La Conner schools seeking historic yearbooks

The La Conner School District is hoping to make up for lost time.

In the form of missing Pioneer yearbook volumes, that is.

District secretary Connie Funk and La Conner Middle School teacher Scott Novak have begun tracking leads to obtain editions of the “Pioneer” — fondly referred to by alums as “the annual” — to replace dates missing from the campus collection.

“It’s not a class project or anything like that,” noted Novak, the La Conner High head boys’ and girls’ basketball coach, who has already done yeoman work chronicling the school district’s sports history.

“This is just something Connie and I are working on so that we can have a complete collection of yearbooks available here at the school,” he said.

The Pioneers are an excellent source to help research local genealogy, important milestones in La Conner history, and social and cultural trends over time, added Novak.

Last year’s annual staff referenced previous Pioneers and used photos from them for the 2014 edition.

Much La Conner School District history has resurfaced in recent months coinciding with the demolition of the former elementary school and construction on that site of a new middle school.

The new building will replace classrooms built in the 1930s as part of the federal Works Progress Administration, a key component of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, and which oversaw construction of public facilities and unveiling of community art projects across the country.

Students attending the former La Conner Elementary School were children of a much storied era in American history, that period spanning the Great Depression through World War II.

Novak has done much to preserve the history of high school basketball in La Conner with a collection of team photos and creation of a “Wall of Honor” in the lobby of Landy James Gymnasium.

Now he and Funk want to expand that mission. Their goal is to assemble a full collection of Pioneers, covering nearly a century — from 1922 to 2014 — that will help maintain the history of all aspects of La Conner student and community life.

They are hoping to obtain from donors six yearbooks from the 1920s, three from the 1930s, four from the 1940s, three from the 1950s, two from the 1960s, and copies of the 1970 and 2007 Pioneer, respectively.

“The yearbooks missing from our Pioneer collection,” Novak said, “are 1922, 1923, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1943, 1946, 1948, 1949, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1961, 1963, 1970 and 2007.

“We would certainly appreciate any help we can receive in completing the collection,” he said.

Those wishing to donate a yearbook or needing further information can contact Novak or Funk by email, or by calling either during business hours at La Conner schools (360-466-3171).

Novak’s e-mail address is [email protected]’s email is [email protected].