By Kellen Olshefski
Staff Writer
For one Elkhorn resident, an interest in history led to a spark of inspiration to piece together a film about a school he’s passionate about: Tibbets Elementary.
Jeff Rosendahl, president of the Tibbets Elementary Parent Teacher Association, began his project approximately a year ago to share the history of Tibbets school.
“It’s what I tried to do, using the voices of people who were either students there, or teachers there, or both,” he said.
Rosendahl said while he really can’t pinpoint an specific inspiration for his 52-minute project, the idea just “popped into his head one day,” and became something he ran with.
He said sitting with other PTA members one day, somebody mentioned one of the farmers on the corner of Highways A and H and how they’d been there forever and known Tibbets School when it was a one-room schoolhouse.
“I just thought, oh, that’d make a neat idea,” he said. “I’m interested in local history, what happened around here, and it just kind of started from there.”
Rosendahl was fortunate enough to have met with Dorothy Barker, a staff member at Tibbets School for 22 years, before her passing earlier this year.
Barker so happened to have class photos from all of her years at Tibbets, with the names of all of the students on the back.
“So, I got started with that, and I just kind of went from there,” he said.
Rosendahl described the overall experience as rewarding on several levels.
“Just meeting everyone and hearing their stories,” he said. “It was just so neat to meet the people and find out what their take on Tibbets School was when they were there as students or teachers and the stories they had to tell.
“That was the neatest part for me … hearing what life was like going to a one-room schoolhouse in the 40s, a two-room in the 50s, growing up in the area of Tibbets around the time.”
Unfortunately, Rosendahl said constraints with time and the length of the movie limited what he could and could not put in the movie.
“I really wanted to use a lot more stories and a lot more people, but the movie just wouldn’t allow for it.”
Part of the story Rosendahl wanted to share with his film was how things have and have not changed over the years since the school transformed from a one-room schoolhouse, originally built in the late 1800s, to what it is today.
Working diligently during the past year, Rosendahl spent numerous hours researching the history of Tibbets School with help from Doris Reinke of the Webster House museum as well as other members of the historical society.
While the project had its many ups, Rosendahl noted the project was not without struggles and hiccups.
One area of the process of piecing together his production Rosendahl found difficulties in was trying to find photos to illustrate various things from the past.
While a lot of past students of Tibbets were generous enough to share photos, according to Rosendahl, there were some ideas that were difficult to capture.
“At one point in time there was only one phone in the building,” he said. “One of the interviewees in one of the interviews said sometimes the students would answer the phone: ‘Hello, Tibbets School.’
“But I just can’t go over to Tibbets now and take a picture of ‘the phone’ because every classroom has a phone now. So trying to find a picture of an old rotary phone on a desk I could use, things like that, things that should really make it into the final movie but I have to find a way to illustrate it.”
When it came down to the actual filming portion of his project, Rosendahl was able to stumble upon talented intern Will Norton from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater television studio.
Rosendahl said Norton, a senior at the time, was referred to him after he began searching and inquiring in late summer, early fall, of 2012.
Jim Mead, the director of Cable Television Operations at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, was able to help Rosendahl out as he had several students who needed to complete internship projects and thought they would work out well for Rosendahl.
“Will worked out great,” he said. “Will did all the editing and put it all together and it turned out fantastic.”
Rosendahl said he is pleased to have received nothing but positive feedback every since a showing of the film in early September for everyone involved with the film.
While many have asked him what his next project will be, Rosendahl said he has no intentions of traveling back down the film path.
“It’s interesting, but it took a long time to do this,” he said.
Those interested in purchasing a copy of the film, priced at $10 each, are encouraged to contact Rosendahl at (262) 742-5330 or jrosen@elknet.net.
