Retired Oakton Elementary School principal Clara Hairston Pate shifted easily into her master educator role last week, explaining to a large group of Oakton Elementary School students the meaning of the honorary street-naming ceremony which was to take place.
She pledged Thursday, Aug. 25, to visit their classrooms afterward to explain further.
“Oh,” she said, coyly, arms outstretched: “How many of you want me to come to your room?”
A number of students raised their hands and there was a flutter of response to the invitation.
“No, I’m not coming with that (response) – I want excitement,” the dynamic Pate demanded. “Clap your hands!”
Pate’s new kids did, breaking into throat-pounding cheers and whoops.
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The special day celebrated “Pates’ Kids” – both past and present.
Former students, fellow educators and the large contingent of present-day students gathered on the lawn to the west of the school, at 436 Ridge Ave., for the honorary street-naming ceremony, designating a portion of Oakton Street between Ridge and Barton avenues as “Clara Hairston Pate Way.”
Pate recorded a number of firsts during her tenure in Evanston, which ran from 1963 to 1994, according to the resolution the Evanston City Council approved in June.
Pate was the first African-American to be appointed principal of College Hill, Timber Ridge and Oakton schools in Evanston; the first principal to implement an all-day kindergarten program; a breakfast program; and three special education classrooms, the resolution noted.
She was the first guidance counselor appointed in District 65. Following retirement, Pate raised money for “Evanston Swims!” – a learn-to-swim program for District 65 second-graders.
District 65 Supt. Paul Goren said Pate’s contributions continue to be felt.
“More than schools and schools with kids and adults, these are schools with lives,” he reflected. “And Ms. Pate has given so much of her life to the children of Evanston.”
Oakton Street has also served as a link between Oakton School and Chute Middle School to the west where Pate’s late husband Edward served as principal.
“When they accepted the honorary street nomination and put the sign up, they wanted to know where are we going to do it, and I said, ‘you can’t separate us,'” Pate said.
Oakton students, known as the Cougars, would then go down the road to Chute and “now you became an Eagle,” said Paula Pate, their daughter, also at the ceremony. “It was a generational thing.”
Robert Bady, an Eighth Ward resident who attended the ceremony, said Pate helped him when he was breaking in as substitute teacher 14 years ago.
On Fridays, “she used to sit down with me 15 minutes before the school day ended and tell me about life and (ask me) what I wanted to be. What a wonderful person,” he said.
Pate described the honorary street-naming ceremony and the campaign that led up to it as “overwhelming.”
She said former students and students of students were responsible, starting the organization called “Pates’ Kids.” There was an organizational meeting two years ago that led to a drive on Facebook to recognize the couple.
Pate said when she and her husband attended the organizational meeting in the library, they received a surprise.
“There were like 500 people in there … parents, some of our kids’ kids. It was just overwhelming,” she said.
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