Trier ES History
Opened: 1981
Closed: 1994
Trier Elementary School was a kindergarten through six grade school located up the hill from the town of Ehrang, a suburb of Trier. The school opened in 1978 and served the elementary students in the housing area. Middle and high school students were bussed to Bitburg. The school had less than 100 students, and faculty and staff numbered less than 15. The school secretary was also the host nation teacher. Kathy Peters was the principal at the school for sixteen years. In the early eighties the enrollment was about seventy students. During the 1983-84 school year the enrollment almost doubled and continued to increase, reaching over 165 students by the 1987-88 school year. For the 1989-90 school year the enrollment was less than 100, and the sixth grade students now attended the middle school in Bitburg. By the final year of the school, there were about seventy students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
Kindergarten was taught in one of the base housing basements, as was physical education. In the school building itself, there was an uncovered walkway. To the right was a large, windowed classroom that used to be a kindergarten class but was converted into a large office with the principal, secretary, and registrar. To the right was the library with two small offices off that room. From the library you entered the main hallway to the classrooms. The left wall was all windows and on the right were the classrooms. The first alcove were classrooms across from one another with the teacher lounge in the middle. In the second alcove were two more classrooms across from each other another office/room in between them. At the end of the hallway, there was a staff bathroom to the left, ahead was the teacher workroom, and a doorway from in the workroom led to a book/supply storage room. During the summer of 1989 there were some renovations done. New construction or renovations were considered “the kiss of death”. Once upgrades to a building were completed, the schools wound up closing down and being returned to the Germans.
The school had a tradition of an end of the year field trip for fifth and sixth graders. In 1990, the trip was to Berlin. The students, teachers and parent chaperones took the Duty Train to Berlin. (It turned out to be the last duty train) and everyone had movement orders to travel. The orders were written in English, French, and Russian. The parent chaperones had to travel in their duty uniforms as per regulation. The duty train could only travel so fast because the travel was timed. The trip included traveling from the Berlin Wall through “No Man’s Land” to East Berlin. The trip also included visits to Alexander Platz, the Brandenburg Gate, Aeroflot Headquarters, the Soviet War Memorial, the Egyptian Museum, and the Charlottenburg Palace.
The next year, 1990-91, the annual field trip was to Denmark. On this trip, activities included visiting Copenhagen and walking down the longest main shopping street in the world (at least at that time), Legoland, the Hans Christian Andersen Museum, and the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde. That same year during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the students wrote letters to the soldiers and sent Valentines. Many soldiers wrote back, expressing their gratitude. In conjunction with the Girl Scouts, the school made a Desert Storm Honor quilt. The Student Council sponsored Spirit Day on the Fridays in May, a Talent Show in June, as well as other activities throughout the school year.
Other school field trips included day trips to nearby Trier and Idar-Oberstein. A swimming program was conducted by the itinerant physical education teacher from Bitburg.
The school was closed in 1994.
Information provided by Kari Bowen-Zilkenat and school yearbooks