By Steve Davidson
Contributing Writer

Who says two schools — one representative of the past, one representative of the future — cannot come together and provide for a community some very exciting times ahead? Surely not those involved with the Lower Valley School District No. 33 Restoration Project for Northeast Lakeview College.

Dr. Eric Reno, president of Northeast Lakeview College, Tuesday formally accepted a combined gift of nearly $15,000 from the Universal City Industrial Development Corp., the Live Oak Economic Development Corp. and a grant funded by the National Trust for Historic Preservation toward the restoration project for the historic rural schoolhouse.

“We are delighted to have so much community support for this project,” Reno said. “It is through this generosity that we will be able to preserve the past, to enrich the future and educate generations on the heritage of our community.”

The Lower Valley School, a two-room schoolhouse first inhabited by the German immigrants of the area in the mid-to-late-1800’s, was donated to NLC by the Watts’ estate in 2007 and has since found a new home on the NLC campus.

To be restored as a public museum, the schoolhouse will once again serve children and the public as it will be prominently displayed at the new location of NLC on Loop 1604 at Kitty Hawk Road. Placed at the entrance of the new college campus, the Lower Valley School will be directly across the street from Kitty Hawk Junior High School.

“Universal City and its economic board recognize that education is paramount to the future viability of the region and are pleased to donate to this worthwhile endeavor,” said Kim Turner, Universal City development services director. According to Turner, the $5,795.62 donated by the UCIDC involves more than simple preservation. “We are not just preserving a building, but a memory, a period in our history that helped define who we are as a community,” she added.

In addition to the $5,993.45 donation received from Live Oak’s EDC, the Lower Valley Restoration Project also received a $3,000 matching-funds grant from the National Trust for Historic Preser-vation, an organization whose mission is to provide leadership, education and advocacy to save America’s diverse historic places and revitalize its communities.

According to Kathleen Johnson-Hodge, NLC director of community and public relations, the $3,000 funded a grant-writing consultant to develop and submit grant proposals to private foundations to further support the restoration of the Lower Valley School.

To date, the college has raised $30,000 in gifts, grants and in-kind services toward the Lower Valley School project’s $850,000 price tag.

When completed, the restoration project will pave the way for both a schoolhouse and living museum. Children will experience history through field trips consisting of period dress, reading from traditional reading primers and experiencing schoolyard games from days long since past. For adults, the schoolhouse will serve as an opportunity to step back in time and gain a better sense of what education served via artifacts, documents and photographs.