The Winton School

The Winton School is currently located just NW of Plain, on Beaver Valley Road, right next to Beaver Valley School.
This location is probably quite practical as it is easier to keep an eye on it there, but it is a long ways from it's original home location................


                                                 Start of another day
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The following is directly from a letter sent to me by Connie Nichols.
Connie was a teacher at Winton School from 1981 - 1996, she currently resides in Palisades WA.

"The school itself is the second building at that site, the first one having been a similar structure only without a basement. It was always white. The present building (now sitting in Plain and looking like a sinking ship) was built in 1926-or1927 and was hugely improved by the addition of the basement. The original furnace i that building I was told was coal, but by the time I got there in 1981, it had an oil furnace in the basement. That furnace was cranky as all get out, and to operate it properly required a wrench, a hammer, and a tolerance for black oily smoke when it would backfire, which it did frequently, with an ear splitting sound. There was a large grate in the floor of the school room and all the heat came up through that. In the winter, that grate was a popular place to stand when kids came in wet and cold from recess. It was also the only place to get gloves and mittens and hats dry, and so during the winter, the air in the schoolroom always smelled of wet wool, and the room was always a bit steamy, to say the least. (My first year there I had a family of three kids, quite poor, from up Coulter Creek. All three wet the bed (they only had an outhouse) and would come to school reeking of urine. Of course, because of their primitive living conditions, they were also always cold, and guess where they would park themselves?!!! Of course, fight atop the grate. Gag! It was difficult for all of us to be polite and tolerant, but we were and the other kids impressed me no end, as they did not like it, but never complained and never judged. Thank heaven the three of them were pulled out of Winton right before Christmas break and from then on. Their parents did not want them involved in the Christmas program. We all heaved a huge but silent sigh of relief when Jan. 3 arrived and they were no longer there. More square footage for those other students who remained, and NO urine!

The teacherage was only a one-room affair until 1978 or 79, when Lyman Boyd and his then-employees Dwayne Broaddus, and Dave Leonard were contracted to build the addition, which was the bedroom. Prior to that addition, it had to have been one of the most uncomfortable shacks in the area. Most of the teachers who lived there over the years were single, so a one room cabin was probably not as wretched as one might think. However there was one teacher there who had two children, and it is unimaginable how stressful that must have been! Indeed Kay Richards related to me that that teacher got fired for child abuse (of her own children)! well, gee I can sympathize
                        It was not always winter at Winton School                         As seen by Cathy Druell in 1986
Of course for a great many years the only 'facilities' for the teacherage or the school was an outhouse. The Richards told of when there was a push to install a real bathroom in the one room teacherage for the teacher. Claude Thompson, who was then on the Winton School board along with Orville, was adamant that the teacher did NOT need a abthroom! Fortunately for that teacher and all of us who came later, Orville and the other board members prevailed and the bathroom was installed. It was not much, only a toilet and a very small shower, but it was a huge improvement from the outhouse!

The property Claude Thompson, and his son Bill Thompson own now was homesteaded by the Dillon family, and one of the Dillon women (Gladys, I think was her first name) was a teacher at Winton for a great many years. Another long-time teacher was Becky Corey Gross Thompson (several marriages) who was there for 6 years, then took a year's leave of absence, then back for a final year, and then I replaced her. Last I knew she was living in the Idaho panhandle. During Becky's leave of absence, Gayle Stoltenow-Norris was the teacher. Gayle recently died of cancer. She had taught at Leavenworth for the years after being at Winton. I was there from 1981 - 1996

For all the years prior to my arrival, the school had been grades 1-8. The year I arrived the Leavenworth school was in the process of rearranging their grade groupings, and so the 7th and 8th graders were supposed to go to L-wrth.
However, there were two girls who did not want to go to L-wrth, and I think mostly wanted to stay at Winton to check out the new teacher. At any rate, that year I had 27 kids; there were two 7th graders and one 6th grader that were of inestimable value. I also had9th graders!!! Yikes! That was my first year of teaching, although I had been a cop for 6 1/2 years prior, so I was not a complete babe in the woods. In addition I had attended a two-room school for most of my elementary years, and so I was quite aware of how multiple grades should be handled, and how subjects should be taught. I had no aides at all until midway through the year when the superintendant agreed that I should have some help. I then gained the assistance of Barb Darlington for 2 hours per day. (Wife of Randy Darlington, Merritt, and mother of former student, Kelly, now deceased) Since Barb had been around Winton during Kelly's first 6 grades, she was a great deal of help.

