Sean C. Morgan
“It’s a heck of a lot better than when I was here.”
Joe Graybill and others made the same comment about the new Sweet Home High School building during a ribbon cutting ceremony Monday night.
Graybill graduated from SHHS in 1976 following on the heals of the last major remodeling and additions to the school.
“Isn’t this something else?” Mills Harriman said as he wandered through the new commons area. “We were taking pictures because our kids went to school here. I know the kids would be really proud of it.”
Eva Benson was a student at SHHS, then she taught home economics there from 1957 to 1980.
“I started when they had that little square white one clear up at the end,” Benson said. “It’s great.”
“It is,” Linda Wheeler, her daughter, said. “It’s a nice school, a lot nicer than when I was in school.”
“I think you’ll agree as you drive from one end to another, it’s a pretty impressive building,” Supt. Larry Horton said. It is something that will attract people to Sweet Home.
The link between SHHS and Linn-Benton Community College Sweet Home Center will make it possible for students to finish high school with one or even two years of college out of the way, Supt. Horton said.
“I didn’t do this by myself,” Principal Pat Stineff said. “It took the whole community, the staff and the students to bring it about?. The old school was fine, but this is magnificent.”
Stineff thanked the community for building the school.
“If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have this school, and I want to thank you very much for that,” Stineff said. “This is going to be a great place to work and sow off to the community.”
“I started working for this district 27 years ago,” architect Reid Anderson of gLAs Architectural Group said. “I thank the community and district for putting up with us for all these years.”
Anderson presented a plaque to board Chairman Scott Proctor. The plaque will be displayed in the high school.
“I’d like to thank the community and all of you folks for voting,” Proctor said. In May 2001, the district needed at least 50 percent voter turnout, and then the bond passed by 19 votes. A second band for $4 million for athletic facilities was denied.
“The board got your message,” Proctor said. “We were asking the community to stretch, and it did.”
“I feel good about the opportunities we’re presenting to the youth of Sweet Home,” Don Hopkins, board member, said.
The reconstruction of the high school came about when track Coach Billy Snow came to the board some four years ago talking about the track being in bad shape, Milt Moran, board member said. Instead the board closed the track to prevent injuries to students, and Supt. Bill Hampton suggested the board take a look at all of its facilities.
Moran credited Wes Marchbanks for standing up and saying it was time to do it. The result was an $18.7 million bond and the failed $4 million bond. District voters had already denied a $4 million bond in 1995 and a $3.7 million bond in 1996.
“So we looked to the west, to our neighbors over in Lebanon,” Moran said. “We talked to Dr. Mike Alperin (who led a successful bond campaign in Lebanon). He thought about it. He got back to us and said, yes, I’ll help you?. He was the guy that kept the fire going.”
“Hopefully, we can appreciate our new building and take care of it,” Student Body Vice President Mark Lewis said.