Cedar Park Elementary School staff and educators celebrated 50 years on Saturday with food, bouncy houses and a miniature train for trips around the parking lot for the students and younger kids.

“This is the birthday celebration that we are having,” said Cedar Park Elementary School Principal Dr. Doris Cureton. “We are just bouncing around, playing on the playground and taking pictures, and then after they have snacks, I will send them home to finish their Saturday. These are not all current students.”

Cureton said she is planning an alumni event.

“We are planning an October date, but it may move back,” she said “We have so many alumni that are out of town, and they will have to plan to come back. If not in October, it will be around springtime. We are really excited about it because there are so many people that I have yet to meet that are alumni or have worked here.”

Cureton said the school was built in 1968.

“When I tell you this is such an amazing building, it is,” she said. “When I first came here in 2014, people referenced Cedar Park as the best-kept secret, and it still is. Not a lot of people know about Cedar Park. We love it. We are small, very small, but I tend to believe we are small in number but big in heart.”

Even though talks of consolidation in the Selma City School system could mean the possible closing of Cedar Park, Cureton said she still remains positive.

“The great part of it is I believe in living for the moment and making the best of the time we have,” she said. “If this is our last year, then let’s make it the best one and we are not planning as if it is. I think you can live a healthy life by being positive.”