PORT TOWNSEND — There was singing and poetry, a slide show and stories, and more than a few tears as students and staff, present and former, gathered Thursday to mark the closing of their school.
But the sorrow was mostly staged, the tears shed by students in a skit mourning the passing of a culinary delicacy: cafeteria pizza.
Cardboard crust and all, the pizza will become the stuff of legend when Mountain View School closes its doors next Wednesday.
But as the building will continue to be used, closing is not accurate, teacher Bruce Cowan said.
“Retirement would be the right word,” Cowan said. “This building is about to retire. These days, retirement means you keep right on working.”
Cowan organized and led the assembly, which opened with the flag salute, followed by the assembly singing patriotic songs accompanied by Larry Pepper, the music teacher, on the guitar.
Leslie’s Schroeder’s students presented a series of skits showing the students dealing with the closing, including mourning the school pizza, trying to figure out what to do with the cougar — a cement statue of the school mascot — and dreaming about what it will be like to attend Blue Heron, which will expand from a middle school to accommodate fourth, fifth and sixth grades next fall.
But as the actors reminded the audience, “memories exist in the past to escort us into the future.”
School history
Port Townsend Junior High School opened in 1963, a result of the closing of Lincoln School. It was later renamed Port Townsend Intermediate School.
Frank Brou has been principal for the past 16 years, during which time the school became Mountain View Elementary and the cougar adopted as mascot, Cowan said.
It now houses third, fourth and fifth grades plus the multi-age OPEPO program. The school district plans to move the third grades to Grant Street Elementary, and the rest of the classes to Blue Heron Middle School.
Tom Opstad, Port Townsend School District superintendent, commended Cowan for organizing the assembly and the staff at Mountain View for their cooperation.
“They have done an outstanding job through the whole process, working to make this transition take place,” Opstad said.
Opstad also thanked Brou for 16 years of leadership as principal, providing guidance for hundreds of students.
Poet Nan Toby Tyrrell, a substitute teacher and music instructor for the summer program, read a poem invoking school images, including Brou in his orange vest at the crosswalk every afternoon and the jelly beans that Pepper gave out as rewards for paying attention in music class.
Student council officers Kassie Olin, Zayne Piper, Alex Brown and Brianna Parker helped fold the school banner.
Pepper led the students in singing the Mountain View song, accompanied by Evan Millman, the parent of a former Mountain View student, on the piano.
The banner was presented to Phyllis Snyder of the Jefferson County Historical Society.
“We will preserve the history and the memories of this school,” Snyder said.
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Port Townsend/Jefferson County reporter-columnist Jennifer Jackson can be reached at jjackson@olypen.com.
