Havlicek Elementary School celebrates 100 years

BERWYN — You're 6 years old, and you can't sit still at the breakfast table. Your button-up shoes barely hit the cobblestones as you race down the street, dodging milk carts to join your pals at the new Havlicek School.

It's 1913.

Teachers, parents and students — young and old — celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Berwyn elementary school at 6401 S. 15th St. on Friday with tours and displays of student projects related to the school's history and its connection to Czech heritage through the school's namesake, Karel Havlicek, a Czech writer, poet, critic, politician, journalist, and publisher.

Principal Nancy Akin said the anniversary precipitated a flurry of work in the classroom. Students in computer classes researched the life of Karel Havlicek, while kindergartners learned to count to 10 in English, Spanish and Czech.

Students in art classes are working on a portrait of Havlicek and third-graders learned about life in 1913, writing essays from Havlicek's perspective.

In music classes, students learned songs popular during each decade of the school's life.

Of course, the visitors played a major part in the festivities.

"We had a huge guestbook so people could sign in and record their relationship to Havlicek School," Akin said. "When we celebrate 200 years, they can look back and see who was here at that time."

Joan Gilbert first walked through the doors of Havlicek School in 1958 as a kindergarten student. Little did she know she would some day become a teacher at her old school.

"My kindergarten teacher was Miss Moffit, and it was funny because when I went there to teach I ended up in the same room I attended kindergarten," said Gilbert, who now teaches at Prairie Oak School. "The tiles on the floor were the same. It didn't really strike me that much until one day as my kids were coming into the classroom, a man came in and said, 'Joannie?'"

The man was a former kindergarten classmate of Gilbert's who had come to visit the school.

Gilbert has fond memories of the half-day kindergarten where naps on small, braided rugs were mandatory, a milk break was taken daily and Miss Moffitt would play the piano for her tiny students.

"I loved it there," she said. "It was a very nice place to go to school."

Gilbert's mother, Virginia Zaleta, also attended Havlicek School, starting in 1923. She would go on to be a president of the PTA.

When it was built, the school was more than just a building for kids to get an education, Akin said.

"Originally, the school was a gathering place for adults," she said. "Sometimes it stayed open until 11:30 p.m. to give parents a place to socialize."

And the school has faced its share of adversity. During the Great Depression, a fund was established to pay the teachers, with parents asked to contribute 25 cents a week, Akin said.

In 1975, a suspicious fire gutted a large portion of the school, destroying the principal's office, the main office, the gymnasium and kitchen. Akin said arson was suspected, but the case remains unsolved.

District 98 takes a proactive approach with its schools, Akin said, and Havlicek is no exception. The entrance to the front office is being redesigned in a way so visitors must check in before going through the rest of the school.

The redesign began prior to the Newtown, Conn. school shooting tragedy.

"This district, thought small, tries to be proactive, which is good," Akin said. "We call Havlicek School our home away from home, and it's been that way for years."

Havlicek School over the years

Each decade of the Havlicek School history brought its own challenges, Principal Nancy Akin said. In the 1940s, World War II was on everyone's mind. The day began with the singing of the "Star Spangled Banner."

The school showed its support to servicemen overseas by collecting items for the Red Cross.  During that decade, the school started an Opera Club, Homemakers Club, Sewing Machine Club and a basketball team.

In the 1950s, parents were concerned about fireworks safety and the lack of steel available to build schools. The school started up its patrol group, boys only. A committee was formed of teachers and parents to determine which comic books were not recommended for children, Akin said. The threat of nuclear war prompted catastrophe drills.

In the 1960s came Havlicek's first summer school program, and students would participate in Cleanup Week to tidy up the school grounds and the neighborhood.

In 1975, a fire gutted most of the school but reconstruction was completed within the year.

The '80s brought gang and drug awareness. The first Student Council was formed, and In 1987, children could no longer go home for lunch. An addition was built the same year.

The '90s were marked by an increase in parental involvement in the school. In 2003, the commons area, media center and computer lab were added.

In 2012, Dr. Carmen I. Ayala became the first female superintendent of District 98.