WHOLE-GRADE ARRANGEMENT WOULD CLOSE RIPPEY
School board members and advisory committees from East Greene and Jefferson-Scranton got their first look at the recommendations for future sharing from Educational Consulting Services (ECS) on Wednesday night, April 20, at a joint meeting held in the commons of Jefferson-Scranton elementary school in Jefferson.
The meeting—the first to introduce findings by ECS—drew about 80 residents from the two districts.
ECS recommends East Greene and Jefferson-Scranton move forward on a two-way whole grade sharing arrangement that would send all 7 through 12th grade students from East Greene to Jefferson-Scranton and all Jefferson-Scranton 5th and 6th grade students to the East Greene school building in Grand Junction, which is currently the middle and high school facility serving East Greene students in grades 6-12.
ECS further recommends that the Grand Junction building house the EG district’s kindergarten through fourth grade students and that the Rippey building be “phased out.” Rippey currently houses EG grades K-5.
Jefferson-Scranton students in grades K-4 would continue to attend classes in the J-S elementary building on East Russell Street.
In making the presentation, Jerry McCall, the ECS consultant who prepared the report, outlined the demographic changes in Greene County, noting that the population has decreased from 15,455 in 1950 to 9,336 in 2010. “That’s a decline of 6,000 people,” he pointed out.
The population shift in the area has been significant. In the East Greene district the population change from 2000 to 2010 was: Grand Junction, 964 to 824, a 14.5% decrease; Rippey, 319 to 292, an 8.5% decrease; and Dana, 84 to 71, a 15.5% decrease.
McCall said that of the county’s 9,336 residents, the break down from those living in the towns is 6,711 with 2,265 defined as rural, roughly a 72/28 percentage breakdown.
The population of Junction Township (including Grand Junction) dropped to 1,162 residents in 2010 from 1,327 in 2000. Subtracting the Dana and Grand Junction residents (895 total) means that 267 residents live in the rural areas of the township. The breakdown of town/rural residents in Junction Township is 77/23.
Some of those residences are so close to the towns—especially in Grand Junction—that the actual number of inhabited farm residences more than a mile from town is even less.
The population in Washington Township dropped to 502 residents in 2010 from 594 in 2000. With 292 of the township’s residents in the town of Rippey, that indicates 210 live in the rural area. The town/rural breakdown for Washington Township is 58/42.
These numbers are significant because Junction and Washington Townships are the largest geographically in the county. Junction is the size of 1 2/3 townships; Washington the size of 1 1/3 townships.
Junction Township is the largest township in both size and population and is the second largest population district with the city of Jefferson the largest, 4,345. Scranton Township (includes town of Scranton) is next, 707, followed by Highland (includes Churdan), 538, and then Washington.
The 2010 populations of the other Greene County townships in order by size are: Paton (includes town of Paton), 396; Grant, 201; Jackson, 199; Bristol and Kendrick, each 192; Hardin, 168; Cedar and Franklin, each 158; Dawson, 156; Willow, 133; and Greenbrier, 129.
McCall then showed the school age population in the two districts in the last five years: Jefferson-Scranton had 1,138 students in grades K-12 in 2006 but has 1,041 in 2011, a decrease of 97 students while East Greene had 378 students grades K-12 in 2006 but 266 in in 2011, a decrease of 112 students.
The combined loss of students for the two districts, 209, equates to about 35-40 students a year for each of the last 5 years, or “about two classes” (classroom sizes), said McCall.
He also outlined the current school enrollment of Paton-Churdan, 153, which is the smallest of the county’s three districts and also sends some of its high school students to classes in Jefferson, which has been the situation for East Greene the last several years—especially for upper level, advance placement and vocational classes.
The Paton-Churdan school district spans the county’s four northern townships: Cedar, Highland, Dawson and Paton. Combined, their population is 934 and a good chunk of the southern half of Dawson Township (former Paton Consolidated School District) went over to Jefferson (now Jefferson-Scranton) when the Paton school district was closed in 1962. That territory stayed with Jefferson when the Paton-Churdan school district was created two years later.
However, the total K-12 enrollment in Paton-Churdan has held relatively steady for the last 5 years. Relative to overall size, however, McCall noted “Jefferson-Scranton and East Greene combined have lost more students in the last 5 years than are enrolled in the Paton-Churdan system.”
