Students, alumni, staff say goodbye to CBSS

MOSES LAKE - Columbia Basin Secondary School was a place where kids got a chance and support, but were held accountable, according to students, alumni and staff. A crowd of about 100 people got together to say goodbye to CBSS Tuesday.

The secondary school will be converted to Endeavor Middle School over the summer. School officials marked the end of the school's 30-year history with a "legacy" barbecue and a display listing all CBSS graduates.

"We've left a mark on the community," CBSS secretary Sharon Douglass said. "Helping out some kids that wouldn't have made it otherwise."

"It was an amazing school," CBSS 2013 alum Yvonne Prado said.

Don LeBleu said two of his daughters attended CBSS and he was impressed by the way kids were expected to set goals and stick to them. His daughter enrolled in challenging classes, he said, and was expected to finish the work. "They held you to it," he said.

"They go out of their way for the kids here," Lisa LeBleu said. If kids were having a problem at school, academic or otherwise, the teachers and staff called parents and got them involved, she said.

Staff member Sunshine Rutherford said she wanted people to remember "the power of the relationships. The relationships we built with students." Teachers and staff showed students that "someone cares. And someone holds them accountable," Rutherford said.

"Also making sure they succeeded," Vivian Serra said, who had kids who attended CBSS.

"I loved coming here," Prado said. The secondary school had a smaller student body and the teachers really got to know the students, and had the chance to work one-on-one with them, she said.

No matter how different their circumstances, CBSS students could depend on each other, Erich Scriven, class of 2014, said. "We're all here for each other. You get in a pickle, we're here to help you," he said.

James Yonko, the last CBSS principal, said staff and teachers always emphasized they worked with kids, all kids, to succeed. "We taught them that we are family. We'll always be family," he said.

It does take parents, teachers and kids working together to get kids to graduation, and it may take them a while to get it, he said. "But they do get it."

Rutherford said in her opinion the community will have to find an alternative to replace CBSS. "It's definitely going to be missed," Serra said.