The Colony School by Jennifer Trujillo taken from selections of Marcela and the Mexicans  by Gladys Doty and Mexicans and Hispanos in Colorado Schools and Communities  by Ruben Donato   The population of the town of Lamar grew from 4233 in 1930 to 7715 in 1959. The American Crystal Sugar Company had an arrangement with the town of Lamar in that they owned the schoolhouse and the Lamar School District would provide the teachers. The colony school only served small numbers of students however enrollment was constant.  In the 1920’s it is estimated that 78 of 1078 children in Lamar were immigrants and by 1950 those numbers increased to 207 out of 1832.  However the school never had more than 25-35 students per year.    Margarie Blackman was one of the first teachers at the colony school and also began her career there.  She described the school as such, You would never know it was a school.  It looked like an adobe hovel.  It did not have bathrooms. It had outhouses. We had a well for water. It had no playground, no equipment, no swings, no nothing.  There were two teachers. We had old books and they were dirty. We had round stoves to keep the room warm. I taught first, second, and third.  She (the other teacher) taught forth, fifth, and sixth.  The kids didn’t do too well…We made lesson plans at the colony school but nobody saw them…The kids were good about attending school.  Students were taught English and American Culture in the colony school and once they learned the basics they were expected to transfer to the regular schools but this rarely happened. However, in the oral histories Frank Ybarra does recall transferring to Lincoln after his time at the colony school.   Blackman remembers her time teaching at Lincoln, “I cannot remember a Mexican child at Lincoln when I started.” For most Mexican students, the colony school was their only experience with public education.  Blackman also complained that the colony students received hand me down desks and supplies that were deemed unusable by the regular schools and there was no plumbing or electricity, which was available at the public schools.     While there were several other well-known educators from Lamar at the colony school, it was Marcella Hertzog who gained the most notoriety when Gladys Doty published “Marcella and the Mexicans” in Empire Magazine in 1989. She opens with an anecdote about a boy named Manuel who came to Marcella quite upset the first day after Christmas vacation because he had not received any gifts from Santa.  The children had written letters to Santa and one was even published in the local paper.  What Marcella had not considered was that the great depression had hit everybody hard; particularly the sugar beet workers and Christmas gifts just were not a possibility. The following year, she asked her students about their traditions and participated in building a piñata and in the Mexican tradition of Posada.                          This incident sparked Marcella to go to the school board to ask for better desks rather than the damaged ones that had been handed down from the south side of town. She also wanted a piano and a cot for the children if they became sick.  It took some time but she did eventually get new desks. She was also to get a teeter-totter for the children but it was broken within two days because the adults were playing on it too.  They continued to receive second hand books but eventually got new supplies.  She complained of the difficulties of proper sanitation since water had to be carried from a cistern.  The school superintendent handed down a directive to teach the resident children of the colony English and get them through the first two grades at which time they could enter the third grade in the city school but that rarely happened.  According to Herzog, those who did make it had,   their self confidence battered a dozen times a day. Anglo children tease them, and some of the teachers think that the Mexicans cannot do as well as the other children.  I have to see to it that they are well into third grade work before they ever enter the third grade.  Despite her dedication and interventions only nine Mexican children graduated from High School in Lamar between the years of 1920 and 1960.  Not only did Marcella serve the children of the colony school, she served the  adults as well.  She noticed that the young mothers and pregnant women needed medical advice.  She went back to the school board and asked them to establish a meeting room for the adults. Once it was approved she put up charts and pictures about infant care and diet and showed the women prenatal exercises as well as how to bathe their new babies.  She had baby items from her own child who had died and held a drawing to give away the items to the new mothers.  She also convinced the Federated Women’s Club to sponsor a clothing drive.  Rather than give the clothes away, they hosted a rummage sale and sold the items for almost nothing.  According to Herzog, “The colony people have a choice, they pay their money, and they walk out with their self-respect.” The rummage sale became an annual event in the colony. When she noticed that the parents were starting to read the children’s books she started a library in the community room with adult books, as the adults were reluctant to go to the local library. She also intervened for the teens that were not allowed at local dances and had to sit in the balcony at the theatre.   She began having Saturday night dances in the community room and it became so popular that Mexicans from surrounding towns began to come to Lamar for them.  She also began a program to help the women in the community earn money. She created a homemaking corner in the community room to teach them how to vacuum, wax floors, and polish furniture so that they could become maids.  She also taught them how to sew and gave them advice about interviewing. After fourteen years at the colony school, Marcella Herzog died at 66 after a battle with brain cancer. Glady Doty went looking for former students to see how they fared in life after the colony school.  Russ Abita, a former student, who owned and managed Community Builders Enterprises Company remembered Herzog, “The best thing that Mrs. Herzog did for us was to make us feel that we could do anything we wanted to.” Abita remembered some of his classmates one who owned a restaurant in La Junta, two who worked for Boeing in Wichita, a foreman on the Greeley Tribune, and a teacher in Laporte.