Monterey Trail fetes first graduates

Flip the tassel - First class graduates from Monterey Trail High

By Cameron Macdonald
Citizen Staff Writer

Students transferred from five high schools, and worlds, found themselves at a brand-new campus in August 2004.
They came from schools with solid traditions and rich histories such as Elk Grove, Laguna Creek and Florin. They ended up in a north Elk Grove campus near their homes on Power Inn Road with baby trees and dirt leftover from construction.
Monterey Trail High School was a blank canvas when it opened.
Student Waleed Abed had transferred to the school all the way from Galt High. He became a member of the school’s first graduating class.
“It was our job to basically build the school,” Abed said. “To set traditions and basically be the founders.”
On June. 7, Abed joined his fellow seniors at Sacramento’s Memorial Auditorium during the school’s first graduation ceremony.
As the school’s first class valedictorian, with a 4.8 GPA, he wore four medals and a near-rainbow of ribbons and sashes for his academic and athletic achievements.
The seniors knew they were making history that Thursday night.
Many of them could not stop from cheering even during the ceremony’s quiet moments when student Matt Payne sang the national anthem.
After their principal Terry Chapman declared that they were graduates, many of the students in their green gowns danced to a funky beat performed by their school band.
“I affirm that you have a foundation,” Chapman told the graduates. “What is built upon it is your choice.”
Chapman opened the campus as principal and is retiring from his career in education this month.
The theme throughout the ceremony was “Finding Our Way,” where speeches and music performances addressed the fact that many of Monterey Trail’s students were first strangers from different schools.
An ensemble of graduates sang and spoke humorous lines about the school’s early days. Some of them mentioned the students’ disappointment of attending a new school with no lockers, no pool, and small trees.
“No one was ready to accept Monterey Trail as their home…we had no sense of community,” one student said.
The ensemble later mentioned the student unity that eventually followed.
“We learned to let go of our pasts and slowly began to see that there was only us and only this,” an ensemble member said.

Read the rest of the story about the Monterey Trail graduation in Wednesday's Elk Grove Citizen.