Forest Hills marks 50 years with stories, celebrations

Staff, students, and families from multiple generations of Forest Hills Elementary came together earlier this month to celebrate the school’s 50th anniversary.

The doors to the school were thrown open on June 1 for a party to which the entire Forest Hills community, past and present, was invited. Visitors were met by festive balloons, decorations, photographs, and other memorabilia spanning the past 50 years since the school was built.

Hugs, smiles, and happy conversation abounded as former and current staff, students, and friends reunited, in some cases after many years. Forest Hills fourth graders were on hand to give school tours, and staff offered cake, cookies, and drinks.

“It’s absolutely fantastic to be here tonight to celebrate 50 years of Forest HIlls,” said Josh Swanson, Eden Prairie Schools’ superintendent. However, he added, “The building’s just a building. It’s really about the community that’s here. And that’s what we celebrate tonight.”

A ‘nurturing and inspiring environment’

The school’s three former principals and current principal all spoke or shared remarks with the audience.

Connie Hytjan was the school’s third principal and the longest-serving, having worked there for 26 years from 1996 until the end of the 2022-23 school year. “Forest Hills holds such a special place in the hearts of so many of us in our community, and it is with great joy and nostalgia that we come together to commemorate this milestone,” she said.

Hytjan thanked the “passionate and talented” staff, students, and families who were at the school during her time, crediting them with “shaping the nurturing and inspiring environment it is today.”

Hytjan reminisced about the changes that took place at the school when she was principal, including redesigning the literacy program, creating the district’s first family service center, implementing the district’s first after-school enrichment program, navigating boundary changes, and tackling distance learning.

Eden Prairie Schools’ associate superintendent Carlondrea Hines, read remarks from Forest Hills’ second principal, Diane Heim Vollmers, now Diane Bosworth, who was the principal from 1987 to 1996.

“I will always be grateful for the incredibly skilled teachers and support staff, who came to work each day with the goal of increasing learning for each and every student,” she said. She also thanked her former students and their families for their support and dedication, as well as her mentors during her time as principal.

A runaway horse and year-round school

Bob Hallett, the school’s first principal, reminisced about his time at the school, starting with how the city bought the farm that was originally on the land where the school now sits, using a federal grant.

The school was originally built as an open-concept school, but the board insisted it be constructed with the flexibility of turning it back into self-contained classrooms if the open concept didn’t work. In fact, it was turned from open plan to enclosed classrooms before the end of Hallet’s tenure.

Hallett noted several “firsts” achieved by Forest Hills, including being the district’s first school to have air conditioning, carpet, classroom telephones for teachers, special art and music rooms, and to separate the cafeteria and build a special gym on the school’s lower level.

“We also had the first outdoor hockey rink, and the first sidewalk in Eden Prairie, on Holly Road. We wanted the kids to be able to walk down to school,” he said.

Hallett entertained the crowd with many funny stories. These included the time Lowell Hilson, one of the fourth grade teachers, found a runaway horse outside the school and led it into the school’s inner courtyard for safekeeping. Eventually, as the school buses were about to arrive with several hundred children, they led the horse back down the school hallway outside and tied it to the flagpole until its owners could claim it.

Hallett also recollected the time when the district voted to offer a voluntary year-round school schedule, since the school had air conditioning and would be comfortable in summer. Half of the school followed a nine-month schedule, while the other half was on a year-round schedule, complete with dueling PTOs and teachers who disagreed on the different curricula.

“It was educationally sound, but financially a disaster. We were running buses around the school district with only four kids on a bus,” Hallett said.

Fortunately, Hallett said, the experiment only lasted one year, and things quickly went back to normal. “The teachers just came right back. None of them left, and we just picked it up and kept right on going,” he said.

“We went through unique times down here,” Hallett said.

Hallet also recognized former Eden Prairie school board member Carol Bomben, who was in the audience. “We always had good support from our school [board],” he said.

Finally, he reminded everyone, “We’re in the people business. We’re only as good as the people we hire, the people who come to work here. The cooks, custodians, teacher’s aides, support staff, the parent volunteers, the teachers, the students that you send us. It’s just a pleasure to work in this environment and in this school district, and I want to thank you for the opportunity to serve you.”

Forest Hills by the numbers

Principal Joel Knorr, the former Oak Point Elementary Principal in his first year as principal at Forest Hills, spoke about the school as it is today.

Currently, Forest Hills has 592 students in Pre-K through fifth grade, 17% of whom are multilingual, Knorr said.

“We are a very culturally and racially diverse school, just like our community and we are very, very proud of that,” he said. “We think it’s the greatest strength of our school.”

Knorr said the school has:

• 28 classroom teachers.
• 3 multilingual teachers (formerly known as English Language teachers).
• 3 reading and math interventionists.
• 2 reading support paraprofessionals.
• 5 special education teachers.
• 1 gifted and talented / talent development teacher.
• 1 social worker.
• 4 teachers for music, art, physical education, and world language/Spanish.
• 2 music performance groups, band and orchestra for fifth graders.

Knorr said he wanted to express his appreciation for all of Forest HIlls’ current and former staff for helping to create a family feeling at the school over the years.

“We care about one another, we care about children, and that still exists today,” Knorr said.