Apr. 20, 2024 12:50p
(WGTD)---A series of commemorations designed to pay homage to the histories and past and present students and staff of Kenosha Unified schools that are about to be either closed or repurposed will continue next week.
An open house will be held Tuesday evening at Washington Middle School. That building has been either a junior high or middle school since it opened 105 years ago. Next fall, the school's enrollment will be transferred to what currently is the Edward Bain School of Language and Art.
An open house was held last week at Lincoln Middle School, a 95-year-old school that'll soon become home to the Kenosha School of Technology Enhanced Curriculum, or KTEC for short.
One of the oldest if not the oldest alumnus to tour the school was 89-year-old John Valaske, a student between 1947 and 1950.
With a memory as sharp as a tack, the former UW-Parkside administrator didn't need to walk the halls to jog lose memories. Relaying stories in a classroom where he took a math course, Valaske explained that back then students were very publicly assigned numbers based on their perceived abilities and then were grouped together. "Now of course you couldn't have that, but that's the way it was," Valaske said.
Valaske also spoke of taking an elective that taught him how to operate a printing press, much to the chagrin of some who thought he should take Latin like other college-bound classmates.
Last Thursday's open house at Lincoln drew a huge crowd.
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