In 1965, McAdenville Elementary School led the rest of the state in education, forming the first public school kindergarten class in North Carolina.

On Oct. 11 at 11 a.m., the school will hold a reunion, and the class from 1965 will recreate a class photo that was taken at the time.

Demetra Sharpe Rankin, now 86, taught that first kindergarten class, and she will be attending the reunion.

"I am so thrilled that it's finally going to be recognized," Rankin said in an interview. "I get emotional thinking about how hard we worked."

While Asheville City Schools formed a public kindergarten class in 1907, that district's effort was declared illegal in 1930 by then-Attorney General Dennis Brummitt, according to the Department of Public Instruction.

McAdenville Elementary School's kindergart

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