Our school opened in the fall of 1955 in unusual circumstances. Area churches in Winter Park donated the use of their educational halls for classrooms until Lakemont Elementary was completed. Some students had classes in the old Winter Park Elementary on Park Avenue. Others were in the Baptist Church, Congregational Church, All Saints Episcopal Church and the Masonic Lodge.

Students came to the new facility in April to complete the school year. The new peach colored school started with just 4 wings. Wing 5 was added the next summer and wings 9 & 10 were added in 1958. Students saved pennies and helped landscape the campus by planting oak trees between the wings. In our second year, it was reported that the school started the year with 677 students in a building designed for 480. There were 18 teachers on staff. The school population grew by 116 students that year and one class had their room on the stage!

Parents have always played an important role in our school’s environment. Early on they worked to get a traffic light on the corner of Aloma and Lakemont and to get a sidewalk on Lakemont Avenue.

In the 1950s, the Civil Defense Parent Committee held an evacuation drill using 151 private cars, each taking 5 students. The school facility was evacuated in 14 minutes! The Health and Welfare Committee of 18 moms assisted the PTA nurse in the clinic and started a car pool to take sick children home. The Legislative Committee actively supported the increase in school funding. Each year a dentist examined each child’s teeth and one year it was reported he provided over 800 fillings.

The school continued to grow with the neighborhood. In the 1958-9 school year, the school peaked at 1021 students. School lines were redrawn when Brookshire and Dommerich schools opened. Lakemont still remained full with 900 students throughout the sixties.

The price of lunch in 1961 was 30 cents. The first principal, Mr. Gayle Kelley, retired from Lakemont in 1962. Asked what he thought was the biggest change in education during his 29 year career, he said, “Students have a lot more to learn these days than they did in former years. The teachers now do a lot of things that used to be done at home.” With the help of our PTA our school was one of the first to be air-conditioned in the early 1970s. As the population of Winter Park expanded so did our boundaries. Our school zone moved further east on University Boulevard in 1982.

Keeping with the times we started teaching technology to students in 1982 with the purchase of 2 Apple IIe computers by the PTA. Twenty-five years later, computers are an integral part of all classrooms. Our facilities have become more community friendly with the building of a wooden playground in 1990 by over 150 volunteers. In 2004, we received an Orange County Field of Dreams grant which transformed our back field into a lovely, green play area. The track encircling the field is great for jogging. The Astronaut Walkway along the track commemorates the heroes of the shuttle Columbia.

Our special areas of art, music and physical education continue to give our kids a well-rounded program with chances to excel in chorus, orchestra, and Running Club. There are now after-school clubs to involve children in many areas of interest. We strive to teach our 700 students that school means not only learning to excel in reading, writing and math but also to become self-assured, well rounded individuals. It is our hope; all that passes through the halls of Lakemont will go forth enriched to make the world a better place. We applaud all our students and staff, past and future.