At Keystone, son carries on father’s tradition
In small places around the former Keystone Elementary, custodian Randall Ogle has found imprints of a previous caretaker: a worn toolbox, handwritten notes, a safe’s combination taped under a desk drawer.
They were left by his father, Wilbur Ogle, Keystone’s first custodian when the school opened in 1970. Thirty-six years later, the son is entrusted with the same building because of his relocation there along with Summit School, a K-8 Central Valley choice school.
Ogle, whose father died in 1995, was surprised to find how much of his father’s handiwork remained.
“It’s pretty unique to know he was here,” said Ogle, who spent the summer preparing the old school. Summit School moved to Keystone from Blake Elementary this fall and shares space with the district’s Spokane Valley Learning Academy for home-schooled students.
“It’s the feeling of being in the same place. It’s the same kind of feeling I get when we walk through the house he was raised in. You just know his presence was here, that’s his writing on the wall.”
He can point to his father’s handwritten dates of maintenance work in the boiler room. In another space, the custodian’s room is much the same as Ogle remembered it as a child, including some old shutters that were no longer needed in the Ogles’ home so his father used them for cupboard doors.
“I remember the shutters when he installed them in the school. Those used to be in the basement of our home. He said, ‘I have a use for those.’ “
Wilbur Ogle’s unusual pattern of different colored tiles that he scrounged from around the district stretches across the floor. “He made the best pattern he could. It has still held up pretty good.”
And while looking for tools at Keystone, Randall Ogle found his dad’s toolbox that was empty except for a few swing set chains and a note taped inside. Again, he recognized the handwriting: “Please return tools and help keep box orderly.”
“Very military,” said Ogle, smiling. His dad, who retired from the Air Force, loved people and especially kids. A former Keystone student who now has children at Summit told Ogle that she remembers his father carving faces out of apples for students.
“There used to be an apple machine in the entrance area,” Ogle added. “For a dime, you could get an apple. During lunch time, he’d carve faces from the apples. That’s what she remembers.”
The senior Ogle started working for the Central Valley School District in 1966 and helped open Greenacres Junior High. He chose to move to the new Keystone and stayed for 12 years. He retired in 1982.
Randall Ogle listened to his father’s advice about considering a job that was both enjoyable and stable through the school district, so he started working within Central Valley 23 years ago. He spent 19 years at Opportunity Elementary before joining Summit School, which offers a project-based, nontraditional learning environment.
“I like the relationships I have with the kids,” Ogle said. “They are such a resource of youth. They keep you young. They definitely keep you busy.”
Now that Summit has landed at Keystone, he said he feels drawn to fix it up.
“I have so much pride in the building because I remember the pride my father had when it opened. He showed it to us. That now lives in me. It revitalizes my drive to make it as nice as possible for the crew here now and the kids.”
Openings at EV free preschool
Openings are still available in two East Valley free preschool programs that have an income-eligibility requirement.
Kim Linke, director of East Valley’s Early Childhood Education Assistance Program and I-728 free preschools, said the openings are at Trent Elementary and Trentwood Elementary. Children need to be 4 years old by Aug. 31, but the programs may accept 3-year-olds if they don’t fill.
For more information, call the East Valley School District at 924-1830 and ask for Linke or contact the schools: Trent at 893-4123 or Trentwood at 927-3233.