A ribbon cutting and open house was held on Saturday for members of the Woodville Rosenwald School Foundation and invited guests to celebrate Woodville School receiving its official occupancy permit from Gloucester County. A second open house was held on Sunday for the general public.

Encouraged by foundation president and executive director Dr. Wesley Wilson, a number of former students of Woodville and other Rosenwald schools in the county shared memories of their days in the two-room schoolhouses that served the county’s Black population in the days before desegregation.

Dr. Dorothy Cooke, who was on the first board of the Woodville Rosenwald School Foundation, said she received her seventh-grade diploma from the Bethel Rosenwald School in 1951, then transferred to T.C. Walker.

“Today’s a great day,” she said.

Cooke also announced that, although Bethel School no longer exists, Bethel Church will be placing a sign at the site of where the school stood on or around April ...