At this point in time, Paton-Churdan has expressed no interest in further sharing beyond its high school academics and sports sharing (football, wrestling, softball and baseball) agreements, which were renewed at the beginning of the current school year. Presently, East Greene shares only wrestling with JS beyond academic sharing, but next year EG will send its vocal and instrumental students to JS.
The three school districts do share teachers with the breakdowns anywhere from 80/20 to 50/50.
McCall noted that Greene County’s total current school age population, 1,460 students, is 15.6% of the county’s total population, 9,336. “Our firm has been working with school districts with a 12% to 28% of the population range,” he explained. “So, having a 15.6% school-age population in Greene County is somewhat reasonable. That most likely will go down to 12% but not much lower.”
McCall the outlined the physical infrastructure of the two school buildings in the East Greene district and the four buildings in the Jefferson-Scranton district. He noted that all of the buildings are “solid, good facilities. Structurally, they are all fairly good and all are well maintained.”
Most importantly, he emphasized that all of them “are safe places for students to have an education.”
The buildings and their square footage are:
Rippey: 36,000 square feet, a multi-floor facility built in the early 1920s with an addition in the late 1950s that included a multi-floor expansion to the west (check this) and some single-floor classroom space along with a gymnasium/auditorium and locker rooms and new entry-way and foyer to the east side of the original building.
Grand Junction: 50,000 square feet, but some space is not included, which he said was the “sub-basement under the 1954 addition which is the building’s school lunchroom and kitchen. The multi-floor portion of the building was opened in 1915 while the gymnasium/auditorium and some classroom space were added in 1939 and three classrooms, music room, lunchroom (basement) and new entrance, lobby and restrooms were the 1954 addition.
Jefferson-Scranton District Administration and Special Programs Building: 14,000 square feet. This is a former lower elementary grade building located across the parking lot from the current middle school (which is the former Jefferson High School).
Jefferson-Scranton Elementary: 63,000 square feet in a single story “that functions well for an elementary school,” said McCall. Using a measuring stick of 130 square feet per student, a school building of this size works optimally with 400 to 450 students but “500 students would be tight—that would be too many students. A school building of this size (63,000 square feet) is the recommended size for new school construction for serving between 400 to 450 students, so the elementary school is a good fit for its current and proposed future use.
Jefferson-Scranton Middle School: 55,000 square feet which is a bit misleading, McCall pointed out, as 15,000 square feet of the total is the gymnasium/auditorium (used for high school athletics--basketball, wrestling, volleyball). McCall said the actual academic space is 40,000 square feet. A multi-story facility located near downtown Jefferson, this building was constructed in the same era (1915-1925) as the oldest portions of the Rippey and Grand Junction buildings. “The classrooms are fairly small, which does not provide much flexibility for middle school programs,” he said. “As a functional middle school, it leaves something to be desired, but it’s usable for the given time frame.”
Jefferson-Scranton High School: 86,000 square feet, this facility (constructed in the late 1960s) is a single-story structure that can handle 400 to 450 students. Currently, 334 students are enrolled in Jefferson-Scranton High School and with the 87 current students enrolled in East Greene High School, the total enrollment for whole grade sharing would be 421 high school students.
The combined total of school facility space is 299,772 square feet. “That’s a tremendous amount of space and you don’t need that much space for 1,300 students.”
McCall outlined the cost savings for each district based on an incentive formula created by the state to encourage whole-grade sharing. The formula takes the total cost per student in the district that will send its students to its sharing partner, and multiplies that times 10% of the number of students sent to the partner school.
Grand Junction 5th-6th grade facility: With this center handling the 5th and 6th grade programs, the total number of students would be 212 with 54 from East Greene and 158 from Jefferson-Scranton. Total savings: $5,965 x 15.8 = $94,247 for Jefferson-Scranton.
Jefferson 7th-8th grade facility: With 38 students from East Greene added to 160 students from Jefferson-Scranton, the facility would house 198 students with a cost per student of $5,817. Total savings: $5,817 x 3.8 = $22,105.
Jefferson 9th-12th grade facility: 87 from East Greene added to the 334 from Jefferson-Scranton would comprise of high school of 421 students. Total savings: $5,817 x 8.7 = $50,608.
