LSU students aren’t the only ones attending class under the stately oaks and broad magnolias.
Students in kindergarten through 12th grade studied at LSU through the University Laboratory School for 100 years and gathered to celebrate their centennial in the U-High gymnasium on Friday.
The birthday party was the first event in a year-long celebration. The University Laboratory School Foundation will host homecoming celebrations, alumni tours and a fun run, among other events, throughout the 2015-16 school year.
The school was founded in 1915 in downtown Baton Rouge as Demonstration High School under the direction of what was then the Louisiana State University Teachers College.
In 1925, ULS moved to share space with the University’s College of Education in Peabody Hall and grew from its original enrollment of 64 students to its current enrollment of more than 1,400.
ULS moved to its current home on Dalrymple Drive behind the Paul M. Hebert Law Center in 1953 and now operates under the LSU College of Human Sciences and Education.
“We have the student teachers that come over here,” said U-High Principal Frank Rusciano. “We have a very close relationship with the college.”
As a lab school system, the elementary and high schools serve to train future teachers pursuing degrees at LSU.
It provides observation hours, research opportunities and field experience for education majors before graduation.
For the past 100 years, teachers at ULS have served two roles: teaching students English and math while also helping LSU students learn how to teach English and math.
The school has a storied history of growth. After finding its permanent home on the main LSU campus, it added an auditorium and gymnasium in 1964. In 1979, a fire destroyed the elementary school building and a new kindergarten-through-5th-grade wing was added in 1981.
“These people feel so at home on the LSU campus,” Rusciano said. “We are part of the university. We are part of the college.”
Though the lab school operates under the College of Human Sciences and Education, the funding comes from a combination of tuition and state money, Rusciano said.
Many of the students at U-High, which is part of the ULS system, choose LSU after graduation, he said.
“The overwhelming majority walk right across the street over there after being here 13 years and go to college there,” Rusciano said.
U-High also boasts many alumni serving in leadership roles across Louisiana and the U.S.
ULS superintendent Wade Smith recognized alumni during Friday’s event including LSU Board of Supervisors member Rolfe McCollister, Louisiana state Rep. Steve Carter, R-Baton Rouge, and former Washington Redskins player and current assistant special teams coach Bradford Banta.

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Ari Ross

Baton Rouge assistant chief administrative officer John J. Price reads proclamations Friday, Sept. 18, 2015, during the University Lab School Centennial in the New Gym.