Alice Gustafon celebrates its 50th

Mark Allen was a third-grade student when Batavia's Alice Gustafson School opened in 1957.

Since then, four additions have been built at the southwest side elementary school, and Allen's four daughters have been students there.

"We didn't know how much better it was going to get," Allen said Sunday as he looked around the school building. "The credit I give to this place is the emphasis on writing skills. My kids' writing skills are exceptional."

The school celebrated its 50th anniversary Sunday with teachers, parents and students, past and present, getting together and remembering the school's history.

Like Allen, many Alice Gustafson students have grown up and sent their own children to the school.

"I thought one of the best things was having the kids of kids," said Kathy Bratcher, who taught physical education at the school from 1972 to 2005.

Chris Miller of Batavia has been teaching first grade at the school for 27 years and said her own children and daughter-in-law all attended Gustafson.

"I love the people that I teach with and the families I have come to know," Miller said. "It's great to see former students who are now teachers or doctors."

Mary Jane McFee taught reading and gifted students from 1972 to 1991, and lived within walking distance of the school.

"A couple of times, when we had bad snowstorms, I took a couple teachers home for the night," McFee remembers.

She still enjoys meeting her now grown-up students.

"One of them came up to me and said, 'Did you used to be Mrs. McFee?' I said, 'I still am,'" McFee said, laughing.

Barbara Kalina's six children all attended the school.

"There was at least one Kalina here from 1966 to 1983," she said. "It's really a good, good place for kids to go to school."

Enrollment at the school is now around 440 students, Principal Sandy Miller said. There are also roughly 35 certified faculty and about 20 support staff members.

The school was named for the member of a prominent Batavia family who taught school in the district for 40 years.

Miller is the school's fifth principal. The first was the late Walter Lamberton, and the second was the late Dorothy Lowe.

Al McCloud, now the school district's assistant superintendent for elementary education, was the third principal, followed by Sam Palamara, who later opened the Hoover-Wood School and has since left the district.

Miller became principal in 2001.

"People have a lot of affection for this place," Miller said. "That makes it easy to learn."

McFee taught at the school when Lowe was principal.

"She set the tone here," McFee said of Lowe. "It was a real high level of learning."

Janice Blevins of St. Charles taught fifth grade at Gustafson from 1964 to 1998, and still stays in contact with many of her teaching colleagues.

"This was really great today. It was like going into the past," Blevins said.