What Will the Next Century Bring?

I wonder if, 100 years from now, there will still be a City of Laurel and if the citizens will remember that, 100 years earlier, it was declared that June 5th is Laurel Elementary Day.

Laurel Elementary held its centennial birthday on June 5, 2026, with an after-school celebration unlike anything we have put on before. The cafeteria staged the proclamation made by Mayor Keith Sydnor and Councilmembers James Kole and Adrian Simmons before current families and many guests who had either worked at or attended the school throughout the years. Classrooms were opened so visitors could see how much the school has changed over the years. The media center was transformed into a museum showcasing the history of LES.

“A lot has changed over the years,” said Nicole Parks, the school’s guidance counselor and director of the centennial celebration. “But we also keep many traditions that have lasted over the years, and people shouldn’t feel like strangers when they come back to visit.”

Tables filled the media center covered in old photos and yearbooks. Current students freaked out to see some of their teachers’ youthful faces smiling out from the yellowing pages. One of the kids humbled me in an exceptional way: “You were in the 1900s?” Fortunately, all my pictures were in color.

Executive Director of the Laurel Historical Society, Kristen Norton, presented even older photos (in black and white) of school events and staff. James Walker stopped by to donate pictures he had saved of the Beautification Day, when he managed the installation of the front playground. A temporary wall, saved from the days when classrooms were separated into pods by sound-dampening dividers, was covered in photos both new and old that would never make it into a newspaper but still brought life to the past.

Photo: Shane Walker

Photographs were not the only relics being displayed: the Native American History Month exhibit (a teepee and campfire setup, which my mother put up for decades); a leopard costume worn by former principal Melinda Lee (impressively, also for decades); awards the school has earned over the years; and even pieces of a time capsule from 2000. It may have been opened a little early, but the centennial seemed like an appropriate occasion.

“It’s an exciting time to be working here,” remarked Jen McLaughlin, known to her many students as Ms. M. “But then again, it’s always been exciting. And it always will be! As long as there are students, there will also be me.” This sort of commitment is typical for Laurel teachers, and it explains why so many past teachers and students returned to celebrate. Since its opening, Laurel Elementary has served the same mission: binding the community together.

If there is still a City of Laurel 100 years from now, I hope its citizens remember more than a proclamation. I hope they remember that on June 5, 2026, generations of students, teachers, and families came together to celebrate a school that had already spent a century bringing them together.

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Shane Walker is the Media Specialist at Laurel Elementary School. More than a lifetime resident in Laurel, he is a lifetime member of its greater community. As a writer, he focuses on inspiring harmony through diversity of thought.