The savings for Jefferson-Scranton would be $94,247 and the savings for East Greene would be $72, 713 for a combined savings between the two districts of $166,000.
McCall also shared information of other school districts in the state of approximately 1,300 students and the number of attendance centers and total number of teachers for each. The attendance centers ranged from 3 to5 with the average number of teachers at 92.3. Earlier, he had noted that the largest cost for school districts is personnel—at about 80% of the total district expenditures.
“It’s about 110 to 112 at present, which is about 20 more than the average, but with an annual retirement rate of 5-8% within 2 to 3 years it would be reduced from 110 to 95,” said McCall.
So, McCall concluded, the big picture look by grade levels and attendance centers would be:
K-4: Attendance centers at Grand Junction and Jefferson
5-6: Grand Junction
7-8: Jefferson
9-12: Jefferson
His summary report also noted these three points:
• Phase out Rippey
• Monitor the districts’ continuing demographics
• Consider discussions with adjacent school districts (most notably Paton-Churdan)
Looking down-range, the combined district could look at phasing out the existing middle school in Jefferson and build a new 5-8 attendance center adjacent to the high school. With 5th and 6th grade students shifted away from Grand Junction, that facility would continue as a primary attendance center and town center at Grand Junction. One option, however, would be to tear down the existing multi-story building which was opened in 1915.
He did, however, point out that the 3-story portion of the Grand Junction building is “very solid.”
McCall also briefly touched on future use of the Rippey school building and the future use of the middle school building in Jefferson should a new 5-8 building be constructed in the future. He suggested community services and new business incubator as possible uses as part of the “town center” concept.
The middle school building in Jefferson could be adapted to work with the existing Greene County Recreation Center, McCall said, and development of the site to include a possible acquatic facility would give Jefferson recreation amenities to keep pace with other larger nearby communities like Carroll, Boone, Ames and Des Moines.
He said the two school boards are looking at a Feb. 1, 2012, date to make their intentions known and get the process moving forward, so they can take advantage of the cost-savings incentives that are currently in place.
According to the Iowa Code, if the two boards make a decision to pursue whole grade sharing, then not less than 90 days prior to signing an agreement, each board must publicly announce its intent to negotiate a sharing agreement.
Then, not less than 30 days prior to signing the agreement, each board would need to hold a public hearing outlining the proposed sharing plan which would allow for comments by the parents or guardians of the affected pupils and the certificated employees of the school district.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Eye on GJ Goes Blue and Gold!
ALUMNI BANQUET PREVIEW: CLASS OF 1951
As anticipation mounts for “Alumni/Memorial Day Weekend” in Grand Junction, where graduates and natives of Grand Junction and the greater East Greene community (GJ, Dana, Beaver and Rippey) return for the annual East Greene/Grand Junction Alumni Banquet on Saturday evening of the long weekend, Eye on GJ is embracing the spirit and school colors of Grand Junction High School by shifting to a blue and gold color scheme.
And continuing with the theme of the scheme (colors), we present a look at the GJHS Class of 1951, which is celebrating its 60th year anniversary.
The Class of 1951 was 29-members strong and was comprised of students from the elementary schools in Grand Junction and Beaver and St. Mary’s Academy in Grand Junction. Here, as they appeared in order in the Blue Jay, the yearbook of 1951, is the graduating class:
Wayne Ellwanger, president
Roger Van Pelt, vice president
John Friel
Rita Gross
Norman Tolsdorf
Janice Miller
Mary Reiniman
Vera Mae Ritter
Charles Clark
Daniel Cleland
Richard Greene
Verdell Ritter
Dorothy Doran
Phyllis Creamer
Tommy Fisher
Mary Hunter
Darrell Kersey
Carol Lewis
Claude Winchell
Katherine Ferguson
Ruth Frantz
Marlene Raner
Virginia Hoskinson
Velma Renslow
Graham Phinney
Myrna Henderson
Evelyn Smalley
Wayne Lingner
Belva Rose
The Bluejay hoopsters were coming off several very successful seasons and the ’51 squad was relatively inexperienced. But that year’s Bluejay squad rolled up a 13-9 winning record, finishing in a tie for third in the Greene County Conference with Cooper with a 5-4 record. In the county tournament, GJ rolled over Dana 72-33 and Cooper 48-38 to advance to the championship game, where they were downed by Churdan, 52-31. In Class A sectional action, Perry got the best of the Bluejays, 44-36, in the first round. (In those years, GJ played in Class A in the post-season sectionals along with Jefferson, Carroll, Perry, Ogden and Boone while all the other teams from the smaller towns played in the Class B sectionals. In some years, the As and Bs competed separately until reaching the state tournament, while in other years they were mixed together at either the district or substate levels. The state tournament was broken into Class A and B divisions in 1956 and continued that way through 1960 before reverting to a one-class tournament in 1961 then again splitting into two classes in 1967.)
