Pike Road students start what will be a historic school year
PIKE ROAD, Ala. (WAKA) – Students in Pike Road Schools have returned to class for what will be a historic school year for the system.
That’s because high school students who are beginning the year at the Georgia Washington campus will be moving in January to the new high school that’s being completed on Wallahatchie Road.
School officials and students say they are excited about what lies ahead for this school year.
“The big thing for the teachers and the students this year is how we are going to end this year and build our legacy on the Georgia Washington campus and then how we are going to transition and start a new legacy on Wallahatchee Road,” Pike Road High School principal Jarrod Traylor told Action 8 News.
“It’s going to be huge for our class to graduate from that school and be the first, and I know all the grades below are excited to go to that new place, too,” Sydney Hester, who is the Student Government Association president and a senior, said.
“We all got together before we stepped into school for our first day, and that was symbolic because we were all together,” senior Julia Longnecker said.
Once students in grades 9-12 move to the new high school, the current Georgia Washington campus will become the middle school campus, with grades 6-8.
To help celebrate this historic year, the senior class gathered at Pike Road Town Hall this morning for the first-ever senior breakfast to kick off the new school year. This senior class will be the first to graduate from the new high school.
Organizers say events like this help create a sense of community for everyone, including the younger generation.
“We want Pike Road to be a place these kids graduate from, they come back home to,” Pike Road Town Council Member Angie Bradsher said. “We’re trying to create a community here. We’re people, generation after generation, and we want our seniors and all the students of Pike Road to be very proud of their hometown and to feel a part of it and the sense of community that we’ve created. We want them to feel it’s just like no other, and that’s what sets us apart is the sense of community that we’ve created.”
This year’s Pike Road senior class has a little more than 200 students.
