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<< Previous   of   Next >> Michael O'Leary / The Herald  (click to enlarge) The Snohomish High School and Glacier Peak High School cheerleaders perform together Tuesday as part of a year-end assembly. Michael O'Leary / The Herald  (click to enlarge) Beth Porter, incoming principal for Sno­homish High School, and Jim Dean, principal of the new Glacier Peak High School, team up in a three-legged race Tuesday. (click to enlarge)   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 Snohomish's last day as one-high-school town By Eric Stevick Herald Writer SNOHOMISH -- Shane Hunrich, wearing a Snohomish High School Panther medallion around his neck, hopped on Bus 83 on Tuesday and headed home across the valley. The last day of school was over. So, too, was an era. "It's been a special thing how the whole community is just about the high school," Hunrich said. While he's been soaking in the Panther spirit, Hunrich has spent this spring planting seeds of anticipation for the new Glacier Peak High School, which will open next fall. It was part of his job as Glacier Peak's incoming student body president. "I've spent the whole year thinking and working for both schools," he said. The $88.9 million high school off Cathcart Way will be finished in August and open to about 1,000 freshmen, sophomores and juniors. Tuesday was a day of good-byes at Snohomish High School. Good-bye to classmates. Good-bye to teachers. Good-bye to decades as a one-high-school town. Although all of next year's seniors will attend Snohomish High School, underclassmen will be split between the north and south end schools. Students to the north and east of the Snohomish River will remain at Snohomish; those south and west will attend Glacier Peak. At a year-end assembly Tuesday, students vowed to be two schools unified as one community. They sang the old Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell tune: "Ain't no mountain high enough, ain't no valley low enough, ain't no river wide enough to keep me away from you." Cheerleaders in the red and white of Snohomish and blue and white of Glacier Peak performed a dance routine that underscored that unity theme. Together, they chanted, "Panthers stand up and yell red; Grizzlies stand up and yell blue. Both sides stand up and yell red, white and blue." Students weren't the only ones sensing the changes ahead. Tuck Gionet, a government and economics teacher, will return to Snohomish High. "I don't think the impact is going to hit everyone until next fall," he said. "They are going to get some good teachers and I think it will really hit us at the first faculty meeting." Math teacher Ray Tompkins will give up his four-block walk to Snohomish High School to teach at Glacier Peak. The one day a year he traded his shirt and tie each school year for a red top was for the annual serpentine parade. "I've always been a Panther, even when I was working for different schools (in the district)," he said. "It will be a change being a Grizzly." Matt King, an English teacher at Snohomish High for 22 years, was packing up files in cardboard boxes Tuesday. He will be part of the original Glacier Peak faculty and will coach girls and boys tennis. He's excited about the technology and a shorter commute. "I'm still a part of the Snohomish (district)," he said. Tommy Rollins will be a junior at Glacier Peak, but looks forward to returning to Snohomish High School, where his new school will play football games under the stadium lights in the fall. "Knowing I have good teachers makes it a lot easier," he said. "I would love to be in any of their classes. That gives me a positive vibe about next year." Classmate Kendra Peterson will be part of the new Glacier Peak cheerleading squad and student government. She expected Tuesday to be a sad day, but found it soothing, instead. "To me, it was a happy assembly, coming together for one last time as a town," she said. Incoming junior Catherine Jorgensen was an emcee for the final assembly. She helped lead the student body for one last time through the "Panther Pound," a progressively complicated and powerful clapping routine. She can imagine her new school trying to start a "Grizzly Growl." "Part of me wants to start crying; part of me wants to start laughing over the memories," she said. "It has become home to me. It's like leaving behind a little piece of your heart. I think that's the way it should be." "I think Shakespeare said it best: 'Parting is such sweet sorrow.'" Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or e-mail stevick@heraldnet.com.

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