Welcome to Duncombe

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari This concrete block was saved from the old Duncombe Elementary School building and installed in the lobby of the new one, which held an open house Saturday.

Parents, students and community members got a look at the newly reconstructed Duncombe Elementary School Saturday morning before its official opening in the fall.

Duncombe will be reopening nearly three years after structural issues forced the Fort Dodge Community School District to close the more than 100-year-old building, which was demolished.

Students were taught in the former Fair Oaks Middle School building starting in the fall of 2015. They will once again be taught inside Duncombe this fall.

School staff guided groups of community members throughout the building, explaining the new features, spaces and programs Duncombe will offer.

Duncombe Principal Pat Reding said Saturday that he loved seeing all the people coming to the new building and learning about it.

-Messenger photo by Peter Kaspari Janice Peterson, a Title 1 reading teacher, gives a tour of the new reading room at the Duncombe Elementary School open house Saturday.

“It’s a tremendous feeling,” he said. “It’s so wonderful to see all these people here today.”

Reding said the journey the school has undertaken has been a great one, “that took us from the old Duncombe to Fair Oaks to Duncombe again.”

His favorite part of the day was listening to the stories that students, parents and staff members told of their memories of Duncombe.

One of those people sharing memories was Julie Williams, a kindergarten teacher at Duncombe.

In addition to teaching at Duncombe for 30 years, Williams has other connections to the school; her husband and father-in-law both attended Duncombe, as well as her son.