School History - Lifetime Legacies & Lunch, part 3
Rae Gravley's series continues in the North Park neighborhood
According to historical documents, the county school, grades one through eight, taught much more than reading, writing and arithmetic. As of 1950, the girls had won first place and the boys won second place in basketball. That year there were also winners in choral singing, music appreciation, number sense, storytelling, declamation, ready writing, spelling, softball, and track and field. American Legion awards, as well as Valedictorian, Salutatorian and Honor Boy awards were presented. At that time the school employed twenty-two teachers, two with Master’s Degrees! Eighteen classrooms were used to teach a top enrollment of 640 students. Classroom size ranged from twenty-eight to as many as fifty-one students at a time. Two additional classrooms would have helped, and they were hoping to hire two new teachers for the next fall term. North Park Elementary eventually became incorporated into Abilene Independent School District and was later named Ben Milam Elementary. Students continued their education at Abilene High School, located at that time in the Lincoln Middle School Building on North First Street.
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Rae Gravley volunteers as CCC's Story Chronicler. This collection of stories from North Park is added to each Wednesday morning.