Family members of an Indiana trailblazer, along with hundreds of teachers, staff members and administrators, gathered Thursday to celebrate the completion of Ray Crowe Elementary School, Clark-Pleasant schools’ sixth and newest primary school, set to open in July.
Ray Crowe, a 1934 graduate of Whiteland High School, coached the Crispus Attucks High School boys’ basketball team, the country’s first all-Black team to win a state title. They won two back-to-back titles, in 1955 and 1956.
The school is years in the making. Clark-Pleasant schools broke ground on the 110,000-square-foot, $26.8 million school, formerly known simply as Worthsville Elementary, in the summer of 2019. The new school, built to accommodate as many as 800 students, includes 45 classrooms.
Resembling some design elements of Center Grove’s award-winning Walnut Grove Elementary School, classrooms have sliding glass doors and movable walls, which can create larger, collaborative learning spaces. A solar field outside will help power the school, and learning risers join the two floors and serve as a space where multiple grade levels can gather for presentations and speeches.
To see the elementary school come to fruition is exhilarating, said Cirsten Lewis, the school’s principal.
“We’ve been working for a quite a while for this vision for the corporation,” Lewis said during the Thursday open house. “It comes to fruition with the building being open, and renaming it to Ray Crowe has aligned our focus to what he was about. Our values put forth through this would be inclusivity for all, and diligence and fighting in a peaceful way for justice.”
Through the front doors of the two-story school, designed by Indianapolis-based architecture firm Lancer + Beebe, a display about Ray Crowe’s life and career greets passersby. The display case includes the book “Attucks!” about the Crispus Attucks basketball team, along with a Crispus Attucks team photo and nametags of students in Crowe’s Whiteland High School graduating class.
Clark-Pleasant Middle School seventh-grade students in Laney Grady and Beth Ryshavy’s classes recently created a quilt depicting elements of Ray Crowe’s life, which will be on display at the new school.
Though Crowe passed away in 2003, his living daughter and two sons were on hand to celebrate their father. The younger of two sons, Lloyd Crowe, said it was a proud moment for the family.
“We’re really proud. It’s not something we expected and I’m sure he would be proud of it and surprised by it. As a family, we’re very proud, and it’s another statement to his legacy,” Lloyd Crowe said.
“The things he taught basketball players — integrity, character — were very important, and his players had to demonstrate character on and off the court. I hope it will be passed down through recognition of those values of character and integrity.”
The naming of the school was a pleasant surprise, said Linda Crowe, Ray Crowe’s surviving daughter.
“He’s had so many recognitions for years, and for the school to be built and named for him was shocking and very exciting,” Linda Crowe said.
Ronald Rice, a 1965 alumnus of Crispus Attucks, called Ray Crowe a great role model.
“He taught my physics class, math and drivers (education),” Rice said. “He was always cool, calm and collected, and very educated. He’s one of the greatest role models I’ve ever had.”
