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Dee Elementary hosted a reception to celebrate the school’s place in the community in Ogden on May 18, 2016.

Brian Wolfer

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Phyllis Savage has been teaching at Dee Elementary School since the very beginning. She has more than 30 years of service, and was at a celebration for the school on May 18, 2016.

Brian Wolfer

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Phyllis Savage has been teaching at Dee Elementary School since its very beginning, and will be there when it closes at the end of this school year. She has more than 30 years of service, and was at a celebration of the school on May 18, 2016.

Brian Wolfer

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Principal Beverly Jenson speaks during the Dee Elementary gathering where the surrounding community appreciate the school and what is has done for the community in Ogden on May 18, 2016.

Brian Wolfer

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Ogden School District spokesman Zac Williams, right, takes a photo prior to the community celebration at Dee Elementary Wednesday, May 18, 2016, in Ogden. The event brought former students and staff together for a final farewell. The school will permanently close its doors at the end of the school year.

Brian Wolfer/Special to the Standard-Examiner

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Dee Elementary hosted a reception to celebrate the school’s place in the community in Ogden on May 18, 2016. .

Brian Wolfer

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OGDEN — When Dee Elementary closes its doors at the end of the school year, it will be for the last time. The old building is being torn down, and replaced by the state-of-the-art New Bridge School and neighborhood redevelopment project.

Former students and teachers who gathered to say goodbye to Dee Elementary, at a reunion held on Wednesday, May 18, say the school may be old, but lessons learned there will never be outdated.

Dee Elementary, at 550 22nd St., in Ogden, opened in 1970. The school was experimental, built in a round shape and with an open floor plan. Alice Glenn, who was one of the school’s first teachers, said the architecture was only part of the experiment. Teachers were trained to take advantage of the open floor plan, working in teams instead of in isolated classrooms.

“I loved it, because we were organized,” said Glenn. “We had very caring teachers, who pulled together.”

In later years some teachers used filing cabinets and other items to create makeshift walls, but former students say they liked the open concept.

“You could hear the other kids, and it was distracting, but it was so much fun,”  said Jorian Gillett, who attended the school from 2000 to 2004. 

Because of the school’s shape it was likened to a spaceship, according to Elizabeth Orosco-Thompson, who was a student there in the 1970s. Each grade’s learning area was named after a planet.

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Efrain Ignacio, who graduates from Ogden High School this year, returned for the reunion to see old friends and teachers. 

“The school will always have a special place in my heart,” he said. “The teachers cared about the kids, and pushed them to do better for themselves.” 

Melinda Fernandez, who attended the school in the 1970s, said she vividly remembers the school’s choir.

Music has always played a big role at the school, from morning sing-alongs to after-school clubs that taught performing skills.

Phyllis Savage, known for playing piano at the school, was one of Dee’s first teachers. She retired in 1999, but still visits every week to teach music to kindergarten and first grade students, and to accompany school sing-ins. 

“The only way for them to get rid of Alice Glenn, and me, is to tear the building down,” she joked. 

Glenn says the school’s first principal, Milton Kendrick, wanted students to be exposed to different types of music.

“When I think back, I’ll always remember the Dee School song,” Glenn said, noting that it was written by a former teacher and set to the tune of an old spiritual titled “Down by the Riverside.”

The song was one of many sung by reunion attendees, who were also treated to dancing by the teachers.

Savage wanted another element of the reunion to be the opening of a time capsule, which was buried when the school first opened.

“The thing is, those of us who are still alive can’t remember where we buried it,” she said.

Savage may not remember where to find the time capsule, but she will remember what made Dee Elementary such a great school.

“It’s the children that are the soul, and the wonderful families,” she said. 

You can reach reporter Becky Wright at bwright@standard.net or at 801-625-4274. Follow her on Twitter at @ReporterBWright or like her on Facebook.