As a new school district, Johnson County Central public schools experienced many firsts this year.
The year ended with another first Saturday when 26 seniors received diplomas as the first Johnson County Central High School graduating class.
“Just like in a race, who wants to be last, it’s neat being first,” Kesha Beethe, JCC senior class president, said.
A year ago, the Tecumseh Public Schools passed a resolution to merge with Nemaha Valley Public Schools to create one school district, Johnson County Central, in response to a shrinking student population and funding at both schools.
Under this merger, both schools retained kindergarten through fifth grade classes. However, Nemaha Valley in Cook served all of the new district’s sixth through eighth graders, while Tecumseh served all of the district’s ninth through 12th graders.
What could have been a year of conflict and uncertainty turned into a year to remember, particularly for the first senior class, Beethe said.
“Our class got along for the most part, Beethe said. “We got to know Cook students through sports and activities. Some of my best friends are from Cook.”
Of course, the change was not always easy and required plenty of adjustment, Beethe said. At school, the students get used to new teachers and to each other, Beethe said. Even in sports they had to adjust to a new division of play and forming one team.
Graduation planning even became an adjustment as they combined each school’s way of doing things to make their own way.
“There were conflicts that we went through,” Beethe said. “But we worked them out.”
Looking back, however, the senior class wouldn’t have had it any other way, Beethe said.
Many of the seniors shared the same sentiments.
“We got to do a lot of first things,” senior Abby Scheer said. “We got to customize a lot of things and set a tradition.”
The district could not have chosen a better group to be the first senior class, Rick Lester, Johnson County Central High School principal, said.
“This senior class really set the tone for a new school,” Lester said. “They got along, they accepted each other’s differences.”
Many people from other school districts have asked what made Tecumseh’s and Nemaha Valley’s merger so smooth, Sue Borcher, a member of the school board, said.
The school board credits the administration, students and community, adding there were a lot of compromises on all sides.
“The communities really blended well,” Greg Hunzeker, another school board member, said. “That’s what actually made it work.”
Now that the school year is over, the students couldn’t imagine graduating without each other.
“Looking back, it would be weird not having everyone that was in our class,” Scheer said.
As the graduates head off to college or elsewhere next fall, many of them said they will carry a lot of great memories, particularly thanks to each other.
“There was definitely more people to make my last year more memorable and more interesting,” senior Johnny Jiang said.