Students, teachers say farewell to old May Whitney school

The mascot of the old May Whitney Elementary School in Lake Zurich was propped up outside the school Wednesday morning, as parents, children, former students and teachers gathered to take photos before the building’s demolition this summer.

Closed in August 2007, a victim of asbestos and mold, the old May Whitney has been abandoned ever since.

The new May Whitney School is next door at 100 Church St.

But on Wednesday, it was the old school getting all the attention. It received myriad farewells from people with fond memories.

Bus driver Jeff Kuever, who attended May Whitney from 1966-1971, kindergarten through fifth grade, was born and raised in Lake Zurich.

“The community was very small at the time. I graduated high school with the same kids I knew in kindergarten,” Kuever said.

He remembers walking up a flight of stairs from the cafeteria, which was located in the basement of the old building, and he was there when the school got its name.

“When I was in third grade, that was the first time they started naming schools in Lake Zurich,” he recalled. “My class voted on the name and we decided to be called the ‘May Whitney Lakers.’”

Former student Stephanie Weiss lived nearby on Main Street and remembers walking to May Whitney every morning. She attributes her later success in school to the education she got at May Whitney from second through fifth grade, 1998-2001.

“I don’t think I would have been where I was in junior high and high school, and where I am today without the education and help from teachers I received at May Whitney,” Weiss said.

Rocky Kleinschmidt, a teacher who’s been at May Whitney for the past eight years and taught fifth grade at the old location, praised its family- and community-oriented environment.

“I had come to May Whitney from a different school and had never experienced such involved parents and driven children before,” Kleinschmidt said. “The community is unbelievable.”

With the last day of school falling on the same day as the memorial event for the old May Whitney, buses pulled out of the parking lot with current May Whitney students waving goodbye to dedicated teachers and friends, demonstrating a family atmosphere that is still very present at the school.