News-Record.com

The district is selling the old Rena Bullock School campus in Pleasant Garden. The sale is still in the bidding process, but one buyer has agreed to spend $60,000 for the site.

During segregation, Rena Bullock served black students in southeastern Guilford County. Black students attended Rena Bullock for grades one through nine, then went on to Dudley High School.

The school, named for a long-time local teacher, had plenty of traditions in those days, including a graduation ceremony for departing ninth-graders, a school song and an annual May Day celebration.

The lines between church and state were a little blurrier in those days, so Rena Bullock students began every day with a morning prayer and said the blessing at lunch. Principal Q.H. Holt was a stickler for discipline and students who crossed him found themselves on the receiving end of a paddling.

When the schools integrated in 1970, Rena Bullock became a K-2 school. Rena Bullock closed in 1987. In recent years, the school district used it for storage until it became too dilapidated even for that purpose.

Rena Bullock alumni held a major reunion in 2001. Ralph Herbin, a Rena Bullock graduate and Charlotte design consultant, has put together a really nice Web site from that reunion.

With all the demands in education these days, it's easy to forget the history of our local schools. But that would be a mistake.

And for all that's said now about honoring teachers, what are the odds that a new school today would be named for a classroom teacher like Rena Bullock - not an administrator, school board member or civic big-wig?