Wayne Ellwanger and Tommy Fisher, the only two seniors on the ’51 team, were co-captains. Other team members were Bob Johnson, Jim Powers, Dick Frantz, Don “Zeke” Rees, Lee Deal, Jim Jewett, Dale Mount, Dick Phinney, Dick Mitchell, Dave Wetrich and Dick Greene, manager. The coach was Ed Chuck, who taught science, coached baseball and was athletic director.
Myrna Henderson and Ruth Frantz were the only seniors on the Bluejayettes basketball team, which finished the season 6-14 after a second-round loss in sectional action to Jamaica, having beaten Bagley in the first round. Four of the losses were by 3 points or less, so with a few breaks the team could have gone 10-10. Competition was very tough within the Greene County Conference as two teams advanced on to the districts and one, Churdan, advanced to the state tournament. Myrna, a guard, was named captain of the team while Marilyn Wood, a junior guard, was named co-captain. The offense was lead by junior Shirley Cronin, who averaged 22.1 points a game and moved her three-year career scoring total to 1,102 points. Other team members were Ardis Underwood, Clara Busch, JoAnn Luther, Janice Cummings, Beverlee Ferguson, Norma Hillman, Margaret Mount and Beverly Edgar. Patsy Bradwell was team manager and Miss Schneider, who taught sixth grade, was chaperone. The coach was Mr. Holle, who taught social science.
The Bluejays were 8-2 in fall baseball, advancing to the county tournament championship where they fell to Churdan, 4-3, in an extra-inning thriller.
GJ cheerleading squads in the late 40s and early 50s were co-ed. The squad of five in 1950-51 was comprised of four seniors—Marlene Raner, Rita Gross, Velma Renslow, Charles Clark—and one sophomore, Art Deal. The girls and guys each wore white satin bomber jackets with blue piping with the girls pairing theirs with blue-and-gold satin skirts while the guys wore white cotton chinos and blue sneakers. The pep band members wore white shirts with blue ties and dark slacks or trousers.
The GJHS band was 49-members strong and participation was high in mixed chorus and boys’ and girls’ glee clubs. The drama students presented six, one-act plays to the community in the gym-auditorium that year. GJHS students also had active FHA and FFA groups in 1950-51.
Four class members earned scholarship honors for all of the three years (senior, junior and sophomore) that students were recognized—Tommy Fisher, Ruth Frantz, Virginia Hoskinson and Roger Van Pelt. Katherine Ferguson was honored for scholarship her senior and junior years and Rita Gross was honored senior year. Verdi Anderson, who earned scholarship honors as a sophomore and was one of four members of the cheerleading squad that year (1948-49), transferred to Paton his last two years, graduating with the Paton High School Class of 1951.
Ruth Frantz was editor of the “Scoop,” the school newspaper that appeared each week in the Globe-Free Press, with John Friel as co-editor. Roger Van Pelt and Rita Gross were editors of the Blue Jay.
The superintendent that year was W.J. Edgar and the principal was R.F. Leland. School board members Jack Mears, Leon Frantz, Harold Radebaugh, Mryon Jewett and John Young, with Mears serving as president. J.E. Brady was the board secretary and Claus Loof was the treasurer.
The 1951 Blue Jay also makes note of class members who were “the original six,” having entered kindergarten together in the February 1939—Tommy Fisher, Katherine Ferguson, Ruth Frantz, Myrna Henderson, Virginia Hoskinson and Roger Van Pelt.
