Monday, Aug. 3, was one of the most exciting days Mingus Union High School had in a very long time, according to district Superintendent Tim Foist.
The school presented a grand opening of its newly renovated auditorium, and more than 400 people showed up to celebrate.
“We are opening a state-of-the-art auditorium, and we have the biggest enrollment ever,” Foist said as he looked over the guests in the cafeteria.
Fourteen hundred students registered for classes for the fall semester. Foist proclaimed 2009-10 as a new beginning for a new year with a newly remodeled building.
Teachers, staff, community leaders and local residents who joined Mingus in the celebration expressed awe at the changes and upgrades the campus received through the $15 million bond, especially the auditorium.
Leland Wieweck was on the Mingus governing board for many years when it had met in the library. Now the library is moved from behind the auditorium to where the front offices are along East Fir Street. The windows overlook the Verde Valley.
“This is fantastic,” he said. We came out ahead,” he said about the larger, brightly lit room.
Longtime and current board member Andy Groseta said the project looks different in reality than it did on the plans.
“When you see it with your own eyes, it’s outstanding. This turned out just how we planned. I’m very pleased. I hope the community is pleased,” he said.
He talked about the school having a new entrance and gathering area for the students just outside the cafeteria.
“It’s nice, it’s clean, it’s colorful, bright, and it feels new and different,” Groseta said.
“It’s so much better and so much more than it was,” Rex Williams, a resident of Clarkdale, said.
Senior and MUHS Student Body President Lesli Kinkade said the campus looks modern and professional.
“It finally makes us look like a unified school,” she said.
Just before the crowd went to have a seat in the new auditorium, five more busloads of people arrived from Camp Verde.
“We brought every single teacher and staff member from the Camp Verde Unified School District to see the auditorium and to listen to the speaker and what he has to say we could use,” CVUSD Superintendent Dan Brown said.
The guest speaker was motivational speaker Steve Birchak, also known as “Dr. Bird.” He talked about “Tapping Into Your Best Even When You Feel Tapped Out.”
He covered subjects about civility, conscience and collaboration. Building relationships and stopping negative behaviors and thought can turn around not only one’s perspective but that of others too.
Birchak is the author of “How to Build a Child’s Character” and “The 5 Golden Rules for Staying Connected to Children.”
The theme for the opening school year was Our Best Year Ever, which MUHS Principal Marc Cooper said will be carried through each successive year.
“We want every year to be the best year ever,” he said in his first speech in the new auditorium.
He used the Spanish term “no mas” — no more. No more construction interruptions, no more teachers traveling with all of their supplies because of lack of classrooms, no more skeleton library, and no more need to have performances in the cafeteria.
“We now have more than an auditorium. We have a concert hall,” Cooper said to the 400 people who sat in the new maroon and gray seats.
Lu Stitt can be reached at 634-8551 or e-mail lu@larsonnewspapers.com
