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Sunset Junior High holds farewell to its 1964 building as students, staff prepare to move to new campus
Summary
At a farewell event, Principal Tammy Oliver and former students recounted memories of Sunset Junior High’s 1964 building and described physical problems in classrooms; speakers said the new building will offer more collaborative space while the school retains its Sun Devils identity.
Tammy Oliver, principal at Sunset Junior High, said community members gathered at a farewell event to the school’s 1964 building and to “say goodbye to the old building.”
The event gave alumni, current students and staff a chance to walk the halls, take photographs and share memories, speakers said. “Tonight, our event is for people to come to Sunset Junior High and to say goodbye to the old building,” Oliver said. “And so people got a chance to walk through the building, reminisce, take some pictures of places or classrooms to where they maybe had some memories from junior high.”
The gathering came as staff described long-standing physical limitations in the current campus that prompted the move. “Sunset Junior High's current building was built in 1964,” Oliver said, noting cramped classrooms and aging infrastructure. “I have a giant pipe running through my room, blocking off what little windows there are to the hallway. The room is compact. It's hot. It's falling apart. You can look up and you can see all the old tiles.”
Oliver and other speakers emphasized a need for different classroom layouts. “When the building was built, it was built in straight lines, a long hallway with lots of classrooms down the hallway. But we need more collaborative spaces,” Oliver said, adding that “if your classroom is, you know, 800 square feet, there's not a lot of space for, you know, to put a group over here and a group over there.”
Former students who attended the farewell described memories of clubs, choir and informal hallway games. One former student said, “1 of my favorite memories of being a student here is just my friends and I, we would just show up early and we would play scum in the hallways before class started every day.” Another recalled choir competitions and cafeteria hamburgers and fries.
Speakers described the new campus as a significant change in layout and opportunity. “The new building is gorgeous. It's open in a way that our current campus isn't,” Oliver said. She added the move would not change the school's identity: “The nice thing about moving into the new building is we'll still be Sunset Junior High and the Sun Devils. And as the sun sets on this building, the opportunity for new places to learn and just a fresh start with learning is gonna be available for everybody that comes to Sunset Junior High.”
No formal decisions or funding details were discussed or announced during the remarks provided in the transcript; speakers focused on memories of the old building and on anticipated differences in the new campus.
