The Class of the 1980s from Rogers Public School in Newmarket are getting together for what organizers describe as "a family reunion" to reminisce on their time at the unique open concept elementary school.
Rogers first opened its doors in 1971 — and was the first open concept school in the York Region public school board — with about 500 students enrolled from kindergarten to Grade 8.
The school was unique in that it didn't have traditional classrooms with walls and doors. In fact, the only classrooms that did were the music and French rooms. In the centre of the single-storey building was a sunken library space.
Students who went to Rogers in the 1970s and 1980s look back on that time fondly. One of those students is Michelle Worville who attended Rogers from 1975 to 1984.
"Open concept was the new in thing. Some people couldn't do it. I loved it. I absolutely loved the open concept. I could be sitting in my classroom and one of my girlfriends or whatever could be in another class, so we could still kind of communicate," she said.
Beyond the building, Worville made lasting friendships at that school. It's where she met her now husband and developed life-long friendships.
"I have more friends that I've kept in touch with (from elementary) school with than high school. Those friendships that we made at Rogers have been long lasting. Many of them I've known for 49 years," she said.
She got together last year with some of those friends who also graduated in 1984 and they decided they needed to organize a Rogers reunion on a bigger scale. While next year will be 40th anniversary for their graduating class, they decided they didn't want to wait.
On June 17, those alumni will be getting together at Newmarket Veterans Hall, as well as many of their teachers from that time. Worville said it has been a challenge to track down everybody but they have about 90 people coming to remember the good old days.
"We weren't just teachers and students, we are family and that's how we all felt, we were part of a family. So we're not really calling this a school reunion but we decided it's more of a Roger's family reunion," she said.
One of the attendees is Geoff Brown, who was a year behind Worville, but fondly remembers his formative years at the school.
Brown is now a Grade 7 and 8 teacher at Denne Public School in Newmarket and was inspired to become a teacher by his intermediate teachers at Rogers, particularly Glen Stainton, Eric McLean and Susan Boyne.
"I knew at a very young age, after graduating Rogers, that I wanted to be a teacher. At the time, I didn't know it was because of the group of teachers that we had at Rogers, but it became clear as I've gotten older and being a teacher myself that those teachers had huge impacts on all of our lives and mine personally," he said.
He specifically remembers the caring conversations they had with their students and not so much what they taught but how they taught it.
"You can't remember a single lesson that they taught you academically, right? But you can remember the conversations they had, the kind of people that they were," Brown said.
One thing is he looking forward to with the reunion is getting the chance to ask his former teachers how the open concept design worked for them.
"I don't know what they were thinking when they created Rogers, but it was very unique and memorable," he said.
This reunion is especially important to them as a way to keep the memory of that old Rogers school alive.
The open concept building was torn down in 2003, paving the way for a new school to be built and opened in 2006.
"There's nothing left of us. So that's part of the reason this reunion is so important, because it's a way for us to get together and remember what our school meant to us," Worville said.
It's a sentiment shared by her fellow organizer Javed Khan. He said many people might not even know that the old Rogers existed unless you told them about it.
This reunion will be a chance to relive that time and share those stories, keeping the memory of Rogers alive.
"Talking about it, like everyone does, about their elementary experiences on trips and with classmates and teachers and 'hey, we got in trouble doing this, can't do that anymore,'" he said.
Khan, along with the others, said they are all looking forward to the night to connect with former teachers and classmates and enjoy the nostalgia of their elementary days.
"It's kind of that overall vibe of just bringing people together and just having a good time," he said.
