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The Anoka-Hennepin School District wants to preserve memories from the eight schools it is closing before pulling the plug on them.

District and school officials are collecting whatever they can get their hands on in the way of mementoes, artifacts and testimonials to ensure that the schools, which are being shut down or converted to other uses, don't just fade away.

"We were hoping to find photographs, maybe artifacts such as old textbooks, or maybe a desk someone had bought at a sale, and ... some photographs," said district spokeswoman Mary Olson, who is organizing the effort. "And we were hoping people would just come forward with interesting stories about their experiences in school over the years."

Most of the schools will hold their commemorations on May 1. But, so far, Olson said, the efforts to compile artifacts have been going slowly.

"We're kind of disappointed by that," Olson said. "It may be as we get closer to the schools actually closing, we will get more information."

Schools to be closed by the district at the end of the school year include Peter Enich Kindergarten Center in Anoka; Champlin Elementary School; L.O. Jacob Elementary School in Coon Rapids; Sorteberg Elementary School in Coon Rapids; Riverview Speciality School for Math and Environmental Science in Brooklyn Park; and Sandburg Middle School in Anoka. Two other schools will re-open in different roles: Washington Elementary in Anoka, which will re-open as a sixth-grade campus for middle school students, and Park View Early Childhood Center in Champlin, which will become an elementary school.

A couple of the schools are old enough to have generated several generations' worth of mementoes. Sandburg, for instance, opened in 1904, and actually served as Anoka High School in the early 20th century. L.O. Jacob was built in 1921.

At Sandburg, either the message has been slow to go out, or the mementoes and memories have been slow to come in.

"I've got one thing," said Sandburg Principal Tom Hagerty. "It's a story from a gal who was a student at L.O. Jacob and Sandburg. ... We really have not advertised our open houses that we're going to have May 1. I think once we start advertising. ... we might get a few more things."

Olson said the district promoted the commemorations in a January newsletter and has featured them on the district website.

In the case of Sandburg, the school had a 100th anniversary commemoration in 2004. There was plenty of memorabilia donated then, and much of it wound up in the Anoka County Historical Society collection, Hagerty said. The school already has a number of old yearbooks, and hopes to borrow other mementoes from the historical society. Even so, donations are needed.

"Yearbooks are always nice for people to page through," Hagerty said. "Pictures are always incredible to get. Any written stories, honor roll certificates, report cards, absence slips, things like slide rules. ... Coming up and sharing stories verbally with people would be nice memories for folks. It would be a nice way to put closure to a school that had an impact for them."

Norman Draper • 612-673-4547