1854

Settlers convene and agree to raise a one-room schoolhouse, the first to serve the Riverside school district.

1855

In February, property owners build a 288-square-foot schoolhouse out of donated logs. It has two windows and a door. Martin Adams donates two bur-oak logs for the floor.

1862

The Riverside district’s building is bought by Andrew Reeder, who had served as the first territorial governor of Kansas.

1866

A new stone schoolhouse opens on an acre about a half-mile north of what is today Hallmark Cards Inc. The project includes a two-room outhouse for both sexes. The building is known as “Watt’s School” as late as 1878.

1903

The stone building is replaced with a red-brick schoolhouse. Among the area’s first rural schools to have a furnace.

1947

Lakeview school district joins Riverside district.

1950

Lightning strikes Riverside bell tower, requiring renovations. Enrollment: 22.

1954

Nearly 100 boys and girls enroll in East Heights, which has four rooms for kindergarten through third-grade students.

1955

Centennial School opens doors to its first classes. Construction of the new elementary school began in 1954, Lawrence’s centennial year. The school’s name originated from a 1954 contest to name the newest district building.

At the official open house for East Heights, everyone sings “America, The Beautiful.”

The brick schoolhouse, then known as Riverside, is replaced by the current building, which starts as two classrooms and a kitchen.

1956

Six sets of twins attend East Heights, which becomes a full-fledged elementary building with the addition of four classrooms, an auditorium, kitchen and clinic. There are 268 students.

1958

School board buys a house south of East Heights for a first-grade classroom as enrollment surges to 300. Six more classrooms are planned.

1959

Centennial receives the first of several additions.

1963

Brackett school district added to Riverside; four classrooms and a multipurpose room added.

1965

Two air-conditioned classrooms are added to Centennial.

1965

Dining room added to Riverside, which now has eight teachers and 137 students in kindergarten through eighth grades. Industrial areas developing nearby.

1968

Cecilia Pearson, the longest-serving principal at East Heights, retires after 48 years in education. Ira Williams replaces her.

1975

The Lawrence school board considers a plan that would shift Centennial students to Cordley School so the Centennial building could be used by the nearby high school’s music and extension programs. The board votes against the option in April.

1978

Charles Becker is brought in as principal to revitalize academic achievement at East Heights. Enrollment slips to 220.

1982

Terry Trask is hired as principal at East Heights.

1984

East Heights’ PTO splits, and a petition drive starts among parents upset with Trask’s method of rewarding students for academic work.

1985

In January, construction is completed on an addition that now houses Centennial’s library.

In February, a ceremony christens the George Loyd Memorial Library in honor of Centennial’s fifth principal, who served 14 years before dying of a heart attack in March 1983 at the age of 65.

1986

The school board considers a plan that would transfer a group of Centennial students to Broken Arrow School to solve overcrowding problems at Centennial and fill vacant space at Broken Arrow.

Willie Amison is hired from Riverside School to be principal at East Heights. He says the job will be a “tremendous challenge.”

1990

Climetine Clayburn takes over for Amison as East Heights principal.

1993

East Heights becomes eligible for a federal grant to help all students in the school with reading and math skills.

1996

The Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission approves a new preschool program for at-risk children at East Heights.

1997

The school board votes to close East Heights, but an election in April brings a new majority to the board. The closure is reversed. A new principal, Laura Blevins, is hired. There are 185 students.

1998

A $50,000 gift from Lawrence resident William Dann will be used to finance a third early-childhood classroom for at-risk preschoolers at East Heights.

New playground equipment donated to Riverside by Heinz Pet Products, the school’s business partner and next-door neighbor.

2001

Centennial alumna Leslie Whittington, 45, her husband, Charles Falkenberg, and their two daughters, Zoe, 8, and Dana, 3, are killed when terrorists hijack American Airlines Flight 77 on which they are passengers and crash it into the Pentagon on Sept. 11.

East Heights principal Laura Blevins resigns amid controversy, and Gary Johnson becomes principal. Supt. Randy Weseman says that if significant progress in the school’s academic performance isn’t made in three years, he should be fired as superintendent.

2003

Students, faculty and community friends celebrate the April dedication of a book shelf in honor of Whittington in the school’s library.

The school board votes 6-0 to close Centennial and East Heights at the end of the school year. Riverside’s closure was decided in an earlier vote.

Centennial students will attend Cordley or Schwegler schools next year. The Leslie Whittington book collection will be kept intact and donated to the Lawrence Public Library.

East Heights students will be sent to Kennedy or New York schools.

Riverside students will be divided between Deerfield and Pinckney schools.