Jason Gaulden, a member of Roy J. Wasson High School’s class of 1996, pays tribute to his alma mater days after the District 11 school board voted to close it.
From the moment the board of education in Colorado Springs District 11 voted 6-1 to close an historic high school, Facebook lit up with activity paying respect and tribute to a place that significantly shaped the lives of many.
Roy J. Wasson High School, home of the mighty Thunderbirds, will be closed, leaving many former students in a state of mourning.
“Gone but not forgotten. We will always be the T-Birds.” – Toni Matlasz.
“Sad to see Wasson is closed. So many great memories.” – Jason Davis
“T-Birds for life.” - Cristina Portillos
This is the resounding sentiment of those who feel the closing of Wasson is a great loss. And in many ways, it is. The nostalgia is strong for good reason – the character and culture of the school makes for a very special, universal bond among T-Birds. In my biased opinion, the mid-90s was the golden age for Wasson. What an incredible era, and what good fortune my peers and I had to live through it.
Some of the most profound moments and memories of my life occurred during my years as a student at Wasson, many in that building. Some of my best friends to this day are a result of crossing paths there. So many priceless lessons that govern my life were molded by my high school experience.
I am the seventh Gaulden, after my six older siblings, to go through Wasson while transitioning from teen to adult. So I understand and share the grief of my fellow T-Birds:
“Goodbye Wasson, what a sad day.” – Ever Hopper
“Closing of another great school. Sad day in Colorado Springs. The silver lining is that we will always have each other, and Facebook!” – Freeman Thompson
“Woke up thinking about the demise of my beloved high school. Sad that a new generation won’t live the Thunderbird experience, but proud to be able to call myself a T-BIRD!” - Marisa Murphy
Like all those expressing discontent, I too have deep and unwavering passion in my heart for Wasson. It definitely feels like something bad has happened here.
However, there is another side to this issue that must also be acknowledged. In fairness, as much as so many of us benefitted from our experience at Wasson, we also have to remember the school’s primary charge – to provide an excellent education to all its students. Every student deserves that, and it is up to our schools to deliver it.
On its core mission and top priority, Wasson has struggled for many years. Today, its graduation rate is 65 percent. And of those who do graduate and go on to college, 56 percent of them require remedial classes to prepare them for the rigor of college-level work. That means they are paying college tuition for courses that do not count toward graduation in order to learn basic things that should have been mastered by the time they received their high school diploma.
Adding to the pressure is the unfortunate fact that the building is terribly underutilized. Families have exercised their right and responsibility of school choice, and have migrated to other schools. Not by force, but by choice.
When I graduated in 1996, the building bustled with 1,500 students. Enrollment today is 900, and, according to the district, the building is only utilized to 49 percent of its capacity. It is expected of those who manage our precious tax dollars be prudent, so it is reasonable to change course rather than continue the upside down financially situation.
These facts do little to ease the angst we feel about the closing of our beloved alma mater, but it does speak to a very important factor. Every child has a right to a high quality public education, and in honoring that commitment, sometimes we have to make tough decisions. Sometimes that means closing poor-performing schools and replacing them with better options.
That is what remains to be seen. What will District 11 do to create something even better – either in that building or elsewhere? Let’s all keep an eye on that.
I always try to find the silver lining in sad situations, and I think there is one here. The closure of Wasson doesn’t diminish any of our experiences or memories. Despite this end of an era, we should be filled with hope and determination to ensure this closure ultimately brings about something positive. Let’s direct our passion and engagement toward making sure the current and future generations get to create their own lasting memories of a great experience, both socially and academically.
About the author
Jason Gaulden is founder and principal of Gaulden Group, a Denver-based consulting firm specializing in education policy, strategic planning and communications. Before consulting, Gaulden worked as a program officer for the Daniels Fund.
Great article Jason…this Widefield High School grad feels your pain. Such a sad day for the Springs.
Nicely said…. Thanks from a fellow T-Bird, Class of ’77.
This was a great article Jason! You are very right we will all cherish the memories and the friendships we developed over the course of our years at Wasson. Our children are our most precious asset, we must ensure that they have every opportunity for an exceptional education. It is truly sad that our High School is closing but the memories and friendships we created will endure.
Very well written Jason. Thank you for expressing what many of us far and near are coping with. It saddens my heart to see one of the greatest schools close, but I truly believe the Lord has something even greater planned for our historic and beloved almer mater. So many memories and great friends along the way. 1997 Teeeee-BIRDS
Class of ’66. Never dreamed it would ever not be the Best of the Best. I will always be a T-Bird.
