‘Center of Ovando’: School celebrates 100 years as community pillar

“This is the center of Ovando,” Patti Bartlett said, sitting at her desk in the “big room” of the Ovando schoolhouse. 

Ovando School celebrated turning 100 this year. It’s grown from a one-room schoolhouse since opening in 1924 to now having an expanded space and recreational areas, but its role as a community anchor in Ovando is unchanged.

One of two classrooms is shown inside the Ovando School on Monday, Aug. 12, 2024.

SHANNA MADISON, Missoulian

“You don’t find that in bigger schools,” Bartlett said. She’s one of the school’s two teachers and instructs fourth through eighth graders. 

A formal celebration of the anniversary earlier this month drew a few hundred people. They brought with them dozens of photos of old school classes that former students and families unearthed from attic boxes and storage bins. Some date back to the early 1900s.

“It’s sort of like a big puzzle with everything,” Barb McNally said of putting the school’s timeline together. “Somebody brought in a handful of papers and things recently I haven’t looked through yet, and I’m thinking, ‘Oh wow, there’s another treasure

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