PARIS – Mildred M. Fox would be sad to see her namesake school close this month, but excited that pupils will have many more amenities in the new Paris Elementary School, colleague Mary Lou Burns said.

Described as an excellent teacher and principal, Fox spent 50 years at the school on East Main Street, retiring in 1967. The school was named for her that year.

She died in 1983.

Burns, who took over as principal and later retired after nearly 27 years at the school, was good friends with Fox. She has memories of taking vacations with her every April.

“She was very much a people person,” Burns said. “Kids really respected her.”

Some people who worked with Fox described her ways of disciplining misbehaving pupils, including using a thick strap across their hands.

Education technician and former teacher Jill Gay remembers Fox as a stylish woman with nicely-done hair and red-painted fingernails.

“She really inspired me,” Gay said.

Judy Holbrook of Auburn got her first job out of college working for Fox.

“She was very supportive of her teachers, I don’t remember her checking up much on me,” she said.

Such memories of the people and events at the small neighborhood school will move with the staff when the building closes Feb. 16 and classes begin at the High Street school 10 days later. It will mark the first time all K-6 pupils from the town will be under one roof since SAD 17 was formed more than 40 years ago.

Second-grade teacher Heather Hatch described the move as “bittersweet.”

Nearly a dozen former and current teachers at Fox School all said they’d miss the same thing: camaraderie.

For decades the Fox staff has been like a family. They eat lunch together in spare corners of the school. They have gatherings before and after school, and are involved in each others’ lives.

They’ve spent a lot of time inside the cramped, yet cozy environment of the square brick building. On winter days, the walls are hidden by children’s coats hanging on hooks.

In every nook and cranny, work is displayed. Paintings. Drawings. Cutouts. Papers. In the second floor landing, the wall is lined with about 100 paper dolls, each decorated by a student.

Mismatched furniture fills the rooms. There is no cafeteria, students eat in the classrooms. Teachers take breaks wherever they can find space, in book storage rooms or in the basement.

The Brick School

“The Brick School” was finished in 1883, replacing the Oxford Normal Institute which was torn down. The then 40-by 60-foot building housed students of all grades in what was known as the Paris Cape District. In 1940 the outer walls were taken out and it was expanded, making room for 12 classrooms. It then served the younger grades for most of the town. It was never a kindergarten-to-sixth-grade school, though.

“We have to pause and say wow,” Principal Jane Fahey said. “There are real emotions.”

Fahey said she is not sure how the last day of school at Fox is going to go. Every classroom is doing a project about the move, and she would like to do a ceremonial flag lowering.

One SAD 17 committee is working on what to do with the old building. Ideas are using it as the central offices or a preschool.

Another group is planning an event to effectively say goodbye.