Outstanding article, full of careful thought and insight.
Don’t consider this a done deal!! That’s all I can say at this time!! I myself being a former T-Bird!! We don’t go down with out a fight!! And just cause they voted to close Wasson I’m along with a lot of others are not done fighting!!
I’m a Wasson grad, class of 72. (IMO, Wasson’s golden years were the 60s and 70s. I think the “golden years” are probably just the years we personally were there).
I’m sad about the closing, no doubt. My husband is also a Wasson grad and when we went back for his reunion, we were amazed to see the dance studio and all the nice improvements–but we joked that nothing had changed in the three wings, save the horticulture classroom.
Having waxed nostalgic with you, Jason, I now am going to take you to task a bit for this:
“Today, its graduation rate is 65 percent. And of those who do graduate and go on to college, 56 percent of them require remedial classes to prepare them for the rigor of college-level work. That means they are paying college tuition for courses that do not count toward graduation in order to learn basic things that should have been mastered by the time they received their high school diploma.”
and
“Sometimes that means closing poor-performing schools and replacing them with better options.”
I think we need to be fair here, and acknowledge that the neighborhoods that feed Wasson have gone into a rather remarkable decline, a decline I’ve noticed since at least 1998. What were upper middle class neighborhoods previously (the “country club on the hill” was our nickname), are now shabby, large areas in disrepair, and even more damning, what used to be entire square miles of owner-occupied upper middle class housing is now a sea of rentals and properties not as nice as they used to be.
In short, as the money moved ever further to the north, poverty found a niche in many of these neighborhoods. Predictably, achievement dropped. Have you ever noticed, Jason, that scores and graduation rates fall neatly along economic lines? Why do you suppose Rampart High School has such stellar achievement? Did the teachers who taught at Wasson when times were better suddenly leave, and go to Rampart, etc.? Did Wasson become filled with Harrison teachers next? (Harrison, even after raising scores and graduation rates, still falls below average. Is it because the staff at Harrison doesn’t try?)
See Jason, I’m with you on part of this. We agree that the closing of Wasson is really sad. I can acknowledge that numbers were down and that can play a role in this. I just really don’t like the assertion that it’s because Wasson is a “poor performing school.” What really happened is that Wasson became a school of rapidly advancing poverty and economic decline.
Can you point me to an affluent school that is “failing?” (Good luck; they don’t exist).
Can you show me a high-performing school in poverty that has high scores and graduation rates, other than charters who get special rules and populations? (Good luck with that one too, as those also don’t exist).
I’m disappointed to hear a Wasson grad sound like he’s bemoaning a school that just QUIT, a school that gave up and stopped trying. Please tell me you don’t believe that’s the case. Please tell me that the teachers at Wasson taught you to think more critically than that.
Wasson isn’t a “failing school.” Wasson is located in a part of Colorado Springs that has been in economic hardship more and more conspicuously over the last 15 or so years. Let’s not blame Wasson. Let’s blame the fact that we don’t do anything at all to help communities in distress. We further de-stabilize them, by labeling their schools, which are the centers of their communities, as “failing” and then closing them.
I’m sad about Wasson. Life goes on, I guess. Hey, have we labeled Mitchell a “failing school” yet? How is the gang-banger problem over there?
What a nice and balanced point of view.
But honestly….. I think that if it were you getting ready to go into your senior year and were told your school was closing and you were going to have to graduate from a school you don’t feel is yours you wouldn’t feel the way you do. I’m glad you have your good memories but the kids going through this now don’t.
It is just the D11 board getting ready to ask for more money to biuld the “Big K-12 complex” north Colorado Springs.
Concerned grandparent.
I am the class of 1963. I was very sad to hear wasson is closing. A whole lot of memories came back from my high school days. I now have grand-kids going to Rampart and one at UCCS, Also a graduate of Rampart. My thought is more buses for the students to go around the city to school. I see that alot at Doherty which my own kids went to school. In my family there are three from Wasson and three from Mitchell. Boundries change. And yes no buses! So now Dist 11 will want more money to fund the buses for the students.
I just have a couple of things that I would like to add/clarify.
1) The graduation rate is up by 14.2% at Wasson
2) The dropout rate at Wasson is down.
3) The D11 board and Colorado Department of Education signed/approved a 5 year Innovation Plan and that was in August of 2010. Wasson has been evaluated the last two years and guess what, they are exceeding plan.
