Bickley memories return with new building

link Staff photo: Aubry Buzek

Clovis Municipal Schools Deputy Superintendent of Operations Carrie Bunce said “great pains were taken” to give the face of the new James Bickley Elementary School building a similar look to the old one.

On Sept. 2, 1947 — the day classes began at the new James Bickley Elementary School — the Clovis News-Journal reported a special visitor took great pains just to lay eyes on it.

“James M. Bickley, 65-year-old veteran Clovis educator from whom the new north side grade school was named, was taken from Clovis Memorial Hospital where he has been critically ill for several months, and driven in an ambulance to 14th and Merriweather for a glimpse of the modern, new building which bears his name,” the article said.

Bickley died the next year.

Though its beauty persisted through the years, the nearly 70-year-old Bickley building will be demolished in less than a month as the new school built behind it is nearing 98 percent completion.

“To me the biggest thing that stands out about that school, and I think the one that hurts people the most about it being torn down, is the appearance of it, the architecture of it,” said Clovis Municipal Schools Deputy Superintendent of Operations Carrie Bunce. “Because a lot of our schools, if you look at the fronts of our schools, they don’t look like that. … It is a beautiful building — and it’s a piece of Clovis history because it’s been here so long.”

While the first feature that hits you is the ornate front entrance, Carol Nash, who taught third grade at the school in 1964, said the architecture impacted the number of students she was assigned in her class.

“The hallways seemed to be awfully long and my room was … the last room on the left,” Nash said. “It was not rectangle shape, it was odd shape because of how the building is built so my room wasn’t as large, so they would give me about 22 kids.”

Nash said one of her funny memories from the school involved the students “milk breaks” in the afternoon. Nash said the milk cartons were kept in a cooler close to the front office until a student would take a laundry basket to fetch the cartons for the class.

“I forgot to send the milk basket once with the kid and sent him to get the milk,” Nash said. “Here he came back with his arms loaded with milk and the principal, Mr. (Dave) St. Clair was right behind him with his arms full too.”

“He asked me, “Don’t you have a basket to carry the milk cartons in?’ And I said yes sir, and to say the least I never forgot to send the milk basket again.”

Former student Larry Cantwell attended the school from 1950 to 1956, and his mother worked as a teacher there for more than 20 years. He said he has “good, fond memories” of the school, and remembers roller skating more than a mile to get there, playing football on the east side of the building before class began, and the playground that went all the way back to the back of the property.

Over the years the school board approved several additions to the building and a $600,000 overhaul renovation in the early 1980s, but a few years ago the district decided it was time to re-evaluate whether the building still met the needs of the students.

The new $16.4 million school will be completed on time in June, about $1.6 million under budget, but the frugality that saved the taxpayers money did not come at the expense of thoughtful design.

The new building retained some of the architectural touches that gave the original building its character — the art deco designs on the door, the retro font that displays its name above the doors, and the grand pillars just inside the entrance.

But when you step inside the building, innovations in design bring the building into the 21st century.

Polished concrete floors are both beautiful and cheaper to maintain, automatic sinks and hand dryers use less waste, and skylights minimize the use of artificial lighting, which in the case of James Bickley are new energy efficient LED lights. The school now boasts a second story, and the playgrounds look appealing for any age.

Aesthetics aside, the new building simply provides a better space for teachers to maximize learning, and Bunce said technology is a major component in the structure of the new building.

Two state-of-the-art computer labs replace modified classrooms in the old building, and the space is built to 326 student capacity.

“You have to look at what is the best decision for the students of the future,” Bunce said. “And will this school meet the kids future needs as well as a new facility would. … Because ultimately — yes, it’s a beautiful building — yes, it’s a beautiful piece of architecture. But is it meeting the needs of the students to the best possibility?”

“That’s what its purpose is — to educate kids,” Bunce continued. “And so that has to be the decision that all this is made on, is what’s best for kids.”

Bunce said for the students who will be attending James Bickley this fall, it is an exciting time to go to a new school.

“Because it is new, it’s going to be cool, it has an elevator, it’s two stories, it’s something that they’ve never had,” Bunce said. “And it’s just beautiful inside — so to them, I think it’s going to be more exciting because they don’t have that hold to the past, they don’t have that kind of attachment like adults do.”