NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. -- Hundreds of current and former students, faculty, and staff gathered at Ridgewood High School Tuesday night for the school’s closing ceremonies.
- School will re-open in August as technical high school
- New school will offer industry certifications, college credits
- Night bittersweet, especially for current students
“It’s honestly really sad," said Ridgewood sophomore Jordan Bolds. "I’m holding back tearsbecause this is one of the band’s last performances and the last time that I get to see all my friends that I’ve joined here."
Ridgewood is closing after the school year wraps up on Friday. It will reopen in August as Wendell Krinn Technical High School.
Before the closing ceremony got underway, people were able to walk the halls and browse a collection of Ridgewood memorabilia. Everything from clothing with the school name to old band uniforms and yearbooks were on sale.
“Oh, it just brings back so many memories,” said former social studies teacher Lucinda Green. Green taught at Ridgewood for more than 25 years, beginning the year it opened as a junior high.
“So many of these kids, their personalities were just outstanding, as well as their accomplishments. They were just wonderful people,” she said while down a hallway lined with photos of past valedictorians, salutatorians, and class presidents.
The night was bittersweet for many, including current students, like Bolds, who won’t get to graduate as Rams.
“When I found out, I was very angry,” Bolds said. “I don’t like the fact that it’s closing, and I really don’t want to have to leave this place.”
“I’m a little bit disheartened. It’s a piece of me, you know?” said Class of ’92 grad Michael Koch.
Koch said walking the halls brought back a flood of memories.
“Ninth grade biology, right here,” he said pointing to a door in a first floor hallway. “You stand there and you look and, ‘Yes, I was in that one and in that one.’”
When Wendell Krinn Tech opens, students will be able to earn industry certification and college credits in 14 areas of study, including welding technology fundamentals, air conditioning, refrigeration and heating technology, and applied cybersecurity.
Krinn was Ridgewood’s first principal. Green worked with him and said she thinks he’d be pleased with the school’s next chapter.
“Had a philosophy that it didn’t make any difference what you liked or what you were good at, as long as you gave it your all,” Green said of Krinn. “I just have to think that he would be looking at the school and thinking, ‘Well, you know, vocational education is the wave of the future.’ It truly is.”