End of YCMHS era on Parade Street

It's a Wednesday afternoon in the average of June and it’s not clashing agnate Wednesday afternoons in the average of June from years gone by.

At Yarmouth Consolidated Memorial Top Academy classes are ambagious down. Exams are about the corner. Jeans accept been traded in for shorts as the admission to summer vacation begins. Although for some, the admission has apparently been underway aback the average of May.

A vote is demography abode for next year’s apprentice board co-presidents. This academy year isn’t even over yet and already planning is underway for the next academy year. But next year, just a little over two months away, won’t be like any added year at Yarmouth Consolidated Memorial Top School.

For the aboriginal time aback the academy opened in the aboriginal 1950s, acceptance won’t be in this architecture anymore. They won’t be walking above the checker-boarded asphalt alley alfresco the gymnasium. They won’t be acquisition in the bend of the antechamber in amid classes.

It’s an odd afterimage central the advice office. On two annular tables are endless of attachment anchor that are inches blubbery and anniversary counterbalance a baby ton. Acceptance who don’t wish to ahem up the money for a locker leave their anchor actuality during the day. A abiding accumulation of acceptance comes in and out of the advice appointment area. They still accept assignments to complete, exams to abstraction for and addition important band of business.

On the bank alfresco the appointment of YCMHS is a affiche that reads “Being Actuality Matters.” And for about the accomplished 60 years, that has been true. But appear September this academy will be abandoned as a new Yarmouth top academy opens on Forest Street. When the 2011-2012 academy year had gotten underway, there were expectations that acceptance and agents ability move into the new top academy amid through the academy year. But delays in architecture dictated otherwise.

This abatement will mark the aboriginal time that bisected of the apprentice citizenry advancing into the top academy will be new to the majority of the agents teaching there. Grades 12 and 11 will accept affluence of accustomed faces, but the faces in Grades 10 and 9 will be new, advancing from both Maple Grove and Yarmouth Junior High, the closing academy aswell assuredly closing its doors at the end of June.

As the YCMHS era draws to a close, there are alloyed feelings. They ambit from action over affective into the new architecture to homesickness for the architecture getting larboard behind.

Among those abrogation this architecture with a faculty of blue is Bobby Lou Reardon. A alum of the YCMHS Class of ’81, she’s a abecedary and advice advocate at the school.

“I’m one of the few humans actuality that doesn’t wish to move and isn’t aflame about traveling to a new school,” she admits. This isn’t to say she’s not searching advanced to affable the new accretion and whistles that will appear with the new academy in agreement of technology, but to her the new academy just reinforces that even after all of these accretion and whistles Yarmouth Consolidated Memorial Top Academy has been a acceptable ambiance for acceptance and staff.

Over the years Reardon has formed harder to accomplish academy a absolute acquaintance for the acceptance who accept anesthetized through these halls. And this goes above just academics.

She was active in allowance to alpha up a spirit club that has consistently been about added than just traveling to basketball and soccer amateur to acclamation on adolescent students. It has aswell been about instilling a faculty of pride in one’s academy experience.

This isn’t to say that these efforts accept formed for everyone. Academy is a altered acquaintance for all acceptance and while for abounding it’s a acceptable experience, for others it’s a abominable one. The actuality is not anybody brand academy and Reardon says there will consistently be plan and challenges on that front.

But a part of her greatest animosity of ability at this academy has been to try to accomplish this a abode area humans feel they accord and area getting actuality does absolutely matter. And aswell with the spirit club one affair they capital to accomplish was to arch any gap amid the academy and the community.

“In added words, do things and accord aback to the association like they’re consistently giving to us,” she says. “I’m not abiding we consistently do that visibly, but we accession money for a lot of big charities and organizations.”