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Purdy Elementary students, staff and alumni time-hopped through the decades on Thursday, June 5, to celebrate the school’s 55th anniversary. 

They missed the 50th in 2020 because, you guessed it, COVID crashed the party. 

Panthers young and old made up for that disappointment with an exuberant extravaganza of singing, dancing, art, history and pop culture, reaching back to the school’s founding in 1970.  

Fifth grader Claire Pero imagined what it would have been like going to school B.C. — Before Cellphones. 

“Scary and, like, sad, sometimes,” she said. “But also, exciting. So, you’re going to be outdoors and all that.” 

Forbes Gildersleeve, Purdy’s first principal, attended and said it was “really exciting to see people that we haven’t seen for years and years, and still have a smile on our face and still having a really good time.” 

Now, let’s fire up the flux capacitor and have a look around. 

Purdy Elementary School students, staff and families celebrated the school’s 55th anniversary on June 5, 2025. Each grade level studied one decade-long era. First grade took on the 1990s. Photo by Christina T. Henry

Grooving in the 1970s 

Psychedelic art plastered the hallway of the fifth-grade quad. Teachers sported tie-dye and big hair. Dioramas and displays described the Vietnam War, winding to a chaotic close, as well as children’s books of the time and rock music that defined the era. 

“They said the ‘70s had amazing music,” said teacher Katie Crowell. 

Purdy Elementary was established in 1970 in portables on the nearby Peninsula High School campus, according to Chris Jardin, a second-grade teacher and longtime staff member who served on the 55th Anniversary organizing committee. Gildersleeve that year oversaw construction of the one-story building on its current site.  

In its first year, Purdy had just one class per grade level.  It now serves 464 K-5 students plus 60 preschoolers. 

Purdy Elementary School teachers get in the groove for the school’s 55th anniversary celebration, June 5, 2025. The event featured history, art and pop culture of the decades. From left, Kristen Walker, Katie Crowell, Andre Sams and Melissa Tolman. Photo by Christina T. Henry

1980s: Neon and early video games 

Frogger, the title character from the 1980s video game, hopped along the fourth-grade hallway. There, students displayed their research of events like the eruption of Mount St. Helens (1980) and The Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer (1981). They learned about 1980s sports, pop culture and toys of the decade, such as My Little Pony and the Rubik’s Cube.  

Teacher Mary Beth Beene played host to a round of 1980s “Jeopardy” in her classroom. A sample answer and question: Home planet of the Ewoks (“Return of the Jedi,” 1983) … What is Endor? 

Waylon Watkins in an R2D2 costume at Purdy Elementary School’s 55th anniversary celebration on June 5, 2025.

Having lived through the 1980s, Beene’s been on a trip down memory lane. 

“It’s been fun journeying through it, you know, having kids do their research, and then I’ll go, oh yeah, I remember that,” she said. “They were very fixated on video games and how video games have changed and technology in general. They were just really kind of blown away by that.” 

Open concept classrooms 

In one fourth-grade classroom, Purdy Panther alum Steve Perry (2000) rocked out with his niece Coral Ortiz in a neon 1980s “photo booth.”

“It’s pretty cool being back here, and seeing how different it is,” Perry said. “Nothing’s in the same place.  The playground seems a lot smaller.”

Perry was a student during the era that the school was “open concept,” meaning no walls between classrooms, a trend in education during the 1970s and ‘80s. 

“It seemed normal,” he said. “This seems nice though and I’m sure the teachers like it more.” 

Purdy Elementary School alumnus Steve Perry, holding son Noah, 10 months, rocks out with his niece Coral Ortiz in a 1980s “photo booth” at the Purdy Elementary School 55th anniversary celebration on June 5, 2025. Photo by Christina T. Henry

“It was challenging,” said Jardin. “It was hard because we all had to schedule when we were being loud, when we were being quiet.” 

Partitions between the quads (groups of four classrooms) were added sometime in the 1990s. Walls between classrooms were added during a major remodel completed in 2005. 

My mom is ‘a ‘90s kid?!’ 

First grade students took on the 1990s, learning about grunge fashion and music. Plaid shirts and skateboards decorated the hallway. They played retro games, like Guess Who and Bop It and then wrote opinion pieces comparing old school and current games.

