Social - September 2003

Principal, past pupil heads Love Memorial Elementary

By SARAH GRANO, Staff Writer

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When Diand Canipe first stepped into Love Memorial Elementary, she was struck by how small it had become in her time away.

“I just remembered how big the older part of the building was and now, as an adult, that bigness is not here,” said Canipe, Love Memorial’s principal.

“For a small child the size of the building is overwhelming.”

Canipe started attending Love Memorial in the fall of 1962. It was the first year the school’s new building was open, and it was her first year of school.

Her former school building is now the oldest part of Love Memorial, which was opened in 1926.

She spent first- through eighth-grades at the school, and now, Canipe is enjoying her first year as principal of her old school.

“It’s like coming home. It’s like a dream that never really entered my mind,” Canipe said.

“I wouldn’t have thought as I sat here in sixth- or seventh-grade knowing that I wanted to be a teacher that one day I would come back here as an administrator.” 

Over the years the school has changed in many ways. A new building was added on, bricks were painted and the furniture has changed. There are also less tangible differences.

“When I was in school here the school was the center of the community,” Canipe said.

Chicken suppers, pageants and polio immunizations all took place at the school.

Children also played outside more because state mandated testing was not yet in place.

“We used to have a wonderful playground with big old oak trees,” Canipe said.

Canipe knew since she was a child playing school with her dolls that she wanted to work in education.

She has spent most of her career working as an exceptional children’s teacher.

Four years ago she became an assistant principal at Love Memorial.

She is now the fifth principal at the school, and she remembers the school’s first principal well.

“He had a black tie and a white shirt. He walked the halls,” Canipe said.

“You knew that his presence was in the building, and you didn’t want to have to see him. You didn’t want to have to deal with him.”

Canipe has taken a lesson from her old principal and spends as much time as possible being in the school’s hallways.

“I think visibility is real important,” Canipe said. “My children know that I care about them and love them.”

There are eight or nine people working at Love Memorial who attended the school, said Canipe.

There are also teachers and administrators at other schools in the county that are Love Memorial graduates.

Those who are from this area just don’t want to leave, Canipe said.

“I think Lincoln County is a great place to live, especially the western end,” Canipe said.

“We haven’t grown as much. We’re still pretty rural. There’s still a sense of community here.”

Students that Canipe went to school with now have children attending Love Memorial, she said.

She suspects that someday a student currently going to the school will grow up to work there.

“I think as children are exposed to more and more they think that the world out there is just a wonderful place to be,” Canipe said.

“I think some of them will leave, but I think eventually they’ll come back. You always think the grass is a little bit greener on the other side, but home’s home.”

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Staff Writer Sarah Grano can be reached at 704-735-3031 or sgrano@ltnews.com

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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