After 39 years, Powell Junior High School says goodbye

May 27, 2010 — East Valley Tribune

Michelle Reese

May 27, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- A group of ninth-graders made their way through the front office at Mesa's Powell Junior High handing roses to staff on Thursday, the last day of the school year -- and the 39-year-old school's last day as a junior high.

As they approached Peg Klinker's desk, the 17-year Powell veteran stood up and hugged each of them, holding back a few tears.

"We're going to be strong today," the assistant principal's secretary said.

Early this year, faced with budget cuts, declining enrollment and a need to make changes in the district, the Mesa Unified School District governing board voted to close Powell.

The district plans to convert the campus into a learning center, with the community education department moving into the facility as well as the East Valley Academy and Crossroads, two programs for high school students.

On Thursday, Klinker and other staff wore shirts that read: "Powell Junior High, 1971-2010. Will the last one out please turn out the lights."

Around the offices, boxes packed with supplies were destined for other school locations, just like many of the students: Westwood, Dobson and Skyline high schools and Rhodes Junior High. The school sold football, track and baseball jerseys to students for $5. Some bought them to hang on their walls. Some wanted a jersey because they'll never get the chance to wear one as a Powell Patriot.

When Klinker leaves the campus for the last time in June, after she finishes her duties, she's retiring.

She started in the district 20 years ago and spent the majority of her career on the campus at Extension Road and Eighth Avenue.

"My memories are so many. My husband said I should have started a book 16 years ago," she said.

Klinker noted the school has a different culture than other campuses. She and the staff have worked hard to let the students know, "not all people are judging them because their skin is a different color," she said.

This year, 70 percent of the students are Hispanic, according to district demographics. American Indians and blacks each make up another 10 percent of the enrollment.

"I hope their memories here have built a foundation for them that they know they're going to be strong," Klinker said.

Sometimes, when other students have moved on, she's heard people comment, "Oh, you went to Powell."

"I tell them, 'You need to hold your head up high. Powell gets a bad rap. But I've never felt danger here. I was never afraid. If you respect them, they'll respect you. I hope they've learned that and take that down the road," she said. "Don't be ashamed of who you are or where you live." With the school closing, and an opportunity to retire at hand, Klinker chose that path.

"I don't picture myself anywhere else," she said. "It's really hard. This is my labor of love. I've had the students come back from college graduation, had them bringing in their babies, come in their Marine uniforms."

"Every year is very hard," when classes end, she added. "This year, everybody is going somewhere new."

In fact, the Powell ninth- and eighth graders would have left anyway. Besides closing several school and program sites, the governing board voted to move ninth-graders to three of the district's six comprehensive high schools in the fall. The rest will transition the following school year.

But it's still bittersweet for Dylan Sims, 14, who will attend Westwood High as a ninth-grader in the fall.

"I'm kind of nervous to go to high school," he said. "Most of my friends are going to Dobson or other schools."

Sims said his favorite memory from this year was a pep rally Powell held in April for the students moving on to high school.

"Just getting us all hyped up and ready for high school and having our last get-together at Powell," he said.

Longtime school counselor Sherri Jenkins is also retiring this year. She had already decided last fall to retire, and later learned the school would be closing.

A lot of friends and colleagues told her that the timing was perfect.

"Your school is retiring, too," Jenkins said.

"I thought I would be sadder," she said while sitting in her office Thursday. "I think I'm not because I'm not leaving Powell behind when I retire. Everybody is moving on."

Jenkins is taking 25 years of Powell memories with her, but there's one that's never going to leave her: Powell gave Jenkins and her husband, Bill, their son, Manny.

"We adopted my son who was a student here in eighth grade," she said.

She went on to tell the story about meeting her son. She was a counselor to Manny and his four older brothers and sister when his mother passed away from a long battle with cancer.

After the funeral, she went to check on him because he did not return to school. After conversations with his siblings, she brought Manny to her house and for the next year he spent weekdays there.

"I still remember that day in the car," she recalled. "He said, 'Sherri, can you and Bill adopt me?'"

And that's what they did. Today, Manny is 26 and has given her two grandchildren.

"Knowing his family and being able to bring him in my life was because of Powell," she said.

Several of the school photos, awards and other memorabilia will be set up in a "Powell archive" to be displayed by the district, Jenkins said.

But she and Klinker hope the students also take a bit of the school with them.

"I hope they have good memories of a staff that really cared about them," Jenkins said. "It's all about the connections you make with the kids."

Newstex ID: KRTB-0132-45491687