About Hiawatha

Hiawatha students have the opportunity to participate in a variety of enrichment opportunities throughout the school year. Besides the gifted and talented program, the Hiawatha staff coordinates unique learning experiences including space flyers, people’s garden project, Hiawatha Highlights, Girls on the Run program, all-school running program, fifth grade ambassador program, and a before-school intramural club.

The Hiawatha community actively supports our efforts to provide quality learning experiences for all students. Our parent teacher association (PTA) offers a wide variety of positive experiences, such as extracurricular field trips opportunities, funding for special classroom projects, and supporting our character education program (PBIS). Big Brothers Big Sisters partners with us to offer a lunch buddy program. The local HACAP organization collaborates with us to support the Operation Backpack program. The City of Hiawatha along with Kiwanis continues to offer their resources to enhance our campus including the playground and fitness trail.

School History

Hiawatha School opened in the fall of 1958 with thirteen classrooms and an enrollment of 350 students in grades K-6. The cost of construction was $17.52 per square foot and the total cost of construction was $529,051.

It was just five minutes after the school opened for the very first time that a fire started and the students were all evacuated. A short caused the fire in a control switch for one of the boilers. The fire was quickly extinguished and there was no damage to the building. During the first few years, the school was predominantly a rural school. Three communities were joined with Robins coming in later. When buses could not run because of bad roads, children were seen coming to school in tractor-drawn wagons. Deer and quail were often seen on the grounds. When enrollment became too large in 1964 and 1965, 175 students were bussed to Eisenhower School. They were picked up and dropped off at the H & K Grocery store unless you lived in a rural area.

During the 1970s, the school changed from a rural school to a small town school. In the 1980s its families became a combination of rural, city, and acreage dwellers. Over the years, many other changes have taken place at Hiawatha School. Trees have been planted, the front drive widened, playground drainage problems worked on, and classrooms added.

A fitness trail, new computers, new playground equipment, and geothermal heating/cooling have been added. The following people have served as principal at Hiawatha School: Irma Dovy, Keith Wymore, Barney Beasmore, Jim O’Connor, Tom Holmes, Dena Chambliss, Gregg Petersen, Michelle Elam, Eric Christenson, and Stephen Probert.