Tag: Lorane Elementary School

Sweet Lorane Community News, March 23, 2023

March 23, 2023Newspaper Columns, Leave a comment

The Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
March 23, 2023
By Pat Edwards

This past week, a news item from a local TV channel was posted to the Lorane, Oregon, Facebook page. The headlines: “Former Lorane Elementary School for Sale.” The Eugene newspaper also used the story on its front page. It stirred up a lot of memories for each of us who lived through some very emotional times over the past decade.

The Crow-Applegate-Lorane School District made the decision to close down the beloved Lorane Elementary School at the end of the 2012-2013 school year. Among many of the community members, there were visions of submitting grants to make it into a community center, encompassing a place for a library and local events; in addition, an active local group worked on ways to establish a charter school of some sort and grants were submitted. In May, 2014, when bids for the purchase of the school were opened, one was selected for a local resident who had hoped to help the community retain it. It generated a great deal of excitement and hope that a way could be found for the community to purchase it from him as planned. We soon found that funding was going to be a problem; grants were hard to come by, and the local resident who purchased it needed a definite plan in place to pay for upkeep, taxes and insurance. Eventually, he received an offer from another person in the community who purchased it from him.

The new owner provided the needed maintenance, including a new roof for the gymnasium, and put it on the market once again at a price well beyond what the community could afford, keying in on the interest shown by the passage of the Oregon legalization of marijuana ballot measure in 2014, which would take effect on July 1, 2015. The school was purchased from the second owner with the intent of using the gymnasium and grounds for the cultivation of cannabis. The news was a black cloud that descended over the whole community, and one that still elicits tears and sorrow in addition to the sweet memories of the beautiful red and white school that members of the Lorane community built in 1926 and to which the old-timers, many of their parents, children and grandchildren had attended through the decades. During those 88 years, it served as the community’s base, hosting school functions of all kinds—classes, school board and P.T.C. meetings, carnivals, plays, concerts, holiday programs, fundraisers, sports—as well as other community events, 4-H and Scout meetings, a 3-day Lorane Centennial Celebration, picnics, potlucks, basketball and baseball games, and even large funerals. It served as the heart of Lorane for so long.

Now, the knowledge that the property and buildings are once again being put on the market for $1.25 million, the pot has once again been stirred among those of us who are still around and remember what it meant for so many years to our community. The listing mentions that the planned cultivation of marijuana never took place on the site despite the fact that it has been licensed for that use. Potential buyers who are interested in buying it for that use would have to come up with an additional $250,000 for the license. The realtor has also been contacted by others, interested potential buyers who are involved in “therapy” and “hospitality” businesses, causing some to hope that the future of the Lorane Elementary School might eventually be one that honors its history, heritage and respect within the community, for all that is left to us as a community is that fervent hope.

***

The Lorane Grange has announced that Lane County Sheriff, Cliff Harold, will be visiting Lorane to provide information and answer questions in order to garner support for the renewal of the upcoming public safety levy that will appear on the May 16, 2023, ballot. The public safety levy currently helps to fund the jail, mental health services, and youth services for juvenile criminal offenders. This will be taking place at Lorane Grange on Thursday, April 27, at 6:00 p.m. Let’s provide a large audience for this talk so that we can all be well-informed voters at the May election.

Respecting the Past; Accepting the Present; Looking to the Future

October 27, 2019Writings Leave a comment

By Pat Edwards

cropped-lorane-elementary-school-1280-pix11.jpg

Although no one has ever told me directly that I need to quit living in the past, I’m sure
that the thought has occurred to some… especially with the recent issues that we, in Lorane, are facing regarding the closing of our school. Much of the emotional turmoil that has bubbled up around that reality comes from the fond memories that the school has evoked in those of us whose lives have intertwined with our small rural community, however briefly. The past has impacted our lives in ways that those from other, more urban, communities can’t fathom. In the past, when life revolved around home and a single bread-winner, we knew our neighbors and shared our lives with them. Social activities were centered in the church, the Grange, the Odd Fellows and Rebekahs… but especially in the school. There were potlucks and dances and smelt feeds and 4th of July celebrations and baseball games. We had Christmas programs in our school where we watched our children perform and we would all join them in singing Christmas carols.

