Hooked on History: Bolivar school was 'an integral part of the community'

The Tuscarawas Valley Intermediate School in Bolivar is the source of fond childhood memories for the students who attended school there.

"Even to this day, I can still hear the squeaking of sneakers on the steps of the hallways," said J.P. Kraft of Cuyahoga Falls, who went there in the 1990s. "It was such a great time, and when I heard that they were going to tear it down, it just broke my heart. It killed me. It's not just a school, it's an integral part of the community."

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The school, which has been in use since 1928, will close at the end of this school year and is slated to be torn down as the Tuscarawas Valley Local School District moves to have all of its students attend classes on one campus in Zoarville.

The Bolivar building cost $69,000 ($1.2 million in 2023 dollars) to erect, and replaced a two-story brick school that had become inadequate for the community. An addition was built in 1938 with four classrooms, a home economics room and a chemistry lab. Additional classrooms and a gymnasium were built in 1952. After the Tuscarawas Valley School District was created in 1956, Bolivar served as the high school until the current high school opened in 1961.

A student and an educator at Bolivar

Arline Mase of Wooster attended school in Bolivar from the eighth grade through high school. She was in the last class to graduate there, in 1961.

She grew up in Mineral City, where her father, Arlo Archinal, was president of the Mineral City School Board. After consolidation, he became the first president of the Tuscarawas Valley Board of Education.

The district held a graduation ceremony for her class when they completed the eighth grade ‒ something that wasn't done in Mineral City. "I'll never forget that. I really felt special," she said.

Another special moment was graduating from high school and receiving her diploma from her father, the school board president. Education was important to him, because he had had to quit school at age 16 to work on the family farm.

But Mase's connection to the Bolivar school didn't end there. She went to college and became a teacher, returning to Tuscarawas Valley in 1982. She spent two years (1996-1998) as Bolivar's principal.

"When I came over there as principal, that building actually came alive to me. And when my precious little kids entered kindergarten and first grade, I got involved as a parent," she said.

Though the building will be closing, she said her memories of the kids and people who worked there will continue. "They'll never take that out of my head."

Cleaning the erasers and learning multiplication tables

George Baumgardner started kindergarten in Bolivar in 1963 and went there until he finished the sixth grade in 1970.

One of the big treats for the kids then was being asked to clean the chalkboard erasers on a machine down in the boiler room.

"Two things about the boiler room: When you walked in the door, the eraser cleaning machine was right there on the wall as you walked in to the left. You would run the erasers across that and then clean them up. But the boiler room was always one of those dark, secret places that was kind of scary to a little kid," he recalled.

One of his favorite teachers was Ethel Garber, who lived on a farm outside of town.

"I remember one time she brought in a hand-cranked butter churn with a glass jar," Baumgardner said. "She had brought some cream in, and all the kids in the class took a turn turning that crank and churning the butter. When we were done with it, she had brought saltine crackers in, and we had that fresh-made butter on those saltine crackers."

When Baumgardner was in the fifth grade, he struggled with his multiplication tables. At a certain point in the day, his teacher made him go out into the hall and walk up and down reciting the tables to himself until he learned them.

"You could always tell when I was out there because the floors were wooden and they creaked something awful," he said. "So you could always know when I was out there walking up and down because you could hear the floors creaking."

'There's a ton of memories there.'

J.P. Kraft attended Bolivar from kindergarten through the fourth grade, from 1992 to 1996.

"I was probably about a five-minute walk away from the school. I rode my bike there every day," he recalled.

He had a group of close friends growing up in Bolivar.

"Even when school was out, we stayed after and played on the playground with each other until our parents got home from work," he said. "It's one of those things where once you move away, you think about it. You're really grateful for having not just the school, but an area where the kids of the community could just go over there and play on the playground or play basketball."

His favorite class was the second grade, because all of his friends were in the same class.

"It was really fun. There's a ton of memories there. They had a lot of community involvement with the parents," Kraft said.

An exciting time for the kids

Beginning in the fall, all Tuscarawas Valley students will be attending classes in Zoarville. A new high school is scheduled to open at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year, and a new middle school the following year.

The district is planning a Tuscarawas Valley Intermediate School closing ceremony at 2 p.m. May 7 in the gymnasium.

Mase said it's an exciting time for the kids with the opening of new buildings.

"The building itself doesn't make the education, it doesn't make the child," she said. "It's the education that happens within it. That's why I'm encouraging people, don't be afraid to move forward. Don't be afraid to improve. Yes, the kids are all going to go out in the country in Zoarville, but they're precious kids and they deserve a precious future."

Jon Baker is a reporter for The Times-Reporter and can be reached at jon.baker@timesreporter.com.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Memories flood back as Tuscarawas Valley Local plans to raze Bolivar school