An invitation to a birthday party to be held on Sept. 22, 1979.
“The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain.
A cassette tape of a July 27, 1997, go-go performance by the Backyard Band.
Tardy passes, Topps baseball cards, yearbook receipts, numerous photos and other reminders of the past.
They were all among the items discovered recently during locker removal at Caroline High School.
“Here’s an FFA receipt for the citrus fruit sale,” Caroline County Public Schools Chief Operations Officer Marcia Stevens said. “It was only $14, so you can tell that’s probably significantly dated.”
As Caroline and other school divisions in the Fredericksburg area have begun to rely more heavily on technology such as Chromebooks and digital textbooks, traditional lockers are becoming outdated. School officials are exploring removing the compartments that were once a staple of the educational experience.
“We’re seeing that they’re becoming antiquated,” Stevens said. “Students are not using them. I read an article where they’re building a brand-new school, and it won’t even have lockers. So, it seems like that’s a wave now.”
The decision to remove lockers in Caroline came amid conversations about facility planning and growth. There were discussions between school officials and community members on ways to improve the flow of traffic in the hallways. A parent explained that taking out the lockers would create more elbow room as students maneuver to their classes.
Neither CHS nor CMS are at or above capacity, but the additional four feet of hallway space will make the schools even more comfortable, Stevens said.
“It doesn’t help in the classrooms, but it gives a little more room in the hallways,” she added. “There is more open space in schools being built nowadays than what it used to be.”
Caroline paid $136,000 to have lockers removed at its high school and middle school.
Chris Caldwell, the school division’s supervisor of maintenance, and Stevens noted that the lockers at the high school had a four-inch void that allowed materials to slip underneath, while the middle school lockers were solid to the floor. So, there weren’t as many treasures found in the middle school.
Once the lockers were removed, contractors patched and painted the walls.
Caldwell, who started in Caroline five years ago, said he’s never seen lockers assigned to students. He said they were used as storage for old materials that should’ve been discarded years ago. There were 1,400 lockers in CHS and 1,200 in CMS.
Meanwhile, athletic locker rooms were not impacted by the project.
“We’re leaving those because they are a necessity,” Caldwell said.
Caroline isn’t the only school division exploring the future of lockers in buildings.
Stafford County Public Schools Chief Communications Officer Sandra Osborn said some lockers were removed from North Stafford High School during renovations of the library, but the school still maintains sections of lockers for those students who need them.
While lockers have not been removed at the other four Stafford high schools, High School No. 6 — slated to open in August 2026 — will not have lockers. The new Drew Middle School will have locker bays, which are being situated so that lockers can be removed in the future for the creation of extra space.
The new middle school in Fredericksburg will have approximately 20 lockers for unique situations, according to Fredericksburg City Schools Deputy Superintendent Matthew Eberhardt.
Eberhardt added that the lockers at Walker-Grant Middle School were removed since it is being converted to Gladys West Elementary School, and elementary-aged students use cubbies instead. There are no plans to remove the lockers at James Monroe High School, but Eberhardt said if such a transition does occur in the future, it would be in favor of additional instructional space.
Teachers, said Eberhardt, use the lockers at JM more than the students. He noted that the cosmetology teacher stores mannequin heads and other materials in lockers.
Eberhardt said his daughter opened her locker on the first day of her freshman year and never again before graduation.
From a safety perspective, local school officials believe lockers may be outdated, as well.
“I don’t see a reason why things need to be hidden or placed in a contained area,” Eberhardt said. “It’s a different day that we live in, and I’m not sure we need that kind of storage.”
Spotsylvania County Public Schools Superintendent Clint Mitchell said his division is not removing lockers but added that the new lockers at the renovated Spotsylvania Middle School are “more efficient.”
Caroline’s middle and high school students can look ahead to their expanded hallways next school year.
After the findings, school officials posted the materials on Facebook and called the post “Mystery Locker Monday.” They’re still weighing exactly what to do with the items.
“We might put them in a frame. We’ll do some Facebook posts,” Communications and Community Engagement Specialist Kimberly Young said. “We’ll see if anybody claims them.”
