Enatai Elementary is filled with more than 60 years of history, and it’s all coming down this summer to make way for a bigger and better facility. First, the district and community members want to give the old school a proper sendoff.
The elementary school was constructed in 1953 for $485,000, receiving minor renovations in 1999. The school was necessary to take on the growing number of families crossing from Seattle to live in Bellevue after tolls were removed on Interstate 90 in 1949, said Sharon Pang, who is organizing Enatai Elementary’s farewell celebration next month.
“As fast as they built (schools), they were filling up,” said Pang, whose oldest son attended Enatai. She now has a kindergartner attending the school. “Enatai is one of those that was built very fast.”
The student population is growing again — in step with the city — and the Bellevue School District plans to level the old school in July to construct a new two-story, 93,849-square-foot school in its place. The $30-million project is funded by the district’s Capital Construction bond, passed in February 2014.
Pang said she wanted to do something to commemorate Enatai Elementary and give former educators, students and others connected to the school a chance to walk its halls one more time and share memories.
“Before we tear it down, let’s give it a good farewell and represent its history,” Pang said. “Anybody who’s ever been touched by the school should come.”
Pang has spent weeks searching archives to find historical photos and information to display during Old School Enatai, the farewell celebration that runs 2-4 p.m. Sunday, June 7. She said a Ms. Nelson, who taught at Enatai in 1955, will also attend the event, along with one of her former students. The school’s parent, teacher and student association is sponsoring the event.
“I think Enatai is kind of known as a neighborhood where people come back to it,” Pang said.
The new Enatai Elementary is slated to open in fall 2016, which will require students to be relocated to the old Bellewood Elementary campus next school year. Bellewood closed in 1981 and reopened as a swing site for elementary schools during new construction projects in the early 2000s.
People wanting to know more about Old School Enatai or share their memories of the school can check out its Facebook event page or email questions to oldschoolenatai@gmail.com.