EYE ON GJ SAYS: The Class of 1951 is full of names synonymous with Grand Junction: Frantz, Van Pelt, Tolsdorf, Gross, Hoskinson, Fisher and Kersey. Many went on to success beyond central Iowa while others settled down into productive lives in Grand Junction. Dorothy Doran, a Beaver girl, married Cecil Rueter GJ ’47 and raised a family in Grand Junction and helped her husband build a very successful business, known today as Rueter’s Red Power. She and her oldest son, Kim, are both celebrating milestone reunions this year as Kim is a member of the EG Class of ’71, the 40th anniversary class. Katherine (Kate or Kathy) Ferguson advanced on to Drake University where she was a member of Chi Omega sorority. She then married Roger Fisher GJ ‘50, the brother of classmate Tommy Fisher, and they raised three children, first in rural Grand Junction, and then in a beautiful home that continues to grace the wooded area of East Main Street. Roger and Kathy divorced in the mid-1970s and Kathy returned to Drake and finished work on her bachelor’s degree. She eventually relocated to Colorado while Roger presently lives in Des Moines.
Myrna Henderson had a long and successful career working in Des Moines and often returned to Grand Junction to visit family and friends, among them her dad, Claude Henderson; Florence (Henderson) Dobson; Janet Henderson; sister-in-law Dorothy Henderson; and nephew Gary Henderson and his family. Tommy Fisher remained in the area and his children attended Ogden Community Schools. Several of them live in the area. Rita Gross Reedy died last March in Elkhorn, Neb. Rita was one of 12 children in the Gross family—all educated at St. Mary’s Academy and GJHS. The two surviving Gross children are Eileen GJ ’44 and Emmett GJ ’53.
As anticipation mounts for “Alumni/Memorial Day Weekend” in Grand Junction, where graduates and natives of Grand Junction and the greater East Greene community (GJ, Dana, Beaver and Rippey) return for the annual East Greene/Grand Junction Alumni Banquet on Saturday evening of the long weekend, Eye on GJ is embracing the spirit and school colors of Grand Junction High School by shifting to a blue and gold color scheme.
And continuing with the theme of the scheme (colors), we present a look at the GJHS Class of 1951, which is celebrating its 60th year anniversary.
The Class of 1951 was 29-members strong and was comprised of students from the elementary schools in Grand Junction and Beaver and St. Mary’s Academy in Grand Junction. Here, as they appeared in order in the Blue Jay, the yearbook of 1951, is the graduating class:
Wayne Ellwanger, president
Roger Van Pelt, vice president
John Friel
Rita Gross
Norman Tolsdorf
Janice Miller
Mary Reiniman
Vera Mae Ritter
Charles Clark
Daniel Cleland
Richard Greene
Verdell Ritter
Dorothy Doran
Phyllis Creamer
Tommy Fisher
Mary Hunter
Darrell Kersey
Carol Lewis
Claude Winchell
Katherine Ferguson
Ruth Frantz
Marlene Raner
Virginia Hoskinson
Velma Renslow
Graham Phinney
Myrna Henderson
Evelyn Smalley
Wayne Lingner
Belva Rose
 |
Grand Junction High School as it appeared in 1950-51. |
At that time, the school facilities consisted of “Old Main,” the school building built between 12th and 13th Streets in 1915 and the gymnasium-auditorium addition built in 1939. Grand Junction was long known as the town with the “big gym” as the other area schools all had the older-style gyms built in the lower, or basement level, of the school buildings, which was the case in Rippey (cement floor), Dana (wood floor), Beaver, Jefferson, Scranton, Churdan and most other high schools in the area.
The 1915 building in Grand Junction, too, featured a lower-level gym with big cement block-type seating along the sides. As such, the building’s third-floor study hall served as an auditorium with a small stage, which was a visible structural feature for many years despite this part of the school room being remodeled various times. The GJ teams in the 1920s and 1930s played on the hardwood floor of the spacious top floor of the Legion Hall on Main Street in Grand Junction.
