News

Robins Elementary closes doors after 45 years

  • Published
  • By Kendahl Johnson
  • 78th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  "You have obtained excellence," Robins Elementary School principal Melissa Hayes told students and faculty at a closing ceremony for the school.

After 45 years of educating children of military members stationed at Robins, the elementary school closed its doors. The majority of students will now attend Linwood Elementary School.

The school opened in 1964 and has been an integral part of the Robins community, helping to educate about 10,000 military children. However, a recent decline in student enrollment due, in part, to a privatization of base housing forced the closure.

"Today we say goodbye to an old friend, but we only say goodbye to the brick and mortar. We will always have the memories, the good friends we've made," Col. Warren Berry, 78th Air Base Wing commander, told the more than 300 students, faculty and parents who attended the closing ceremony

He said the school has a very rich history and its impact will "continue to resonate around the globe" for years to come.

"By any measure, Robins Elementary has done a sensational job with the children we entrusted to them," Colonel Berry said. "Thank you for enriching our most prized possessions and giving them back to us better than when we gave them to you."

Drew Schuler, who has attended Robins Elementary for eight years, from pre-k through sixth grade, said he is sorry the school is closing because he wishes other students would have had the same unique opportunity that he had.

"My teachers have been great and I met a lot of neat kids and made a lot of friends," Drew said. "I wish other kids would have been able to spend eight years here."

Third grade teacher Carol Garland, who has been teaching at Robins Elementary for 38 years, longer than any other teacher at the school, said she is sad about the closure and will miss the school and the students.

"I love this school," she said. "The kids are so patriotic and wonderful. It's like a big family and I am really going to miss it here."

Dr. Dell McMullen, superintendent of schools of the Georgia and Alabama region of Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools, said she was honored to be a part of the Robins family and many of the most rewarding experiences of her career have been here.

"We've been through some of the best of times at Robins and some of the toughest," she said. "How lucky we are to have had something that makes saying farewell so very hard."