Community Park Students Create Time Capsule for 2037

The box contains laminated photographs of teachers, staff and students.

Student drawings and other classroom memories fill a scrapbook.

A custom CD contains students’ favorite songs songs including, “Set Fire to the Rain” by Adele and “Yellow Submarine” by the Beatles.

Students at Community Park School have been collecting items for this time capsule since April, when they voted what items to include. Now the locked box will be put in a wall at the school for the next 25 years.

Creating the capsule- the school’s first- is a way to close out the 50^th anniversary of the school, which opened in 1961, said Principal Dineen Gruchacz. 

In 2037, students who have not yet been born will open the box and get a glimpse of what school was like in 2012.

So what will have changed about school in the next quarter century?

“I think people will study different history,” said fourth-grader Jason Kratzer, 9.

“They’ll probably be focusing on technology, not really using teachers and using mostly technology like the iPad,” said fourth-grader Lydia Cohen, 9.

Students assembled the box on Monday, the last day of school.

“Everyone took part,” Gruchacz said. “Everyone has something in there.” 

Some students included their favorite school memories, including fourth-grader Ben Moyer.

“A favorite memory is too hard to pick, so I’ll just sum up my time here,” Moyer wrote. “First I had Mrs. Ulman, then I had my first grade teacher Mrs. Aguilar, then Mrs. Mills, then Mrs. Thomas. Now I have Mrs. Fallas. I loved all my teachers and this school.”