Caption: Tim Sather, Lockwood School Board Chairman, center, prepares to cut the ribbon at Lockwood’s new CTE Building on Tuesday September 3, 2019 as the first freshman class starts school at Lockwood High School along with school board members and local officials present. (Jonathan McNiven Photo)
The day beamed bright and beautiful. Everyone had a smile and the joy was irrepressible. Tuesday morning couldn’t have been more perfect for the ribbon-cutting on the first day of classes of the new Lockwood High School.
Tim Sather, Chairman of the Lockwood School Board, cut the ribbon to the newly completed CTE Building, which will serve the first freshman class of Lockwood High School. The ribbon was held by two of the hundred-plus students who stood ready to enter the building to begin their high school ventures.
Superintendent Tobin Novasio, noting that the main high school building is still under construction immediately to the north of the CTE Building, said that the high school not being finished is an appropriate metaphor for the freshman students who have not yet completed their high school education. “Do not be a finished product,” Novasio advised, urging students to use their high school years “to explore and challenge yourself.” They have a lot of choices before them, he said.
He also emphasized, “You will make the history for Lockwood High School and you will be the first to set its traditions.”
Sather told the students that the high school is “for you.” He added, “Leadership is made from opportunity, and you are being given an opportunity … I want you all to become leaders over the next four years.”
For many onlookers in the crowd the event was an emotional one – a long awaited day for which some had advocated for years and years, and in some cases decades. Conrad Stroebe was standing within the crowd, greatly enjoying the moment. He and his wife, Teresa, are among those who have spent decades advocating for a Lockwood High School. The ribbon cutting was truly a dream come true. In observing the students, Stroebe declared that this was going to be a class in which 100 percent would graduate.
The fact that about a fourth of past Lockwood students had been failing to complete high school, was one of the most compelling reasons made for the community to have its own high school.
Stroebe also noted that the event marks the fact that about 2200 “slots” for high school students have been opened in the state. East Helena, too, was launching their first day of high school this fall. Counting the students in Lockwood and East Helena starting in new schools and the “slots” their leaving opened in the Billings and Helena high schools districts they left, is overall a boon to all schools in terms of accommodating growth.
Both Lockwood and East Helena benefited from a piece of legislation that lifted a moratorium on high schools and allowed the communities an avenue to become k-12 districts.
It took three sessions of the state legislature to pass the bill and was marshalled through the process, through the efforts of four legislators who represented Lockwood during that time frame, Sue Vinton, Tom Richmond, Taylor Brown and Jonathan McNiven. Many Lockwood leaders, including members of the school board, and parents made numerous trips to Helena to testify, and many more worked hard to pass the bond issue that was necessary to build the high school. Many of them were present in the crowd, too, on Tuesday morning.
Nick Pancheau of Collaborative Design, the firm that designed the new high school, along with construction managers, were also present, enjoying having reached a milestone in the overall construction project. This time next year they will be conducting a ribbon cutting for the rest of the high school, and another class will join this year’s freshman class.
Construction of the main high school building is going smoothly and despite an accelerated schedule is on time. Pancheau said that the footings for the stadium have been dug and will be poured within a week. Soon passers-by will see the stadium structure rising up.
The maintenance building has been completed and the maintenance department will begin moving equipment and supplies in next week.
Also, completed is a significant portion of the parking lot, where buses will be picking up and dropping off students.
