Built on belonging: EMS dedicates outdoor courtyard to Travis Eloff

When Ephrata Middle School reopened after a remodel in April 2024, the enclosed courtyard at the center was a blank canvas. Over the past two years, a team of volunteers worked together to give students a place where all can safely belong. 

In a ceremony on May 8, 2026, the Ephrata School District dedicated the finished space to the memory of Travis Eloff, the district's longtime special education director, who served Ephrata Schools for 31 years.

Family, colleagues and community members gathered for the ceremony. Event organizer and project leader Joan Fleming put the dedication together with "people of significance to Travis. People he loved, and who loved him back."

School principal Tina Mullings welcomed the crowd, assistant superintendent Aaron Cummings spoke of Eloff's life and legacy, and his daughters, Melodie and Brandi Eloff, shared memories of their own. Special services secretary Jackie Pope offered a tribute to his impact, and superintendent Ken Murray made the dedication. 

Eloff started with the district in August 1992 as a fifth grade teacher at Grant Elementary, moved to Parkway in 1999 and became director of special education in 2004, serving until medical issues led to his retirement in 2023.

His memorial plaque states a tenet he lived by: special education "is not a place, it's a service, a commitment, and a belief that every child can succeed." Eloff was one who  exemplified never being defined by a disability, Fleming said.

The courtyard planning was centered around accessibility by a team of school and community volunteers. They envisioned chair-accessible turf with walkways and seating any student could use; Rick Carlson of the Rotary Club helped polish their design. The effort, Fleming said, was community work in the fullest sense: for the community and by the community.

Finishing the courtyard meant picking up where the building's remodel left off. The district's 2019 bond of $27.89 million paid for the EMS and Columbia Ridge Elementary remodels, but after the pandemic sent construction costs soaring in 2020, the district ran short of money to complete several planned projects, including the courtyard.

The courtyard project came together at a total cost of $225,484. A $100,000 grant from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction was secured by former special education director Jamie Bessette, and the district's capital projects fund supplemented the rest. Throughout the project, construction costs rose. Fleming said the team kept its focus on stretching dollars and building something sustainable.

Dircio's Landscaping of Ephrata donated the curbing around the courtyard's tree, and the EMS Junior Honor Society planted daffodils.

Before school is a popular time for EMS students to use the courtyard together. During the day, life skills students, whose classroom opens directly into the courtyard, enjoy it with support buddies as a safe, enclosed space to be outdoors without restriction. 

Interactive activity stations along the walkway give students who need a break a place to self-regulate before returning to class. The team hopes to add more features, like a pergola to provide shade.

The courtyard utilizes a “universal design” concept. If the space is accessible for the students who face the most barriers, it’s usually better for everyone, noted Fleming.

A ubiquitous example of this concept is called the "curb cut," the dip where sidewalks slope to meet the street. It was designed for people in wheelchairs, and it gets used every day by parents pushing strollers, travelers pulling rolling suitcases, and kids on bikes or skateboards.

The committee imagined the courtyard with the same inclusive logic. The turf (chosen in place of grass) and concrete walkways were laid so students with mobility challenges can cross them easily. Now they provide a smooth surface for a staff member pushing a cart of art supplies. During the school day, students can be found in the courtyard working on art projects.

For the volunteers, the courtyard project was also a way to grieve after Eloff passed away in June of 2024. Fleming said the dedication honored another sorrow: a child the school community lost, but has not forgotten. Planted in the center of the courtyard are  a tree and plaque in memory of Jett Johnson, son of former middle school teacher Heidi Johnson.

Layering that loss and love into one place, she said, made the ceremony healing. Eloff's daughters spoke of the Ephrata community as somewhere they belong. For all the weight of the ceremony, Fleming said, there was a lot of laughter.

For Fleming, that is the point. The courtyard was planned with intention by volunteers, for the community and by the community, with inclusion and belonging at the center. 

"I want people to know about us," she said. The EMS family, the district family, the community family. "We're all connected."

The plaque honoring Eloff hangs in a hallway lined with windows looking out on the courtyard. It ends with the line: "The true measure of your career is found in the lives you've empowered."