HOLMES BEACH – Anna Maria Elementary School (AME) is unique for many reasons – a caring and dedicated staff, its spectacular location on the bay and the recent addition of the world’s first Guy Harvey Academy are just a few things that make the Island’s only school something special.
For the past 37 years, students, staff and visitors have also been treated to the unmistakable sight of the school’s unofficial mascot, its train caboose, which has been as much a fixture of the school since 1987 as teachers, principals and homework. Unfortunately, due to years in the salty air that makes the school’s location one of the best in America, the caboose had to be removed on Feb. 24.
The caboose spent nearly four decades on a short stretch of track near the main entrance of the school. It all began in 1987 when a former student and parent, Joan Pettigrew, read about CSX Railroad phasing out their cabooses. With some help from members of the community, she convinced the school’s administration and the Manatee County School Board to allow it to be moved to the school.
Billie Coles, AME’s curriculum specialist from 1988-1992, led the successful effort to make the caboose a computer lab in 1988, and the caboose was later dedicated to her. According to current Principal Mike Masiello, Coles was instrumental in getting parents involved in students’ computer education at a time when most schools had limited access to computers. The caboose later went on to serve as the speech classroom and later the school store. Even once the caboose was no longer being used as a classroom, it remained a source of pride for students and staff, as well as a backdrop for plenty of class pictures. So the question for many has been, why remove it?
“It’s a safety hazard at this point,” Masiello said. “It was too rusty, it was falling apart to the point where nobody could go inside of it. The roof was shot, it leaked, causing mold and mildew. Nobody has been in it for years. It just kept rusting and rusting and rusting because of the salty air here on the Island.”
Early in the morning on Feb. 24, a crew from the Florida Railroad Museum in Parrish arrived at AME with a large crane and an extended-length “wide load” semi-truck to remove the caboose. They chose a Saturday because of safety concerns associated with such an undertaking when children and staff were on the campus. The caboose was successfully lifted off its track and onto the truck without incident. It was then taken to Parrish, where Florida Railroad Museum staff will evaluate whether it can be restored and join the museum’s five other vintage cabooses currently on display.
