Historical past lesson: Fort Thomas faculty to rejoice its a centesimal anniversary
This text is written by Kara Uhl
Samuel Woodfill Elementary’s cornerstone was laid on July 22, 1922. The varsity is called for Military Maj. Samuel Woodfill, who, at numerous factors in his life was stationed and resided in Fort Thomas, and was probably the most embellished troopers of World Battle I.
In 1924, a life-size portray of Sergeant Samuel Woodfill was gifted to Woodfill Elementary by Woodfill’s spouse in recognition of the college having been named after her husband. The portrait now hangs within the Fort Thomas Navy and Neighborhood Historical past Museum.
“When instructing about Samuel Woodfill I’d begin by giving the scholars a number of adjectives and character traits,” says Tina Reynolds, who taught fourth and fifth grade at Woodfill for 33 years. “They’d then analysis to search out ways in which he exemplified these traits. Regardless of what number of completely different qualities I’d attempt to carry to focus, the scholars would at all times need to commerce for brave and courageous. They liked to learn and study battles when he protected his firm going forward of them killing enemy troopers.”
In 1934, kindergarten courses have been added to the district and by 1941, Woodfill was starting its 20th faculty 12 months. When researching Woodfill’s 100-year historical past, Deanna Beineke, director of the Fort Thomas Navy and Neighborhood Historical past Museum, supplied dozens of College Details newsletters full of Woodfill historical past (in addition to a wealth of data).
In 1941, Principal Sheila Johnson wrote in College Details that Woodfill strives for a routine of research in addition to play for bodily and social improvement, and coaching in neighborhood dwelling. The varsity offered an operetta, “The Magic Piper,” and the Samuel Woodfill College Junior Pink Cross was shaped – college students sewed and knitted sweaters and afghans, made picket and comfortable toys and lined Braille books. The PTA helped buy a radio and phonograph and began a library of information.
In 1944, Woodfill earned a Colleges-at-Battle Flag because of 90 p.c of the kids having purchased battle financial savings stamps the previous month. Throughout WWII, Woodfill was required to ration, and college students additionally collected scrap steel, keys and paper, and books and magazines for the united statesO. and Service provider Marines. College students wrote letters and playing cards to males in service, collected garments for Russian Aid and mailed Christmas present bins to kids in England.
By the Nineteen Fifties, Could Day, which was tied to the district’s Well being and Blue Ribbon Program (which began within the early Thirties), was a broadly anticipated occasion. To earn a blue ribbon college students needed to have common bodily examinations, obtain all their vaccinations, and obtain specific well being requirements.
“I keep in mind my mom donating her spring irises and lilacs to embellish the trellis behind the King and Queen,” says Ann Dahl who attended Woodfill from 1952 to 1959, and later was a Woodfill instructor. “They have been sixth graders, and their attendants have been from the decrease grades. It was an enormous deal to have earned your blue ribbon for good well being and we wore them proudly. The sixth-grade women danced across the maypole, which was a ceremony all of us had regarded ahead to since we have been 5-years outdated. And everybody did the “Hokey Pokey” below the path of the inimitable Betty Moats.”
Moats was a well-loved kindergarten instructor who referred to her college students as “her angels.” Dahl remembers Moats bringing in TVs for her “angels” to take aside, or an enormous log for them to drive in nails.
This, from Moats, within the 1954 College Details: “To your baby Kindergarten has not been a ‘play’ class, as a result of he has been studying and creating. As he has used hammers, clay, or crayons, he has developed the usage of hand and arm muscle mass, which he’ll alter use in handwriting. Kindergarten has been an journey in your baby. It’s the starting of an thrilling new section of life—the college years. I hope the Kindergarten has helped your Angels learn to dwell, not tomorrow as adults, however at the moment as kids.”
In 1954, Woodfill’s fourth graders went tenting, a spotlight of their 12 months. They shopped for groceries, chopped wooden, constructed and tended fires, cooked their lunch and hiked.
