Muncie Says Final Goodbye to Storer Elementary School

To help fix a budget deficit and deal with declining enrollment, Muncie Community Schools closed the doors of three elementary schools this school year. Administrators hope to demolish one of those buildings to make room for a new middle school. So, teachers, parents, and students were given one last chance to say goodbye Wednesday. IPR’s Tony Sandleben joined them at Storer Elementary School.

“It’s been a wonderful school. I don’t know. The kids are great. The culture’s great. It’s just…It’s very sad right now.”

Former Storer instructional assistant DeRonda Alexander worked at the elementary school for 18 years. She and other community members attended an house for one final goodbye to the now-closed school. Alexander said her most lasting memories come from all the years with the Storer students.

“I’ve watched these kids grow up from kindergarten on, and I have a unique job in that I get to see all of the kids all of the time,” she says. “So to watch them from the first day of kindergarten to the fifth grade recognition and know who they are and who their families are and watch them grow up.  And I still see kids all the time and now I see kids that are grown adults and it’s always ‘Hi Mrs. Alexander!’ and they’re such wonderful..they turn into little kids again when they see you which is wonderful.”

Old Storer yearbooks were to look through on Wednesday evening, school pride memorabilia was given away, and everyone got to share memories at an open mic. The school’s Parent Teacher Organization helped organize the open house. But that doesn’t mean everyone is ready to let go of Storer. PTO Treasurer Samantha Lenox simply wants to know why the school board chose to close Storer, especially after she and other parents convinced the board not to do so just two years ago.

The Storer gymnasium was readied in late May for one last 5th grade recognition ceremony. (@Storer_MCS on Twitter)

“Having heard it a second time, it was more of a ‘Why? Why us? Why are we…’ I almost felt targeted because we are a successful school,” Lenox says. “We had been a successful school for many many many years. A lot of people that I had talked to, especially two years ago, had specifically come to our school district to bring their kids to this school. There were a lot of professors that would get hired in at Ball State and it would be recommended that they send their kids to this school, not MCS, to Storer.”

The building was first opened as a middle school in 1959 and was converted to an elementary school in 1988. Muncie Community Schools has deferred maintenance on most of its buildings because of a multi-million dollar budget deficit. According to a report to the school board in January, Storer Elementary School needs $3.2 million in repairs. Of all the district’s elementary schools, only Sutton Elementary needs more deferred maintenance. That building is closing, too, along with Mitchell Elementary.

With a daughter of her own who is still a student at Storer, Lenox said the transition has been emotional.

“She’s sad. We pulled into the school. She’d come with me to help the teachers pack up, and she…we pulled into the parking lot and she said ‘I am sure going to miss this school, Mom.’”

Storer Principal Eric Ambler, meanwhile, wanted people to leave Storer with one thing in mind.

“What these kids take with them, as far as what they have learned and what it means to them, what it has meant to all the kids that came before them and their families, what they take with them is what it means to be a Spartan, and unless you’ve been here, you don’t know what that is.”

Most Storer students will now attend Westview Elementary School. The school board plans to build a new version of Northside Middle School on the Storer property, but the “financially distressed” district doesn’t have the money to do so yet. MCS Superintendent Steve Baule has said that will take a referendum to raise money. A discussion to consider such a move was tabled at a May board meeting until the district’s state-appointed emergency manager is in place.