A Reopened School for a Rejuvenated Community
Moore students and teachers cut the ribbon to officially re-open the school.
Now that the shakedown cruise is over it’s time to make it official at the remodeled and repurposed Moore Elementary on the district’s northwest side. Yesterday after school a ceremonial ribbon-cutting was held outside a building that was originally opened in 1950 but feels brand new after $6.6 million worth of upgrades.
Besides a giant pair of scissors, also on hand were descendants of Dr. Fred Moore, the first-ever DMPS Health Director for whom the building was named, who traveled from Kansas City. Several members of the Des Moines School Board were there along with many former students and teachers from Moore’s first incarnation as a neighborhood elementary school, roots which have been restored after stints as a multipurpose district facility since 2007 in the wake of declining enrollments. Several hands also raised when Principal Beth Sloan asked if any of the workers responsible for renewing Moore, right down to the fresh sod everyone stood upon, were in attendance. They seemed bashful but proud to see the last installation in place at the site: schoolchildren.
But what really gave the event an air of serious purpose was the presence of a delegation from Post #9127 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the VFW branch in Beaverdale. Moore was presented with a pair of brand new flags, Old Glory and the state flag of Iowa, which were run up the school’s flagpole in accordance with military protocols which included the “heartiest of greetings” from the VFW neighbors and the “symbol of our great republic.”
A perfectly timed breeze mustered just as the flags unfurled at the top of the pole and started flapping like a pair of hands clapping. Moore students led the assembled in the Pledge of Allegiance. Then they formed a big circle to recite a poem they memorized entitled With My Own Two Hands by Ben Harper. At that point out came the scissors, giant ones and kid-sized too, and the long green ribbon was cut into souvenir scraps for keepsakes.
Inside were refreshments but first thing this morning it was back to work at Moore where, like the song says, “everything old is new again.”
