Special to The Star-Herald
Pine Street Elementary School opened its doors to 400 students in the last week of August 1954. The school was constructed in order to ease the heavy student load in the other local grade schools. Those 400 plus students ranged from subprimary to eighth graders; most were former pupils of the Normal Avenue School then situated on the campus of the University of Maine at Presque Isle.
Due to student overcrowding in the late 1940s, some of the facilities, which were constructed during the war to assist military personnel, were utilized as classrooms for elementary-grade pupils. Pine Street School was, in part, designed to accommodate those students.
The new school contained 14 classrooms, plus a utility room and a cafeteria. John Grindle, former principal of the Normal Avenue school and director of teacher training at Aroostook State Teachers College (now UMPI), served as its first principal. The current principal, Loretta Clark, has held that position since the fall of 2007.
Pine Street Elementary School