In 1955, Woodfill added an addition that included 4 school rooms, restrooms, a kitchen, mixture cafeteria/auditorium, and an impartial fuel heating plant was devoted. A public handle system servicing all the constructing was additionally added.
Dale Mueller, former Highlands Excessive College instructor and soccer coach (having received 260 video games at Highlands and 11 state championships, he’s thought-about probably the most profitable highschool soccer coaches in Kentucky historical past), enrolled in kindergarten at Woodfill in 1959.
“I used to be (at all times might be) a mama’s boy and went to kindergarten at 4 years outdated and would flip 5 in October,” Mueller says. “I missed my mother terribly and cried on daily basis for 5 days. Our kindergarten instructor, Miss Moats, who referred to as us her angels, talked to my mother and mentioned it may be higher if I got here subsequent 12 months so I declare to be a kindergarten dropout. That call was an awesome determination for me and I consider had an awesome constructive affect on my life.”
A few of Mueller’s favourite reminiscences contain his two finest pals at Woodfill, Paul King and Dean Eckert, and his first-grade instructor, Mrs. Shaw.
“She was my favourite instructor all through my tutorial profession,” Mueller says. “Mrs. Shaw liked me and made me really feel so welcome at college. She had excessive expectations of her college students and I knew that she believed in me. She knew how a lot I appreciated her as a result of my mother was a instructor and he or she instructed her however I nonetheless want I may thank her once more at the moment.”
Mueller says his academics and pals at Woodfill positively had a constructive affect. “I went to Woodfill, Highlands, Cornell, and acquired my Masters at Xavier and respect all 4 colleges however am most grateful to my academics at Woodfill for what they did for me,” he says. “I used to be utterly ready for center faculty and had glorious tutorial expertise. Additionally they helped develop my confidence and vanity and was prepared for me no matter was going to return subsequent.”
Wealthy Boehne, E.W. Scripps Co.’s former CEO and board chairman, additionally attended Woodfill within the Nineteen Sixties. His mom, Thelma Jean Boehne (who’s now 92 years outdated and nonetheless lives in Fort Thomas) spent 19 years as a instructing assistant (and previous to that, a number of years as a member of Woodfill’s PTA, together with president).
“I had terrific academics at Woodfill and, fortunately, had the chance to thank most of them through the years,” Boehne says. “The basics they taught enabled my profession. I’m deeply appreciative.”
Take Rozellen Griggs, for instance, Boehne’s fifth grade instructor. “Her affect went nicely past the themes and classes,” he says. “One instance: All of us made Valentine’s Day playing cards that 12 months and most, together with mine, have been conventional with numerous hearts and arrows and frills. One pupil made a card with the face of a person on it; large darkish mustache and darkish eyebrows. All the opposite youngsters made enjoyable of him and his uncommon expression of a valentine. Rozellen stepped in, gave him an enormous hug and heaped reward on him for his creativity. Her show of affection and appreciation for the outcast—for the one who dares to problem the norm—had an enormous impact on me. She instructed me a few years later that the child had a messy house life. The picture on his card? His father? Grandfather? She didn’t know however she assumed the picture emerged from a disturbing place within the thoughts of an 11-year-old boy, and it wanted to be honored. Thank God for academics like Rozellen.”
This 12 months might be Principal John Gesenhues’s 17th 12 months at Woodfill. His first as principal, he beforehand spent 12 years as a instructor at Woodfill, adopted by 4 years as assistant principal.
“I’ve at all times liked how accepting our Woodfill neighborhood is,” Gesenhues says. “We really embrace individuals from all backgrounds, cultures, and walks of life, and try to make them really feel part of Woodfill.”
In 1969, Dahl was having dinner at her mother and father’ home after a time off from school interviewing for instructing jobs in Northern Kentucky when the cellphone rang.
