North Ward Elementary Does It Old School

Posted Aug 20, 2008 by Steven Girardi

Updated Aug 20, 2008 at 12:53 PM

At 8:15 a.m., Principal Sandra Cowley is directing traffic outside North Ward Elementary School in Clearwater, something the school’s first principal didn’t need to do in 1915, when all children walked to school.

North Ward, an actual red brick schoolhouse with polished wood floors, high ceilings and radiators, is the county’s oldest operating school at 93 years. Cowley has been here two of those years and never wants to leave.

With 320 students, it’s more like a family reunion when children come back to school

“It’s very nice,” said Cowley, as she pauses while greeting parents and students. “By the time the kids get to the fifth grade, the teachers know them. And they know the teachers.”

Inside, second-graders in Terri McLemore’s classroom, one of several overlooking Clearwater Harbor, sit quietly at attention, their eyes focused on her. This is it, children, summer’s over. Back to the daily grind. They’re veterans now.

“They seem like high school friends,” McLemore said, noting how they’ve changed from a year ago.

Special Education teacher Terry Bouchard
talks to third grader Precious Patterson.
Tribune photo by JULIE BUSCH

Students everywhere are quiet. “This is so not normal,” said Terry Bouchard, a special education teacher. By tomorrow, she said, the noise and activity level will be back to normal.

Things are different at this school. There’s no central air conditioning. The cafeteria holds only three classes at a time. There is a single bathroom on each floor that boys and girls learn to share.

They stand at the doorway and call out, “Any boys in there?” or, “Any girls in there?” before entering. If all is clear, they flip over the sign on the door to signify boys or girls and proceed.

Teachers here wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It’s the best school in Pinellas County,” Bouchard said. “Anybody who walks in there wants to stay.”

Cowley and others here hope the school will remain open. South Ward Elementary, a few years older than this school and a few miles south, closed in 2007.

“We’ll be 100 years old in 2015,” Cowley said. “I hope we make it until then. We’ll have one heck of a celebration.”

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