Millennium Countdown: 1977

Elementary school enrollments 1977

Carson City population 29,370

Edith Fritsch 860

Grace Bordewich 680

John C. Fremont 661

Corbett 292

Mildred Bray 237

Martha Gleason 178

James Thom 9

Total 2,917

School enrollments Nov. 22, 1999

Carson City population 52,620

Elementary schools

Bordewich-Bray 638

Edith Fritsch 634

Empire 595

John C. Fremont 667

Mark Twain 641

Seeliger 728

Total elem. schools 3,903

Carson Middle School 1,071

Eagle Valley Middle School 832

Carson High School 2,382

Student support services

Gleason 46

Opportunity school (Corbett) 73

Paper: Nevada Appeal - 22 days to the millennium - Wednesday, March 9, 1977

Publisher: Donald W. Reynolds

General Manager: Jack D. King

Editor: John S. Miller

Advertising Manager: Roger Rickman

Circulation Manager: Andy Ortiz

Production Manager: John R. Gibson

Published daily except Saturday at 200 Bath St.

A Nevada owned member Donrey Media Group

By Kelli Du Fresne

The inside pages of today's March 9, 1977, Nevada Appeal are filled with the news that Carson children are getting a new elementary school.

The school is to be named after longtime school superintendent Albert Seeliger and will be built in spring 1978 to be opened in September 1978.

The paper said Seeliger retired in 1966 after leading the school district for 13 years and through a period of 400 percent growth.

Bordewich-Bray Principal Kirk Kinne was a student when Seeliger was superintendent and remembers Seeliger as a "fabulous man.

"He was there for the students, there for the teachers and there for the community. He was always visible.

"A good example of that I remember very well. In 1961, we played for the state championship in basketball. We lost, of course, we were playing in Reno at UNR's old gym. I can't ever remember a game where Al and his wife, Fran, were not in attendance, but I remember very vividly them being at that game. It shows me he cared about his students. cared about his school."

When Seeliger began his career in Carson City the "entirety" of the school district consisted of the high school, which is where Bordewich is today, a two-story brick building at the corner of King and Minnesota, and Martha Gleason Elementary School at 604 W. Musser St., Kinne said.

"(Seeliger) was superintendent when Fritsch was built, Gleason was remodeled and Corbett and Fremont were built," Kinne said. "By doing that he made sure there was a school in every quadrant of Carson City.

"I think it was during the early 1960s when Carson witnessed unprecedented growth."

Kinne said in 1948 when his family moved to Carson there were only four or five paved streets.

Since the growth spurt of the 1960s, things have slowed a little. Carson's elementary school student population has grown by about 33 percent since 1977 when the district was planning Seeliger school. In the same time, the city's population has jumped nearly 100 percent.

Carson's population nearly doubled in each of four consecutive decades beginning in 1950.

From 1950, the capital city's population jumped from 4,172 to 8,063 by 1960. The population jumped again between 1960 and 1970, when the census counted 15,468 residents in Carson. Population nearly doubled again between 1970 and 1980, when 32,022 persons were said to live in the Eagle Valley.

In 1977, after the population boom, the city was planning the new school to be named after one of Carson's most revered educators.

The headline read: "Al Seeliger represents dedication" and was followed by the story, which said:

At 66 years of age, former school superintendent Albert Seeliger now spends many of his days traveling around the Palm Springs, Calif., area. After a 30-year career in public education in Nevada he has earned his free time.

Seeliger has also earned something else - the distinction of having Carson City's new elementary school named after him.

"For it to carry the name of Albert Seeliger Elementary School will place a name on the facility that will represent the highest degree of dedication to public education in the state of Nevada," Superintendent John Hawkins told the Carson City School Board of Trustees Tuesday. "His advancements in education were based upon merit and without doubt he is one of the most respected school administrators in the state."

Seeliger served as principal for schools in Panaca (1935-37), Mina (1937-38) and Sparks (1938-44).

In 1944 he was named superintendent of schools in Fallon, a position he held until 1953 when he began his 13-year stint as superintendent of the Carson City School District.

Hawkins praised Seeliger for successfully guiding the school district through a period of 400 per cent student enrollment growth.

However, Seeliger's interest in education did not end with his retirement in 1966.

He served as executive secretary for the Nevada School Board Association from 1966-72, was a member of the advisory board at Stewart Indian School from 1970-71 and was chairman of the Governor's Council on Youth Opportunity from 1969-70.

Seeliger was also a member of the University of Nevada Board of Regents from 1966-70.

In 1977, reporter Steve Brown was writing about the upcoming construction of the school and its solar panels.

Today, 22 years later, the school has yet to see a panel.

The story said: "Installation of solar panels in the roof's 12,000-square-foot, southwest face is the ultimate intent."

If so that would probably make Seeliger Elementary the only school in Nevada to use the sun's rays as a supplementary source of heat."

The school was to be 61,850 square feet, large enough to accommodate about 600 students. It was to have 18 classrooms, plus classrooms for the handicapped, a complete kitchen, lunch room and multipurpose room large enough for 616 people.

The school was built using a $3.7 million bond approved by voters in May of 1976.