COLUMN: Building's era sees sudden end

     Anybody in Monticello who has been on social media in recent days has no doubt seen various posts of sadness over the sudden end to the 2019-20 school year due to COVID-19, as proclaimed by Gov. Kim Reynolds April 17.

     Teachers miss their students. Students miss their friends and their teachers. Athletes miss practicing and preparing for the spring seasons.

     And the hardest hit of all was taken by the Class of 2020, which had all of its ceremonial May activities – Prom, Commencement, the Dessert Concert, Honors Night, the National Honor Society induction, and more – either cancelled or postponed.

     There is hope for the two biggies – Prom and Commencement – to, um, commence sometime this summer, if not in the traditional way than perhaps in some yet-to-be-invented creative way.

     But there is one thing that, from what I’ve seen, hasn’t drawn any of the sorrow that so many are expressing over other factors:

     The abrupt closing of the old middle school building.

     That 97-year-old structure has likely seen the last of students walking its halls, sitting in its classrooms, performing in its auditorium. Unless there is a delay in the opening of the new middle school building – and last I heard the building is still on-track for a mid-July opening – the old middle school is done from an education standpoint.

     Nothing has been decided yet, but there has been discussion in recent weeks about saving at least parts of the building – the large gym, the locker rooms, the choir and band rooms, and storage area near the east end loading dock. But the rest of it may not have as bright a future.

     I know I sometimes tend to get overly sentimental about buildings. Certainly some will feel that way about this one, especially since it housed both the high school and middle school/junior high for many years until the “new” high school opened in 1998.

     But I will miss some things, particularly these two:

     • The “old” gym, which I still think is cool as heck, and where I sometimes brought my sons to shoot hoops when they were younger, shorter, and I was able to keep up with them.

     • The auditorium, where I sat to take photos of countless concerts, DARE graduations, talent shows, Geography Bees, and other events.

     There are lots of reasons to be sad over the shortened school year. For the old middle school, the closure was more than just that; it marked the end of an era.