4) Currently, Wasson is at 52% utilization. (Doherty is at 92%, Mitchell is at 50% & Palmer is at 86%).
5) For this school year (Aug 12 – May 13) there are 839 permits issued to students within the Wasson boundaries to attend other schools. I understand that families are able to apply for the permits and select schools by choice but when you have the rumors of Wasson closing why would you want to start there only to find yourself in the current situation that the Wasson students of today are facing. If you look at the 839 number and the enrollment this year of 948 students – let’s assume that half of those are attending the IB program at Palmer or selected Mitchell for the AF ROTC program or something else along those lines that would still leave roughly 414 students that potentially could have attended Wasson to bring enrollment up to roughly 1360 students but without surveying those schools to find out why they are attending other schools we will never really know.
Although the area of town where Wasson is has changed. Show me an area that has stayed the same. Take me to a community that has stayed the same in even just the last 5 years. You can’t.
I can tell you this…………If you walk into the building, you will be welcomed. If you talk with the current students you will be amazed. The students are approaching day to day with challenges on many different levels. In a lot of cases you have students that end their school days to take on the role of parent to younger siblings while their parent or parents are working multiple jobs, just to try to make ends meet. In other cases you have students going right from school to work to help with the adult responsibilities in their homes or be able to take care of themselves and we are talking basic needs. These are just a couple of examples and I know that you have these situations in every school, but this is more of the norm instead of the exception. The students now have a strength inside that is brought out by the environment at Wasson – they feel safe to dream and set goals and believe in who they are learning they are and who they can be. The staff and school administration have set the expectations, which the students see that they can meet.
The thing that really gets me about Wasson, is that it’s about traditions, it is about community , it’s about family (the one you have or the one you build around you), it’s about taking care of each other. This is what the school board and D11 administration fail to understand.
So, really I am wondering why is the district 11 administration and board choosing against building upon the success that we see in the changes and results that Wasson has shown over the last two years? Why is the option of leaving the high school as a comprehensive high school and adding the Early Colleges program as an offering in the building not being considered? Why is the administration and board willing to disregard the $2.2M that was invested in the “re-purposing” of the Irving building and move those programs into the Wasson building (which oh by the way will require money and “re-purposing” of the Wasson Building) once the current students are shoved out? How is this a good use of our tax dollars? The school board was offered $25K the other night prior to the vote for an independent assessment to be completed and the board turned it down. My question is if they are so sure that they are doing the right thing then why didn’t they take them up on the offer? What are they trying to hide?
I agree with you that there is another side to the situation, I just don’t think that it has to do with what is in the best interest of the students.
Closing a school due to poor scores and low enrollment is BS, if that’s the case then Mitchell HS should also be on the chopping block, Mitchell is sitting at only 15% at proficient or above with 1,048 student……..
Jason u had a a lot of good things to say, but one thing u r missing is u dont have kids going there, that come home everyday with sadness in there eyes. I have two boys that are there, 3ed generation in my family and my jr gets to be a senior at another school. Some place that he dont get to walk with our T-bird colors on. Im class of 96 as well and I got my memories, but my boys wont, my daughter wont. My boys wanted to wear our colors at the football games my freshmen wanted to play basketball for wasson, not another school. So please understand what the kids that are there now going thru…. they dont get to walk away with a smile on there face and a diploma in there hands, that says Wasson High School. They are being booted out of there school. They will always be T-birds and they have told me that, but like I said they dont get the chance to walk away with that smile on there face. Just a boot in there ass!
The demise of Wasson goes hand in hand with the decline of the neighborhood and Colorado Springs. We moved into the neighborhood in 1980. My five siblings and I were the Wasson classes of 1980-1985.
The “Springs” has changed dramatically since I left in 1987. The area surrounding Wasson has gone from a lovely, modest, clean neighborhood to a run down area. My mother still lives in the same house just up the street from Wasson. Our next door neighbor had a beautiful clean home with a gorgeous yard. Since he died and the estate sold the house a few years ago, the yard is dead and over grown with weeds. Siding is falling off the house and it looks like a meth house. There are easily four other houses on her street that look the same. She could never sell her house because the street is in such a state of decline. And so the tax base goes down and so does funding for the neighborhood schools.