The first year was a little rugged due to the fact that the textbook situation was pretty much worthless. My predecessor, Becky Corey, was a firm believer in the McGuffey Reader Series, and that was all I had. (Talk about Dark Ages! But she liked it because there was a great deal of religion in those books. They were not much good for teaching reading, however.)
There were some ancient science books and some equally outdated history books, and a 'library' consisting of maybe 150 titles, mostly boring or old and tattered. (there were piles and piles of old Nat'l Geographic magazines.) In addition creating my own material was difficult, as I had a box of stencils and an ancient mimeograph machine. I spent most of my year with hands and arms in varying shades of purple, from the mimeo fluid. If I wanted to use a bona fide copy machine, I had to amass all my materials and make arrangements to visit Osborn when school was not in session,..(God forbid they should trust me with a key!)

In addition to teaching, I was responsible for upkeep: janitorial, snow removal, yard and general outside work, etc. But of course, the school district had provided NO implements with which to do all of this stuff! (My predecessor had always using tools belonging to Orville.) My personal vacuum cleaner wore out after the first year, as it got about 3 lifetimes of use in that time. Same with my personal lawnmower.

there were no laundry facilities, so I had to make a weekly trek to Leavenworth, which at that time had a Laundromat downtown. After that building was turned into more shops, there was a period when L-wth had no Laundromat, and then I had to trek all the way to Cashmere. The Laundromat thing worked OK during winter and spring, although I was not fond of extraneous trips down the icy canyon. The next summer Orville mentioned that he had two wringer washers stored out in one of his outbuildings, and asked if I would like one. Having had ample experience with wringer washers as a child, I leaped at the chance.

It was not quite as idyllic a situation as it might have been, however. In order to wash clothes, I had to wrestle the heavy machine up the front porch steps, and balance it precariously on the very small porch. Then I had to attach the filler hose to the kitchen faucet, run it out to the porch, and then finally attach a long drain hose to the drain fro the washer and run it out past the driveway. doing two loads of laundry used up a goodly portion of the day, by the time clothes were hung out to dry. However, cold weather ended that pleasure, and once again I was driving to town with a pile of quarters and dimes.

Along with the lovely mimeograph machine, the school was equipped with an ancient film projector, an equally antiquated filmstrip projector, an overhead projector, and an old record player. These were all items that were considered modern when I was in school in the 50's and 60's. However the film projector got quite a bit of use, as the Educational Services Dist. in Wenatchee had a good film library available to member school districts at no charge. I coordinated my film orders with the units of study I had planned, and those first few years, I had students that became skilled in the operation of a projector!

The School also had an elderly upright piano which was in good musical condition, but was hideous to look at because my predecessor had it painted RED! (She did not play the piano, but was fond of red) Since I played piano and guitar, music quickly became a part of our learning. The kids loved to sing, and loved to act, so it was a pleasure to be qualified to direct performances of all kinds. My predecessor had always put on programs, and I was only too willing to carry on the tradition.

The principal for that year was Marjorie Bridges, who was also the principal for Osborn Elem. in L-wth. As the first female principal in the district she had an uphill to battle from the get-go, as the district was overloaded with misogynists, and chauvinists. Our superintendant that year was Ray Tupling, who was a great superintendant, I thought, but he apparently pissed off a few people in the community, and left after that year.

