African American teacher in Kitsap County, is hired.
She was hired by the Sheridan School District, which was annexed to the Bremerton School District in 1942. She was one of the founders of the district, teaching for some time, and later serving on the school board. The first one-room school was located near Sheridan Road and Schley Boulevard. Prior to the building of the first school, classes were held in a private home.
Mrs. Ruley, the daughter of a slave, was a classmate of the eminent black educator Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) at Hampton Institute, Virginia. She was married to Paul E. Ruley, a pioneer of Kitsap County who was born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1859. He also served on the Sheridan School Board.
Sources:
Bremerton News, November 23, 1915; Kitsap County History: A Story of Kitsap County and its Pioneers (Kitsap County Historical Society, 1977); Minutes of the Board of Directors of Sheridan School District, March 27, 1897; The Way it Was in Kitsap Schools: Memoirs of School Days in Kitsap County (Kitsap County Retired Teachers Association, 1977?).
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