Arly Andrus, a first-grade student, was collecting bracelets showing the decades she and her mom Kelsea had already visited. If students collected bracelets representing all decades, they got a commemorative Purdy 55th Anniversary token.

“It’s a really great opportunity for kids to show off the art that they’ve been doing and the things they’ve been learning,” Kelsea Andrus said. “My daughter came home and showed me the Oregon Trail video game and wanted to play with me, and she was telling me about flannels and overalls and how they’re both from the 90s.”

Purdy Elementary School student Kayne Walker shows off bracelets he earned by visiting classrooms representing each decade of the school’s 55-year history. Students who collected all bracelets got a commemorative token. Photo by Christina T. Henry

Kelsea shared with her daughter about eating Quaker dinosaur egg oatmeal, a thing at the time. 

“It was just really cool to see her connect all those things and be excited about something and then be really surprised when I was also born in the ‘90s, like I’m also a ‘90s kid, so she’s having a lot of fun learning about the decades,” Andrus said. 

In the gym, more ‘90s kids joined their first-grade students in dancing the Macarena. 

Third grade students delved into flip phones, viral videos and early social media as they studied 2000-2010. Second graders and a second-third split class reviewed 2010 through the 2020s, featuring smartphones and tablets. Those were defined by an exploding world of music and movies streaming online, and a firehose of major events, including COVID. 

Five principals, 55 years  

The anniversary committee pieced together the school’s history by interviewing Gildersleeve (1970-1990) and the school’s three other former principals: Dennis Nugent (1990-1995), Joan Butler (1995-2003) and Jim Rudsit (2003-2013). They created a commemorative video with help from Peninsula High School students and played it in the library during the celebration. 

Current Principal Kristi Brooks has led Purdy Elementary for the past 12 years.  

“We’ve had amazing principals every year, and they all work toward building community,” said Jardin. “That has been a real focus of Purdy is building family and that, as a staff, we work together as a family. And currently, we have been really blessed having Kristi as our principal.” 

Forbes Gildersleeve, Purdy Elementary School’s first principal, attended the school’s 55th anniversary celebration on June 5, 2025. The school has had five principals in its history, including current principal Kristi Brooks. Photo by Christina T. Henry

Purdy wildlife 

Purdy Elementary has a small pond in the center courtyard, a unique feature, at least for a school. The pond was there before the building was constructed around it, and each quad has an outdoor courtyard. Architects enhanced the pond with landscaping and a bridge.  

Students love getting to read by the pond during class or sitting outside during their lunch break. Several students volunteer to clean and maintain the pond.  

The pond once had koi. They died eventually, and now there are goldfish. A bullfrog lives there, happy among the aquatic plants. 

The school seems to attract wildlife. One year, a mother duck hatched her babies at the pond. Once, as legend goes, an eagle flew over the playground at recess and dropped a giant salmon. The science teacher ran out and scooped it up, capitalizing on the spontaneous science lesson. And, during the major remodel, “giant sea otters” came up a drainage ditch that had been exposed, causing wonder and excitement before they headed back to the sound. 

Purdy Panther spirit lives on 

The anniversary celebration was bittersweet for Brooks, who next fall will become principal at Pioneer Elementary as part of a reshuffle of district leadership announced in April.

“I’m so inspired by when I met all of the principals that have ever been at this school, that there’s been this longevity of principals that have been here,” Brooks said. “When we talked together, it was really incredible. We saw a throughline of community support, an incredible community that we have here, the parents that support our school and the families that we work with, that we have strong teachers, good connections, and that, really, we think of the school as a family.” 

Gildersleeve echoed Brooks’ thoughts when asked to describe the Purdy Panther spirit. “Purdy pride and caring about each other and really working together,” he said.  

Gildersleeve and the other principals set a foundation for the school that will carry on through decades to come, Brooks said. “Just seeing that with the staff and kids, and then to know it’s going to keep going, really is an inspiring thing.”  

Kristi Brooks, Purdy Elementary School Principal for the past 12 years, visits with students during the school’s 55th anniversary celebration, June 5, 2025. Photo by Christina T. Henry