Cedar City School Celebrates 66 Years With Route 66 Theme

South Elementary School is celebrating a milestone this week as the Cedar City school marks 66 years of serving students and families, and the community is invited to take part in a special open house tonight, May 19, from 6 to 8 p.m.

The event, featuring a Route 66 theme, will include historical displays, student work and memorabilia uncovered from a long-forgotten storage vault inside the school. During an interview on the Big Picture Morning Show on KSUB radio, Vice Principal Megan Cottam said the anniversary provided a perfect opportunity to celebrate both the school’s history and its students.

“Our school is 66 years old this year, and we felt like it was a great opportunity to celebrate, one, celebrating the years of excellence that have happened at South Elementary, but then also to celebrate this year's students and the successes that they've had,” Cottam said.

Second grade teacher Marie Holmes described the discovery of old records and photographs inside what staff jokingly referred to as “the vault.”

“We opened the vault, the vault in quotation marks, that nobody's there tackled for several years, and things have just collected there for, well, since 1959,” Holmes said. “Found a lot of items dating clear back 1959, and even before that said East Elementary on it.”

Among the discoveries were attendance records, scrapbooks, yearbooks and PTA memorabilia. PTA member Kelly Gibson said the experience became personal when her mother found her own kindergarten records from 1963.

“We're actually going to have some photo opportunities where we want you to recreate the image from the photo because you can still see exactly where those places are,” Gibson said. “It's really cool to just see that legacy living on and growing stronger and stronger 66 years later.”

Cottam said the celebration is intended to strengthen community connections and highlight the school’s role across generations.

“I think this is a great opportunity for us to reconnect and to see the hope that we have in the future,” she said. “These kids are amazing and the future is bright.”

Students will continue the celebration Wednesday with assemblies, musical performances, barbecues and South Elementary’s first senior walkthrough honoring graduating seniors who once attended the school.

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You can hear our entire conversation with these representatives from South Elementary School in the podcast below from our live broadcast on Monday.