By Liz Craker | [email protected]

Rolling Meadows Elementary, 2950 Whitehall Drive, will be celebrating the school’s 50th anniversary Nov. 9 from 5 to 8 p.m.

The evening will include an open house, photographs, displays, a building tour, and a program including a student choir, speakers, administration and staff recognitions, a slide show, and games, music, and crafts from the 1970s.

“We wanted to do something to reach out to the community to celebrate our community and our history,” Carol Davis, the school’s instructional coach, said. “We decided that it would be fun to have former staff and students visit to reconnect and celebrate for an evening to honor how long our school has been around,” she added.

“When alumni tour the building, they will get to see how things have changed and grown, and hopefully find some friends along the way they can reminisce with,” Davis said.

Events are planned for the student body in the days leading up to the event. Davis and the staff have scheduled “throwback days” with events that relate to 1972. “For example, the video game Pong was released that year, so we are going to have the students dress up in their favorite video game T-shirt,” Davis explained.

Rolling Meadows is in the west central area of Granite School District. It was built in 1970 to serve the growing population of West Valley. The school serves approximately 428 students from kindergarten through sixth grade. More than 24 languages are spoken among the students here.

“We have a low-income population, and we have a lot of refugee countries represented with limited skills in English or no English at all,” Davis said. She added that the school’s population includes children from Afghanistan, Venezuela, Columbia and various African countries.

According to the school website, the school has a computer lab and one to one Chromebook devices per student. Students spend time practicing computer skills and receiving instruction in math and reading. All classrooms have Smartboards and document cameras. Students promoted from Rolling Meadows will attend Valley Junior High for seventh and eighth grades, and Granger High School for ninth through 12th. 

“The bones of the building are original, and it was dedicated Nov. 9, 1972,” Davis said. “It was originally built with an open classroom concept, but in the early 2000s it was decided to enclose the classrooms.”

Davis has been at the school for 14 years, and in her role of instructional coach, she helps teachers improve their craft in the classroom. She shared that in the past 50 years the school’s demographic has become very diverse.

“There are huge bonuses for the teachers, students, and staff in learning and understanding different cultures and learning about and getting to know different children and families,” Davis said. “And it certainly opened up our lives and knowledge to have a greater understanding and richness to our lives that we wouldn’t have had otherwise.”

She added that no matter where these families come from and what their background is, education is valued. “It is such an important thing to these families,” she said. “We may have different backgrounds and values, but we have a common goal to help these children gain an education and celebrate our history.”