New East High is fantastic

As I drove down East High Avenue and made a right turn on to Bennington Avenue, I couldn’t wait to get inside the new East High School.

I was at the open house for the new $30 million high school two weeks ago. What I saw was truly breathtaking.

As I approached the front of the school, with my daughter, Erin, in tow, I couldn’t help but be impressed with the space-age design of the building. It is huge and sprawling.

The open house was to be from 2 to 5 p.m., but that time was shortened because there was a lengthy program that preceded the ribbon cutting.

About 2:50 p.m., the hundreds of people who showed up and waited patiently under picture-perfect blues skies and sunshine were finally allowed in.

As you enter and go past the principal’s office, you go into a huge, well-lighted cafeteria. As a 1970 East High grad, my mind raced back to the small cafeteria I ate in for four years at the old EHS school building, which was razed last year. What a magnificent change.

The auditorium is huge, and it has a surround-sound, theater-quality audio system. The maintenance staff played a clip from the movie “Titanic,” and the sound quality was excellent.

My daughter and I also checked out the gymnasium. I admit I missed the blue and gold colors that made me a Golden Bear, but the light blue and silver colors for these East High Panthers did look nice, and the gym is outstanding.

School board member Jackie Taylor then showed us the school’s science and chemistry classrooms. I was impressed with how the rooms were laid out, and one of the teachers said she was still awaiting a shipment of boxes with more materials coming from either the now-closed Rayen School or Woodrow Wilson High School.

I was pleased to see my friend Wildemina Ocasio Sanchez at the school. She’s teaching a Spanish class, and she also is an EHS grad. Her mom, sisters, nieces and nephews and brother-in-law also were at the open house.

As I continued my tour, I saw people I hadn’t seen in years, most of them EHS grads and some North High School grads. John DePinto, a graduated of the first EHS graduating class in 1926, attended the open house, as did one of my old teachers, Bob Casey, who is now a lawyer.

The thing that really caught my eye, however, was the openness of the building. It is designed to make maximum use of natural light, and with the day being so beautiful, sunshine poured in throughout the entire building, a far cry from the old EHS building.

Taylor told me, that, for the most part, the students were getting along well. She said there were a few fights, but none dealing with East Side versus South Side versus North Side. Besides, the Panthers football team is off to a great start, and the pride of going to a new school more than offset any negatives thus far.

Principal Henrietta Williams said “her babies” were actually making sure the school stayed pristine. She said students are self-policing themselves, adding they don’t want to see their school defaced in any way.

As I was getting ready to leave, my uncle, Al Curry, the school district’s equal employment opportunity compliance officer, pulled me aside and said, “Did you see the bricks by the flagpole outside?”

I said I hadn’t noticed them. “Come with me,” he said. “I want to show you something.” As we went outside, he showed me the bricks he had purchased that bore the names of my aunt, uncles and my dad, all of whom either graduated from or attended East. There was a drive held where alumni could purchase a brick and have it inscribed. Those bricks were then placed around the flagpole and the entryway leading into the school.

My dad would have graduated from East in 1944, but he went off to the Navy during World War II. He went to work at Youngstown Sheet & Tube when he left the service. It’s nice to know he’s a part of the new school in some way.

The school district and the folks on the East Side have a crown jewel in this new building. Students have everything they need to succeed. And I know that those who want to make life better for themselves and others will truly appreciate East High School.

ebrown@vindy.com