E.C. Best

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E.C. Best School Circa 1950

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E.C. Best School in 2019

Plans for the new Churchill County Junior High School were culminated in 1959 when a bond issue was voted. The junior high construction was contracted to J.C. Dillard of Reno and designed by Alegra and Harriston of Reno. The twenty sided round building was completed in 1962 to educate grades seven through nine. It was named in honor of a former superintendent of the Consolidated B schools in Fallon. in 1968 a library and study hall unit were added. In 1988 it became an elementary school.

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Junior High School
A. C. Best Will Be
Honored During
Masonic Ceremonies
Churchill County will honor Elbert C. Best, for many years principal of the Consolidated District B. Schools, Sunday afternoon, when' the Grand Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, Sta' of Nevada, will con-duct a cornerstone laying ceremony at the new Elbert C. Best Junior High School. Th community is invited to the affair to begin at 2 p.m. The school will be
open tor inspection, and the
Myrtle Chapter, Order of Eastern Star, and Fallon Assembly No. 6. Order of Rainbow Girls, will serve refreshments.
Officiating at the cornerstone rite will be Walter A. Ray, most worshipful grand master; Reverend Joe Pritchard, grand chaplain; Alexander Coon, grand orator; Silas E. Ross. P. G., coordinator; Robert A. Drake, P.M., aide; Frank E. Brownson, , P.P., aide.
The program will include introductory music by Mrs. Wendell Nelson; color guard, Legion of Honor of the Kerak Temple of the Shrine; pledge of allegiance to the flag, led by Grand Marshal Walter A. Ray; introduction of guests by George Frey, president of Churchill 'County School Trustees; formal request to lay cornerstone, Walter V. Olds, superintendent of Churchill County Schools; dedicatory address, Alexander Coon; prayers and benediction, Reverend Pritchard; and the recessional by Mrs. Nelson.
The Elbert C. Best Junior High School will be the one-hundred-fourteenth cornerstone function at which the Grand Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, State of Nevada, has officiated. The first cornerstone ceremony in Nevada by the group was for the U. S. Branch Mint, Carson City, in September, 1866.
Plans for the new Churchill County junior high school were culminated in 1959 when a S950,000 bond issue was voted. This bond issue included building funds for an addition to the, Northside School. Contract price for the new junior high school was $586,000. The contract was awarded to J. C. Dillard of Reno. The central building, as designed by Alegre and Harrison of Reno, is round. The twenty-sided figure includes two entrance rooms, and 18 rooms, including a library, offices, a boiler room, and room for the custodians. A second rectangu-
lar building, connected toe the
circular building by a covered walk-way, includes rooms for science, home ec., all purpose room, to be used for the cafeteria, kitchen, music rooms. in-chiding a room for band and one for chorus, rooms for industrial arts, a gym, and mechanical rooms for the maintenance equipment. The buildings are heated and ventilated by forced - air.
Cost of the Elbert C. Best Junior High is $11.06 per square foot, this cost including pavement, lockers, kitchen equipment, folding stage, and bleachers. That the round design is a
good bargain in school construction is demonstrates by the fact that the per square foot cost of the new Earl Wooster High School in Reno is over $17.
Every room in the rectangular building opens directly outside, and in the circular building, students have easy access to exits to expedite escape from the building. There is no conceivable danger of fire in the stone-block construction, according to school authorities.
At present 465 students are enrolled in the junior high, according to Gene McIntyre, the principal. Twenty-five teachers are employed to teach students in grades seven, eight, and nine.
Landscaping for the n e w school will take some time, but it will proceed as rapidly as funds become available, according to Superintendent Olds.
Honored guests at the dedication will include, in addition to Mr. Best, Beale Cann and Ken Tedford, board members when original plans for the building were made; Churchill County Senator Carl Dodge; Ed Dyer, Eric Palludan, Churchill County assemblymen; Byron Stetler, State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Amilio Bell, R. J. Kolstrup, Don Travis, Churchill County commissioners; Jack Tedford, mayor of Fallon; and Freeman Morgan, Paul Scholz, Merton Domonoske, Fallon city councilmen, will be included among the guests.
Other honored guests will be Mrs. Carrol Donner. president of Churchill County P. T. A.,
Martin Halgrinison, president of Churchill Count y Classroom
Teachers; Elmo Dericco, Churchill County assistant superintendent of schools; Elmo Oxbor-row, principal Northside School;
Gene McIntyre, principal Elbert
C. Best Junior High; Louis
Hirschman, principal Churchill
County High School; Don Johnson, principal West End School. School board members include George Frey, president; James
D. Wood, clerk; William Boman; Robert Tucker; George Wiseman; Frank Woodliff; Paul C. McCuskey.

Fallon Eagle Standard, September 14, 1962

E.C. Best