11, 2003 - AS

ri

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June

SKEENA, SKEENA, rah, rah, rah! Former student
and teacher Bonnie Shaw during the schoo! cheer.

metal work teacher, has taught for 40 years — 35 of them at’
Skeena before subbing for another five years. “| was here the .
last two weeks,” he said, adding he first started in 1962.

A LOT TO REMEMBER: Long-serving teacher Al Cameron, left,
and former student Jahn Dando caught up at Skeena’s anniver-
sary party. Cameron, Dando’s former health, woodwork and

y

Goodbye Skeena

Students, teachers and staff reunite as school faces the wrecking ball

HE FIRST thi . mT
Yvonne Mt By Jennifer Lang be he a
‘chaud did was a ‘

find her old high +

school locker.

“I remember the cute
guy with the one next to
me who'd never look at
me,” Michaud said. As a
teen, she towered over the
boys at Skeena High,
making it difficult to find a
willing dance partner.

Michaud, now a mar-
tied legal secretary with
fond memories of Skeena,
wasn't the only farmer‘stu-
dent touring the school two
Saturdays ago.

“IT almost knew my
combination, but it’s
gone,” a salt and pepper-
haired Pat Hall said, ap-
praising locker No. 112.

He was a member of
the Class of ‘69 — the year

First of athree-part series —
on Skeena Jr, Secondary

weet, He smiled as he re-
membered the names of
former classmates — in-
eluding the girls who
wouldn't go out with him.
He also gleefully re-
called parading through
the hallways wearing ny-

lons and:.a-'wig on Initia- -

tion
tion
out.

“I was a little saddened
when I heard they were
going to tear it down,”
Hall said.

As many as 300 people
packed an emotion-filled

Day, a hazing. tradi-
that eventually died

“T won't get into what
the prize was, but it was a
bottle, and those prize
tickets were eagerly
sought by everyone.”

The winner, he said,
was announced at the Fri-
day sock hop.

Students’ weren't

‘

ver high jinks during the
freewheeling 1960s.

. Former school counsel-
lor and two-time Skeena
MLA Helmut Giesbrecht
recalled haw colleagues
went to great lengths to
prevent the discovery of a

: BY

the
only ones thinking up cle-'

PAT HALL finds his old locker ~ number112.-He
could almost remember his combination... nave

hill Junior Secondary was
built, Skeena boasted a
student population of 947.

An. estimated 25,000

students have have passed
through Skeena’s infam-
ously cramped hallways
over the years.

“Everyone was s0 exci-
ted,” Shaw said. Its first
students were astonished
to. discover a home ec
room, shop, a real gym,
and science lab. Each was
assigned his ‘or her very
own locker.

iy, mo Caledonia Senior Second- goodbye party and 50th fictitious: student who “It has served Terrace “To think of it being ©
Pare ary opened and Skeena- anniversary at the old managed to pass his and its community very bulldozed down makes me
Timmerman, school secretary, turned into a Junior High. schoo] May 31 — just exams. well,” Giesbrecht said. “It sad,” Shaw said, “yet at

has worked at Skeena since Sept. ‘73 to the pre-
sent — 30 years.

_ Like Michaud, some of
his memories are bitters-

THE SCHOOL was filled with memorabilia:

trophies, old pictures, even gla-
mourous homemade graduation gowns. Above, teacher Mags Gingles (1969-
80), and students Petra Burdette (1965-69) and Carla Wooeste (1980-83) look
at old annuals. At right, Ed Papals, who's kept all his mark books, shows for-
mer student Yvonne Michaud her old grades. She learned to type from him.

weeks before it will be
torn down to make room
for. a brand-new junior

high.

Former class president
Danny Sheridan (1966) of-

- fered a stunning admission

during the ceremony:
‘“] did have a master

‘key for the last two years
‘of my schooling here,” he

said. “It opened every door

~ in the’ building. It was the

most wonderful feeling to

Vhave that key in your
jo packet.”

Sheridan, who went on
to become a city councii-
lor, also confessed to help-
ing organize a weekly
prize draw upstairs in the
boys’ bathroom, No one
could figure out what they
were doing,

“At some point the

was never the building. It

“4#t was never the building. It is the

people. ”

math teacher figured out
he'd been had,” Gies-
brecht said.

Giesbrecht started
working at Skeena in 1967
—a year when most of Ter-
race’s streets were still -un-
paved. He found the stu-
dent. rights movement in
full swing in the dusty
town. “You could smoke in
the student lounge,” he
pointed out.

He described a school
that buzzed with activity.

In 1973, the year Thorn-

is the people, and through
these doors walked many
of the finest students and
teachers you will find any-
where. I sincerely hope
that the new building

‘serves the community just.
_as well.”

Former student and tea-

cher Bonnie Shaw, whe |

spoke at the 50th birthday
ceremony, recalled what it
was like that first school
year - back in 1953/54
when Skeena was brand
new,

the same time I can ima-
gine the thrill of next
year’s students entering
the new building and wan-
dering down. new hallways
with the same excitement
as we did 50 years ago.”
This Friday marks the
Jast day of classes for
Skeena’s current student
body. It’s closing early so
staff can. pack up. Many of
the school’s’ belongings -
including murals painted
by students this year — will
move to the new school.

Next week

Former Skeena students
from afar have emailed us
their memories of their old
school.

You'll find these on this
page next week.