Salt Lake City School District unveils plaque honoring Genevieve Raine Curtis, first woman on district board

Family members, school leaders and elected officials gathered at the Salt Lake City School District headquarters for a plaque unveiling honoring Genevieve Raine Curtis, the first woman to serve on the Salt Lake City Board of Education, at a ceremony on a date not specified.

Family members described Curtis’s life and local impact, and officials from the district and city paid tribute to initiatives attributed to her leadership, including parent-teacher organization work, hot lunch programs for children during the Depression and early special-education services.

Natalie McCullough, a member of the Curtis family who read a prepared biography of Genevieve Raine Curtis, recounted that Curtis was born in Salt Lake City in 1879, raised and trained as a teacher in her late teens, and opened a school in her mother’s home to help the family. McCullough said Curtis was the mother of 10 children and described a lifetime of civic work: organizing school PTAs, directing hot-lunch efforts, arranging affordable eyeglasses for students at “25¢ a week,” and coordinating drives that provided shoes for more than 600 children. McCullough credited Curtis with creating programs later adopted more widely, such as teacher appreciation observances, a home-teaching program for chronically ill children and safety measures at schools.

Christy Sweat, introduced at the event as a longtime board member who recently completed 20 years of service, said the family connection and genealogy motivated the commemoration. Dr. Elizabeth Grant, superintendent of the Salt Lake City School District, thanked the Curtis family and the attendees for preserving the legacy in the district’s new building and said the family’s examples of service continue to influence district leaders.

U.S. Sen. John Curtis, introduced as a great-grandson of Genevieve Raine Curtis, praised her record and described her approach as a “bridge builder” who combined careful observation with measured public remarks. In his remarks he quoted a maxim invoked at the ceremony: “We never rise higher than when we learn to lift those that cannot lift themselves.”

A family member read an account from family journals recounting an object lesson Genevieve used: she handed a single stick to a child to break, then a bundled group of sticks tied with twine that could not be broken. The reader said the family motto, often displayed in their homes and quoted to the senator, is the Latin phrase meaning “In unity there is strength.”

Organizers directed attendees to move to the front hall for the plaque unveiling and posed for the unveiling outside the ceremony room; the transcript records no board motion, vote or formal district action tied to the event. Members of the Salt Lake City Board of Education in attendance included Board President Salazar, Board Vice President Brian Jensen and board members Ashley Anderson, Amanda Longwell and Charlotte Fife Jefferson. City representatives at the event included Salt Lake City Council member Dan Dugan and City Council member Sarah Young; Bridgette Gerard, identified as a school district member from Davis County, also attended.

The ceremony combined family reminiscence and civic recognition: speakers emphasized Genevieve Raine Curtis’s work to expand access to schooling and services for children and highlighted programs she helped start or promote. The plaque was unveiled in the front hall of the district building; the family and officials planned to remain for photographs and a brief reception following the unveiling.