Individuals ages 7 to 70-plus came together Wednesday to celebrate what was, and what will be at the site of Little Rock School District's McClellan High School.
About 50 people attended the "Passing of the Baton Ceremony" in front of the now-vacant school to pay tribute to what was the home of the Lions for more than 50 years and to herald an $87 million replacement school. That new school is scheduled to open in August 2024 for kindergarten through eighth grades.
"A lot of lives have been transformed in this building," Little Rock School Board member Vicki Hatter said about the school that opened in 1965. "I am looking forward to the future transformations we will make."
The crowd Wednesday included pupils from Cloverdale Middle School and Baseline and Meadowcliff elementary schools. Those schools will be closed and their students assigned to the new school.
McClellan at 9417 Geyer Springs Road was initially a part of the Pulaski County Special School District until it was annexed in 1987 by the Little Rock district in response to a federal order in a school desegregation lawsuit.
The Little Rock district closed the school after the 2019-20 school year in anticipation of the August 2020 opening of Southwest High, which replaced not only McClellan but also J.A. Fair High. The Fair building opened this year as a pre-kindergarten- through-eighth-grade school.
Mike Poore, superintendent of the Little Rock district, said Southwest High is a state-of-the-art school, "and we plan to do the same with this campus -- make it state of the art."
Antwan Phillips, a member of the Little Rock City Board of Directors, an attorney and a 2002 graduate of McClellan, said he was jealous to learn that the new school will have windows -- unlike McClellan.
"It tells you what kind of experience I had at McClellan," he said. "I enjoyed it so much I didn't realize there were no windows -- because I was getting a great education."
Phillips said he is quick to let people know that he is a proud graduate of the school that didn't always have the same prestige as others in the area.
He and other McClellan graduates went on to form in recent years the Friends of McClellan Scholarship Foundation that has awarded about $10,000 in scholarships to McClellan and Southwest High graduates.
"No matter what I accomplish in life, I honestly believe my greatest accomplishment is walking through these halls and graduating from McClellan because it gave me the foundation for what I am today and what I'm going to be tomorrow," he said.
John Brummett, a columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and a member of the Arkansas Writers' Hall of Fame, told the crowd that McClellan and its teachers defined his life and formed his "happy and successful career" as a 50-year newspaper journalist.
Brummett also said that in the late 1960s and into the mid-1970s, McClellan was a modern, sparkling, vibrant, energetic, high-achievement place, and "we were lucky to be here."
"We are sad it is getting ready to come down," he continued. "But for me, that sadness is tempered by the fact that a brand new, sparkling, shiny, state-of-the-art, vital, vibrant, high-performance, high-accomplishment place is getting ready to rise right here for a new generation.
"This ceremony, this baton, is all about joining an old guy from [the class of] 1971 and these folks right here," he said, looking to the pupils.
Sofia Castaneda Guillen, a sixth-grader at Cloverdale, said she expects the new school to feature "some awesome teachers."
Baseline third-graders Elijah Porter and Alexandra Castro put in their pitches for the school mascot -- a tiger and a bear.
Sisters Lakia Mitchell, Latasjsa Mitchell and SemajMitchell from Meadowcliff listed the features that they want to see in the new school, including a smoothie stand and a movie theater along with a nice library, bigger bathrooms, food choices in the cafeteria and science equipment.
Also on hand Wednesday were McClellan alumni, including Margaret Lackey Specht, who was in the school's first graduating class and later returned to teach speech, debate and theater. Susie Minton Roberts, a member of McClellan's inaugural teaching staff, attended. Portia Casey from the class of 2005 and Genine Latrice Perez, the parent of a McClellan graduate, were among the speakers.
Little Rock School District voters in November overwhelmingly approved a plan to extend the levy of 12.4 debt service mills by 19 years as a way to raise about $300 million in new money for construction projects throughout the district, with the priority being the replacement of the McClellan campus.
Besides the new kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school, the extended tax levy will enable the district to finance a new high school in northwest Little Rock and the replacement of portable classrooms and the field house at Central High. Still other projects are auditorium renovations, new roofs and new lighting.
The extended levy will not raise annual property taxes but will require property owners in the district to pay the annual taxes for a longer period, from 2033 when the tax was due to expire to 2052.
Baseline Elementary School Principal Pamela Freeman talks Wednesday with third-graders Alexandra Castro (left) and Elijah Porter before they speak during the Passing of the Baton Ceremony. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Thomas Metthe)Gallery: McClellan HS Passing the Baton
