COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) – Lexington Elementary
School is celebrating a milestone this Friday turning 100 years-old on its 100th
day of school.
Students, teachers and community members planned to
honor the school's 100th birthday with a party Friday morning, but
beforehand school officials took WIS on a trip back through the school's
history.
"In
1912 the original school was built up the hill," said Edie Beaver, the
secretary at Lexington Elementary. "It's been torn down now, but up there they
had other buildings that were added to it as the school grew."
Beaver says for many years the school served
students of all grade levels. "When it started in 1912, there were only 12
students in the Senior class," said Beaver.
Now there are 702 students at the school
grades Kindergarten through fifth, and they're all taking a trip back in time
in honor of the 100th year celebration.
"The first school lunches were served in
March of 1934 in grades one through 11," read 5th Grader Gracen
Torbett from a note card set up in the school's ‘100 year museum.' The card also
says lunch then was soup and crackers and was just 5 cents a week. "Lunches
today cost 2.50 cents [a day] and instead of trays like these we have Styrofoam
trays that are recyclable," added Gracen.
In the school's classroom museum, you'll find
evidence of all kinds of other changes like the end of chalkboards and
typewriters. Just ask 5th grader Preston Correll what happened to the library's
card catalogues. "Probably the difference? Computers ‘Boom' tell you where it
is," said Preston, referencing the school's online book database. Preston says
he knows how card catalogues work, but adds it would probably take hours to use
them.
While technology, classrooms and even the
building has changed, the heart of the school has not. "It's important to
recognize that it all started right here," said Jim Hamby, principal at LES.
"The ground roots of education in this community occurred on this campus."
Those roots have been watered by generation
after generation. "We have so much loyalty to our school, and we're just so
excited over all of this," added Beaver.
Retired teacher Harriett Easler is among the
excited. She's taught for four decades of the school's 100 years. "The 100th
birthday, personally, it's just magnificent," said Easler.
Easler still substitutes in Kindergarten
classrooms at the school, but she started teaching at LES in 1971. "At
that particular time it was the only elementary school in Lexington District
One, and it was the largest [elementary] school in the state, I believe," said
Easler.
Easler taught kindergarten for more than 35
years, retired in 2006 and came back as a teacher's assistant and then a
substitute. "My love was here, and I never wanted to move," she said. "I just
loved watching the students that I had grow grade by grade."
Easler's love for teaching reached students
like Jamie Metts Hudson early on. Hudson was in Mrs. Easler's Kindergarten
class in the late 80s. "We did an Easter Parade back then," said Hudson,
recalling some of her favorite memories. "We made Easter bonnets that we wore
on the school stage and marched around to music."
Now more than two decades later, Hudson is a
first grade teacher at Lexington Elementary School. "It's really neat," said
Hudson. "I actually got to teach with Mrs. Easler. I taught kindergarten a few
years ago, before she retired so we actually taught on the same team."
Hudson says her mom, grandmother and
great-grandmother all attended Lexington schools. She marked the fourth
generation, and now there's a fifth. "We were excited when Bella started
here last year in kindergarten," said Hudson, as she smiled at her daughter.
As Bella and her mom celebrate the past,
present and future at Lexington Elementary, they share this wish, "Happy
Birthday Lexington Elementary School!"
From all of us here at WIS, Happy Birthday
Lexington Elementary School!
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