West Valley School holds 50th anniversary open house
HILARY MATHESON/Daily Inter Lake | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 11 years, 8 months AGO
<p>West Valley School Principal Dan Anderson, center, talks to parents before school starts Thursday, while paraprofessional Dick Rapacilo, right, acts as a crossing guard greeting students with his “Good Morning” sign and directing parking lot traffic. Rapacilo has greeted students at the crosswalk with his sign for seven years. West Valley School will celebrate its 50th anniversary May 10.</p>
<p>West Valley School District served a population of students that had formerly attended one-room schools. Stillwater School, pictured, was a one-room school that closed in the 1950s. The remaining one-room schools that consolidated to form West Valley included Prospect Park (which had consolidated with Bald Rock School in 1961), Sparks and Spring Creek.</p><p></p>
<p>Students show their appreciation for the new West Valley School after it was completed in November 1962. There were 57 students enrolled. An open house was held Dec. 2, 1962. The first eighth-grade graduation was held in 1963.</p>
<p>Prospect Park was one of the five one-room schoolhouses that consolidated to become West Valley School. The original caption, date unknown, reads, “Prospect Park was a busy place Wednesday as the teacher and children prepared to move to the new West Valley school. Shown here are two boys going to fill scrub buckets for the clean-up inside. They are Creed Westphal and Bobby Otten. Standing with them is Roger Thompson, a board member when the consolidation of the districts into the new one was started; and Mrs. Grace Hansen, county superintendent of schools.”</p>
<p>The original structure of West Valley School, completed in 1962, had contained three classrooms and a basement, which served as a lunch room and community meeting center. The building cost approximately $42,000 to construct. The school would add on in the late 1960s, ’70s and ’90s as the student population grew.</p>
West Valley School is opening its doors to the community Friday evening for a 50th anniversary celebration.
The school district began as a consolidation of three one-room schools — Spring Creek, Prospect Park and Sparks — in 1962.
Community member Dale Harvey graduated from Sparks in the 1940s. As a member of the 50th anniversary committee, Harvey will speak about the one-room school history at the 50th anniversary celebration.
“We all did janitor work, chopped wood; we ran the place,” Harvey said during a committee meeting in West Valley library April 25. “See, this library has more room in it than three of our schools put together.”
A three-classroom building was opened in November 1962 and is now referred to as West Valley School’s “old wing” or “north wing.”
The new school brought new amenities for students, such as indoor plumbing, a lunchroom, gym and eventually a library. Prior to the library, a bookmobile drove around to the rural schools before it was discontinued in the 1970s.
About 57 students were enrolled when West Valley School first opened, and the first eighth-grade graduation was held in 1963. Enrollment has grown significantly since the school first opened, and additions were built to accommodate continued growth for a capacity of 450 people.
The school is now seeking to expand the building once again to accommodate its 516 students and 58 staff.
“It grew quickly; it didn’t take long,” said Jeanine Buettner, alumna, 50th anniversary committee member and unofficial school historian.
Buettner has a long family history in the area and compiled scrapbooks of historical photos and information about the district. Her grandparents grew up in the area, and both her grandmothers taught in the district when the one-room schoolhouses were still in use. Buettner’s children attended the school, as do her grandchildren, and her son-in-law currently teaches there.
“I’ve been compiling this information for years, having so much family out here,” Buettner said.
Principal Dan Anderson came to the district as a teacher in 2000 and hopes this milestone celebration will bring in many community members.
“One of the things I would like to have is have the community come in and see what’s happening to the school,” Anderson said. “So many people don’t get to walk through our school and check it out.”
He said the one area people get to see is the outside of the building and the library where they vote during elections. The celebration is a chance to see the rest of the building — as well as photos and other items that will be on display.
Some of the items are pretty interesting, he said. While Anderson was going through the building to assemble historical artifacts for the celebration, he came across boxes of food rations and a canister to serve as a toilet. Anderson ascertained they date back to the Cold War era.
“The Cold War survival stuff upstairs was moved from the basement because basements doubled as bomb shelters,” Anderson said.
He said he also plans for the celebration to be a learning experience for students. Anderson will bring out old technology that young students aren’t familiar with, such as film strips and overhead projectors.
And for the next 50 years Anderson hopes West Valley School will be able to offer enriching opportunities and learning experiences for students and accommodate enrollment growth.
The celebration starts at 4:30 p.m. Friday. Student council members will lead school tours from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. and talk about the history of the school’s expansion.
From 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., a slide show presentation will be given by Buettner and Harvey in the large gym to showcase photos of staff, alumni, students, building changes and the one-room schools that consolidated to form West Valley School District.
The event will conclude with a meal from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the lunchroom. Dinner will feature pork provided by the Braaten family of Farm-to-Market Pork.
Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.
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