All of the growth and improvement seems to be to the north and northeast. So many formerly lovely parts of town have fallen into disrepair. It is sad to say that Colorado Springs is no longer the quaint little town it used to be. It has turned into a sprawling, congested city. It has lost it’s charm and community and abandoned its quaint little neighborhoods and their schools for the “bigger, better, brighter and new”.
It’s disappointing that the elected officials have abandoned the core quaint neighborhoods that made Colorado Springs the sweet little town it used to be.
Let’s get something straight…Wasson has been improving steadily especially since Dr. Bonds and his current administration team came in. The administration and the school board of District 11 have no one to blame but themselves for the decreased enrollment. They have been gunning for Wasson for years and they finally got their wish. The real problem is the lies that have been disseminated about Wasson in an attempt to show justification for closure; test scores are improving, graduation rates are up, fantastic things are happening with the students at this school. We are doing better than Mitchell, but they have geography in their favor. The administration has even lied about the state of the structure in order to justify their decision. I for one refuse to financially contribute to the new high school that they will build in the north portion of town. Our kids and our neighborhoods deserve the same support as those who live in the north end of District 11. This decision sets a terrible precedent.
Good article. Yes, much has been written of the FB page where I spend allot of time these days. I have fond memories. I have friends that continued a bond we forged at Wasson through college as roommates. 69, who can ever forget that year? The crazy times, the wonderful romance, the heart break I thought I’d never live through. I was a rebel, in a yellow convertible, with a T-bird 390 engine. I remember the art classes I never could get, until 30 years later. My first camera, the first time I lost a fight, the girls I didn’t have the courage to talk to, yes I have memories. I could not wait to get out of that place and then longed to return. My life would be different today if not for Wasson, but would it be worse? No way to judge that. Palmer may have made me more aware of some issues, Mitchell may have opened other doors. Who can tell? I know though, it was not those stone walls (that I used to slam into frequently) that made the biggest difference in my life, it was the people, both teachers and students. We could have assembled those people in any location, any school, with any name on it and I believe the results would be the same, a profound effect on my life. So T-Birds, thank you, for it is you, not the red brick building on the hill I hold dear. And I have a gut feeling that many at their new school will look back on their high school years with the same affection.
Class of ’99!!! T-Bird for Life
Class of 1973 Does history of a city mean nothing? This is so sad because our kids are still the ones being bused.
Wow, this is a huge shock to me in many ways.
I graduated in 1966 and considered Wasson one of the finest schools in the region, if not the West. I was one of several Merit Scholars in my class. I knew a dozen who went to military academies the next year.
Athletics teams were great, in the State football picture every year I was there, runnerups for champs in 1964.
The faculty was excellent. One of my favorites was Bob Smith, who was the Channel 13 weatherman in addition to teaching history.
Many of my friends went to Mitchell my senior year, part of that split-off for the new school. (Yes Lydia, it won’t be the first time T Bird kids had to go to another school their senior year)
I lived a few blocks from campus, on Oriole. It was an upper middle class neighborhood. Very clean and affluent. Considered an “all-white” school, but was actually more diverse than that. I seem to recall there were 3000 students that year.
It’s amazing–and sad–to hear of this. If nothing else, there should be a school with a Thunderbird as a mascot.
Odd. I only learned of Wasson’s closing while reading an article Sunday’s Denver Post. (Congrats to the basketball team on their recent success.)
A Wasson graduate in ’75, I later returned there as a student teacher in ’80. (And later still, I was delighted to sit in the stands at the football stadium once again to watch my son compete against my old school.)
I am grateful for the privilege of having experienced life at Wasson as both a student and (quasi) teacher. I can honestly say that through the entirety of my involvement there I found the faculty to have been a community of student-centric, committed and caring individuals.
I am still in education to this day, and I have a fairly comprehensive understanding of the economic and social pressures that our public schools currently operate under. I know the Administrator’s in District 11 felt compelled to close Wasson High School after weighing all of their options. Their decision to close the school could not have been an easy one, and I am truly sorry it’s the choice they had to make in the end. It’s difficult to say goodbye to my alma mater.
The relationships I made there, the lessons I learned in our T-Bird community (both in and out of its walls) and the numerous memories I continue cherish are all part of the great experience I had at Wasson High School. It will always live on in my memory. “What’s the word? THUNDERBIRD!!”
Wasson…Class of 75. Really a sad day hearing about my great school closing the doors. So many great people have come through the doors and it saddens me to think that young people can no longer call it home. I still consider myself fortunate to have walked the halls with the fabulous teachers and students that were there with me.