TWIN FALLS, Idaho — The oldest operating school in Twin Falls is celebrating a major milestone.
Bickel Elementary, the pioneering school for the Twin Falls School District, is marking 120 years.
WATCH: Bickel Elementary, the oldest operating school in Twin Falls, Idaho, celebrates 120 years and a new chapter as a dual-immersion magnet school.
According to counselor Lucy Wills, the original Bickel opened in 1906, becoming the first first-through-12th-grade school in Twin Falls. The school actually predates the district itself.
"In fact, the school was here before the district — they didn't establish the school district until later," Wills said.
"All of the kids from the country came here — downstairs was the lower grades and upstairs was the upper grades. The students would come in on horse drawn carriages, and there were about 10 to 12 students in each carriage," Wills said.
Named after the first mayor of Twin Falls, Paul S. Bickel, the school was full almost as soon as it opened. Twin Falls grew from a handful of settlers in 1904 to approximately 3,000 in just two years.
"It just grew so big that they had to build Lincoln a couple of years later," Wills said.
Built in 1908, Lincoln became the elementary school, with Bickel briefly becoming Twin Falls' first official high school.
It reverted back to an elementary school in 1912, when the original Twin Falls junior and senior high was constructed.
In 1938, a fire destroyed the original Bickel schoolhouse, but it was reconstructed within a year on the same site. That left behind the Bickel we know today, along with a spot on the National Register of Historic Places.
Kristi Henkelmann is a teacher at Bickel, and she shows what it's like to educate in a building with so much history.
"I love it and I think everyone that I've brought in here is like 'oh, my gosh — this is so beautiful,'" Henkelmann said. "Took a little time to get used to, because they open like a V, and so you just have to be careful with what you put where because otherwise, you're getting something crushed."
With declining student enrollment, Bickel once again became a pioneer for education in Twin Falls, becoming the first dual-immersion magnet school in the district in 2025.
"I'm the 15th principal in the history of this school," said Jorge Pulleiro, principal of Bickel Magnet School.
Going into its second year, Pulleiro says the program is growing.
"Last year we started with K-3 and this year we have K-4 — we have a few transfer students and we have our migrant pre-school program as well — and so, it's been an amazing transition," Pulleiro said.
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