In September of 1950, the first principal of General Beadle Elementary was Oralle Jarchow. This new school was built right south of Halley Airport. She was here for 21 years. Mrs. Jarchow found it was a challenge because of the opening of a new school. She had to get parents interested in sending their children here. "Most of the children were nice but there are always problems in any building", said Mrs. Jarchow. She enjoyed the children, working with teachers, and parents because they were so cooperative. Also "the PTA was out of this world!" There were 200 parents and they were the "life line" of our school.
In the beginning, 333 students were at General Beadle. The year
before Knollwood Elementary opened, 800 students attended General
Beadle. During this time, Mrs. Jarchow tried everything to make
space. Students had to attend school in spilt shifts with one-half
of the students in class from 7:30 AM to 12:30 PM and the other
half went from 12:45 PM to 4:30 PM. Then six weeks before the
school was out for the summer, thirteen teachers and their students
loaded all their personal things in bags and walked to Knollwood
Elementary. Then General Beadle's enrollment was back to normal.
I was tough on the kids but they respected me. Now whenever Mrs.
Jarchow goes places her students say,''Hi'' and ''You were my
principal.''
-Oralle Jarchow
April 1999
Created By: Madysen & Michelle