Members of the Toledo Public Schools Board of Education received a formal invitation to the Scott High School Centennial Celebration in 2013 at its monthly meeting Jan. 24.

Scott High School Centennial Celebration logo

The Scott High School Centennial Celebration is scheduled for Oct. 19, 2013, at the Seagate Center in Downtown Toledo. A broad-based group of Scott alumni have worked on plans for the celebration since late 2010.

“We’re here to invite all of you to join alumni and friends of Scott High School to participate. We feel this 100th anniversary event will provide a very positive opportunity to celebrate Toledo Public School successes,” Stan Odesky, general chair of the Scott High School Centennial Celebration, told the school board members.

Odesky and Scott High School Principal Treva Jeffries presented board members with an official Scott 100th T-shirt. Odesky graduated from Scott in 1955. Jeffries graduated in 1992 after serving as a class president, cheerleader and homecoming queen.

The school board members welcomed the news about the school’s centennial celebration, especially Larry Sykes, a current board member who also served on the board during the school’s 75th celebration.

Sykes shared his enthusiasm with Odesky, who chaired the 75th celebration event that was attended by two members of the first complete graduating class in 1917.

Ironically, the newly renovated Scott High School will open for classes on Jan. 30, according to TPS officials. The $42 million renovation project transformed the school into a modern facility while maintaining design elements and history of the building.

The renovation was designed by local architect, Arnold Remer, a 1954 graduate of Scott High School.

Public tours of the school will be held on Feb. 4 and 18, and March 3 and 17. RSVPs for the tour must be made by calling the school at (419) 671-400.

A formal ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at Scott on March 20 with the first graduation scheduled for June 6 on the anniversary of the school’s dedication.

The president of Amherst College, Alexander Meiklejob, spoke to an estimated crowd of 8,000 people at the dedication of Jesup W. Scott High School on June 6, 1913.

The school was named in memory of Jesup Wakeman Scott, one of Toledo’s early promoters and contributors to educational development.

Edward Drummond Libbey served as president of the school board at the time of the dedication. Libbey High School was later named for the Toledo businessman and philanthropist.

More than 30,000 voters cast ballots in 2008 to pass a bond issue with about 70 percent of the vote to raise $500,000 to build two high schools in Toledo. Scott was to be built on Collingwood Avenue on the west side of the Maumee River and Waite High School on the east side.

Based on area population and academic statistics from feeder schools, the location for the first high school was at the Collingwood site on the border of wards four and seven of the TPS school district.

In 1911, construction began on Scott High School when a steam shovel from the H.J. Spieker Company scooped the first load of dirt for the project. The exterior of the school was completed a year later with its estimated cost having grown to $290,000.

“We hope to generate sufficient funds to provide an annual college scholarship to a deserving Scott graduate in perpetuity,” Odesky stated.

Tags: Arnold Remer, centennial, Larry Sykes, Scott High School, Stan Odesky, Toledo Public Schools, Treva Jeffries

This entry was posted on Monday, January 30th, 2012 at 1:45 pm and is filed under Community, Education.
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