Lena Winslow High School - Win Nel Yearbook (Lena, IL)

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New Grade chool When in early 1956 it became clear that Winslow could not outvote the rest of the unit and keep its high school, its representatives on the school board succeeded in having included in the June 1956 plan a new grade school for Winslow. Built in 1957 east of the gymnasium, having its west wall directly against the gym's east wall, this modern building overlooks the terraced, three-level playground. Inside we find seven classrooms, each 25 by 30 feet, with the most modern facilities. Each room has windows along the entire side and opens into a spacious hallway. Individual student lockers are located in the halls upstairs and in the rooms downstairs. A kitchen on the lower story will facilitate the school lunch program. This new building was the last site of Winslow High School. A description of the move from the old building to the new during 1957-58 will be folmd on page 103 of this book. The old building was razed in the summe f ' r o 1958, leaving the basement story, which houses the office, two rest rooms, and a new oil-fired hot water heating plant Winslow High School's last administrator, Mr. Clikeman, is leaving us to teach in the Rockford school system. Mr. Clikeman will be well remembered by his many students for his friendly manner and for his great interest in music and natural science Next fall the hi h g school students of the Winslow area will attend school in a new buildi h ng on t e northeast corner of Lena. So ends the history of Winslow High School.

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Reorganization Begins The late forties saw the school reorganization which was to mean the end of Winslow High School. A state law required the reorganization of the county into larger districts, and Winslow was unable to form her own district for three reasons: lj the district had the valua- tion, but not the population, to form a unit district, 2l the state line prevented inclusion in a district of the Wisconsin territory long served by Winslow High School, 31 a large eastern portion of the district chose to annex to Orange- ville rather than to join a proposed Lena-Win- slow imit. A new Lena-Winslow Community Unit was formed in June 1949. Twenty-one rural schools and the Lena and the Winslow schools were incorporated in it. The years that followed saw I: whsle, - Ugg I a protracted rearguard action in the futile ef- li LENA- ORANGEVII-I-E fort to save the school. I205 WINSLOW UNIT I UNIT . 203 O2 McConnell I 2 I I I DAKOTA unrr zo: c oo echons I I I . I UNIT I In November 1951, the unit school board I FREEPORT UNIT '45 32, I proposed building a new single high school at I I I PEARL cnv urm I Lena. The proposal was defeated throughout I 200 III the unit by two to one. The subsequent educational I Il conflict in the unit was too involved for explana- I ns 46 GERIET VALLEY 523I SHANNON '39 O tion here, it ran to thousands and thousands of ii-Qi - - 51 ------- -'TI words in the Winslow, Lena, and Freeport papers. Stephenson County School Districts--1958 Suffice it to say that similar propositions for a unit high school, always on a Lena site, were defeated in September of 1953, January of 1954, and March of 1954. Some of these defeats were by narrow margins in the total vote, but in the Winslow precinct of the district they ran in a proportion of between four and five to one. The McConnell precinct, which contained the other portion of the old Winslow Community High School District, was, however, sharply divided in its loyalties between Winslow and Lena. I Again, as in the early days of our high school, state recognition was an object of great concern. Under this pressure many changes were made in an effort to satisfy criticisms of the Winslow school. New science laboratory equipment was installed, facilities for home economics and agriculture shop work were rented,a qualified music teacher was employed, and a steel and concrete staircase replaced the old wooden one. Then in February 1956 a plan for buildings in Lena, Winslow, Eleroy, and Waddams Grove, and improvements in McCon- nell was submitted to unit referendum. This plan,'which would have kept both a Lena and Win- slow high school in the imit, carried decisively in the Winslow precinct but was defeated in the unit. Finally in June 1956 another referendum for a single high school located in Lena passed in the unit, although the Winslow precinct still opposed it two to one. I

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Building The New Grade School