The Bluejay hoopsters were coming off several very successful seasons and the ’51 squad was relatively inexperienced. But that year’s Bluejay squad rolled up a 13-9 winning record, finishing in a tie for third in the Greene County Conference with Cooper with a 5-4 record. In the county tournament, GJ rolled over Dana 72-33 and Cooper 48-38 to advance to the championship game, where they were downed by Churdan, 52-31. In Class A sectional action, Perry got the best of the Bluejays, 44-36, in the first round. (In those years, GJ played in Class A in the post-season sectionals along with Jefferson, Carroll, Perry, Ogden and Boone while all the other teams from the smaller towns played in the Class B sectionals. In some years, the As and Bs competed separately until reaching the state tournament, while in other years they were mixed together at either the district or substate levels. The state tournament was broken into Class A and B divisions in 1956 and continued that way through 1960 before reverting to a one-class tournament in 1961 then again splitting into two classes in 1967.)
Wayne Ellwanger and Tommy Fisher, the only two seniors on the ’51 team, were co-captains. Other team members were Bob Johnson, Jim Powers, Dick Frantz, Don “Zeke” Rees, Lee Deal, Jim Jewett, Dale Mount, Dick Phinney, Dick Mitchell, Dave Wetrich and Dick Greene, manager. The coach was Ed Chuck, who taught science, coached baseball and was athletic director.
Myrna Henderson and Ruth Frantz were the only seniors on the Bluejayettes basketball team, which finished the season 6-14 after a second-round loss in sectional action to Jamaica, having beaten Bagley in the first round. Four of the losses were by 3 points or less, so with a few breaks the team could have gone 10-10. Competition was very tough within the Greene County Conference as two teams advanced on to the districts and one, Churdan, advanced to the state tournament. Myrna, a guard, was named captain of the team while Marilyn Wood, a junior guard, was named co-captain. The offense was lead by junior Shirley Cronin, who averaged 22.1 points a game and moved her three-year career scoring total to 1,102 points. Other team members were Ardis Underwood, Clara Busch, JoAnn Luther, Janice Cummings, Beverlee Ferguson, Norma Hillman, Margaret Mount and Beverly Edgar. Patsy Bradwell was team manager and Miss Schneider, who taught sixth grade, was chaperone. The coach was Mr. Holle, who taught social science.
The Bluejays were 8-2 in fall baseball, advancing to the county tournament championship where they fell to Churdan, 4-3, in an extra-inning thriller.
GJ cheerleading squads in the late 40s and early 50s were co-ed. The squad of five in 1950-51 was comprised of four seniors—Marlene Raner, Rita Gross, Velma Renslow, Charles Clark—and one sophomore, Art Deal. The girls and guys each wore white satin bomber jackets with blue piping with the girls pairing theirs with blue-and-gold satin skirts while the guys wore white cotton chinos and blue sneakers. The pep band members wore white shirts with blue ties and dark slacks or trousers.
The GJHS band was 49-members strong and participation was high in mixed chorus and boys’ and girls’ glee clubs. The drama students presented six, one-act plays to the community in the gym-auditorium that year. GJHS students also had active FHA and FFA groups in 1950-51.
Four class members earned scholarship honors for all of the three years (senior, junior and sophomore) that students were recognized—Tommy Fisher, Ruth Frantz, Virginia Hoskinson and Roger Van Pelt. Katherine Ferguson was honored for scholarship her senior and junior years and Rita Gross was honored senior year. Verdi Anderson, who earned scholarship honors as a sophomore and was one of four members of the cheerleading squad that year (1948-49), transferred to Paton his last two years, graduating with the Paton High School Class of 1951.
Ruth Frantz was editor of the “Scoop,” the school newspaper that appeared each week in the Globe-Free Press, with John Friel as co-editor. Roger Van Pelt and Rita Gross were editors of the Blue Jay.
The superintendent that year was W.J. Edgar and the principal was R.F. Leland. School board members Jack Mears, Leon Frantz, Harold Radebaugh, Mryon Jewett and John Young, with Mears serving as president. J.E. Brady was the board secretary and Claus Loof was the treasurer.
The 1951 Blue Jay also makes note of class members who were “the original six,” having entered kindergarten together in the February 1939—Tommy Fisher, Katherine Ferguson, Ruth Frantz, Myrna Henderson, Virginia Hoskinson and Roger Van Pelt.
