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50 years later, it's time for a school reunion

If you can read this, thank a teacher. You'll get the chance at an open house and celebration at Temple Terrace Elementary.

By JOSH ZIMMER
Published April 3, 2005

TEMPLE TERRACE - At times she becomes a little girl, the one who sang show tunes about the Roaring Twenties for her elementary school music teacher.

Then she's Debbie LeHeup again, the veteran instructor who teaches math and science to gifted youngsters in the same classroom at Temple Terrace Elementary School.

It's strange, too, that the first school she taught at 30 years ago - Pasco Elementary in Dade City - looked a lot like this place.

"This school has been so much a part of my memory," LeHeup said while preparing a recent lesson on fractions and percentages. "I've got Temple Terrace stamped on the brain."

The past and present never seem far apart here. It's a common refrain as Temple Terrace Elementary prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary on Saturday. At this late date, organizers acknowledge they don't have a grip on how many people will attend. But they know former teachers and administrators will show up.

RSVPs are beginning to roll in, said Mike Meiczinger, who heads the event's historic committee. He's trying to collect memorabilia for the event, which gets under way at 9 a.m. with a two-hour mingling session for current and former employees. The next four hours will be open to the public and will include a games carnival.

It's an opportunity for residents to touch base with some of the people who taught them to read or, when necessary, doled out discipline.

Parent-Teachers Association president Cindy Warren wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of encounters because many people stay in Temple Terrace.

"This is a very tight-knit community," she said.

The school brims with longtime employees, said secretary Carol Copeland, herself a veteran of more than 30 years. She started here because of her son.

"I wanted to work in a school so I could be off the same time he did," she said. "I never left."

Those who retire sometimes have trouble staying away.

Copeland said three former teachers come in every week to make copies for current instructors. Another retired instructor, who left after 30 years, still substitutes.

It also isn't strange to see more than one generation, she said. One retired teacher has grandchildren walking the same hallways. LeHeup has taught two of her three children.

The task of transferring this sense of community into material form fell on science teacher Russel Shaw. So far, he has put together a computer file of old newspaper clippings, interviews with surviving alumni, and classic Burgert Brothers photos, including one with a crowded bike rack harkening back to a time when it was common for students to walk or ride to school.

Temple Terrace Elementary opened in 1955 at the cusp of a huge growth spurt that saw the city's population swell into the thousands. In fact, the school wasn't big enough to handle all the students, Shaw said. Well into the 1960s, students attended classes at the old Woodmont School building near the Temple Terrace Golf & Country Club.

Shaw, who crammed on the project during spring break, said the final version will be converted to DVDs and given out to alumni at the event.

The school's sense of continuity is an advantage, said Hillsborough schools spokesman Mark Hart. When the same people show up year after year, people develop a sense of familiarity that helps socially and academically.

"Everybody has a stake in the school," he said. "It becomes a second home."

Cheri (Brady) Swaim never forgot her time at Temple Terrace Elementary. In 1963, she moved down from Illinois, an 8-year-old stranger in a strange town.

She wrote about it in a letter to event organizers, who sent out notices asking former students to recount their experiences.

"Like most "new kids,' " Swaim wrote in a one-page letter, "I felt awkward and out of place in this new school. I didn't know anyone in my class, and I was shy. I missed my friends."

But Yvonne McKitrick, her fourth-grade teacher, made all the difference, she said. McKitrick shared her own feelings about being a "newbie," and helped a scared youngster adapt.

Her stories about Florida history and "Bubbles," her poodle, "filled our fourth-grade world with knowledge and fun," Swaim wrote.

McKitrick Elementary School in Lutz is named after the veteran educator. Swaim, who lives in King, N.C., won't be at the event. She will be in spirit.

Wrote Swaim, "I've never forgotten Mrs. McKitrick."

Josh Zimmer covers Temple Terrace and the University of South Florida area. He can be reached at 269-5314 or zimmer@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 2, 2005, 10:10:05]