Indians joining Pirates in school-pairing worked well

By Archive

Published: May 19, 2007

Parents said it shouldn’t be done and students pled to stay where they were. But the Jackson County School Board’s pairing of the high school grades at Grand Ridge School with those at Sneads High School went well after all.

In turn, starting last August, the middle-schoolers from Sneads were sent to join the Grand Ridge middle-schoolers, but it was the loss of the upper grades that kept a group of Grand Ridge parents on the offensive for months. That was during the spring of 2006, after the school board’s decision was announced.

Only after losing their fight for their Indians to not become Pirates did the parents give in to the inevitable. Still, they couldn’t imagine how the two rival schools would ever become one.

“The way everybody was talking, it was going to be bad,” said Dalton Dennett during a break from class at Sneads, a few days shy of the end of the school year. He is finishing the ninth grade as a Pirate, though as a resident of Grand Ridge he’d anticipated being an Indian through graduation.

“They said there’s going to be fights (between Grand Ridge and Sneads students), but it was the complete opposite,” Dennett said. “Everybody who came from Grand Ridge really likes it here. Everybody I know has friends and we all get along.”

Dennett said many things were different at Sneads, very different, but in a good way.

“The first day we were already hanging out with (Sneads) people. We had friends. We were playing football and basketball; it was actually cool.

“Sports over here, I love it,” said Dennett, who would have missed football without the pairing because Grand Ridge didn’t have a football team.

“I’ve played football, basketball and baseball over here. I like it over here. I’m not putting down Grand Ridge, but I wish I could have gone here sooner.

Another parental fear was that the students from Grand Ridge wouldn’t have the opportunities for extra-curricular activities if they went to Sneads, that they would find prejudice and be left out, maybe treated as “hicks.”

Sneads isn’t all that big a town, but a few Grand Ridge parents believed their children would be looked down on.

Dennett said it didn’t turn out like that. He said everyone had a fair chance.

“There’s more people to play,” he said about his Sneads High sports experience. “I played varsity basketball both years at Grand Ridge and we barely had enough to make a team. I’m really looking forward to finishing out high school over here.”

Another fear the vocal Grand Ridge parents had was loss of individual attention. They wanted their children to stay where they had very small classes.

Dennett said that fear was unfounded. He said every student he knows found plenty of attention. “Everyone on the school staff, especially the teachers,"they sit down and talk with you.”

He especially enjoyed baseball under Coach Mark Guerra. “He just finished playing professional baseball and became the coach here,” Dennett said. “And Coach (Ron) Tanner is good in football. That’s my main sport. They push you to be better here.”

And so it is that Dennett’s room at home in Grand Ridge is filled with Sneads High mementoes.

Josh Hamilton had that experience every student dreads: having to spend the senior year of high school in a new environment. But Hamilton said that though he had gone to school at Grand Ridge since kindergarten, he loved his final year at Sneads.

“At first I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “But I’ve enjoyed it this year. I’ve enjoyed it thoroughly. I’ve met a lot of new friends, and for most of my teachers I’ve become a kind of teacher’s pet to them!”

There actually were no problems with the Grand Ridge students fitting in with those from Sneads, he said. “Most of them were kind.”

He said he’d been a member of FFA and the Senior Beta Club and because he drove had a way home after school. Some parents wanted their children to stay at Grand Ridge so they could take part in after-school activities and walk or bike home or get picked up by a parent.

The distance to Sneads from Grand Ridge might hinder their children’s extra-curricular activities, they believed.

Hamilton said he naturally had doubts and concerns when the school year first started, “but it wasn’t what I expected when I got over here. I’ve enjoyed it.”

Sneads Principal Pat Dickson said she never anticipated problems, that she was confident all would work out and it did. “From the time school started, it was good,” she said. “We just had a wonderful year.”

Grand Ridge parents kept discussing what would happen if their children went to Sneads, that they’d go over there and fight, “but we had none of that,” Dickson said. “The kids have gotten along very well. Most of the ones I’ve talked to have said they’ve enjoyed it very much.”

Dickson said she’s always concerned about the students having time to eat and the busing situation, as well as academics and social life, and found only a problem with the busing.

“Always in the first week of school, I go to the cafeteria, and in fact we had fewer problems with lunch this year than in the past. In the second week of school I started timing. I went out and timed it three days, and they had at least 20 minutes to eat after they got their trays and were sitting down.

“We had several that came out and played football even though they’d never had that opportunity before. (Grand Ridge students) were on both varsity and junior varsity, the basketball team, junior and varsity, and baseball, girls’ soccer, I would say every sport had representation by someone from Grand Ridge.

“And two cheerleaders from Grand Ridge were chosen, and one participated.”

She does plan to address busing again next year, she said.

“It started out very, very poorly, but it got better as changes were made. But I feel like more improvement needs to be done with busing,” especially one route, she said.

“It takes too long for some students to arrive and get back home,” she said. “It’s terribly, terribly overcrowded.”