MARYSVILLE — The messages were as varied as the students who wrote them.
“RIP Chi!” from freshman Randy Ta to remember 15-year-old Chianne Enick, a former Marysville-Pilchuck student who died Saturday in a car crash.
“Thanks Ms. Manis y para ceci y mi Prima J. y tambien Jessica G. …” from sophomore Brenda Lopez Dela Cruz to honor her family and a favorite teacher.
“Holla @ ur girl,[“”] an inside joke from freshman Farrah Wolgamott to her friends.
Scrawled on steel with Sharpie markers, the messages will become part of the new Marysville Getchell High School.
On Tuesday, after 18 future Marysville Getchell students signed a 2,400-pound-steel beam, they watched a crane lower it horizontally onto their new school. The beam will be part of a classroom ceiling. Plans call for the beam to be hidden behind ceiling tiles, but architects are now considering creating a window of sorts to illuminate it.
“I feel kind of proud,” Lopez Dela Cruz said, standing in the construction zone in a hard hat. “It’s going to be really nice because my sister is going to come here. She can see it. Maybe one day when I’m older, my kids can come here and see I have some background, and they can be proud.”
Marysville School District Superintendent Larry Nyland hopes to open Marysville Getchell High School in 2010 — a year ahead of schedule. Voters approved a bond in 2006 to pay for the bulk of the $96 million school. The state is scheduled to pick up $16.8 million.
The Marysville School Board is currently considering closing elementary schools because of falling enrollment and a tight budget. When voters decided to build Marysville Getchell and Grove Elementary, which opened several blocks away last fall, enrollment was projected to keep rising.
Marysville Getchell is being built on a hill overlooking downtown Marysville. In Tuesday’s clear, sunny weather, the snow-capped Olympics were visible in the distance.
Steel beams are falling into place. The ground floor has been poured and concrete walls are going up.
Nyland watched with satisfaction as the autographed beam settled into place.
“It’s an important milestone,” he said. “”It’s nice to have the students included.”
Teachers at Marysville- Pilchuck High School selected the 18 students who have the potential to lead their classmates through the transition to Marysville Getchell, said Tracy Suchan Toothaker, planning principal for the new school.
Each signed their name and many added messages.
“I think it’s a really great opportunity because it will always be part of the school,” freshman Josh Estella said. “We’ll leave our mark.”
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