HOULKA - Attending a 6-year-old relative's kindergarten graduation brought back a flood of memories for Joyce Turner.

"I grew up in this town, I went to school here, I graduated on this stage and I taught here 28 years," said Turner, a 1957 graduate of Houlka High School.

On Friday, she watched her great-niece, Emma Claire Daniel, receive her kindergarten diploma in the newly restored historic auditorium on the campus of what is now Houlka Attendance Center.

The building is original to the former Houlka Grammar School that served grades 1-8, said Kathy Davis Austin, superintendent of the Chickasaw County School District.

"This building has been in continuous use since 1935," Austin said. "We've never not used it."

In the 1980s, when kindergarten became mandatory, Austin said, the district didn't have the money for new classrooms so members of HOPE, or Houlka Organization for Pupil Education, set to work.

"The fathers worked nights converting the auditorium into classrooms and a library," she said.

About three years ago, the historic building was designated a Mississippi Landmark and the district received a grant from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, as well as some local money, for restoration work.

"This has cost us somewhere around $350,000," Austin said. "It is beautiful, but we're not finished. We've run out of money."

Remaining work includes redoing the floors on the south side of the building, making repairs to some plaster walls, and adding heating and air-conditioning for some classrooms.

"It's probably going to cost us about another $300,000," said Austin, who watched Friday's ceremony along with parents and staff.

"Here come our babies," Principal William Cotton said as the 39 kindergartners marched into the auditorium wearing grins and red caps and gowns.

"They worked so hard this year and accomplished so many things," said Lisa Clayton, one of the school's two kindergarten teachers. "I'm going to miss them next year.

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