Seven up

By NANCY KIMBALL

The Daily Inter Lake

Linderman School seventh-graders bid adieu to 'temporary' home

After 37 years as a "temporary" home for seventh-graders, Kalispell's Linderman School is bidding a final farewell to its adolescent family this year.

Next fall, Linderman's 69-year-old doors will open to a new crop of students as Laser alternative high school and Bridge Academy move into their new quarters.

Until then, it's all seventh grade all the time.

Principal Micah Hill wants to commemorate this milestone with a one-of-a-kind yearbook that blends community photos and anecdotes documenting the building's, the staff's and the student body's history since 1969.

But before going there, the old brick building has plenty of earlier history to tell.

It was in 1938 that the school was built on Third Avenue East, just north of the 1926-vintage First Church of Christ Scientist.

Kirk Streit, the school's resident historian, said the bricks rose one story from the principal's office on the north to the gym on the south. At the gym, the building went up two stories.

Back then, it was part of the Central Junior High School campus, with eighth-graders attending class in the new building and seventh-grade classes held in the Central School building. At some point, Hill said, an underground tunnel was dug for students to pass between the two. Central School today operates as a museum.

In 1958, the district annexed the church building and built a connector hallway between the gym and church. The upstairs sanctuary became the performance music room and the downstairs fellowship hall was turned into the school's cafeteria. At that time, a second story was added onto the original school.

Then in 1969, Kalispell Junior High School was finished and eighth-graders moved to the new junior high along with ninth-graders. Central Junior High officially became known as Linderman School, in honor of Frank Byrd Linderman, and seventh-graders stayed behind as Linderman's sole occupants.

The seventh-grade occupation was a temporary answer to the school facilities crunch, school trustees promised - to last only until a new high school could be built for grades 9-12 and seventh grade could fit into the junior high.

When the 38th year of the seventh-grade academy comes to a close next spring, that promise will be kept.

Which brings it back to 1969. The year was a big one - that's when Neil Armstrong took small steps on the moon.

But Hill is looking for submissions from past and present students who spent their seventh-grade year taking giant leaps at Linderman. How did the Linderman year help get you through those roller-coaster hormones? Which tree now bears your initials? Did you have a favorite teacher?

Or perhaps there are retired teachers and principals who have a thought or two to share. Were the seventh-graders of yesteryear better-behaved than today's? Did the "if it feels good, do it" generation wreak havoc on classroom order?

Maybe a business owner remembers the after-school onslaught of young students eager to spend their baby-sitting money downtown before heading home.

Anybody who attended Linderman School when it was a seventh-grade academy is a prime candidate to contribute.

"We want their stories, their perceptions, how it got them through puberty," Hill said. "We're interested in telling the story of Linderman."

He is looking for those photographs and recollections to be submitted by Thanksgiving. He's hoping for a generous community response, as the school itself has no archives other than a half dozen unidentified photos found stuffed away in a basement file cabinet.

Linderman students will scan all contributed photos and return them immediately, so there's no need to worry about loss or damage. Students also will be involved in other ways if possible.

Hill then will assemble a digital yearbook from the community photos and anecdotes, to be distributed on DVD.

If enough submissions come in, he also will put together a paper-and-ink yearbook. Provided that option works out, orders probably will be due by Christmas.

Hill, beginning his third year as Linderman principal and a high school assistant principal next year, plans to hold an open house in the spring to commemorate the end of Linderman's seventh-grade academy status.

To submit material for the yearbook, you can get in touch with Hill in three ways:

. e-mail hillm@sd5.k12.mt.us

. phone 751-3990

. send mail to Linderman School, 124 Third Ave. E., Kalispell MT 59901.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com