Shadle Park : Class accomplished many firsts

The growing dirt pile looms on the old basketball court obstructing the view of the softball field. Portables found a home between the tennis courts and the field school. We have seen the plans, and now the transformation begins.

Shadle Park opened its doors in 1957 to an eager crowd of students destined to become Highlanders. After half a century, we can all agree that it’s time for a makeover. As entering freshmen, we did not know that we would go down in history as the final graduating class from the original establishment, but there is no class more fit to send Shadle Park into the future than this group of students.

We are one of the most successful senior classes that has come through Shadle Park in its 50 years of education. Among the endless accomplishments and awards, we have two Washington Scholars, two national merit finalists, and a NASA grant recipient. Our class holds a future author, a future politician, and an apparent 2008 Olympian – all of whom will make a lasting impression on the world.

This senior class created the first high school-run Battle of the Bands during our freshman year. Last year, the class hosted the only movie festival in Spokane directed toward high school students. The senior class is known for its outstanding accomplishments – and its high bank balance, as a result of its ingenuity. The outstanding success behind the Class of 2007 results in high standards for other classes to admire.

At 5 p.m. on Saturday, 360 seniors will be honored. Individually, everyone’s name will be called. Each student will walk across the stage and grab a diploma for his/her moment in the spotlight absorbing every aspect of what he/she has just accomplished. At the end of the ceremony, the entire class will rise as one, and the words “The Shadle Park High School Graduating Class of 2007” will send us off into the future.

These words say goodbye to the 360 seniors and mark our move out of Shadle Park, but this year, the words mean even more, for they mark the move for the juniors, sophomores, freshmen, and staff away from the building we have grown to love and accept as our second home.