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Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Friday, February 28, 2014
COMMUNITY GUIDE
Schools have long history Fairbanks By Weston Morrow wmorrow@newsminer.com
Schools have been an integral part of Fairbanks since the town situated on the bank of the Chena River was first incorporated. Schools played an important role in the creation of the city in 1903. The first school in Fairbanks was a tiny private school created at the beginning of the 1903 school year by William Woolridge that taught 13 students, but that school didn’t make it to the new year before closing. About the same time Woolridge’s school was closing, Fairbanks was incorporating into a legitimate city and electing a city council and a three-member school board. The city opened its first public school that winter and held its first closing ceremony for 10 students who had attended as many as 74 days of school. Those first few months, students were taught in a small rented building on the corner of
Students make their way to classes at West Valley High School in Fairbanks. Sam Harrel/NewsMiner file photo
Noble Street and Third Avenue. The school moved at the start
of the 1904-05 school year and would move from space to space
until December 1907, when the city paid an estimated $19,000
to build a two-story wooden building for the town’s 150 enrolled students. That schoolhouse served as a source of pride for the residents of Fairbanks for the coming decades until it burned to the ground in a fire on Dec. 4, 1932 — 25 years and a day after the building opened. The fire that destroyed the schoolhouse would lead to the creation of its iconic replacement at the corner of Eighth Avenue and Cushman Street that continues to serve the town to this day, now known as Patrick B. Cole City Hall. Students moved into the Fairbanks Public School building, which would become known as Old Main, in January 1934. Old Main would go through several changes and additions, but remained the sole school facility in Fairbanks until the tenure of Superintendent John C. Ryan, after whom Ryan Middle School is named. EDUCATION » 9
Fairbanks-area public, private, charter and home school programs FAIRBANKS NORTH STAR BOROUGH SCHOOL DISTRICT School District Administrative Center 520 Fifth Ave. , Fairbanks, 99701 www.K12northstar.Org Anderson Elementary 768 Kodiak Street Eielson AFB, AK 99702 Phone: 372-2167 Fax: 372-3437 Anne Wien Elementary 1501 Hampstead Ave. Fairbanks, AK 99701 Phone: 451-7500 Fax: 451-7564 Arctic Light Elementary 4167 Neely Road Fort Wainwright, AK 99703 Phone: 356-2038 Fax: 356-2189 Badger Road Elementary 2301 Bradway Road North Pole, AK 99705 Mailing address: 520 5th Ave. Fairbanks, AK 99701
Phone: 488-0134 Fax 488-2045 Barnette Magnet School 1000 Barnette St. Fairbanks, AK 99701 Phone: 456-6072 Fax: 451-9602 Ben Eielson Jr./Sr. High School 675 Ravens Way Eielson AFB, AK 99702 Phone: 372-3110 Fax 372-3202 Bridge Program 513 12th Ave. Suite 110 Fairbanks, AK 99701 907-474-2144 Career Education Center 724 27th Ave., Suite 1 Fairbanks, AK 99701 Phone: 479-4061 Fax: 479-0230 Chinook Charter School 3002 International St. Fairbanks, AK 99701 Phone: 452-5020 Fax: 452-5048 Crawford Elementary School 692 Ravens Way
Eielson AFB, AK 99702 Phone: 372-3306 Fax: 372-3199 Denali Elementary School 1042 Lathrop St. Fairbanks, AK 99701 Phone: 452-2456 Fax: 451-0792 Effie Kokrine Charter School 601 Loftus Road Fairbanks, AK 99709 474-0958 Hunter Elementary School 1630 Gillam Way Fairbanks, AK 99701 Phone: 456-5775 Fax: 452-8891 Hutchison High School 3750 Geist Road Fairbanks, AK 99709 Phone: 479-2261 Fax: 479-8286 Joy Elementary School 24 Margaret St. Fairbanks, AK 99701 Phone: 456-5469 Fax: 456-1477 Ladd Elementary School 601 F St.
Fairbanks, AK 99701 Phone: 451-1700 Fax: 451-9137 Lathrop High School 901 Airport Way Fairbanks, AK 99701 Phone: 456-7794 Fax: 452-6735 Nordale Elementary School 397 Hamilton Ave. Fairbanks, AK 99701 Phone: 452-2696 Fax: 456-5608 North Pole Academy 2945 Monk Court North Pole, AK 99705 Phone: 490-9025 Fax: 490-9021 North Pole Elementary School 250 Snowman Lane North Pole, AK 99705 Phone: 488-2286 Fax: 488-1232 North Pole High School 601 NPHS Blvd. North Pole, AK 99705 Phone: 488-3761 Fax: 488-1488
North Pole Middle School 300 East 8th Ave. North Pole, AK 99705 Phone: 488-2271 Fax: 488-9213 Pearl Creek Elementary School 700 Auburn Drive Fairbanks, AK 99709 Phone: 479-4234 Fax: 479-4025 Randy Smith Middle School 1401 Bainbridge Blvd. Fairbanks, AK 99701 Phone: 458-7600 Fax: 458-7676 Ryan Middle School 951 Airport Way Fairbanks, AK 99701 Phone: 452-4751 Fax: 451-8834 Salcha Elementary School 8530 Richardson Hwy. Mailing address: 520 Fifth Ave. Fairbanks, AK 99701 Phone: 488-3267 SCHOOLS » 9