Even as recently as a few years ago, large funerals have been held in the gymnasium because no other venue in the community would hold the hundreds who gathered to pay their respects. Our neighbors were many times our best friends and, we generally respected each others’ differing political views and could good-naturedly discuss them without fear of making them an enemy.

In the 1960s, we mothers usually went to town once a week to buy groceries and we
frequently scheduled doctor’s appointments on the same day. Lunch at a hamburger stand with the kids on that one day was a big event. When we were lucky enough to lunch with  another adult, we actually talked and listened to each other. Unlike today, conversation did not have to be woven around phone calls or while the other person was reading her text messages or playing a game on her phone.

Kids spent their summers building forts and taking hikes in the woods, bucking hay,
gardening and playing outside in the sunshine and fresh air all day long. Usually, if they didn’t, they found themselves cleaning their rooms or practicing the piano, instead. During the school year, after school and on weekends, they raised livestock or learned to sew or cook in 4-H clubs. Some older boys helped their dads in the woods, learning not only to cut timber, but to build a strong work ethic, as well… and there were always daily chores in addition to homework.

No, it was not an idyllic life. Money was usually tight. Kids usually wore hand-sewn
“hand-me-downs” from older siblings or cousins. There were no designer shoes or clothing that separated the “haves” from the “have-nots,” but respect was taught. Usually it was done with love, but, like today, for some, it was taught with a hard hand.
Yes, it is easy to live in the past, but even though I am now a septuagenarian, I am still
able to look to the future as well as live and function in the present… and I do that every day.

As far as the school closing is concerned, I am a realist. In light of our poor economy and the school funding situation, it’s apparent that the school board had few other choices in order to make the school district run as efficiently as possible. Lorane is about 25 miles from Eugene; Crow is about 15. Most parents now work in Eugene, so placing all of the district’s elementary-age children in Lorane was not feasible when you consider the burden that would be placed on parents who needed to pick them up mid-day for doctor’s appointments, etc. I know this with my mind, but my heart wishes it wasn’t so.

I am a realist. Life, as I described it above, no longer exists in Lorane and I realize that
we will never get it back. Modern technology is here to stay. Most women have taken their rightful place in the work force… not only as a matter of financial necessity, but because that’s where most of them would rather be. Designer clothes, computers and X-boxes, cell phones and texting have taken over our lives so completely that there is no turning back.

I know this, but it still hurts, deeply. The closing of the school is threatening to put a
final stamp on our past and move us into a future over which we have no control. Our rural way of life, not only in Lorane, but all over the state and nation, is at risk with the closing down of our local schools and post offices.

We look for solutions that no longer seem to be there. There is evidence that the
numbers of those willing to work towards finding those solutions, however, are swelling. A group of dedicated community members in Lorane are working diligently to form a charter school. If that does not happen, many of us envision the school building turned into a community center, but the financial obstacles seem almost insurmountable… especially in this economy. If we could fiscally figure out how to obtain, upgrade and maintain the building, how much use would it really get? These things need to be explored. They are concerns and questions that may never find answers because our time is running out.

Regardless of the outcome, in the time that we have remaining to search for these
answers, we want our past… our history, embodied within the Lorane Elementary School… to be treated with respect. Only by understanding and respecting the successes and failures of our past, can we move confidently into the future knowing that we have done everything possible to control our own destiny.

Sweet Lorane Community News, June 20, 2019 – The Creswell Chronicle

June 20, 2019Newspaper Columns, , Leave a comment

Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
June 13, 2019
By Pat Edwards

I have been following the story of the closing of the little Latham Elementary School by the Cottage Grove School District this past week. It brings back memories and the heartache that the people of Lorane felt when our own, wonderful Lorane Elementary School was closed in 2013.

