In 1886, 42 children attended Ellice School while others attended Adams School, where the police and fire station stands now, and the Daniells School, at the corner of Ridge and Orchard streets.

Teachers during this time earned about $315 for 35 weeks of work.

Superintendent reports from the late 1800s listed information about education and attendance at the school. One report said the attendance at school had decreased because parents were keeping their kids home to work around the house and at the mills. Another report said a new teacher left after just one semester because "her gentler spirit" was no match for the students' disciplinary needs. The mix of grades also seemed to hinder the students' education compared to the two other schools, the reports said.

The small, bright-white building with green shutters and flower gardens which sat next to her home was where Flossie (Waite) Johnson and her siblings attended grammar school during the 1920s.

Her grandfather and father also learned lessons at Rockville's school.

Johnson remembers her chums going back to her house to play on the swings during recess. She said her teacher, Ellen Horan, would have lunch with her mom each day around noon while she watched over her students from the Johnsons' back windows.

"We lived right next door to (the school) so that seemed big to us -- we were right there," said Johnson.

To help cope with growing enrollment, Millis purchased four acres along Main Street in 1892 from Lura Huntley for a new, $1,600 school. But the town did not set aside the $23,000 to build the five-room brick building until 1913. The structure, which served as the Millis Consolidated School, was later turned into the high school.

After several additions to the Main Street building, students transferred from Ellice School to the bigger building in 1931 because of a lack of adequate space for different grades.

Rockville no longer used its school to educate the neighborhood's children.

But during the 1930s, Johnson said women around town, including her mother, used Ellice School to sew clothes for people in town as part of the Works Progress Administration.

Later on, the school was boarded-up and used for storage.

Although the town owns the school, Selectman Jeffrey Hardin said he plans to renovate it after the Niagara Fire Station restoration project is complete. At this point, the project's start date is indefinite.