ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 7, 1997 TAG: 9701070058
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
When Bethel Elementary School opened four decades ago, teachers paddled pupils if they used bad language.
Children recited the Lord's Prayer every morning and ate pinto beans for lunch.
Classes were filled with 30 or 35 children. Almost every parent was an active member of the PTA.
"I taught 43 years, and I liked Bethel the most," said Millis Cox. The 93-year-old former teacher spent the first dozen years of the school's existence teaching the sixth grade - the sixth grade.
"Those kids just seemed to be so close. If I needed help, a whole flock would come over. They were just very cooperative," he said.
Several generations share fond memories of the small brick school on Virginia 177, just down the hill from Interstate 81. But after the 1997-98 school year, Bethel's doors will likely close.
It's a decades-long trend, to close antiquated neighborhood schools and move to large modern facilities. The new school, under construction in Riner, will hold up to 750 pupils from the Bethel and Riner communities.
School officials have not said what they plan to do with Bethel. School Board member Barry Worth, who represents that area, has suggested using it for special programs, like drop-out prevention.
But before things change at the elementary school, fourth- and fifth-grade pupils plan to document its past.
The children will interview former teachers and students, take and gather photographs and document other memorabilia. Students in a service-learning program at Virginia Tech, many of whom earn credit for their volunteer work, will take the pupils to interviews and help with their journal entries and research.
In the spring of 1998, just before summer break begins for the last time, the pupils will throw a party and display what they have learned. If any of the $800 grant from Montgomery County Public Schools remains, teachers hope to compile the information into a book to give to local libraries.
Once the closing of Bethel seemed imminent, some parents in the Bethel community protested closing what they saw as a vital link.
"I think a school is just like a church - it gives the community a place to feel like they belong," said former Bethel teacher Ramsey McNeil. "That was one reason that we didn't have a lot of problems with children because it was a small school and they grew up together."
McNeil began teaching around the time Millis Cox retired - as the turmoil of the late '60s swirled around the nation. But Bethel was still a rural school not yet bordered by four-lane highways and gas stations. McNeil could impress the kids by taking them on a field trip to Dixie Caverns or having class outside on sunny days.
"One of my favorite times was to eat with them," she said. "I considered it an honor because that's the time you can really get to know them."
Russ Eller, who went to Bethel in the early '70s, remembered his lunch times fondly after eating a recent meal with his fourth-grade son, Tyler.
He and a buddy used to wash dishes and spray each other with the hose. "It was just something we wanted to do," and they could miss a bit of class to do it.
Things are strange now, he said, because schools use disposable utensils. Even the milk cartons have been replaced with plastic bags kids pop with straws. "I looked at those and said 'What the heck is this?'"
When Eller was his son's age, a paved basketball court was added at the top of a hill. A few trailers sat behind the school, too.
Now, six trailers help house the more than 200 pupils at Bethel. That's why, as a parent, Eller is glad to see children switching to a larger, more modern place.
"I think the community will still pull together and have a lot more resources once they combine with Riner," he said. "If it does anything, it's going to help."
Still, he said, "I hate to see the old school just abandoned."
Anyone with stories, pictures or memorabilia to add to the Bethel history project can call Jane Farmer at Bethel Elementary, 633-3215.
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. Paddles and prayers both were part ofby CNBthe school day when
Bethel Elementary opened in Montgomery County more than 40 years
ago. color.