Evergreen High School - Valhalla Yearbook (Metamora, OH)

Page 12 text:

IN THE BEGINNING . . . August 1964, our beginning. Fulton, Lyons, and Metamora, three neighboring school districts, following careful consideration voted to consolidate. Soon afterwards Chesterfield School District voted to join the consolidation creating the district known as Metamora-Fulton-Lyons- Chesterfield District. In 1965, the Metamora-Fulton- Lyons-Chesterfield Board of Education sponsored a contest to select a new name for the district. Ruth Gephart, of Lyons, not only submitted a name but also included an original poem, “Evergreen and was chosen as the best entry thus designating Evergreen as our new name. During November of the same year a bond issue of $1,495,000 was passed to fund the building of Evergreen High School. The new school opened in Feburary 1968, welcoming 542 students under the leadership of Superintendant Leland Dorsey and Principal Leroy Brownell. While new desks, books and equipment greeted the students, the gym and locker rooms were not ready and gym classes were held in the ag shop and hallways. Contrary to the annual freshman rumor no swimming pool was built under the gym floor. Our current enrollment of 473 includes the sixty-eight juniors and seniors who make the daily pilgramage to Four County Joint Vocational School near Archbold, Ohio. Through the combined efforts of the community, school board, administrators faculty, staff and students Evergreen High School has continued to improve and gain recognition. We hope to soon qualify for North Central Accreditation. Top: Evergreen East Middle School, built 1910, en- rolls 6-8th graders. Middle: Evergreen North Elemen- tary, built 1909 enrolls K-5 graders. Bottom: Chester- field Community Center, formerly Evergreen West, built in 1916, and auctioned in October of 1982. 8

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30 YEARS! Evergreen High School has had five superintendents and five principals, but only one secretary. As a matter of fact, we had that secretary. Marie Kuney, before there was an Ever- green High School or even an Ever- green School District. In 1953 Marie Kuney began as secre- tary for the Fulton School. As the schools consolidated, her position shifted to the Lyons School and final- ly to the new Evergreen High School. Her duties were generally described as being secretary to the building principal, but have also included such diverse activities as teaching shorthand and playing the piano for commencement ceremonies. Prob- ably the best description of her role is giving one-hundred-and-fifty percent to insure the smooth operation of our school. Though listed as the principal’s sec- retary, Mrs. Kuney was also the gen- eral information center, locator of lost students and misplaced sup- plies, chief distributor and collector of forms, and operator of ditto, sten- cil, and duplicator machines. She helped sell tickets to games, plays, concerts, and dances. She has helped sell items such as yearbooks and has cheerfully purchased sam- ples of the fundraising projects that have kept our extracurricular activi- ties going. Her daily battles with en- emies such as the freshman boys' gym bags and the revengeful Zerox machines never seemed to dampen her spirits for long. Marie was the first person most teaches, students, staff members and salesmen saw upon entering the building. She was also the voice heard school-wide over the P.A. sys- tem. Her devotion to her job and the people of Evergreen, plus her atti- tude of positive care and concern have been excellent examples of the spirit it takes to make Evergreen great. She leaves us to spend more time with her husband, nine children, nineteen grandchildren and one great-grandchild. She leaves to us the challenge to keep her example of en- thusiasm, quality workmanship and friendship alive at Evergreen for at least another thirty years.

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Evergreen High School, built in 1967. EVERGREEN Meeting with the ages in an endless dream Its heritage our future, beloved Evergreen. Ever means long living, as of its best giving. Childish voices and footsteps will echo through her halls. Then out into the world and they will recall That in beautiful Ohio, there nestled serene. The past and the future, beloved Evergreen. Mrs. Ruth Gephart A Built in 1926, additions were made to Evergreen South Elementary in 1956.