Clow Elementary celebrates 30 years

Indian Prairie Unit District 204 celebrated the 30th anniversary of the district's first elementary school Thursday.

Students, teachers and parents at Robert E. Clow Elementary celebrated during an after-school ceremony featuring cake, an open-house showcasing student work and multimedia presentations by the 2005 and 2010 fifth grade historians.

Clow first opened its doors in 1979, seven years after districts 40, 90 and 182 merged to create Indian Plains Unit District 204.

Robert E. Clow came from a prominent family who owned and operated several farms in the area. He was president of Wheatland Elementary District 40 at the time of the merger.

"It was neat to look back and learn about where we go to school," said fifth-grader Dillon Tartaglia. "We learned lots of cool things about the people who opened the school."

The entire school got in on the act.

Second-graders wrote book reports about books that were popular 30 years ago. Third-graders made family timelines dating back 30 years. Fourth-graders created poem books using the "30 things I love about Clow" or "my teacher was a fourth-grader 30 years ago" theme.

In the gym, students also created a history walk featuring old newspaper clippings, photos from school events through the years and other memorabilia.

"We all enjoyed digging these things up and learning about our school," said Principal Barb Kaufman. "I think we all learned at least one new thing during these projects."

Bingtao Xiang, member of the historians who produced the 2005 to 2010 school history video, said he'd like to come back to watch future classes react to the current time and to see what changes have occurred.

"It'll be cool to be part of the history of the school, and to one day be able to share what I learned," he said.