Remembering Dorrisville's school
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The last of the old Dorrisville School has been reduced to rubble. The gym was gone and the building's addition was being demolished Monday as the owners prepare the four lots for a trailer.
Kevin Heaton and Carolyn Reed have owned the property about a year and have watched the old school rapidly fall into disrepair. A hole opened in the gymnasium.
Reed who began the school in third grade in 1971 used the school as a dwelling in 2008 to 2009. Heaton, now her boyfriend, was in sixth grade at that time.
"The stage was right there. It was my living room," Reed said.
"It was neat living on the stage I used to do Christmas plays on."
The building would have been too costly to repair, Reed said. After she moved out in 2009 the owner offered it to her for $10 and she bought it for the sake of the lots.
Heaton's boss at a trucking company, Todd Church, offered to tear the building down to make way for the trailer, Reed said.
Lodema Sisk graduated eighth grade at the school in 1942 and taught at the school for 20 years. She taught four years and six months before staying home to care for her daughters for nine years, then returned to teaching.
"My first four-and-a-half years there the curriculum was compartmentalized and I taught reading and English. When I went back the second time I taught sixth grade," Sisk said.
She believes the school graduated many talented kids who went on to become leaders in their communities.
"I loved them. I did. They were just like kids anywhere else, good kids with a desire to learn. And like any, there were problem kids, ones whose homes were not like they were supposed to be, but they got a good education," Sisk said.
When she attended school the principal was C.M. Hines, an imposing figure.
"As a first grade girl he looked so gruff, a Harry Taylor type," Sisk said.
Taylor was the principal of Harrisburg Township High School whose reputation for strict order survives today and for whom Taylor Field was named.
When Sisk taught she worked for Principal Brose Phillips.
"He was a very strict, stern man. But when I started teaching with him he was such a sweet gentleman. I loved him," Sisk said.
Sisk's father, Roby Ferrell, served on the Dorrisville school board in 1940 when the gym was built.
The school was later named Phillips School by the Parent-Teacher Association in honor of Phillips. Bill McNew was the final principal of the school who then became principal of West Side School after the Phillips School closed.
"He was an excellent principal, too. His room was right next to mine. He was strict, too. We've had some stern principals in our school and they contributed to the success of our students," Sisk said.
When the school unified with Harrisburg schools in 1980 Sisk worked her final three years at West Side School before retiring. Every Sunday she remembers her years at the school when she drives past it on the way to Dorrisville Baptist Church.
She is hoping to get a souvenir brick from the school. She taught for one year at Dorris Heights School and it was torn down in recent years. She regrets not having gotten a brick from that school.
As Heaton and Reed were working with the crews demolishing and make preparations for the trailer, across the street in the yard of Ron Potts were Ed Miller, Jim Dunn and Larry Fulkerson. They were reminiscing about the old school and their experiences in Dorrisville. Dunn and Fulkerson attended the school and Miller remembered playing basketball there when he attended Liberty School.
Memories of school principals are hard to shake, especially those who received discipline.
Strong in the memories of Dunn and Fulkerson was "Oral" the name bestowed on the paddle made by the father of Oral Jackson, a woodsmith. The paddle had holes in it for increased aerodynamics.
"Miss Lindsey had it. She named it Oral," Dunn said.
He said at one point someone stole the paddle, but until then Oral was granted great respect by the student body.
Dunn said he remembers about the hour of noon the pupils seemed to have high energy and would be chatting and rowdy. That behavior stopped when they heard footsteps on the floor above them. Those were the footsteps of Phillips, and the room quieted down.
Though Phillips was an imposing, Fulkerson believes he was a good principal.
"He was fair," Fulkerson said.
Dunn said in about the year 1953 the school created a kindergarten program that Dunn resented. He was looking forward to achieving fifth grade because that was the first year he could take shop. But the shop class was turned into a kindergarten class and shop was discontinued.
Fulkerson has a memory of taking inoculations at the school that continues to haunt him.
"Remember how they lined you up like cattle to take shots?" he said.
"I'm scared of shots to this day."
Dunn remembered one boy passing out before the needle got to him.
"I used to wish I could have fainted," Fulkerson said.
Dunn attended school from 1945 to 1953. Fulkerson attended from 1936 to 1944.
Both believe the school prepared them for high school and their careers.
"When it came time to write, we knew how to write," Fulkerson said.
Fulkerson remembered well his second grade teacher Ruby Morse who became Ruby Woodruff.
"When I was a kid I thought she was the prettiest woman I ever saw," Fulkerson said.
Miller remembers being dazzled coming to Dorrisville School from Liberty School.
"When we came here I thought it was the biggest school," Miller said.
The men stood around a trailer that contained two cornerstones, one for the gym that was built in 1940 and one for the addition built in 1959. Heaton allowed Potts to take the cornerstones for preservation and Miller and Dunn, volunteers for the Saline County Historical Society, were taking them to be displayed at the Saline Creek Pioneer Village and Museum.