TERRE HAUTE —
As she parks her car at Chauncey Rose Middle School, sixth-grade teacher Julia Foltz-Pelham asks two students to carry boxes to her classroom.
“Thanks,” she tells the students as she collects her purse and a folder from her car. She then lets out a sigh, knowing Thursday would be was the last day students would ever attend Chauncey Rose, a school that is closing.
“I am very sad the school is closing,” said Foltz-Pelham, the senior staff member at the school with 25 years of teaching.
“The people that work here are like a family. The students are loving, caring kids who have the least to give but the most heart, and they give when they have nothing to give,” Foltz-Pelham said.
In the afternoon, Foltz-Pelham gave a graduation address, receiving a standing ovation.
“Remember Chauncey Rose with wonderful memories and loving thoughts,” she said. “No one can take our memories away from us. We will always be a Royal because we are CR.”
Kelly Fiddler pulled her van up to the main school entrance. Her seventh-grade daughter and eight-grade son, Sapphire and Eric Fiddler, stepped out to attend their last day at the school.
“The last day is great, as no more taking them to school,” Kelly Fiddler said. “But, it is not great as it is the last day here. The kids are real upset about it. They don’t want to leave. My daughter has to go to another school next year. She has been in three schools now, since we moved up here,” near the school.
“She has some friends who have already gone to another school. Then she didn’t know what school she wanted to go to, either Otter Creek or Woodrow Wilson. She finally decided on Otter Creek, but that [decision] took forever. She just figured it out not too long ago,” her mother said.
Her son will attend Terre Haute North Vigo High School as a freshman next year. “My son is graduating, so not as big a deal for him, but he will miss Chauncey Rose anyway,” Fiddler said. “He is in the choir and wore the red and gold for their last choir performance last week and a lot of the teachers and parents were crying.”
Jean Penry, guardian of Tyler Gambill, had the eighth-grade student stand next to the CRMS Royals sign for a photograph as she dropped him off for the start of the school day.
“He has been here since October and it has been his favorite school and he is not ready to go or for the year to end. It has been a very good school,” Penry said.
As he has done for the past five years, technology teacher William Latta greeted incoming students while wearing a sign around his neck. The difference this time, his message is short, with a tinge of finality.
The sign reads, “It has been great!! Good Bye!!
“I didn’t have anything else to say today. I thought, hey, one last time,” Latta said.
He started to wear the sign shortly after he started teaching at the school. Then, students would walk silently by, even though he would say hello. It was, he recalled, “as if I didn’t exist. I decided I had to do something to get their attention. The sign usually says good morning at the top, then it has a question of the day.
“Then there are four answers to it. If they get it right, they would get a paw pass, which they can turn in for some value at different events we have at the school,” Latta said. “There have been over 900 questions of the day in the five years I have been here. I think they [students and nearby residents] may not miss us today, but next year when they come down that street and there is nobody going to school here, they will miss it.”
Student prepare to move on
Eighth-grade students Hanna Petty and Shannon Berry each wore dresses for their last day and graduation from Chauncey Rose.
“It is very depressing,” Petty said.”I knew they were going to close Chauncey, but didn’t think it would be so upsetting. There years being here, it is just ...” She stopped talking, then resumed. “It is sad. I will probably look back on all the memories and just miss it here.”
“There are some people we will not see because they will got to [Terre Haute] South [Vigo High School],” Berry said. “I won’t see my favorite teacher, Mr. [Billy] Blundell, a math teacher, who is going to Woodrow Wilson. I love math,” Berry added.
Meg Merrill, dean of students at Chauncey Rose, has seen the student population dwindle since her son and daughter attended the school, the last eight years ago. The student popuation was 672 in 1999, but dipped to about 569 five years ago and plunged to 242 this year.
“Many of the students have already gone to other schools so they can have three years in the same school,” Merrill said. “This entire year has been very different, with splitting a principal,” as Chauncey Rose principal Greg Gauer is also principal at Sarah Scott Middle School.
“The teachers never missed a beat and it is because of them the school year went so smoothly,” Merrill added.
Chauncey Rose had 96 eighth-graders graduate Thursday, to be the final “Royals” to do so. Eighth-graders had lunch just before their graduation. The last menu for students was corn dog nuggets or pizza.
Other students are preparing for next year to transition into a new school, either Woodrow Wilson Middle School or Otter Creek Middle School.
