“I’ve noticed kids saying goodbye a little bit longer — just kids talking to their teachers — asking what’s in store for next year.” — Verity Principal Greg Williams
MIDDLETOWN — After 43 years of assignments, quizzes and assemblies, George M. Verity Middle School’s final bell sounded at 3 p.m. Tuesday.
Verity’s doors will remain closed as part of a plan to cut more than $5 million from the district’s budget. The closure of Verity, along with the creation of a sixth-grade center in Highview Elementary, was approved by the Middletown City Schools Board of Education this spring.
As is often the case on the last day of school, some Verity students were watching movies in class, others playing games outside. A valediction ceremony was held in the morning and a yearbook signing in the afternoon.
What stood out in the minds of Verity educators were the extended goodbyes.
“I’ve noticed kids saying goodbye a little bit longer — just kids talking to their teachers — asking what’s in store for next year,” said Principal Greg Williams.
Verity eighth-graders will become freshmen at Middletown High School next year, while the rest of the students will move into Vail Middle School on Girard Avenue. The building will be renamed Middletown Middle School next year.
“Most of us don’t want to go to Vail next year,” said 13-year-old Alex Bronston, a seventh-grader. He said it will be hard “learning the school and all the different floors, where to go and where not to go.”
Jaton Clemons, an eighth-grader, said he’ll miss not having the school as a reference point as he moves on to high school.
“I’ll never get to come back and be like, ‘Oh, this happened over there,’ ” he said. “We had a lot of fun times here.”
The school board is still deciding what to do with the Verity building.
Verity staff members were determined not to exit with a whimper. At the end of the day about 30 educators performed a choreographed dance routine as a surprise to students. With Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” blasting in the gymnasium, staffers formed a conga line before students were dismissed from Verity’s doors for the last time.
“We’re trying to provide that light touch and go out on a positive note,” said Joni Crow, a Verity teacher of 31 years.
In Williams’ office hangs a large painting of a Viking storming a beach. In one hand the warrior wields an ax. In the other, a shield.
“The message here is that we’re Vikings,” Williams said. “Vikings have always been explorers and conquerors, and that’s what we intend to do. ... We’ll take our Viking pride wherever we go.”
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