It was an emotional day at Grand Junction High School (GJHS) as the community gathered to bid farewell to the building before it is demolished at the end of the school year.
According to the District 51 (D51) website, GJHS was established in 1891 but the current facility was built in 1956. It was intended to serve the city of Grand Junction for 75 years, however it will fall short of that goal.
D51 has indicated two main reasons for the new build. Security of the students and faculty by having them all under one roof was a major driving factor. The national increase in school-shootings and the current layout of GJHS leave too many entrances for an active shooter to enter and exit. Currently, lockdowns can be difficult to manage and the new facility is designed with that in mind.
The other reason is that the building’s age started to show sooner than expected. Issues with the foundation, flooding and pests have become more frequent in recent years. D51 decided it was more cost-effective to build a new facility rather than try to perpetually repair the current one.
“This building has had a lot of problems over the last ten years and they’re not super obvious problems,” said GJHS Librarian Pam Middlemass.
She has worked at the school since 2011 and saying goodbye will be bittersweet but necessary because the school is falling apart.
The library, which Middlemass personally painted and decorated, was colorful, filled with plants and various pieces of tiger-themed artwork. Middlemass expressed a sense of ownership over the space she curated and was close to tears at the thought of it being destroyed.
“I could get sad about it if I let myself but I think we’re so lucky with the community buying us this amazing new building,” said Middlemass.
The school itself is teeming with tiger-centric pieces of art. There are metal statues, mosaics, stained glass pieces, multiple murals and various other fixtures. D51 is making every effort to preserve this artwork and install it in the new building or archive it.
The event, hosted on Saturday, April 6, had teacher talks, guided tours, an open house and then a final walkout. Attendees could go to every part of the school and reminisce on their experiences.
People of all ages were in attendance. Community member Lee Felleter, who was in the graduating class of 1975 said that apart from the additions, the school looks exactly the same as when she attended.
CMU senior in the geology program Coral Copenhaver graduated GJHS in 2015. She spent her time at the event reveling in memories she made during her time as a Tiger.
“I’m a sentimental person so it’ll be sad to just see it gone and the new one just completely replacing it but yeah, it definitely needed to happen,” said Copenhaver.
Her favorite areas of the building and where she spent most of her time were the choir room and the auditorium.
The auditorium, which hosts not only GJHS but community events as well, has a storage room off to the side that was buzzing with alumni during the open house. They were all trying to find their signature on the infamous brick wall. Filled with hundreds of names, to many, this wall represented the blood, sweat and tears that went into making a production happen at GJHS.
“It didn’t matter what your role was, if you worked on a show you got a brick,” said class of 2002 graduate Chrystal Keane.
Keane was there to take photos of brick signatures for her friends that could not attend. She said her time spent at GJHS in the theater department was deeply formative for her and her friends. Some of Keane’s classmates went on to work on Broadway in set design or work for the arts in underwriting.
“Some of these people are not around anymore,” Keane said as her eyes filled with tears.
Keane pointed out the names of classmates that were lost to suicide. Although Keane reached out to D51 to discuss a way to preserve the signatures, she was told they are not able to be saved during demolition.
“We had an insanely unique experience doing theater here in the time that we did theater here,” said Keane.
She said this event was able to provide a bit of closure to her, but that she wished there was a way to save the names. School is still in session for D51 students and so the school is still in use. The transition into the new building will take place over the summer. After demolition the site will serve as sports fields and parking. The final walkout was led by a tiger, the school’s mascot. Principal Jory Sorenson came over the loudspeaker with a final so long and then played the fight song as people walked out the front door together.
Construction of the new facility was approved by a city-wide vote as a ballot measure in November 2021, which also slightly increased property taxes. The budget for the new building is around $144 million dollars. It is on track to be fully completed by the end of 2024.
The 24-25 school year will operate in the new facility while the last of the construction is completed. An open house for the new school will be held on August 3rd from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
