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Davis School District has witnessed a century of change, from trolley cars to yellow school buses and chalk boards to computer-powered Smart Boards.
On Sunday, the district marked its 100th birthday. And since a centennial only comes around once, well, every 100 years, Davis plans to extend the festivities throughout the upcoming school year. The district has created a website devoted to the milestone and is inviting anyone who attended or worked in Davis schools to share a favorite memory. Plus, the district is assembling biographies of distinguished alumni.
The list includes filmmaker Kieth Merrill, who won an Academy Award for his 1973 documentary, "The Great American Cowboy"; the late Keene Curtis, a Tony Award-winning stage actor who also had a recurring role on the sitcom "Cheers" as the owner of the restaurant above the bar; and "Vampire Diaries" actor Matthew Davis, who is also known for playing the part of the Harvard-bound boyfriend in "Legally Blonde."
Besides well-known names in TV and film, the district is highlighting graduates who have had successful careers in medicine, science, the arts, athletics, business and public service. Milan Scott Blake, a late member of Clearfield High's Class of 1966, helped to develop the bacterial meningitis vaccine that is used today.
"That's what I love the most about [the centennial] is us taking the time to pause, to see what we have accomplished and what our graduates are doing to contribute to the world," says Davis Superintendent Bryan Bowles, who graduated from Bountiful High in 1971. "Our kids can say, 'Hey, I have a dream to be a doctor, to be an engineer, to be an actor.' They can say, 'These guys did it and they went to my same schools.' "
In 1911, Davis County knit together 31 neighborhood schools, many of them one- to four-room schoolhouses, to create Davis School District. There were 2,730 students at the time. Henry H. Blood, a Democrat who later was elected Utah's seventh governor, served as the first president of the school board.
Today, Davis serves nearly 67,000 students in 86 schools — the newest, opening this fall, has been named Centennial Junior High. And Centennial will mark a bold departure from schools of the past century: Instead of textbooks, each student will be given a small laptop computer with a wireless Internet connection. Students will read their books on screen and get homework assignments online.
Adapting to technology and preparing students for a global marketplace have been two of the district's biggest challenges in recent decades. Funding, in a county with growing enrollment, has been another. Davis expects to add 500 to 1,000 students every year for the next 20 years, Bowles says.
For the second consecutive year, Davis is asking taxpayers to pony up more cash for schools. On Aug. 11, the Davis school board will hold a truth-in-taxation hearing for a proposed tax boost that would add $64 a year to the property taxes on a $200,000 home. Part of the money would be used to pare down class sizes in kindergarten through third grade. Kindergarten classes have swelled to as many as 29 students.
As a Davis High teacher, Pamala Coburn has watched the district mature over the past 33 years. Technology has enhanced classrooms, she says, but "the magic is still with the teacher." She is struck by how the culture of the district has evolved from a traditional top-down approach to one that involves teachers in decision making.
"There's been a very gradual but profound transition to empowering the teachers to affect what is going on in the building, the classroom and the community," Coburn says. "We have better sets of programs because teachers have been in charge. That happens in a lot of places, I know. But it's been so smooth and so easy here."
Five years ago, Davis High moved from its 1914 building to a state-of-the-art facility designed around small-learning communities, which fosters collaboration among teachers and students in a particular subject area, such as science and technology. Coburn, who teaches AP Psychology, is dean of the fitness and health services hall.
"It makes me feel pretty dang in charge," she says.
Coburn would like to stay at Davis High at least through its own centennial in 2014. She remembers watching demolition of the old building, which once was a stop on the Bamberger Electric Railroad, a trolley line. An antique wooden plumbing pipe was pulled from the school and was shuttled to Heritage Museum in Layton. There was a lot of "nostalgia" for the old school, where students spread folklore about a secret tunnel below the floors, Coburn says. But she's happy to be in a building more likely to survive a significant earthquake.
Larry Wall has coached football at Bountiful High for the past quarter-century. He's seen some changes over the years. Athletes tend to pick one sport and specialize instead of playing different sports as seasons change. He now can replay games — and share them online — with digital videos instead of a 16-mm film projector. And he has to warn players against not just trash-talking on the field but on Facebook.
Still, what stands out to him the most is what has stayed the same — the students.
"Thirty years ago, kids' efforts were every bit as good as they are now," Wall says. "That's what I enjoy, working with young people, watching them grow and develop."
Be part of the centennial
O Submit memories of attending a Davis school, read about notable graduates and see a timeline. > bit.ly/qfCX80
To share photos or other documents that show a piece of Davis School District history, send to Suzanne Cottrell, sucottrell@dsdmail.net or P.O. Box 588, Farmington, UT 84025. —
When were other school districts created?
Secular public school districts began sprouting in Utah following the passage of the 1890 Free Public School Act by the Territorial Legislature. Before then, schools often were organized by Mormon wards.
1890 • Salt Lake City
1904 • Granite
1904 • Jordan
1906 • Murray
1915 • Washington