Loganville-Springfield Elementary
This is a short history of Loganville-Springfield Elementary School. To help with this project, four people who were at the school in its early days, gave their recollections. Hopefully they can give you an idea of what it is and was like at the best elementary school in the Dallastown Area District.
Loganville-Springfield Elementary School opened its doors in the fall of 1954 at its present location. Stumped on the number of students, Mr. Joe Rojahn, the first principal at this school replied, "We had about 14 classrooms there at that time, so say about 30 kids per classroom." That comes out to approximately 420 students attending in the first few years. That number jumped way up to 475 students when the new wing was added in the 1970's, creating eight new classrooms, a spacious library, music and art rooms, and a brand new gym. At present, there are approximately 520 students attending.
Before the newer wing was built, space was somewhat of a problem. The cafeteria, which was called the all-purpose room, doubled as a place to chow down and as a gym. Its stage also helped for the holiday programs. There were no music or art rooms at the beginning of the school's history. "I believe that the teachers came from room to room to teach," said Mrs. Rita Allison, one of the present kindergarten teachers. As for the library, well, the library was something interesting. In the beginning, the school would borrow books from Martin Memorial Library. There were also small libraries in each room. By the early 1960's, Mrs. Mary Kraft, a student then, commented, "We didn't have a library. It was a closet between Mrs. Whitecamp's classroom and the present workroom. You would just walk in and the walls were lined with books. You go in with a classroom of 25 to 30 kids and try to find books." The gym class was held in the all-purpose room. In gym class mostly games were played. There was no tumbling equipment, such as the parallel bars and horse, although there were mats.
Food in the cafeteria has changed very much in the 45 years since Loganville was first built. "There used to be more casseroles and meals like sourkraut and pork," commented Miss Phyllis Stump, the present principal, and former teacher at Loganville-Springfield. Now the cafeteria staff makes more things like sandwiches and chicken patties, things with less fat and that are more healthy. "Mrs. Beula Godfrey was the head cook and she had pretty good meals for school food. We had a lot of macarone and chesse and things like that," quoted Mr. Rojahn.
There were no computers in the school in the numbers they have now, until relatively recently. Mrs. Allison answered,"No, we didn't have computers. We had booklets that had worksheets that we would copy with a copying machine." At the beginning, there wasn't a full time secretary. In the earlier days of the school, a duplicating machine was used. "Some teachers did their own [typing]. I did a lot of it myself," said Mr. Rojahn. In the school today, some worksheets are copied, but now with the increase of computers, more and more of the work is done on computers.
Of course, the curriculum is a big part of Loganville. The elementary curriculum is a process approach. The students are actively involved, do plenty of hands-on activities. An example of this is Reading and Writing Workshop. In every school day students read and write on a daily basis. "Actually we want the student to feel like they are writers, or mathematicians, or scientists," explained Miss Stump. The curriculum has always been similar to what it is now. It's always been traditional in that there is reading and math, the sciences, and social studies, which includes history and geography. To top them all off are the music and art classes. The teaching style has flip-flopped a little bit. In the beginning of the school's history, each teacher taught all of the major subjects. In a decade or town, the teachers began to specialize into teams. There would be one teacher per subject, and students were in levels of ability. Recently it went back to the way that it was originally.
If you've taught there, you know that everyday is an adventure. "It's a great place to be, the students are always coming up with stuff. It's a great student body," says Miss Stump. There are two stories that were shared. One year a big ice storm knocked out the power and the heaters. The students got to go home early that day because it was so cold. One strange story has happened this year. A fifth grader got bitten by a snake while out at recess, but the student didn't tell anybody about it till the second recess. That must shaked a few people.
This small history is just a portion of this wonderful elementary school. In the near future of Loganville, the school board plans to add an addition to the school, with the growing demand of classroom space. As can be seen in this report, a lot of things have changed over the past 45 years. But there is one thing that I am certain has stayed very much the same. The quality of teaching has always been the best.