EYE ON GJ SAYS: The Class of 1951 is full of names synonymous with Grand Junction: Frantz, Van Pelt, Tolsdorf, Gross, Hoskinson, Fisher and Kersey. Many went on to success beyond central Iowa while others settled down into productive lives in Grand Junction. Dorothy Doran, a Beaver girl, married Cecil Rueter GJ ’47 and raised a family in Grand Junction and helped her husband build a very successful business, known today as Rueter’s Red Power. She and her oldest son, Kim, are both celebrating milestone reunions this year as Kim is a member of the EG Class of ’71, the 40th anniversary class. Katherine (Kate or Kathy) Ferguson advanced on to Drake University where she was a member of Chi Omega sorority. She then married Roger Fisher GJ ‘50, the brother of classmate Tommy Fisher, and they raised three children, first in rural Grand Junction, and then in a beautiful home that continues to grace the wooded area of East Main Street. Roger and Kathy divorced in the mid-1970s and Kathy returned to Drake and finished work on her bachelor’s degree. She eventually relocated to Colorado while Roger presently lives in Des Moines.
Myrna Henderson had a long and successful career working in Des Moines and often returned to Grand Junction to visit family and friends, among them her dad, Claude Henderson; Florence (Henderson) Dobson; Janet Henderson; sister-in-law Dorothy Henderson; and nephew Gary Henderson and his family. Tommy Fisher remained in the area and his children attended Ogden Community Schools. Several of them live in the area. Rita Gross Reedy died last March in Elkhorn, Neb. Rita was one of 12 children in the Gross family—all educated at St. Mary’s Academy and GJHS. The two surviving Gross children are Eileen GJ ’44 and Emmett GJ ’53.
Friday, April 1, 2011
EG Class of 1971 Plans Reunion June 11
OPENS INVITATION TO CLASSES ’68 TO ‘76
Plans are underway for the 40th anniversary of East Greene’s Class of 1971. A day-long reunion with golf in the afternoon and an evening of dinner and socializing will be Saturday, June 11.
The class is casting a wider net beyond just the ’71 bunch by extending the reunion invitation to EG classes from the late ’60s to mid-’70s. “We would like to invite the surrounding classes of 1968 through 1976 to join in the fun,” says Kim Rueter, one of the reunion organizers. “We hope to have some teachers available to share memories.”
The plans for June 11 to date include a golf outing from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Hill Golf Course at Grand Junction with a dinner and socializing from 4 to 9 p.m. at the home of Kim Rueter, south of Grand Junction.
“We are still making plans and wanted to let you know to get this date on the calendar,” says Rueter, who is coordinating the event with Susan (Kriger) Hogueison and Duane Davis. “We are looking forward to a great turnout.”
For more information about the event, contact eghs71@aol.com (Susan), krueter@prairienet.com (Kim) or dddavis53@gmail.com (Duane).
EYE ON GJ SAYS: What a terrific idea! And a great way to catch up with old friends from "back in the day" at East Greene. The Eye Guy was two years behind this '71 bunch so he has a lot shared memories. Sounds like a great time for catching up for the local folks and a terrific reason for EG grads to come on back to the 'old home town!
Plans are underway for the 40th anniversary of East Greene’s Class of 1971. A day-long reunion with golf in the afternoon and an evening of dinner and socializing will be Saturday, June 11.
The class is casting a wider net beyond just the ’71 bunch by extending the reunion invitation to EG classes from the late ’60s to mid-’70s. “We would like to invite the surrounding classes of 1968 through 1976 to join in the fun,” says Kim Rueter, one of the reunion organizers. “We hope to have some teachers available to share memories.”
The plans for June 11 to date include a golf outing from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Hill Golf Course at Grand Junction with a dinner and socializing from 4 to 9 p.m. at the home of Kim Rueter, south of Grand Junction.
“We are still making plans and wanted to let you know to get this date on the calendar,” says Rueter, who is coordinating the event with Susan (Kriger) Hogueison and Duane Davis. “We are looking forward to a great turnout.”
For more information about the event, contact eghs71@aol.com (Susan), krueter@prairienet.com (Kim) or dddavis53@gmail.com (Duane).
EYE ON GJ SAYS: What a terrific idea! And a great way to catch up with old friends from "back in the day" at East Greene. The Eye Guy was two years behind this '71 bunch so he has a lot shared memories. Sounds like a great time for catching up for the local folks and a terrific reason for EG grads to come on back to the 'old home town!
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