The Avery School was built about 1886 on land donated by George Avery, on a knoll across the old highway from the hotel.  For many years school began in March and ran until Thanksgiving. Winter snows, often at least three or four feet deep, put an end then to any school activity.  Miss Hazel Fischer began teaching at Avery in 1917, with eight to 20 pupils in eight grades.  When Blagen’s mill was built at White Pines in the late 1930s, attendance jumped in one year to more than 30 children, and continued to increase. Double sessions were held in the Avery School and one class was moved to the living room of the hotel where Miss Avery lived. The second and larger Avery school was built at White Pine in 1942 and named for their dedicated teacher, Hazel Fischer.  Pioneer Schools of Calaveras County, CCHS, 1986.