Red brick building’s closing ends centuries-long history of education
On Thursday, students walked out of the “red brick building,” most recently known as Butler Middle School, for the last time.
Every summer, generations of students have walked out of the building that functioned as a senior high school, a junior high school and finally a middle school starting in 2015 during its century-long history.
Tracey Fritz Ewing moved to Butler in seventh grade. She went to seventh and eighth grade in 1973-1975, when the school was made up of two brick buildings, one red and the other yellow.
Fritz Ewing said she was sad to hear the school was closing because she appreciates its look and its history. Fritz Ewing retains some good memories of the challenges of going to such a packed school.
“It’s sad because that's such an old building, and it's got character,” Fritz Ewing said. “When the bell rang, those halls were crammed, and I had to go from the third-floor yellow to third-floor red, so I never made it to math class on time. I was always a little late.”
According to Butler Area School District superintendent Brian White, administrators decided to close the building due to declining enrollment and because the cost of maintaining it is too expensive. The district is constructing an addition to Butler Senior High School to house ninth-grade students, to shuffle the students who would attend the middle school.
Instead of moving on to a different school for fifth and sixth grade, students instead will stay at their elementary school for one extra year, and move on to Butler Intermediate High School for sixth grade.
Staff members of the middle school are being reassigned to other positions within the district, including principal Josh Hundertmark, who will be the new principal at Emily Brittain Elementary School.
Hundertmark said the closing of the school is bittersweet for him because of his personal history with it.
“It’s interesting for me because I started teaching here, and then I became a principal,” Hundertmark said. “There is a lot of history in this building.”
White said administrators are evaluating ideas for the future of the building.
Steve Cicero started teaching history at the building in 1978 when it was a junior high school and said the facility has housed several grade levels over the years. Additionally, there was a high school adjacent to the building, known as the “yellow brick building,” which was torn down in the 1980s.
Aside from the building’s long-standing history, Cicero said the staff is what made it a special place to work and learn.
“It was a great building to work in; great staff, very much a family atmosphere through all my time there,” he said.
Hundertmark said the building’s transition from a junior high school to a middle school brought with it some planning and aesthetic changes.
“When they converted it to a middle school, they made it more elementary-friendly,” Hundertmark said. “They put the bookshelves a little lower, got some smaller desks.”
Lynne Hasychak, secretary at Butler Middle School, said the efforts the staff undertook to make the building home gives her a somber feeling about its ultimate closure.
“Every single teacher here was great,” Hasychak said. “They tried and they made it work, and that’s what makes us a little sad.”
Hasychak attended school in the building when it was a junior high school. She said her parents went there when it was a senior high school. She said the hallways were much fuller during her time at the school.
“When I graduated from here, there were 1,000 people in my class,” Hasychak said. “That’s a lot lower now.”
According to Hundertmark, the most recent fifth-grade class had the lowest enrollment in the school’s history at a little over 370 students.
Despite the drop in enrollment, Hundertmark said the building is “a solid structure” that has not sat idle since its construction in the early 1900s.
The school is being emptied by its soon-to-be-former staff, with classrooms wiped of almost any decoration or personality created by their home teachers. The pool has been drained, and the cafeteria kitchen has been emptied, but art from students still hangs on many walls throughout the building.
Fritz Ewing said she remembers using the pool and the home economics classrooms in the red brick building.
“We used to have to wear bathing caps in the pool, which was kind of dorky,” she said. “Sometimes when we left the home ec classroom, we would turn the burners on all the way and leave them for the next class.”
Around the hallways and classrooms of the school now are leftover supplies owned by the school and the district, which will be distributed to the other schools as needed.
“There is a spreadsheet with all the supplies listed,” Hundertmark said. “Some of it will go to the other schools, and the leftovers will be sold.”
Al Vavro, president of the school board, said at a hearing about the middle school May 31 that the cost of maintaining the building is better spent elsewhere.
“I would much more like to see money put into education, not into buildings,” Vavro said. “That building has served us well ... It just is time.”
Hasychak was one of the few people in the building Tuesday, organizing supplies and paperwork before her transition to working at Butler Senior High School. While walking around the empty halls, Hasychak said she will remember the building’s eccentricities fondly.
“This building is beautiful,” Hasychak said. “And just look at how long it has lasted.”
