Rock Island High School - Watchtower Yearbook (Rock Island, IL)

Page 6 text:

Rock Island high school—1957 . . . product of 100 years labor . . . raw material tor the second century ' s pro¬ gress foresight, courage, hope, and faith laid its foundation . . . the patience, understanding, and wisdom of the faculty formed its structure . . . the thousands of young people who passed through its halls and filed into its classrooms mortared the bricks into a unified whole . Time and progress alter much . . . an unpretentious single room in the former Kimble elementary school has been transformed into t he 53 modern classrooms familiar to us today . . . the original budget of $36,990 tor the city ' s entire school system has been obscured by this year ' s high school budget of $2,775,000 ... the initial enrollment of 42 in 1857 has mush¬ roomed into today s elbow-rubbing high school population of 1,541 . . . the 18 teachers employed originally in all Rock Island public schools have ex¬ panded into the present high school faculty of 61 .. . Flexibility has enabled the school to fulfill individual needs . . facilities were made available tor deaf students in 1901 . . in 1916 a school nurse and a dentist were added to the staff . blind students were accommodated in 1929 ... a special education class was started in 1954 . . . Past accomplishments have nurtured new dreams—dreams of growth and expansion which are now becoming realities ... we must maintain the solidity of the original structure as we fulfill new aspirations ... in this sec¬ ond century of progress, foresight , courage, hope, and faith remain eter¬ nal foundations on which to build . The pastel-tinted campus, the warmth of P r ng, and the fragrance of blossoming trees entice aesthetic students into the fresh¬ ness of the outdoors. -■ 3 v CTTA»a CK. -jLi-