L.A. school celebrates centennial

Gail Quarles scanned fading class photos on the school’s auditorium wall, her eyes momentarily stopping on one of herself as a young teacher.

“You can see I’ve aged,” she said Saturday, running her hand through her hair. “When I started I was jet black. Now I’m gray. And every gray hair has a child’s name on it.”

Quarles, who taught for 37 years at Normandie Avenue Elementary School before retiring in 2004, joined former teachers, students, parents and administrators to celebrate the Los Angeles school’s 100th anniversary.

For a few hours, past teachers stepped back into their old roles as they reunited with former students and reminisced about school plays, library trips and holiday concerts. They talked of the building torn down after the 1971 earthquake. And of the corner store where students sneaked off campus to buy candy and hot dogs. And of the street that used to run right through where classrooms now sit.

“Ms. Quarles, Ms. Quarles, I was hoping I would see you,” said Darus Richmond, 29, who attended the school and now takes his son there. “You were the best teacher I have ever had in my entire life. And I’m not just saying that because the reporter’s here. It’s true.”

Richmond, whose mother and grandmother also attended Normandie, said he remembered making popcorn in the second grade and standing up in front of his classmates for a spelling bee.

“I lost on the word ‘neighborhood,’ ” he said. “I will never forget that.”

During its 100 years, the school has switched names -- from La Dow to Normandie Avenue. The population has grown from 46 students in 1907 to more than 1,000 a century later. And as with much of South Los Angeles, the demographics of the school have changed -- from all white, to nearly all black, to more than two-thirds Latino.

Principals have come and gone. Test scores have climbed and dropped. The auditorium has been renovated and the school burglarized. But former teachers and students say that throughout the years, the staff has never lost its sense of purpose, and the school has never lost its sense of community.

“Everybody knows everybody,” said Patricia Hemphill, who was a student, parent and aide at Normandie.

Hemphill said the school became overcrowded in the 1970s, prompting her to bus her children to a campus in Pacific Palisades. Yet she still feels an affinity to her grade school.

Janice DeMar, who spent nearly 10 years teaching at Normandie before becoming an assistant principal at another school, said she always felt her duty was to teach students social graces at the same time as academics. To that end, she held regular tea parties in her classroom, where students helped set the table and brew the tea.

Of the hundreds of students she taught, a few stuck with her. A little girl named Sandra who wanted to be just like her teacher -- sitting like her, talking like her and even using the same hand gestures. Another little boy who couldn’t come up with the word “laminate” and instead asked DeMar to “plasticate” something for him.

After several former staff members were inducted into the Normandie Hall of Fame and given special ribbons, a teenage boy walked up to Sandra Johnston, who taught at the school for 22 years of her 47-year career.

“Give me a name,” she said to him.

“Joey,” he responded.

“You were with me, weren’t you? I remember,” she said, hugging him.

Until she retired, Johnston said, former students visited all the time. They introduced her to their babies. They said goodbye, off to college or a new job. They thanked her.

They all remember her “Treasure Box,” filled with pens, pencils, calculators and other prizes for children who did their homework.

“I may not be able to remember a name, but I remember eyes, smiles,” Johnston said. “I love it when the children come back.”

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anna.gorman@latimes.com