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Thursday
March 28th, 2024

mcdermott receptionLocal residents peruse through pictures of events at McDermott Elementary at a special reception at the closing of the school. Long-time prinicpal Kathy Fitzgerald shared her memories of the school and the students who passed through. L&T file photo/Elly GrimmELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times

 

McDermott Elementary School has been part of the Liberal community for many years, with its halls seeing many young minds pass through as students and some even returning later as teachers and staff. 

Monday evening, however, the USD 480 school board unanimously approved a motion for the building to be demolished, having been vacant since 2016. 

“I was very sad, it was hard to just leave the building. My dad even went to school there,” Gena Hampton, who taught first grade at McDermott and currently a first grade teacher at Prairie View Elementary School, said. “I wasn't really surprised because there were a lot of things in the building that had issues, it was an old building. But it was still sad to hear because I spent 20 years of my career there and I saw a lot of ups and downs and everything else while there.”

“There was such a passion in that building from everyone and everyone was so great to work with. It's going to be bittersweet seeing it come down because there is all that attachment and we went from being a school without a booster club to being a school with one of the most active parent groups in the community, so all those memories are there for everyone,” former McDermott Principal Kathy Fitzgerald added. “It's said knowing the building will come down because there are so many who went through that school and there were so many changes, but I understand why the board did what it did because it was a promise that was part of the bond project campaign.”

McDermott Elementary School was opened in 1925 as Southside School and had one teacher and 30 students, eventually growing to much larger numbers. A petition had been submitted to, and then granted by, the school board at that time for a new school to be built. 

“Upon the petition’s success, superintendent Napoleon Bonaparte Mahuron asked Mary Frame if she would consider teaching at this new school. Frame accepted the position, and ended up teaching at McDermott Elementary School for more than 30 years, working with many students during her tenure at the school,” local historian Lidia Hook-Gray said at the school’s farewell ceremony back in 2016. “After some time, a request came to change the name from Southside to McDermott. Then during the 1930s, Liberal was experiencing the effects of the Great Depression, dust storms, even tornadoes, which all took a toll on people’s finances and morale. Through this dark time, however, an amazing accomplishment took place – the children, teachers and parents took donations, sometimes one penny at a time, to purchase an entire city block. After this was purchased, the land was deeded to the city as a park for everyone to enjoy across from the school. This park was eventually named Mary Frame Park.”

Overall, both Hampton and Fitzgerald agreed, there were many happy memories in that building. 

“Mostly the students and their parents because it was a great experience helping parents learning about everything that was going on at the school and being an advocate for their students. I've also seen diversity change throughout the years because when I started, most of my students weren't English speakers and that's completely different now since we're working with third and fourth-generation family members,” Hampton said. “I really liked just about every aspect of teaching at McDermott because it was a great family type atmosphere and everyone was so wonderful to work for. I also remember when we had a Mr. Douglass as principal, we had some type of challenge and ultimately he got slimed because he lost that particular thing. Then I had a trio of boys who I called the Three Amigos and we had a lot of Cinco de Mayo parties. We also had trees planted for Levi Foreman, Kaiser Carlile and another boy named Caleb who passed away after an accident in front of the school.”

Even with the bittersweet feeling of hearing the announcement of a beloved building being demolished, both Fitzgerald and Hampton agreed they understood the school board’s decision, and both expressed hope for the site to be used for something for local children in the near future. 

“There's a lot of memories in that building from a lot of people who went through it. I knew from the beginning of the bond project campaign there was a high probability McDermott would be torn down and there's actually a cornerstone in there that has my great-grandfather's name on it and I would like to approach the district sometime soon and see if I could save that particular cornerstone and save that bit of family history,” Fitzgerald said. “Overall, there's just a lot of memories and attachment. It was a school that, for a time, wasn't doing very well and we all worked really hard to build that better reputation and make sure our students walked out with a great education.”

“We also had a lot of celebrations and parties like when we reached our 100th day of school and always did something special for that, or when the students did really well on the state tests we'd always recognize them somehow,” Hampton added. “I would say probably the biggest change was the size of the building and remembering the people who went through there. Even here at Prairie View, we had to change some of the boundaries again and we lost quite a few students we'd come to know and had taught for a long time. The thing that was most special about the school though is still the students and teachers, I still have former students coming up to me and talking to me about my time as their teacher. ”