Week 2: School buildings history

EZRA MILLARD ELEMENTARY

Ezra Millard Elementary, 14111 Blondo St., was built in 1988 and named for the man who founded the town of Millard, now a suburb of southwest Omaha.

Ezra Millard and his brother, Joseph, came to Omaha in 1856 and established the Land Office of Barrows, Millard and Co. Later, Ezra Millard founded the Omaha National Bank. In 1870, he platted Millard, then a mostly uninhabited prairie 12 miles southwest of Omaha. The town of Millard was incorporated Sept. 26, 1885.

Ezra Millard also helped establish the Omaha Library Association, Omaha School for the Deaf and Omaha's first public high school. Millard also was Omaha's 12th mayor and served in the Territorial Legislature. He died in 1886.

Mascot: Eagles

Colors: Red, white and blue

Of note: The school's PTO for many years has run an after-school foreign language program for students. The six-week fall program this year will include Spanish, French, German and American Sign Language.

PONCA ELEMENTARY

Ponca Elementary, 11300 North Post Road, is part of the large, urban Omaha Public Schools, but Ponca has a rural setting. Raccoons, deer, opossum, eagles and hawks are some of the animals seen regularly by Ponca students and staff. The school is named for the Indian tribe that once inhabited the area.

The original one-room, log Ponca School stood on a site donated by Tomas Price in 1871; eight students attended. After a fire destroyed that school, a new one was built; an addition went up in 1890. The school was sold in 1899 and that structure is now part of a private home. A new one-room school was built the same year, and another room was added in 1903, followed by two more additions over time.

The 1899 Ponca School, which was on the current site of the Ponca Volunteer Fire Department, became a part of OPS in October 1959. The Ponca School in use today was built in 1963.

Mascot: Raccoon

Colors: Royal blue and white

Of note: Ponca has the smallest student population but serves the largest geographical area in OPS.

MILLARD LEARNING CENTER

Millard Learning Center, 13270 Millard Ave. For 133 years, Millard students have attended school on these grounds.

The first school in Millard was established in the fall of 1870 with six pupils, who met in various buildings owned by a farmer. Millard's first school was built in 1876 but destroyed by fire in 1930. A new brick school — the current home to the learning center — was built on the same site, which is now at 133nd Street and Millard Avenue.

The new school was named Central and served as Millard's only school until 1960. That's when the new junior-senior high, a building now called Central Middle School, opened. The old brick building continued as Central Elementary School through the 1970s, then housed special education services and administrative offices.

In 1989, the building became the Millard Learning Center. Students will move in January to the new Horizon High School. The old brick building's future is uncertain.

Of note: Millard graduated its first senior class in 1938. Before then, students who wanted a high school diploma usually completed their education at Omaha South High.

BEALS ELEMENTARY

Beals Elementary, 1720 S. 48th St., is named in honor of Samuel Dewitt Beals, who was superintendent of schools from 1874 to 1880.

The Omaha Public Schools structure has been a public school for more than 100 years. The original building was constructed in 1900, but a fire destroyed it in 1903. The new Beals School was constructed in 1904 and still stands. It was substantially renovated in 2003.

The original school was built in a field near the Morton farm atop a hill along Center Street. At the time, it housed kindergarten through eighth grade and accommodated students living on Omaha's “western edge.” Enrollment at Beals expanded with the city limits.

Rather than demolish the 1904 structure, a second building was added in 1912, doubling the classroom space and adding a gymnasium.

Mascot: Bobcat

Colors: Red and white

Of note: The school grounds cover 4.5 acres north of Center Street between 48th and 49th Streets.

MISSION MIDDLE SCHOOL

Mission Middle School, 2202 Washington St., offers visitors a 135-year history lesson of education in Bellevue.

Mission Middle School is the current name for the Bellevue Public Schools building on the northwest corner of Mission Avenue and Washington Street. The building was called Bellevue School District No. 1 until 1911, when it was renamed Main School.

In the early 1950s, the school became Bellevue Junior-Senior High and housed grades seven through 12. In 1962, when Bellevue Senior High opened, the old building became Bellevue Junior High. District growth forced the construction of a second junior high in 1966.

Students from both junior highs helped name the two buildings. The new junior high became Logan Fontenelle, and this building became Mission. When ninth-graders were moved to Bellevue East and West High Schools, the junior highs became middle schools.

The name Mission honors the first new school built in Bellevue by the Presbyterian Board of Missions. In 1846, the Presbyterians built a school with classrooms and housing quarters for Omaha, Pawnee and Otoe Native American children. They were educated here until the Omahas sold their land to the federal government in 1854, just before the Nebraska Territory was created.

The Omahas kept 300,000 acres in Thurston County and gave one square mile of land in present-day Bellevue to the Presbyterian Board of Missions.

Mascot: Braves

Colors: Purple and white

Of note: Mission Middle School sits on the historical Mission Reserve, the square mile of land the Omaha Indians gave to the Presbyterians. The tract was the largest part of the land included in the first plat of Bellevue approved by the Territorial Legislature in January 1856.

PUSEY ELEMENTARY

Pusey Elementary, at 147 15th Ave. in Council Bluffs, is a kindergarten through sixth-grade neighborhood school with about 120 students. The school was named for Dr. Nathan M. Pusey. He was born and raised in Council Bluffs and was the president of Harvard University in 1953-71.

Pusey Elementary was built in 1957 for kindergarten through fourth grade. In 1975, additional instructional space allowed fifth- and sixth-graders to attend Pusey, too. A multipurpose room was completed in 1981. The school added a portable classroom in 1988. In 1999, the school added an at-risk preschool.

Mascot: Panda

Colors: Black and white

Of note: Until the early 1980s, there was no lunchroom at Pusey. Students ate at tables in the hallway.

Compiled by Sue Story Truax from information provided by the Omaha, Millard, Bellevue and Council Bluffs school districts.