Rogers opens new addition

Rogers High School threw open its doors last week in a special “Pirate Preview” event to showcase its new $64.8 million addition. The state provided $18 million to the project while the rest came from a school bond voters approved in 2003.

The 186,000-square-foot addition more than triples the size of the original school and includes a gym, classrooms and library. Remodeling of the original structure is under way and should be completed in December, when portable classrooms will be removed and all classes will be held in the refurbished building.

“I always wanted to go back to high school, but this is like the Coliseum,” said Mark Scognamiglio, who graduated from Rogers in 1988.

The open house turned into somewhat of an all-class reunion, as alumni met up to remember their high school days and marvel at the new school.

Clint Gertje of the Class of 1988 said he remembers when the school only had one room with a computer in it – a computer programming class. He had gathered with Scognamiglio, Eric Johnson, Brian and Heidi Dickinson and the Dickinson’s children, Bailey, 10 and Corbin, 6 1/2. “I think it’s awesome,” Gertje said of the remodel.

“That’s an ‘80s quote for you,” joked Johnson.

Gertje particularly liked the new athletic department, which boasts a wrestling mat that has been rolled up and hoisted high above the gym floor for storage.

Ruthann Benson and Donna Stone, who graduated in the 1950s, remembered the old gym which used to be called the Pirate’s Cove.

“We always danced in the Pirate’s Cove before school,” Stone said. She said that at the beginning of these dances “the girls danced together and the boys cut in.”

Steve and Cecilia Parker and Sandra Anthony had stopped to chat with each other in the school’s new library, which has a 220-degree view of the eastern horizon.

The group said they all attended Rogers, but Steve Parker and Anthony also had a chance to work on the construction project. Parker worked as a surveyor and Anthony worked on the civil engineering design.

“I asked to work on it,” Anthony said, who noted that it was a very special project for her.

In addition to the mini reunions, there were staff members from Northwest Architectural Company of Spokane, which designed the new addition.

Steve McNutt and Dana Harbaugh were the principal architects of the project and couldn’t be happier with the way the school turned out.

“You never know what the final product will be until you get it,” said Harbaugh. “We’ve had lots of good feedback,” added McNutt.

The evening was also a chance to show off some of the talents of current students.

The Rogers Step Team entertained the crowds, as did the JROTC students. While folks chatted in the new commons, the school played a student-produced video of some of the activities going on in the new gymnasium and the rest of the school.

Donna Aberasturi, treasurer of the alumni association, was accepting checks from graduates who wanted to purchase engraved bricks for the “Wall of Remembrance,” which will be placed in the school courtyard.

For $60, a brick engraved with the former student’s name and class year will be grouped together with other graduates of their decades – the 1930s will have a special section on the wall, as will subsequent decades.

Aberasturi, a member of the Class of 1953 said that the alumni group has sold around 2,000 bricks so far and there is room for 3,200. The bricks will be installed in the courtyard sometime in the middle of June. She will take orders until April 30, and there will be other sections of the courtyard to fill with bricks during later projects.

Visitors to the school were able to spend time taking self-guided tours through the building, which was packed with neighbors, graduates and parents.

Carole Meyer, the school’s principal, said the alumni association sent out 16,000 mailers in the weeks before the open house. The school also handed out leaflets about the event throughout the neighborhood.

It seemed that many visitors were very impressed with the new Rogers.

“It is awesome,” said Ruthann Benson, who graduated in 1957. “It is so beautiful.”