History

Students attended Offutt Air Base School during 1951-52 when Wherry Housing opened. The school consisted of temporary frame military buildings that were moved to Wherry to accommodate the 700 new children moving on base and needing to be educated.

Bellevue Public Schools opened two new schools in the fall of 1952—Betz and Belleaire Elementary Schools—to accommodate the tremendous growth at Offutt. The school district passed a bond issue to purchase land for the new schools and the federal government provided some funding to build South Ward and West Ward Schools, the Bellevue Board wanted different names for the schools. In May, 1951, a newspaper ballot was printed for readers to send in their votes. The vote for South Ward produced an easy result—Betz Elementary School.

Betz Elementary was named after Dr. William Betz. Dr. Betz, a physician, cared for the sick in Bellevue for over 50 years. He served on the Bellevue Board of Education from 1913-1917, with three years as president. Dr. Betz worked with the federal government to build and open a health clinic in Bellevue in what is now East Ward.