Lapwai bids fond farewell to old school

LAPWAI - Watching the old Lapwai High School being demolished was a bittersweet experience for Sonya Samuels.

The 37-year-old chairwoman of the Lapwai School Board spent many hours in the building. Her dad used to be the principal, and she was a frequent visitor, before and after school.

On game nights, Samuels was one of the little kids running around, laughing and playing as friends and family cheered on Wildcat basketball teams. A few years later, she was on the court, practicing with a group of girls who would go on to win a state championship.

"We pretty much lived in that school," Samuels said as crews prepared the site for its next incarnation. "I'm going to miss the old gym, but I'm very excited for the new one, just because that one was so unusable. I think our kids are ready to upgrade and make some new memories."

The old school and its gymnasium were condemned in 2007. The district's 266 middle and senior high students now attend classes in a newer building that sits behind the rubble and use the elementary school gym for practices and games.

In May, Lapwai was selected to receive $3.7 million under the Impact Aid School Construction Recovery Act Program to fund construction of a new gym and demolition of the dilapidated building. The Nez Perce Tribe has contributed an additional $500,000 for the project and previous construction at the high school.

Destruction of the old school has sparked many memories of the years when its classrooms were filled with students and the gym was an entertainment hub in this town of about 1,100 people.

"The kids and community are excited about having a high school gym again," said teacher Georgie Kerby, who graduated from LHS in 1968. "It will be so nice to have a place for our P.E. classes."

Still, it wasn't easy to see the building where she attended school and taught for many years fall into disrepair and resemble a bombed-out shell during demolition this autumn. Four generations of her family have attended Lapwai High School, and she used to have a large classroom in the old building where she taught business.

"When it came down, I was a little bit sad," Kerby said. "My grandpa, Howard Hechtner, was on the school board when it was built."

The school made of reinforced concrete underwent many changes since it was constructed in 1941 at a cost of approximately $125,000. During its early years, the building housed classrooms for typing and bookkeeping, separated by glass windows, along with a science lab and domestic science area divided into units for sewing, cooking and a cafeteria. An auditorium was added in 1965 and spared from the wrecking ball. It is slated for renovations if funding is available.

Kerby said the old school had an active drama department, large band and many student organizations when she was in high school. She was involved in the Future Teachers Association, Girls League, Future Homemakers Association and Service Club.

"If it was there, I was in it," she said. "I remember going to the games and all of the kids would sit upstairs in one section. It would be so loud."

Her mother, Phyllis Heath, graduated from the school in 1948. "My mother was a teacher and we moved here my senior year," said the 80-year-old Lewiston resident. "It seemed awfully nice to me, coming from an older school in Craigmont."

At the time, Lapwai's gym was one of the finest in the region, and Heath played on an undefeated girls basketball team, coached by John Cermak. She said the rules were a lot different than they are today, but the players were just as enthusiastic.

"We played with three forwards and three guards and neither side could cross the center line. We could only take one dribble before passing. They tell me it was a boring game for the spectators, but the team really got into it."

Don Courtney, 74, attended grade school in Lenore before he started riding the school bus to Lapwai each day. Leafing through a 1953 yearbook, Courtney said the thing he remembers most about the building itself is a lot of cement and metal windows.

"High school was a lot of fun, I thought," Courtney recalled. "I was always wanting to learn things. Once I got used to getting out to town everyday, it was nice. There wasn't much going on in Lenore anyway."

Courtney, who now lives in Lewiston, said he was introduced to American Indian culture during his school years. The Lapwai school is located on the Nez Perce Reservation and 90 percent of the students are American Indian.

"When I went to school, it was the first time I was around Indian people," Courtney said. "That was interesting. I went to some of their pow wows and some of the ball games."

Another Lenore student, Sara Hill, 38, remembers the smell of fry bread coming from the home-economics room and the roar of crowds cheering in the old gym. As the walls came down, she recalled many fond memories, including dating upperclassman Charlie Hill, who graduated in 1988. The high school sweethearts have now been married 19 years.

"A few alumni of Lapwai High School belong to a very special club," she said. "Our lives with our spouses began within the walls of that building. Secrets were whispered in parked cars along the football field fence during lunch hour, hands were held walking down the halls and dreams were shared in the stairway corridors."

It was a great time to be a Wildcat, said Hill, who graduated in 1990. The basketball teams were powerhouses with the boys winning the state title three years in a row, and the girls bringing home a state championship trophy in 1989.

She said the teachers were top-notch and have been some of the most influential people in her life.

"The late Mr. Jim Rogers was one of our favorites," Hill said. "This was a man that would get so excited during our performance of the 1812 Overture that he fell off the stage in the old auditorium only to bound right back up without missing a beat, literally."

One of Hill's fondest classroom memories involved an eighth-grade health teacher with a sense of humor. "There was a male student who would not be quiet during her instruction. Rather than continue talking to him or walking back to him, she threw an eraser at him. It hit him square on the head and left a white streak, just like a skunk."

Longtime educator Mary Lynn Walker was their history teacher. "Her humor and excitement for her subject made the class fun," Hill said. "Mrs. Walker believed in the lecture method of instruction, but her lectures were anything but boring."

Walker, who is still working at the high school, has many good memories of students, but she doesn't miss the mold, asbestos and unsafe conditions in the old school.

"To me teaching in this new building is like teaching in a luxury hotel," Walker said. "It's really nice. The old building was so polluted."

Superintendent David Aiken said construction on the new gym is slated to begin this month. Greg Castellaw, of Castellaw Kom Architects in Lewiston, and Morris Arnzen, of Arnzen Building Construction Inc. in Cottonwood, are the design-build team assigned to the project.

"The support of the Nez Perce Tribe and cooperation of the city of Lapwai have been instrumental throughout the process," Aiken added. "Our students and the Lapwai community are looking forward to the long-awaited final product."

Samuels is hoping the atmosphere in the new gym will rival the glory days in the old building.

"It used to be awesome to see the involvement. The games were really exciting and the place was just packed. It's sad to see it gone, but I know something good is going to be built there for these kids."

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Sandaine may be contacted at kerris@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2264.