What came next was not to my liking. Orville was still on the school board at that time, and one day in late summer he brought the new superintendant up to meet me. To my horror, it was none other than Norm Veach, who had been my high school geometry teacher in Ephrata in the late 60's. Norm was also a basketball coach at the time, and I did not think that he was particularly good at either of his jobs. Naturally the Peter Principal was in effect, and the person least capable of the job of superintendant was the one they chose! I was gracious to him. however, and continued to give him every opportunity to be a decent human being instead of a tyrant, but he never rose to the levels I had hoped he was capable of.

My second year was more relaxed due to the addition of a half-time aide- Susan Johnson.

Sometime in the 50's Winton was pretty much forced into consolidation with L-wth, as Winton was a non-high district. L-wth was planning on closing Winton having buses travel down Tumwater Canyon, but a huge hue and cry about the danger of traveling the canyon caused a change of route. (The multi-fatality bus crash into Lk. Chelan was on the minds of the Winton and Merritt and Lk. Wen. Families who felt the chances of a bus ending up in the Wen. river were too great) A court battle ensued and the result of that was that L-wth school buses were NEVER to travel the canyon and all students would be bused over Beaver hill and the Chumstick. Because of the length of this route, Winton was left open to serve grades 1 - 8 and Winton was ruled a "Remote and Necessary" school. As such, Winton received triple enrollment funds. Of course Leavenworth did not complain about THAT, since that meant lots of extra money for them. Now the extra funds were meant to support the remote and necessary school but at NO time after the consolidation was that ever the case. For years Winton was short-changed in every way possible-----inadequate and outdated books, inadequate supples of all kinds, no support for grounds or janitorial, no maintenance, etc.

My 2nd and 3rd years at Winton there arrived on the scene some real activist parents--Diane DeWeese (then Forbes), Deb and Dennis Pobst, Corky and Duane Broaddus, Gail and Bob Hoxworth (Pine River Ranch), Fabie Etue, and others that I can name if I get out my journals. They formed a group, and assessed the needs of the school (with my input) and Corky proceeded to put together a video of ALL the deficiencies at the school. Then the core group made a presentation at a school board meeting, showing the board in living color just what we had been dealing with

That little maneuver actually got their attention! Video of the antiquated and inadequate wiring, lack of shelving. cold water only sink, and real icky bathrooms, among other things, rather embarrassed the administrators and the board. Over the next two years, several improvements were made. Bruce Disher re-wired the building, (of course they would not dream of hiring a professional electrician!), putting in a breaker box instead of the old fuse box (which would blow fuses if the projector was turned on at the same time the overhead lights were on),the old oil furnace was replaced with a (used) electric furnace, a hot water heater was added, along with a modern sink with storage underneath.  The bathrooms were remodeled, the front steps repaired and painted decent blinds were installed on the big windows, and several other improvements. Bruce also brought up some hand-me-down shelving unitsand installed them in the basement and 'library closet', and built a reading loft in the library closet. The parents joined together for several work parties, during which the basement was painted, some new playground equipment was built and installed and a playshed built.

I also got them to purchase a lawn mower, a vacuum, some basic cleaning supplies, a weed whacker, and a new shovel. (Wow--that last one must have just about broken the bank, but prior to the involvement of the activists, I could not even get them to supply that basic item!) We also managed to convince them thatwe actually needed modern teaching materials and such basics as a library budget. I did not get a copy machine until year 3, however, the same year we got our first computer--an Apple lle. Od course they did not bother to provide any software with the computer, so I spent a few dollars of my salary on software! Of course, I had already been spending a lot on books and other supplies, so that expenditure for the computer was nothing new, just a bigger burden on my checkbook balance.........


Connie is currently working on a book about her experiences and though it is taking her a long time, she says...."I will get it done, come hell or high water.
I have tons of files, as well as letters, and memories of former students.....It just takes time to put it all together in some sort of cogent and hopefully humorous fashion!"

When Connie gets her book completed I will provide information on how you can get a copy.