“Study hard and make something of yourself.” What school kid hasn’t heard this challenge by teachers, counselors, pastors and parents? It appears the students at Little Rock’s Forest Park Elementary take the challenge to heart. Many of its alumni — including Historic Arkansas Museum director Bill Worthen, retired Arkansas Democrat-Gazette executive editor Griffin Smith, conservationist and Dunbar Garden founder Pratt Remmel Jr., former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, advertising executive Leslie Heizman, and Columbia University instructor and NBC special correspondent Chelsea Clinton — have grown up to become business, education and community leaders.
Built in 1913 at the end of a trolley line in a suburban area of Little Rock, Forest Park — at 1600 N. Tyler St. — has a lively legacy of attendance by generations of families. On the occasion of its 100th anniversary, the school will bring together former students, teachers, staff members and supporters for a multi-generational celebration Friday, Oct. 26.
The event is a vision of Forest Park principal Theresa Courtney-Ketcher, says party chair Lauri Allison. “She wanted this to be a blowout year. We want alumni from A-Z — every age group, every decade — to attend.”
It will start with a reunion at the school — decorated with memorabilia — from 5-7 p.m., with free admission. Then the party will move to the River Market for Light the Night Centennial Celebration from 7:30-11 p.m., with music by Memphis Soul Review. Tickets are $50 per person.
Allison, a longtime volunteer at the school, is a former teacher at Martin Luther King Elementary. She and her husband Will Allison, an attorney, are the parents of Phillips, who attended Forest Park and is now a seventh grader at Our Lady of the Holy Souls School, and Collier, a Forest Park fourth grader.
As president-elect of Forest Park’s PTA, Allison has served on just about every committee the school has to offer. “My pride and joy is that I’ve run the Art in the Park auction, which raises a ton of money, for eight years,” she says.
The school is special, she says, because it’s “very loving. People are passionate about it. The parent involvement is amazing. Nobody could have as many volunteers as we have. It’s one big happy family.”
PTA president Sarah Cook agrees. “I was raised in a small town and attended the only elementary school we had. Although I loved the idea of raising my family in Little Rock, I was saddened that my children would miss out on the small-town experience. Then I walked the oldest of my three children to Forest Park in August 2006. To my amazement, there were strollers, bikes, dogs, parents and children everywhere. The principal, Mrs. Ketcher, was greeting each child by name.”
The neighborhood supports the school wholeheartedly — many houses display signs that proclaim “A Proud Supporter of Forest Park Elementary Lives Here.” It helps that the school is among the top 25 achieving elementary schools in Arkansas based on Arkansas Comprehensive Testing, Assessment and Accountability Program mathematics and literacy scores for 2011-2012.
The centennial party is more than a social occasion — it’s a fundraising effort. “We want the PTA and the centennial committee to raise $100,000 to give back to the school,” Allison says. “I’ve come up with sponsorship levels to help raise money. We’re doing things like selling prints of a painting of the school by artist Barry Thomas [the original painting will be for sale at the next Art in the Park auction in April] and Christmas ornaments with the school logo from Painted Pig in the Heights — there are all sorts of ways to make money.”
Funds raised will address the school’s wish list of immediate needs, she says. Among the biggest long-term challenges Forest Park faces is one that most public schools seldom encounter: “We have more students who want to come here than we can handle,” Allison says. “We’re almost to 500 now. There’s a waiting list for pre-K, for kindergarten; even the upper grades are at capacity. We need more classrooms. People are buying houses specifically to go to this school.”
Forest Park, says Cook, “is a perfect balance of excellence in education, social development and personal growth. Our children are confident, secure and loved. Our neighborhood has been blessed with 100 years of Forest Park Elementary. I look forward to sitting on my porch and watching many more generations pass by as they gather at our jewel of a school hidden in the heart of Little Rock.”
Light the Night Centennial Celebration
Ticket information: Email Lauri Allison or visit the school’s PTA website.