Last day as one-high-school town

By Eric Stevick Herald Writer SNOHOMISH -- Shane Hunrich, wearing a Snohomish High School Panther medallion around his neck, hopped on Bus 83 on Tuesday and headed home across the valley.

The last day of school was over. So, too, was an era.

"It's been a special thing how the whole community is just about the high school," Hunrich said. While he's been soaking in the Panther spirit, Hunrich has spent this spring planting seeds of anticipation for the new Glacier Peak High School, which will open next fall. It was part of his job as Glacier Peak's incoming student body president.

"I've spent the whole year thinking and working for both schools," he said. The $88.9 million high school off Cathcart Way will be finished in August and open to about 1,000 freshmen, sophomores and juniors. Tuesday was a day of good-byes at Snohomish High School.

Good-bye to classmates. Good-bye to teachers. Good-bye to decades as a one-high-school town. Although all of next year's seniors will attend Snohomish High School, underclassmen will be split between the north and south end schools. Students to the north and east of the Snohomish River will remain at Snohomish; those south and west will attend Glacier Peak. At a year-end assembly Tuesday, students vowed to be two schools unified as one community.