Alumni and Neenah community reminisce on Roosevelt Elementary School and its upcoming centennial
NEENAH – In its 100-year history, Roosevelt Elementary School has seen quite a few traditions: end-of-the-year parades, hatching baby ducks and watching parents and teachers battle it out on the basketball court.
Over the years, some of those annual events have faded away or adapted into something new, but there’s one that lived to see this final year at Roosevelt.
On Sept. 18, students and staff made a point to go outside and sing “Happy Birthday” to Grandma Arline.
“This last year, they made me birthday cards, too,” she told The Post-Crescent at an open house at Roosevelt on Sunday.
Arline Dabill, or Grandma Arline as she’s known throughout Roosevelt, has lived across the street from the school for almost 63 years. She had five kids of her own who attended Roosevelt. And she worked there for a bit, herself, helping on the playground. But really, her most important role has been as a source of steadiness throughout the decades.
“She’s a landmark,” said Jenny Wunrow, a fourth-grade teacher at Roosevelt.
Dabill is 98 now; her 100th birthday will come one day and one year after Roosevelt’s. The school won’t be open on its official centennial, Sept. 17, 2023, since it’s closing after school ends in June.
In December 2021, the district decided to close the school because of shrinking enrollment and an aging infrastructure. Last spring, Neenah Joint School District Superintendent Mary Pfeiffer told The Post-Crescent that closing the school will better serve students. Small schools, like Roosevelt, aren’t as efficient or flexible and can create strain on teachers, she said.
Students who attend Roosevelt will be moved to Horace Mann Middle School, which will become an elementary school, in the fall. Alliance Charter School — currently in Roosevelt — will be moved to Wilson.
Local businessman John Bergstrom and other community members purchased the property in October for $1 million. Bergstrom previously told The Post-Crescent the property will be handed over to the ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Neenah, which is less than a half-mile from the school.
Despite Roosevelt closing, there's still plenty to celebrate about its 100-year history
Birthday celebrations for the school included a two-hour open house Sunday for alumni, community members and anyone else looking to reminisce about Roosevelt with the opportunity to walk the halls and flip through old yearbooks.
Dozens of people came by to see how the building has changed, how it’s stayed the same — and to dig up those elementary school memories that haven’t crossed their minds in decades.
More:Roosevelt Elementary, Doty Island's only Neenah public school, will close after next school year
For Lynn Hanson — who was Lynn Anvelink when she attended Roosevelt in the late '60s and early '70s — a bittersweet memory about an art project stirred.
Her sixth-grade classroom had big windows lining one wall. There are still windows there, but they’ve been updated. In front of them, there’s a chalkboard on a slider that moves parallel along the length of the windows.
Hanson said her teacher had the students lay art projects along the windowsill to dry. But while cleaning or fixing something, the janitor pushed the chalkboard along the slider, accidentally ruining Hanson’s project.
The others were intact, and the teacher offered to help her redo it, but Hanson said she remembers feeling too “heartbroken” to recreate it.
Speaking of that window ledge, Sue Vine said she taught first grade in that exact room for one year. In the winter, she’d have her students line their mittens on the vent along the window to warm and dry them after playing outside.
Vine had a brief stint at Roosevelt, but Ruby Patt spent almost two decades teaching second-graders at the Doty Island school.
“It was the most wonderful experience,” she said at Sunday’s open house.
She remembers spring trips to 1000 Island Nature Center, including one year when a student fell into the shallow water after climbing on rocks he wasn’t supposed to be on.
She also recalled building a reading hut out of cardboard for her classroom dubbed the “Mouse House,” where students could sit and enjoy a book after finishing their work.
And on the last day of school, Patt would lead the students in what resembled a mini parade, based on the pictures from the school to Doty Park.
For some, like Dabill, closing the school feels “terrible.” She and others at the open house looked back at life there fondly. There was a common thread of appreciation among those who grew up on the island.
But just as they’ve seen gas stations and grocery stores go, some people also understand that the school has served its purpose. Without enough students and an aging infrastructure, some are at peace with the decision to close.
Back in the early 80s, Vine remembers, a janitor told her the furnace had all the bandages it could bear.
Roosevelt has had multiple additions and renovations over the years. There are vintage transoms and radiators co-existing with smartboards and a hydroponic garden on the second floor.
The building at Forest Avenue tells its own history, but it’s the people who walked its halls and studied in its classrooms that will continue to tell its stories after the doors close.
More:Here's what John Bergstrom plans after buying Neenah's Roosevelt Elementary School
Reach AnnMarie Hilton at ahilton@gannett.com or 920-370-8045. Follow her on Twitter at @hilton_annmarie.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Roosevelt Elementary School alumni tour school before it closes
