About Us

 Mendenhall Elementary was built in 1952 as Plano’s first separate   elementary school. Originally named Plano Elementary School,  the campus was renamed in 1961 to honor Aline Harrel  Mendenhall, a longtime Plano educator.

Aline graduated from Mary Nash College in Sherman in 1894 and   began teaching first grade in Plano schools. She left the profession   in 1900 upon her marriage but returned to public education in   1920. After many dedicated years of service, she retired in 1947.

When the building was first constructed, it included the present east wing, the cafeteria (now the library), and a shorter front west wing. The first addition, completed prior to 1961, added two classrooms to the west end of the front west wing.

In 1965, a new wing was added to accommodate fifth- and sixth-grade Open Classroom Team Teaching, along with a gymnasium. This space is now known as the multipurpose room and second-grade wing. Additional remodeling and renovations occurred in 1973, 1987, and 1991, with the final additions including a new kitchen and dedicated wings for third, fourth, and fifth grades.

Thanks so much for the info on your web page about my "Granny", Aline Mendenhall! She gave me and many others many many hours of loving care.

Prior to starting school, I spent a lot of time in her first grade classroom. Because of my Sept. 13th birth date, I was not allowed to enter the Dallas schools the year I turned 6 (1937). Granny's only child, my mother, Minta Elizabeth Mendenhall Frysinger taught private piano lessons in Plano for many years. She would ride the interurban from north Dallas to Plano twice a week. She always rented a room in a house across the street from the old school. Students would leave their regular classes to go across the street for their 30-minute piano lesson, then return to school. Ah! The "good old days of relaxed and trusting conduct! Quite often in that 6th year, mother would take me along and Granny would take me to school with her. I watched her many times get up early, make her standard big batch of biscuits, and walk carrying her "lunch bag" and encouraging me to keep up as we walked from her home on east 15th through town across the park near the interurban depot past the church and to the school. Mr. Sigler was there to greet everyone. Oh! The smell of those wooden floors swept with the oiled cedar shavings is strong in my memory.

At noon, Granny would get out her "lunch bag" and split open a biscuit, then pick up a book and start to read to the several children who had no lunch to eat. Usually, even in winter, some of them were standing around her desk with bare feet. Granny would take a bite of a biscuit, then turn to one of those hungry listeners and say, "Johnny, could you finish this for me as I can't continue reading with my mouth full", or some other equally tactful way of transferring the food from her bag to the child in a dignified way. Over the ensuing years, those children did not forget her. Even after her home was torn down and an apartment building was put up, Valentine candy and Mother's day flowers were delivered and put on the curb at her old address. They were sent, as they had been for many years, by men who had stood around Granny's desk at noon, barefooted, and eating biscuits and peach jam. I think her specialty was teaching writing and getting children interested in reading. She had a perfect hand for printing, and encouraged many children beyond writing and into art.

Mendenhall has initiated such programs as the Goddard Environmental Camp, the elementary bilingual program, and the elementary science fair. Mendenhall continues as a lighthouse for learning and its dedicated staff strives to make a positive difference in the youth and families it serves.