Smith Elementary School students uncover their roots

The quest to learn when Smith Elementary School opened led students on a learning adventure that revealed long forgotten historical facts about the school. The students captured all these details and created a display of historical photos and newspaper clippings, which are now on display at the school.

With the help of information specialist Heather Majorwitz, who assisted the fifth grade students from Dr. Sheri Sedovic’s fifth grade class and Martha Sommer’s sixth grade class in collecting information, they soon learned that the school opened in September 1952 and had its opening ceremony on Jan. 24, 1953. Knowing this, the faculty and students plan on celebrating their 61st anniversary on or around Jan. 24.

“We learned that Smith’s mascot used to be the koala bear (now we are the bulldogs),” Majorwitz said.

The students also learned that the Americans took over the post in 1951 and that President and Mrs. Clinton came to Baumholder in 1995.

“We also learned that the library was an addition to the school and that there used to be classes in Quonset huts or in housing basements,” she said.

The students also discovered that the first year the school was open, six eighth-graders received diplomas.
“It was fascinating,” Majorwitz said.

Along the way, the fifth and sixth grade students from Smith Elementary School also learned the difference between primary and secondary sources, if they were credible and if they helped answer the question on everyone’s mind of when the school opened. As they delved into the school’s past, the students also uncovered numerous pictures and nuggets of information about Capt. Harold D. Smith, the man for whom the school is named.

Majorwitz and the students utilized technology and good old fashioned interviews to gather their data. They talked to teachers who have taught at Smith Elementary School for many years, scoured the USAG Baumholder website, explored newspaper digital archives, connected on Facebook with past residents and surfed the Web to uncover long forgotten facts about the school.