Vail Pride to Swell on 100th Birthday
By Nicole R. Grubbs, Arizona Daily
Star, February 22, 2003
The Vail School District will celebrate its 100th birthday
Friday at the fourth annual Vail Pride Day.
Historic photos on display at the event at Pima County
Fairgrounds will show how far the district has come from its early days.
One picture dated 1925 shows the lone schoolhouse,
with miles and miles of desert around. Three or four horses are roaming outside
the school.
"It captures the way school must have been here
in Vail during that time," said district Superintendent Calvin Baker, who contributed
many of the historic photos for the display.
The district started in 1903 with a one-room schoolhouse.
It will open its 10th school, Sycamore Elementary, in the fall.
Now 5,000 students in grades K-12 attend five elementary
schools, two middle schools and two high schools. The district employs more
than 7,000 teachers, administrators and staff. It is one of the fastest-growing
districts in the state. Enrollment is expected to double by 2010.
Baker is proud of how the district has managed to stay
connected to the community through the years.
"Despite the rapid growth and all the people that
have come here, there still is some of that old country school feel,"
he said.
A 1939 photo shows 40 students in grades one through
eight standing outside the schoolhouse. The children are all smiling in their
dresses and overalls.
Jane Herman, 78, attended Vail School District in the
1930s and is astonished at how it has grown and changed.
Most of her schooling was during the Great Depression.
Her teachers, two young women from South Carolina, would make hot chocolate
at lunch "so we would have a hot drink at noon time," Herman said.
A third photo shows Herman and her best friend, Beatrice
Escalante, with several other girls wearing dresses they had made for
4-H. The group members' talents as seamstresses earned them a silver
cup for "Best All-Around."
"Those types of pictures represent things that
no longer exist in the community," said Anne Gibson, co-chairwoman of
Vail Pride Days.
Maria Nunes, a third-grade teacher at Mesquite Elementary
School, said the annual celebration is always important to students and
others in the district.
"Vail Pride Day is one of the neatest events I
have seen, showcasing academic excellence," she said.
Students' mixed-media artwork ranging from watercolors
to jewelry will be on display, as will science projects. Student choirs and
bands will perform.
Students in third, fifth, eighth and 10th grades who
advanced from classroom Academic Jeopardy contests will compete in the final
round.
The district has been using the game, which is based
on the TV show in which contestants presented with information in certain categories
give their answers in the form of questions, to prepare students
for Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards test.
Vail resident David H. Levy, author, Parade magazine
science editor and discoverer of 21 comets, including Shoemaker-Levy 9,
is going to present awards to winners of the Academic Jeopardy game.
"We are fortunate to have him," Gibson said.
Deborah Hedgepeth, a member of the planning committee,
calls Vail Pride Day a "celebration of the educational community in
Vail."
Last year, 7,000 people attended the celebration, and
Gibson anticipates that even more will come this year.
"We have grown every single year, I see no reason
why more people wouldn't come," she said.
If you go
What: Vail Pride Day.
When: 3:30-9 p.m. Friday.
Where: Pima County Fairgrounds, Pima and Thurber
halls and Central Park, 11300 S. Houghton Road.
Schedule:
3:30–9:00 p.m. - Community
exhibits and classroom art, writing and science
displays.
4:00–9:00 p.m. - Special performances and
games.
4:30-7:30 p.m. - Band and choir concerts, Academic
Jeopardy finals.
8:00-9:00 p.m. - Awards and closing ceremony.
Cost: Free.
For more information: Visit the district Web site at
www.vail.k12.az.us/.
|
