A school proud of its people

In April 1987, Pleasant Street was named a Hall of Fame School, one of ten Ohio elementary schools honored that year. Reporting by Jeannie Gorgas describes principal Kyle Creasy sharing the news classroom by classroom with more than 200 pupils. The award came from the Ohio Association of Elementary School Administrators.

The newspaper’s portrait of the school includes teachers, secretary Norma Getz and custodian Barbara Atherton. Getz had once been a pupil there herself. The long service described in the article helps explain the pride: a school could connect one generation’s classroom memories with another generation’s working day.

Plank’s local history places Ashland’s first local parent-teacher association in Pleasant Street’s eighth-grade classroom in 1914. Her account of its early meeting includes questions about children’s health and what schools should teach. These are reported details from a later local history, rather than minutes independently inspected here.

The contemporary coverage documents recognition and gives voices to the people who shared it. It does not mean every pupil had the same experience. More memories and records can broaden the picture without turning an award into the whole story.