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Once upon a time, a long time ago ... back in the late 1980's Poly Elementary classmates, Nancy Schneider and Sherry Smyers crossed paths by chance and / or fate you decide ...

Nancy Schneider had gone to visit her Mom who worked at Cox's on East Lancaster in Fort Worth. Afterwards Nancy went across the street to shop at Smith's Gifts & Crafts which coincidentally was where Sherry Smyers was employed. Nancy and Sherry had not seen each other in YEARS!!!

Both had attended Poly Elementary all through grade school together then attended 7th grade at William James Middle in 1969 - 1970. Then unknowingly, both changed schools in the 8th grade and lost contact with each other. Nancy went to Meadowbrook Middle and Sherry attended Riverside Middle. While in high school, they would run into each other at Rock Concerts at Tarrant County Convention Center. (Nancy graduated from Eastern Hills High School in 1975 and Sherry graduated from O. D. Wyatt in 1975.)

Well, long story short ... the day of the encounter in Smiths Gifts & Crafts, they discussed planning a REUNION for Poly Elementary, specifically their "4th Grade Class". When they were in Mrs. Stubbs' 4th grade class, classmate Mike Long came to school one day and said he wanted to have a "4th Grade Reunion" someday. Well, for some reason that thought stuck in Sherry's head for all those years ... Sherry told the story to Nancy and they decided to plan the Poly Elementary Reunion. They immediately started collecting names and addresses. But with all of their combined "life events" it took forever to get the Reunion going. Nancy addressed and mailed out approximately 100 postcards trying to locate classmates. As time passed and with the advent of the internet they FINALLY held the first "Mini Poly Elementary - William James Reunion" on December 18, 2004 at Rawlings Sports Grille at the Ballpark in Arlington.   There were about twenty-five classmates who attended.

After the "First Mini PE-WJ Reunion", Nancy and Sherry were still enthused at the results and the expressed interest of the PE-WJ classmates who had attended. They decided to have another PE-WJ Reunion on May 21, 2005 which was unfortunately the HOTTEST day of the year. The Reunion was held outside on the grounds where Polytechnic Elementary once stood. With internet research, postcard mailings, word of mouth and the information advertised in the Fort Worth Star Telegram Reunion section they had about fifty former PE-WJ classmates show up for a "picnic on the lawn" at Poly Elementary!!! (Many thanks to Texas Wesleyan for allowing us to use the land.)

In the winter of 2006, PE-WJ-PHS classmate George Campbell began perusing the internet and saw pictures of the PE-WJ Reunion on the Poly '67 website. George contacted Nancy Schneider and wanted to have another PE-WJ Reunion since he had not know about or been "invited" to the one held in May 2005. (I think this is the main misconception about reunions ... some classmates expect to be "invited" but no invitation is necessary ... if you attended the school you are invited!!! We want you there!)

With George's instigation, persistence, hard work and along with the invaluable assistance of his sister, Tina and many other 2007 Committee Members we held the third PE-WJ Reunion on September 15th, 2007 at William James and had over 240 classmates attend!!!

The main purpose of the PE-WJ Reunion(s) is to re-connect with those that knew POLY back in the day!  We would love for YOU to attend the William James Reunion events ... no matter the year(s) you attended any of the schools in the Polytechnic Heights area.

Due to the neighborhood changes in the Polytechnic Heights area of Fort Worth in the 1960's and 1970's and the growth of suburban cities, our classmates and several classes before and after us ended up separating from long time friends after elementary school and/or middle/junior high school and attending other high schools and we sadly lost contact with each other ... unfortunately we cannot say we went through "12 years of school together" like so many of our high school friends.

Please help us to spread the information about the William James Reunion events by sharing our homepage with classmates that you are still in contact with or "unexpectedly happen to cross paths with" ...