Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Classy Moments

Did you hear the bell ring for the final time at Gurdon Middle School? May 29 brought an end to an era. Since 1923, the middle school facili-ties, known then as Gurdon High School, has been a home away from home, a place of memories some wonderful and some not so good while it served as a public education facility in Gurdon. As more space was needed, additions were made. From what has been determined, the last addition was in 1943. It has served the community well!

We are so excited about moving into the Cabe Middle School to start the new school year of 1998-99 in a beautiful new facility. The Cabe Foundation will always be very special to us.

Before we heard that last bell, we had a lot of activities going on.

Tuesday was flag football for fifth and sixth grade students. Mrs. Clark, you are to suppose to run, not fall on the ground! Seventh and eighth graders played volleyball.

The students were really anxious to find out who would have to kiss the pig, as they had voted by pennies for the teacher they wanted to kiss the pig. By a large margin, it was the choice of the students for the seventh and eighth grade science teacher, Mr. Bearden, to have the honor. What a kiss! Mr. Bearden, do you think Mr. Alexander might have put a few extra bucks in your jar to add to your vote results? Surely, he would not have done that unless he thought of it and had the extra bucks to spare.

Wednesday was fun day with var-ious activities available. Students signed up for three different races of their choice and the fun was under-way. The sack race proved to several students that you have to pick your feet up and hold the sack up at the same time, or trip and fall. The jump rope seemed as though it would be easy, until you realized the rope was not long enough. The water balloon toss left many wet. The egg toss was a lot of fun, but there were lots of scrambled eggs, when all was said and done.

The kids can really kick a shoe off. The distance was amazing how far they could kick one shoe. (One had to hold his nose if he was close!) Runners? You better believe it! When the 50- and 100-yard race took place, we saw kids run faster than we ever thought they could as they move so slow at times in the halls and classrooms.

Thursday was awards day. There were several parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters and friends attend-ing. We always enjoy having them support our programs. Each teacher gave special awards to deserving students.

Students of the Year awards went to Kelly Munday and Matt McClure, fifth graders; Kim Hulan and Michael Benson, six graders; Lacy Jester and Jake Plyler, seventh grad-ers; and Amber Govan and Reggie Cook, eighth graders.

The Mildred Welch science award was presented to Bradley Weems. Harold Nix presented the Woodman of the World social studies award to Bradley as well. Name seem familiar? Bradley was given several awards for academics. In fact, several students were honored for various reasons.

The Junior Beta Club presented the school with a check for $2,000 to be used to purchase mini-blinds for the new building.

The Student Council has pur-chased two flag poles for the new Cabe Middle School. This organization is not a fund-raiser or-ganization, but they made an excep-tion this year to be able to present something most appropriated for them to the school. Since they the student government, the flag poles made a perfect choice.

Thomerson's Drugs and Gifts provided beautiful key rings for all the students in grades through 12 who made all A's the entire year. The key rings were engraved with 'Best of the Best.' This was a nice way for Thomerson's to show the students they really are interested in what they do.

Boxes, boxes: they are every-where! Teachers have been busy trying to get all packed for the big move. I know I have said it before, but here it is again: Excitement is everywhere! We are so anxious to get into our rooms to get things arranged that best suit our needs. Will summer ever end?

Parents, when you are buying new school supplies, we will only accept the zipper binder, with each student being responsible to have his own. These will not be available for purchase from the school. Just remember: zipper binder, not velco. The zipper type makes it better for students to keep up with all the needed materials for each class.

Also, when making those new school clothes purchases, skirts and shorts MUST come to the fingertip in length. Just allow the arms to hang in a relaxed fashion and if the length goes at least to the fingertips, it's okay; the length may be longer.

We have enjoyed your children this year. Oh, yes, there were days that we thought about sending them back to you, but usually things were worked out to the satisfaction of all parties.

Our eighth grade students are now the 1998-99 freshmen and the seniors of 2002. They are a little bit nervous, but we know before long they will have things under control. Mr. Alexander, the extra strength type works best!

Thank you to all who made this a good year for us. The cooks, janitors, bus drivers, secretary and, of course, the parents all had an important role in making us successful.

I personally want to thank you for supporting this article. So many wonderful compliments have been made about it. You just don't know how much it means to me to be able to bring our news to you.

Of course, I thank the staff of The Gurdon Times so much for allowing me the space. I look forward to next year as we will be making those Classy Moments at CMS!