Memories Washington School
My mom, Florence Motto, was a second grade teacher at Washington School from 1968 to 1991. She retired from Poudre School District in 1991. I have very fond memories of going with mom to Washington and helping her prepare her classroom for the next school year. I also remember the custodian Berdette Woodward who worked there for years. Blanche Romine was the kindergarten teacher and was best friends with my mom. Ken Wittreich was the PE teacher and also good friends with my mom. My mom was a very dedicated teacher and loved teaching at Washington School.
Bernadine Anderson
Our family moved to Fort Collins in 1971, where I began my career at the University Libraries, then under the direction of Dr. LeMoyne Anderson. At that time, our daughters were 5 and 3 years old. We were living in the faculty apartments on campus, and Washington was the nearest school, so our 5 year old was enrolled there. She completed the first and second grade there before we moved to our own house. She had a wonderful two years there and enjoyed the small classes. As she grew up, she attended Ft. Collins. High School, then the University of Colorado at Boulder. She now lives in Denver with her husband and daughter, and continues her productive career in marketing and serves on the CU Alumni Board. We’d like to think that those two years at Washington School 🏫 influenced her success in life.
Joel Rutstein
The wonderful teachers at Washington School have been a positive factor in my life! I began kindergarten in afternoon session of fall 1952 with Mrs. Giddings. I lived across the street at corner of Akin and South Shields. I watched kids playing in front of Washington during morning session from our bay window and was happy to be there in the afternoon. I enjoyed Christmas time with 45 record playing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and Miss Bauder’s FCHS a cappella singing carols and “Silent Night” in the hallway while I was in Miss Jones 1st grade; I loved reading the Weekly Reader in Mrs. Rudolph’s 2nd grade; learning multiplication in Miss Sharp’s 3rd grade; being on flag raising team in Miss Beale’s 4th grade; being elected vice president of Washington School student council in Mrs. Sherfick’s 5th grade; attending Friday school assemblies in the auditorium which featured PSA type films regarding safety and other pertinent issues with hosting by Principal Mrs. Jean P. Irish; and walking to City Park for all school picnics at the end of each school year. Washington School was a delightful experience and I am thrilled with CSU purchasing the school and remodeling it tastefully as the CSU Early Childhood Center!
Dean Schachterle
Memories Early Childhood Center
My dad, Dr. Jerry Bigner, taught at HDFS for 30 years. He enrolled my sister Shannon and I at the center. I remember when he helped build the playground at Gifford and those awesome tricycles! One of my best memories is when he’d come join the kids and play his banjo. I loved it! He’d play She’s Coming Around the Mountain When She Comes. It was a big hit. I appreciate now how special it was being able to participate in his career and enrich his teachings this way.
Katy Bigner McLaren
My first experience with the ECC was in 1984 when I completed my HD286 practicum in the south room. My second experience was in the fall of 1986 when I completed my HD386 internship in the same room. Barbara McCornack was the director at the time and the ECC was located in the Gifford Building. As a graduate student in HDFS from 1989-1991, I was awarded a Graduate Teaching Assistantship to serve as the Head Teacher in the Toddler Room. Upon receiving my master’s degree, between 1992 and 1997, I taught HD101 and HD211 for the HDFS department and utilized the ECC observation booths for class assignments. During this time, both of my daughters were enrolled at the ECC and sometimes I would read about their antics in my students’ observation papers. In 1999, I became the Coordinator of Experiential Learning in HDFS and placed both interns and practicum students at the ECC, along with teaching them in HD286 and HD477/488. After earning my PhD in Education, I worked for the School of Education in the teacher licensure program training students for careers in secondary education. In 2012, as the ECC moved to the Washington School, I became the Executive Director of the ECC. So, I have been a student, a teacher, a parent, a supervisor, and an administrator at the ECC. I am grateful for this program and the people I have come to know and love because of it.
Karen Rattenborg
My father, Dr. Jerry Bigner, was an HDFS professor from 1974-2003. My younger sister (who has also shared her memories) and I were enrolled in the ECC during the mid-late 1970s. While I was enrolled during the time the ECC was based in Rockwell, most of my many happy memories are of the Gifford location. I mostly remember doing lots of arts and crafts and the amazing playground at Gifford, which my dad had a significant role in designing and building. It was one of the coolest playgrounds I’d ever seen, with the tricycle track and climbing areas. I always was glad when I was able to play there and I loved seeing all the kids having a great time. Even after my time at the ECC was over and I was enrolled in elementary school, I am fairly certain I took part in some graduate student studies. I’m so honored of my dad’s role and to be one of the children that the ECC has served.
Shannon Bigner
I started at CSU in the summer of 1969 and attended for two years. I met my husband there and we got married and moved all over the country though the US Army. After having four children and returning to Fort Collins, I decided to finish my undergrad work at CSU in HDFS. I did my practicum and internship in the ECC with Priscilla Patti and Linda Carlson and graduated in 1997. My first granddaughter was born early that year and I remember bringing her to see the kids in the ECC. A few years later, I earned a Master’s in Library Science though Texas Women’s University and became the first Early Literacy Librarian at Poudre River Public Library District. I asked to bring storytime to the ECC and was able to continue that for the last eight years at the Washington building where the kids know me as Miss Vicky. Storytime has been something I have loved sharing with all these kids over the years. Thanks to Barbara Benn and Karen Rattenborg for sharing this opportunity.
Vicky Hays
I graduated from CSU in 1973 with a degree in Child Development. I later got a M.S. from Indiana State in the same area. When my then husband went to work for the athletic department at CSU in the early 1980’s, I got a job teaching child development and directing the Early Childhood Center. At that point is was located in Aggie Village, including in Apartment 4-A where I had lived when I was an undergrad at CSU back in 1970. I was at the center when it transitioned across the street. Both my son and my nephew were students there. When I separated from my husband in 1985, I left CSU to go to law school at CU. I later went to work, as an attorney, at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington DC. I helped write the regulations for the first child care act and really appreciated the insights that my hands on experience gave me on the real world experience of child care and tried to make the regulations match. We couldn’t always do what we would have liked with the regulations because of the way Congress wrote the law, but we tried. I retired from HHS in 2001. Although I have been through Ft. Collins once or twice since I left in 1985, I have never been back to the center and am looking forward to the anniversary celebration.
Kerry Cain