School Message

Welcome to Columbia Elementary School! This website will provide you with all the information you will need to get to know Columbia and all that makes this a special place to learn. As principal at Columbia, I am so excited to get to know your family and to work with your children. This is going to be an exciting year as we
inspire our children to....learn, grow, and give.

Columbia is a great place to learn. The teachers at Columbia spend a great deal of time getting to know each child in order to better meet their specific learning needs. We believe that: "Children don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." (Maxwell) We care about your child and work to create a family atmosphere in our classrooms. Our teachers support students that are not quite ready to learn the skills and enrich students that have already mastered the skills. We like to teach in a hands-on way and even do projects to help our students learn better.

Columbia is a great place to grow. We want our children to develop good character traits. Zebra Zone is our character education theater show. This is a sight and sound experience where children learn character truths. These 45-minute programs use music, drama, and storytelling to entertain and inspire students and parents. We'll be inviting you to share these experiences with your child. Children and parents are excited to learn about the character education trait at school and then practice the trait in the home.

Columbia is a great place to give. We want our children to learn to treat others with respect and help others when they have a need. We will be doing some service learning projects so that our children will learn the importance of helping others in our local community and throughout the world.

I am excited to share this year with you. I would love it if you would stop by the office and introduce yourself. Let me know if I can ever be of any assistance to you. I am always delighted to meet our parents and talk about our school. We welcome your support in developing a strong home-school partnership.

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." (Ford)

Mary Bohr
Principal, Columbia Elementary School

Our Vision

“The mission of Columbia School is to ensure that all programs are dedicated toward enhancing student achievement and that each school is a humanistic organization, valuing students emotionally and academically providing the highest quality education possible in a personalized environment. We aspire to enable each student to realize maximum potential as a responsible citizen who will enhance the community and society.”

The Columbia Elementary School Community believes our mission is to facilitate and engage the students in optimal learning and social development in a safe and orderly environment. Our expectation for all students is to empower them to lead fulfilling and productive lives as life-long learners in a rapidly changing and increasingly complex society.

The Columbia School Elementary staff is dedicated for providing a rich educational environment that challenges all students to think critically, solve complex problems, express themselves articulately, in speaking and writing, and work cooperatively and individually in a diverse and multicultural world.

About Our School

Columbia Elementary School, located in Rochester, IN, is one of four schools in the Rochester Community School District. The district, located in Fulton County, serves approximately 2,000 students. The Rochester School District is comprised of Columbia Elementary School, grades K-2, Riddle Elementary School, grades 3-5, Rochester Middle School, grades 6-8 and Rochester High School, grades 9-12.

At Columbia School, we provide students opportunities to develop their potential intellectually, socially and emotionally. We believe that our school exist to provide an effective educational program and to offer all students opportunities to develop their capabilities to the maximum of their potential so that they may act constructively as contributing citizens in our changing society. Columbia Elementary School has a strong academic foundation, a parent community that is interested and is actively involved, a faculty professionally skilled and personally committed to meeting the needs of students and a student body motivated to perform well.

Columbia Elementary School is comprised of one special needs preschool, seven kindergarten classes, seven first grade classes, and seven second grade classes.

Our kindergarten students have the option of half day or full day. Students attend school 180 days.