Former students and faculty of Owens Elementary School have the opportunity Monday to tour the building and relive childhood memories before the dismissal bell rings a final time.

The school will be open to the public from 4 to 7 p.m. with a time capsule reveal at 6:15 p.m. and a school history discussion at 6:30.

The 70-year-old school will close its doors at the end of this school year and students and faculty will begin a new journey at Sugar Creek Elementary School on Salem Minor Hill Road.

When the school added on in the 1980s, former principal Don Osborne put a time capsule inside one of the walls, said second-grade teacher Patti Reeves.

“I know there’s a list of every student’s name who was going to school there inside it, but I don’t know what else,” she said. “It will be a surprise to everyone.”

Owens memories

Reeves watched her three children grow up in the school over the 20 years she has taught there. Her oldest son began his first day at kindergarten the same day she started teaching, so the big move brings mixed emotions.

“We cry every day — we can barely plan Monday night,” she said. “We’ve told parents it’s like we’re getting a new house and we’re taking our family and our memories to the new house — it’s a mansion.”

Reeves said even though she’s sad to leave her work home, she is looking forward to a new adventure alongside her coworkers and students.

“(Sugar Creek) has a lot of new technology, a lot of cutting-edge technology,” she said. “That is very exciting.”

For teachers like Beth Tuten, the school’s history goes beyond their own history working there.

The second-grade teacher has been at Owens for 20 years, but her history with Owens goes back to the year after the school was built. Tuten’s father, Tommie Smith, began at Owens in 1948 and stayed an active coach, volunteer and trustee throughout his life, Tuten said.

She and her siblings also attended the school, and her brother Eric Smith taught physical education there.

“Owens really is home,” she said. “We’re really a family. My brothers and sister went there and all our kids went there.”

Tuten said she remembers standing with a jar outside stores to raise money for Harvest Festival because whoever raised the most money won the title King or Queen.

“There are so many memories, there’s no way you could tell all of them,” she said. “There’s so many friendships through the school.”

Tuten said she doesn’t have ill feelings toward the new school or her future coworkers, but it’s hard to leave what she has always known.

“We have the same gym with no air conditioning in it,” she said. “I played ball in that gym and our kids played ball in there.”

One thing Tuten is looking forward to is a new classroom.

“I’ve never had a new classroom, so that part is exciting, and we’ll have new coworkers,” she said. “It’s just very hard to leave — had I not gone here and my family not gone here, it might not be so emotional.”

Fourth-grade teacher Christal Biggs Townsend attended the school from 1986 until 1993. She said some of her favorite members revolve around Halloween.

“Halloween was so fun — Mr. Osborne would lay in a coffin in front of the school and raise up and give us candy,” she said. “We had the best harvest festivals in the county.”

Townsend has been teaching at the school for 11 years, but she also did her student teaching there.

“When I walked back through the doors, it smelled the same,” she said. “It had that school smell, like glue and crayons.”

The smell wasn’t the only thing that hadn’t changed — the feeling of the school stayed the same too.

“It still felt the same because everyone was so loving and caring,” she said. “It felt like a small school.”

Townsend said she is glad everything will be new at Sugar Creek, but it’s never easy to leave home.

“It will be sad to me because this is where my sister went to school so I walked through these hallways before I went here,” she said. “This is all I knew and all I’ve known — it’s my life.”