“It was Harold Miller, then superintendent of FTIS, asking me if I had a job but,” Dahl says. “I answered, ‘No, sir’ and he replied, ‘That’s good. We’re going to vote on you on the Board assembly tonight. Second grade, Woodfill; Madeline Corman goes to be the librarian.’ That was it. No interview, nothing. … I got here again as a fresh-out-of-college first-year instructor, instructing second grade together with my fantastic first- and second-grade instructor, Ruth German. Nonetheless, there have been my principal, Sam King, my beloved kindergarten instructor and Preserve of the Angels, Betty Moats, in addition to a number of others academics and employees members from once I was a pupil.”
(Debbie Heibert, King’s daughter, says, “he liked his job and all these youngsters and ‘his’ academics.”)
“I feel I used to be the primary Woodfill alumna to return, and couldn’t have requested for a extra fantastic group of mentors and guardians.” Dahl says. “They instilled in me a way of loyalty, and I by no means ever needed to show at every other faculty.”
Dahl has fond reminiscences of Woodfill’s festivals. She remembers promoting tickets as a pupil and “making an attempt to toss that ping pong ball to win a goldfish, which was often deceased in every week – and later consoling my college students on Monday upon the loss of life of their fish,” she says.
Dahl taught each grade from second to sixth till 1996, and noticed the constructing undergo many incarnations.
“After I was a pupil there, the four-room addition dealing with US 27 was constructed, with a brand new cafeteria beneath. Later, the two-story addition which included a brand new gymnasium was constructed on the Grant Avenue aspect, and partitions between the lecture rooms within the unique constructing have been knocked down, later to be constructed again.”
Reggie Glaser’s 5 kids attended Woodfill (“a close-knit neighborhood the place everyone cared about one another’s youngsters,” she says) from 1975 via 1991.
“My second youngest son, Justin, needed to be within the performs, however was a nervous wreck,” Glaser says. “Danny Kemplin calmed him down and gave him the boldness he wanted. And guess what, he was in three Broadway excursions, the final one being Disney’s Magnificence and the Beast, and he was the Beast!”
Glaser says all three of her boys have been within the chess membership Ed Lengthy began for sixth graders.
“By the point my youngest son was in class, Ed lowered the age to fourth graders and Eric was the Chess Membership champion within the fourth grade,” Glaser says. “He later went on to be drafted by the Pink Sox as a pitcher. When interviewed one time about his pitching he mentioned it’s all technique, which he discovered in grade faculty within the Chess Membership.”
In 1979 College Details mentions “an enormous Halloween parade, wherein most college students dressed up in costumes,” a Woodfill custom that continues to at the present time. Third graders visited the Kentucky Horse Park and Frankfort, fourth and fifth graders went to the Cincinnati Nature Heart, and sixth graders went to Lengthy Department Farm, Washington, D.C., Frankfort and Outdated Fort Harrod.
The PTA and father or mother volunteers have at all times had a robust presence. Cash raised from 1983’s Worldwide Fall Pageant was used to buy 20 microslide viewers and slides, an eight-wheel paper roll holder, a stereo for the music room, a coloration TV, a freezer for the cafeteria, and lumber for a stage addition. Mother and father volunteers have lengthy been a Woodfill custom as nicely. From the 1983 College Details: “The room moms, as at all times, have been an incredible assist to the academics for events and discipline journeys, and a big group of moms took turns serving within the cafeteria.”
By 1988, Boys Scouts and Lady Scouts have been well-liked after-school actions. Based on College Details, highlights of the 12 months included new playground gear bought by the PTA and put in by a number of fathers, Particular Olympics, Schoolmates in Australia, Lunch with Mother and father, E-book-It, Simply Say No Membership, N.A.S.A. visitor audio system and discipline journeys to Drake Planetarium, Hyde Park Observatory and Huntsville Area Camp.
“My most influential position fashions have been the Woodfill educators that gave me my wings again in 1989,” says Daybreak Hils, Woodfill’s most present tenured instructor. “Mrs. Ann Dahl, Mrs. Janet Willig and Mr. Ed Lengthy have been longtime Woodfill academics who set me on a stable path as an educator, however much more importantly, modeled the significance of loyalty to our faculty. The notion of Woodfill as a household is rooted in those that spent total careers and stayed absolutely invested right here. Mr. Howard Fischer, the principal who employed me, set that tone of loyalty and love, and people who adopted have modeled it for one another. Equally, we’ve had generations of households who’ve stayed invested in Woodfill Elementary via their involvement in our PTO. There’s a particular sense of real care and dedication to the legacy.”
