Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
Holtville High School, nestled in the heart of rural Alabama, celebrates more than just the 100th graduating class coming from the four walls of a one-of-a-kind historic building. HHS and the Slapout community celebrate their centennial with successful roots that have strongly grown from graduates the last 100 years. These roots have proudly centered behind the town of Holtville and the jaws of the Bulldogs dressed in white and green for decades.
Holtville High School started as Holtville Consolidation School in the early 1890’s, where it was a meeting point for numerous one room schoolhouses that surrounded the area. However, this year marks the 100th year of Holtville High School producing graduates.
Longtime Slapout resident and a former teacher at HHS for 25 years, Jackie Earnest confirms that students used to have to receive their diploma from Wetumpka or even Montgomery before HHS was equipped to deliver diplomas in 1925.
Earnest confirmed the architecture of the school was erected after the Alabama state superintendent of education at the time, Dr. A.F Harmon modeled HHS after a Spanish colonial revival school in a small town in California after his visit to the west coast.
Not only is the architecture unique with arched windows in the auditorium, high ceilings, ionic columns supporting the arches and solid brass thresholds, Earnest confirms. It also has a rich history for prospering unique education for the students and community alike.
The principal of HHS from the 1920’s to the 1950’s, James Chrietzberg, facilitated a form of education through the Southern Association Study School. The main objective of this program was to make lives better at home, at school and in the community.
“When Mr. Chrietzberg came to the community, he recognized that there was a need in the community and in the school for the two to work together. The students were not graded in the traditional manner. They were graded on their attitude, on their ability to think for themselves, on their attendance and on their efforts,” Earnest said.
Students could essentially choose their subjects to study, from bookkeeping, building, conservation, debate, personal services, journalism, mechanics, photography, reading, health, speech, typing, printing press, canning, meat preservation and so much more, Earnest confirmed.
However, a lot of these programs were also available to members of the community, Earnest explained, solidifying HHS as the hub of the community.
Slapout residents could use the services such as the school’s quick freeze, canning their vegetables, using the printing press and more. Earnest stated that the community and the school worked together.
Due to the vision of Chrietzberg and the unity the school and community had, a movie was made about HHS, and was shown in almost every state, and even 22 other countries, Earnest confirmed. The movie can be found on YouTube by searching “A Rural Community: Holtville Alabama.”
In 1925, when HHS was first able to give diploma’s, Chrietzberg started a handwritten book listing graduates. Every single graduate from HHS is listed, and this year for the class of 2025 marks the final 100th page of the grad book for HHS.
Current HHS principal Sean Kreauter confirmed another book of similar nature has already been ordered, and the class of 2026 will mark the beginning of another 100 years.
Chrietzberg is also the individual that picked the iconic green and white colors and the bulldog as the mascot, Earnest stated. HHS used to sit in the middle of fields, surrounding it entirely, Chrietzberg picked green and white to represent the greenery surrounding the four walls, and a bulldog for their fierce tenacity.
But it seems that the teaching staff have always felt a pull back to the historic building. Creating deeper roots of community for generations to come.
Earnest stated that her mother and father-in-law graduated from HHS, her children went through HHS, she taught English for over 25 years and her husband was even the principal of HHS.
“The first year that I taught was the first year of integration. Of course, nobody knew what was going to happen, but our transition, and again, this goes back to the philosophy and the skill in the community. Our transition was extremely smooth. Not to say that it was perfect, it wasn’t. But in terms of students adjusting, parents adjusting and teachers adjusting, that went extremely well,” Earnest said.
Kreauter, is also a graduate of HHS, and felt the pull back to the familiar grounds as HHS was also his first teaching job in 2006. Now the current principal, Kreauter stated that he has come full circle.
“Everybody just works together here. The community, the people. It’s home and you couldn’t ask for better stakeholder ship, parents, teachers and community,” Kreauter said.
Michelle Gibbons, also a HHS graduate who is now in her fourth year as a student government association or SGA sponsor, as well as a special education teacher within HHS, also shares the same sentiments as Kreauter.
“It’s just an honor and a privilege to be able to have a job here in this school. You know, it’s not just somewhere I show up every day. I like to come here and it’s home,” Gibbons said.
Both Gibbons and Kreauter confirmed that the HHS Centennial Bash celebration will take place over a two-day centennial homecoming celebration the last Thursday and Friday in September.
The Centennial Bash will feature historical artifacts, such as the HHS graduate book, and other relics commemorating the historical 100 years of graduates, food trucks and other fun community driven activities.
Follow Holtville High School on Facebook or the Elmore County School District website for more details.