Nathan DeSue, 14; Hannah Ketner, 13; and Parker Greiner, 13, will each attended Otter Creek Middle School next year as eighth-graders.
“I will miss most of the teachers, especially [Kelly] Brentlinger,” DeSue said. “She is nice and understands us. I was kinda shocked when they said the school would close.”
Ketner said she remembers taking a lot of photographs in the gymnasium for fun with students and posted them to Facebook. “I cried when I heard it was closing down. I was like, no!” Ketner said.
“I like the atmosphere at Chauncey and the friends,” Greiner said. “I will miss Mrs. [Linda] Potts. She was so nice to us.”
DeSue said Otter Creek “will have a lot more people,” plus the colors will be purple and gold, instead of red and white. “I love purple,” he added.
Ketner said she plans to try out to be a cheerleader at Otter Creek, while Greiner will tryout for basketball. In one word, each described their experience at Chauncey Rose. “Amazing,” Ketner said. “Magnificant,” DeSue said. “Suspenseful,” Greiner said adding, “I don’t know, it is pretty crazy at Chauncey Rose.”
Final graduation
The school’s final graduation came 1:30 p.m.
David Joseph attended to see his oldest son, Dennis, graduate. His son will attend Terre Haute North Vigo High School next year.
“I went to Chauncey Rose and my wife went to Chauncey Rose. I hate to see it close, but I understand. You can’t run a building when it is half-empty,” Joseph said. “It makes me feel old that is for sure,” said the 47-year-old. “Time goes pretty fast.”
His youngest son, Quinten, will attend Otter Creek Middle School next year.
Joseph, a 1983 graduate of Terre Haute North Vigo High School, attended Chauncey Rose when it was a junior high with seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders, instead of a missle school with sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.
Brian Archer attended to watch his girlfriend’s daughter graduate.
“I played basketball here from seventh to ninth grades,” Archer said, adding he was disappointed in the school having to close. “I have a lot of memories here. I remember gym class was the funnest. I got whacked with a badminton racquet in my mouth right there,” he said, pointing to a section of the basketball floor. “At least the gym will stay here, which is good for the community.”
“I had good teachers and one is still here, Ms. Foltz, who is now Mrs. Foltz-Pelham,” Archer added.
Shawn Barnhart attended to watch her eighth-grade twins, Amanda and Jared Johnson, graduate. “I am not happy Chauncey Rose is closing, but what can you do? This is a good school and my kids have excelled here.”
Barnhart said she has misgivings about her three younger children attending a new school. “I went to Otter Creek, and I am scared they will get lost in the background there,” she said.
Students were allowed to take some memories of the school with them in the form of former track, basketball, cheerleading and other uniforms.
Art teacher Edward Holloman had 20 students work on a project that will be permanently displayed in the school’s gym. The painting has a rendering of the school’s front entrance, with dates of 1972 to 2012, along with words against a blue sky.
“I asked students to come up with a word, one that would embody all of the students who have ever attended Chauncey Rose,” Holloman said. “They came up with words like ‘dedication,’ ‘honesty,’ ‘scholarship,’ ‘diversity,’ ‘pride.’
“And I had to put royal in there, because, we, of course, are C.R.,” he said.
Reporter Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.
About Chauncey Rose school
• Chauncey Rose was closed for declining enrollment, from 672 in 1999 to 242 students this year.
• Chauncey Rose Middle School was established in August 1993 to house sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students.
• Before 1993, Chauncey Rose was a junior high school for seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade students. The junior high school building was completed in July 1972.
• The 8.99-acre school site was first used for the Rose Polytechnic Institute, founded in January 1875. The site was later used for the former Gerstmeyer Technical High School, which closed in June 1971.
• The Gertsmeyer gymnasium and related arts building still stand on the campus.
• The school is named after 19th century Terre Haute philanthropist Chauncey Rose.
News
Related Photos
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The last procession: Chauncey Rose Middle School sixth and seventh-grade students watch as eighth-grade students walk in a graduation ceremony Thursday at the school. (Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza)
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Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza Forever Royal: When it was a junior high school, class rings were made for the students of Chauncey Rose Middle School.
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Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza From days gone by: A Chauncey Rose Junior High School beanie is on display in one of the display cases at the school.
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Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza Well dressed last day: Chauncey Rose Middle School eighth-grader Darius Brown, 14, wears an old Chauncey Rose band jacket as he goes through the lunch line Thursday during the school's last day.
Discussion
The closing of Chauncey Rose
School’s final day a sad one
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