Former Scholar Elizabeth Loechle says college students would get so excited when Fischer would cease by a classroom, taking the time to have a look at tasks and papers. “He at all times greeted us with a smile and inspiring phrases,” Loechle says.
In 1989 and 1990, Loechle’s third and fourth grade instructor was Alice Miller, one other well-loved instructor who needed to retire early after a most cancers analysis. Miller died shortly after her retirement, in 1995.
Loechle says Miller “was the kindest, sweetest instructor with a coronary heart of gold. I keep in mind her being so soft-spoken and would give hugs and you would inform simply actually loved her job and the scholars she taught. I attended her funeral and there was so many former college students there that she clearly touched.”
Lisa Bowman, who did her pupil instructing in 1992 with Miller, says it was a “fantastic blessing” to be positioned in Miller’s third-grade classroom.
“Alice was such a compassionate and loving instructor, and so very affected person with the scholars too,” Bowman says. “Alice taught me that not solely have been the lecturers essential, but it surely was additionally essential to nurture and love each baby. She made each pupil in her class really feel particular and cared for.”
Former pupil Debra Kinstler says the identical: “Mrs. Miller was a beautiful and devoted instructor. She made each pupil really feel particular.”
Sarah Miller-Hair, Miller’s daughter, says her mother liked her job and was nice at it. “I want ought to would have had extra time,” she says.
Bowman, who taught a multi-aged classroom at Woodfill in 1993-94 earlier than shifting to Johnson Elementary, additionally pupil taught with first-grade instructor Donna Redlinger. “Donna’s love for music and her humorousness confirmed me easy methods to join with the little ones and easy methods to permit them to essentially take pleasure in studying,” she says. “We at all times had enjoyable in her class! Woodfill was an superior faculty, the place the academics and employees have been a household, mother and father have been concerned of their kids’s training, and college students liked coming to high school every day.”
Reynolds says Woodfill was, and nonetheless is, her household. “We skilled births, deaths, sicknesses, promotions, strikes, adoptions, marriages, and a lot extra collectively,” she says. “The distinction between my coworkers and others I noticed is that we confirmed up for one another on a regular basis. We did life collectively on a regular basis and never simply eight to 3. With out asking, I’d be surrounded by academics, employees members, mother and father and directors once I wanted them essentially the most. I’d have my organic household holding one hand and somebody in my Woodfill household holding the different.”
In Could 1995, Reynolds went into labor instructing on the unique Woodfill faculty constructing. On Subject Day on the finish of that college 12 months, she took her one-month-old to high school to introduce her.
“I vividly keep in mind the principal holding her whereas the scholars loved a PTO cookout and performed kickball on the aspect playground,” Reynolds says. “At present, my now 27-year-old daughter [Samantha Reynolds] is a Woodfill second-grade instructor and her classroom within the new constructing is situated proper the place that playground was. Our roles have modified however we’re nonetheless Woodfill household!”
Hils says it’s her hope that Woodfill’s faculty neighborhood retains its sense of historical past and loyalty to the concept it’s one household.
“We’re greater than the most recent and biggest strategies and supplies used to ship instruction,” Hils says. “We’re a gaggle of leaders and difference-makers, with an ever-present sense of appreciation for individuals who got here earlier than us.”
Gesenhues says he’s trying ahead to persevering with the excellence that Woodfill has proven over its many-year historical past.
“I hope that we’ll at all times be a spot the place households really feel protected to ship their kids, and that they know after they come to Woodfill they’re cared for and expertise a world-class training,” he says.
Your complete Fort Thomas neighborhood is invited to share in reminiscences of their time at Woodfill throughout the faculty’s beloved Huge High Pageant and 100th Birthday Bash, Sunday, September 28, midday. to six p.m.
