|
|
|
|
History of Isely William Henry Isely
William Henry was born to Christian
H. Isely and Elise Dubach Isely in St. Joseph, Although the work of the struggling College was demanding, there were many calls for the time and effort of this talented man. He became interested in Civic affairs, and was a valued charter member of the Chamber of Commerce, a member of the National Guard, and a Councilman from the Fourth Ward at the urgent request of the community. Although his various activities were great, there was time for his home and family to which he gave love and devotion. He was an early member of the Fairmount Congregational Church, and was its first Sunday School Superintendent.[1] William Henry died before his time - of appendicitis in 1907 - at the age 42.
An operation was performed, but the appendix had already burst, and antibiotics
had not yet been developed.[2]
Here is the speech of the President
of Wichita
State University in 1973 when the campus street, The
School The Wichita Eagle newspaper dated Tuesday, June 29, 1948 states: The proposed new elementary school to be between 18th and 19th, Poplar and Grove, was named W.H. Isely school, in honor of the first dean of Fairmount college.[4] Isely was built during the post war population boom. In the period between 1948 and 1958 thirty-six new elementary schools were constructed. A neighborhood school, Isely was a short walk for the students who attended there. “From 1952 to 1960, the public school population in the northeast changed dramatically. Isely Elementary, for example, went from having fewer than 5 percent black students to 35 percent in 1954 alone. By 1960, 93 percent of its student body was black.”[5] In December of 1966 the Board of Education approved the addition of thirty-eight permanent classrooms to Isely to ease overcrowding. In May of 1971 the school district began restructuring. As
a result, after the 1970-71 school year Isely school was closed and the
antipoverty agency WACAPI (Wichita Area Community Action Program Incorporated) operated the site as a community center for a little
over a year. Isely parents rallied to save the school and in 1972 the school
re-opened. That September, HEW (Health, Education and Welfare) notified the
board that Wichita
schools were now eligible to receive all classes of federal aid. Isely reopened
as a fourth-through-sixth-grade school for students who had unusual ability in
language arts, social studies, mathematics, science, or the fine arts. It became In
1997, Isely became a part of Edison Schools Inc., the
nation's largest for-profit manager of public schools. A K-5 building, it
implemented school uniforms, and technology enriched learning. In January 2002
the Wichita USD 259 School Board voted to reclaim the school. In the fall of 2002 the school
reopened as Isely Traditional Magnet. Isely Traditional Magnet uses the
popular back-to-basics philosophy, with standardized dress and a smaller school
population. Isely accepts students from north and east Compiled by Becky Smith, June 2006 [1]
The above was written by his twin sister,
Miss M. Alice Isely, who was one of those, who handled the spade at the
“Breaking of the Ground Ceremony: for [4] Wichita Eagle newspaper Tuesday, June 29, 1948 page 3 [5]
Ibid., 3; "Pupil
Information: Enrollment of Negroes," report to the board from the
assistant superintendent for elementary education, June 23, 1960, in
"Integration to 1966" Notebook, Wichita. [6] Chronological Sequence of Events Regarding Compliance with Civil Rights Act of 1964, and J. Stanley Pottinger to Alvin E. Morris, Sept. 3, 1971, in "Integration: Elementary School Plan," both courtesy of Dean Stucky; author interview with Samuel Spaght, Sept. 28, 1996. |