At that time, on October 18, 2012, I poured my heart and emotions into an essay that I wrote for my friends and neighbors in Lorane, and as a tribute to the Latham parents and students, I would like to share it with you here…

Respecting the Past; Accepting the Present; Looking to the Future
By Pat Edwards

Although no one has ever told me directly that I need to quit living in the past, I’m sure that the thought has occurred to some… especially with the recent issues that we, in Lorane, are facing regarding the closing of our school. Much of the emotional turmoil that has bubbled up around that reality comes from the fond memories that the school has evoked in those of us whose lives have intertwined with our small rural community, however briefly. The past has impacted our lives in ways that those from other, more urban, communities can’t fathom. In the past, when life revolved around home and a single bread-winner, we knew our neighbors and shared our lives with them. Social activities were centered in the church, the Grange, the Odd Fellows and Rebekahs… but especially in the school. There were potlucks and dances and smelt feeds and 4th of July celebrations and baseball games. We had Christmas programs in our school where we watched our children perform and we would all join them in singing Christmas carols. Even as recently as a few years ago, large funerals have been held in the gymnasium because no other venue in the community would hold the hundreds who gathered to pay their respects. Our neighbors were many times our best friends and, we generally respected each others’ differing political views and could good-naturedly discuss them without fear of making them an enemy.

In the 1960s, we mothers usually went to town once a week to buy groceries and we frequently scheduled doctor’s appointments on the same day. Lunch at a hamburger stand with the kids on that one day was a big event. When we were lucky enough to lunch with another adult, we actually talked and listened to each other. Unlike today, conversation did not have to be woven around phone calls or while the other person was reading her text messages or playing a game on her phone.

Kids spent their summers building forts and taking hikes in the woods, bucking hay, gardening and playing outside in the sunshine and fresh air all day long. Usually, if they didn’t, they found themselves cleaning their rooms or practicing the piano, instead. During the school year, after school and on weekends, they raised livestock or learned to sew or cook in 4-H clubs. Some older boys helped their dads in the woods, learning not only to cut timber, but to build a strong work ethic, as well… and there were always daily chores in addition to homework.

No, it was not an idyllic life. Money was usually tight. Kids usually wore hand-sewn “hand-me-downs” from older siblings or cousins. There were no designer shoes or clothing that separated the “haves” from the “have-nots,” but respect was taught. Usually it was done with love, but, like today, for some, it was taught with a hard hand.

Yes, it is easy to live in the past, but even though I am now a septuagenarian, I am still able to look to the future as well as live and function in the present… and I do that every day. As far as the school closing is concerned, I am a realist. In light of our poor economy and the school funding situation, it’s apparent that the school board had few other choices in order to make the school district run as efficiently as possible. Lorane is about 25 miles from Eugene; Crow is about 15. Most parents now work in Eugene, so placing all of the district’s elementary-age children in Lorane was not feasible when you consider the burden that would be placed on parents who needed to pick them up mid-day for doctor’s appointments, etc. I know this with my mind, but my heart wishes it wasn’t so.

I am a realist. Life, as I described it above, no longer exists in Lorane and I realize that we will never get it back. Modern technology is here to stay. Most women have taken their rightful place in the work force… not only as a matter of financial necessity, but because that’s where most of them would rather be. Designer clothes, computers and X-boxes, cell phones and texting have taken over our lives so completely that there is no turning back.

I know this, but it still hurts, deeply. The closing of the school is threatening to put a final stamp on our past and move us into a future over which we have no control. Our rural way of life, not only in Lorane, but all over the state and nation, is at risk with the closing down of our local schools and post offices.

cropped-lorane-elementary-school-1280-pix11.jpgWe look for solutions that no longer seem to be there. There is evidence that the numbers of those willing to work towards finding those solutions, however, are swelling.

A group of dedicated community members in Lorane are working diligently to form a charter school. If that does not happen, many of us envision the school building turned into a community center, but the financial obstacles seem almost insurmountable… especially in this economy. If we could fiscally figure out how to obtain, upgrade and maintain the building, how much use would it really get? These things need to be explored. They are concerns and questions that may never find answers because our time is running out.

Regardless of the outcome, in the time that we have remaining to search for these answers, we want our past—our history—embodied within the Lorane Elementary School… to be treated with respect. Only by understanding and respecting the successes and failures of our past, can we move confidently into the future knowing that we have done everything possible to control our own destiny.