About Lincoln School

Abraham Lincoln Elementary School is one of five elementary schools which is part of the Hastings Public School System, located in Hastings, Nebraska. There are approximately 320 students in Kindergarten through Fifth Grade. The principal is Ms. Cara Kimball. Special programs include afterschool activities and projects to work toward community involvement. Abraham Lincoln Elementary School is a Schoolwide Title I school.

This school was first called the First Ward School. It was the oldest and the first elementary school in Hastings, built in 1880 between Lincoln and Burlington avenues and A and B streets. In 1912 the building was razed and a new structure was built in the same area. Classes were held there until 1980.
Abraham Lincoln School is now located at E Street and Franklin Avenue. It has been occupied since 1980.

1897 - 1936

The first principal was Miss Nina Carpenter. Playground equipment consisted of swings, teeter-totters, basketballs and hoops, baseballs and bats, volleyballs. The whirly-gig was a steel pole set in cement. From the center of the pole was attached a round cap with long chains and hand grips. Six children would take a set of hand grips and start running together. The motion would lift one's feet. It was a great bodybuilder. Games played were hopscotch, jump rope, marbles, and mumble-peg.

1906-1914
There were two grades in a room and ten to twelve students in a grade. Boys wore knee pants, overalls or knickerbockers, and high shoes. Girls wore gingham dresses below the knees or sailor blouses or middies. Lunches were carried in syrup pails, paper sacks and consisted of sandwiches, fruit, milk and hard-boiled eggs. Travel: walking, bicycle, horse and buggy, and some families had a Model T Ford. During this period, it was the policy that married women could not teach school.

1914-1924
Rules of Period: strict, with full cooperation of parents; students use good manners; students respect teachers; no hats on in school for boys; do as you are told or see the principal; not to throw swings over the high bar; not to slide down the freight slide; not to come inside until the bell rang. Curriculum: reading, wring, spelling, arithmetic, gym, music, and penmanship.

1936-1948
Principal, Gertrude Fisher.Had to manage food stamp program during World War II. When the ammunition depot was operating, about 100 extra children attended school. Classrooms had about thirty children.

1948-1966
Principal, Mary Moran. Enrollment just under 500. Three upper grades were departmentalized. Children changed rooms and teachers. Art, Music, and P.E. were included. During the summer of 1950, Lincoln School's rooms got a new coat of paint and the blackboards were turned to green. Old desks and chairs were replaced. Girls wore bobby socks, hooped skirts, can-cans, plaids and ponytails. Boys wore gabardine pants and low cut boys' shoes. Rules of Period: No slacks or jeans for girls; no gum or candy; no running inside; not to be on the school grounds before 8:30; no shoving; no pocket knives; no bicycles unless one lived more than seven blocks away.

1966-1981
Principal, Lucille M. Cotner. The building and equipment were updated and improved. Hot lunch program began. Record players, tape recorders, tape players, 16mm projectors, T.V. programs, electronic machines with programmed reading, etc., were used. Library time was added, along with modular and flexible scheduling of upper grades. Aides and paraprofessionals were added, the Artist in Residence program was provided, and the Hastings business community provided much for the school.

1978
The first bond issue for a new Lincoln School. April 8, 1979 - groundbreaking for the new school. September 1980, classes began. Lucille Cotner was the first principal of the new Abraham Lincoln School. School lunches cost $.65.




 
1982-1988
Principal, John Nelson.

1988-1990

Principal Jody Isernhagen

1989

New addition to school.

1990

Principal Andrew Heady.


2008-2009
6th Grade is moved to the new Middle School, to make more room in the elementary schools, located at 201 North Marion Road.

2010-2011
Due to increasing enrollment, a modular was brought in and placed east of the main entrance. 5th grade moved out to the modular.  Enrollment for K through 5th grade at 300.  3 sections of Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. 2 sections for 4th and 5th.

Andrew Heady retired at the end of the school year, he served as principal for Lincoln School since 1990.

2011-2016
Principal, Montessa Munoz
A new lunch program was started throughout the district, it has overwhelmingly been accepted.
We saw an addition to the playground completed in the fall of 2011. 

2012 -

2016 - Principal, Cara Kimball