'One class, three buildings'
Williamsville North, South, East reunite for 30th reunion
by ELIZABETH TAUFA Reporter

Rick Lewis, center, was an officer of the sophomore class at Williamsville North the same year Williamsville East High School opened, thus splitting the graduating class of 1977 for their final two years of high school.

High school is a tumultuous time for many people - full of ups and downs, good times and bad.

For the sophomore classes at Williamsville North and South High schools, one year of high school somewhat marred the rest.

Due to overcrowding in the schools, a new school, Williamsville East, was created and pulled students from both North and South, thus separating students who had gone to school together since they were young children.

What resulted was a class of students split among three schools and unhappy about it.

"It was a sad experience," said Rick Lewis. "Being a kid in Williamsville at that time was exciting because there was an extraordinary number of high school students at that time and we had a large, dynamic class."

Lewis was the class treasurer for the sophomore class of Williamsville North. After the sophomore year, the class was split. He remained at North to finish his high school education while watching some of his close friends move to East.

Michael Rossetti, bottom left, is one of the reunion coordinators and was president of the East Senior Class of 1977.

Before the opening of East, the students at North and South were in double sessions, meaning their classes started at 11:30 a.m. and ended at 5:30 with extracurricular activities in the morning.

"It caused a sense of camaraderie that I think other high school classes didn't have," Lewis said. "We really had the time of our lives."

"I remember it was a big to-do at school board meetings," said Kim Addleman, South's 1977 class president. "We were an odd class because of the double sessions, and it was very traumatic."

After the schools were split, Lewis noted that the fervor for extracurricular activities and clubs that was present in the class previously was gone due to the diminished number of competitors.

"There was no competitive spirit in the school and our sports teams were terrible."

Lewis noted that one could walk into a practice and join a team because there was such a small number of people who were interested in participating.

"It really cheapened the significance of those sorts of things," he said.

The weekend of July 14 at Old Home Days, however, the classes

will have a chance to reunite for their 30th high school reunions.

"One Class in Three Buildings" is a decree that has been acknowledged by the Williamsville School District in recognition of what happened 30 years ago, according to Rosanne Schlein, a 1977 East graduate. The decree was given to the reunion committee and all the attendees of the reunion on behalf of the district by Howard Smith, superintendent of Williamsville schools.

"We're very excited about having the reunion," Schlein said.

The reunion attendees will meet at Old Home Days on Friday and get reacquainted with each other, symbolically reuniting what was split apart in 1975.

"I'm absolutely thrilled," Lewis said. "We all understood why they split the schools and that it was most important to get a good education, but in the back of my mind, it just wasn't right. This is a chance for it symbolically to be made right."

The main obstacle with any reunion is finding everyone from that particular high school class and letting them know about it.

"This is our first year using the Internet, and we have an e-mail list that has about 130 people," Addleman said. She noted that because so many people stay in Williamsville, many of their children attend Williamsville schools, and it is a nostalgic experience to see old classmates as parents at open houses.

North and East will have a combined reunion on Saturday night while South will have its own reunion at a separate location.

"It's a wonderful opportunity to bathe in the waters of the part of high school that wasn't so bad," said Michael Rossetti, 1977 East class president. "It's an affirmation to how resilient we all are."

As one of the students who was moved to East, Rossetti noted the trauma of going to a new school, leaving many close friends behind, but also the teachers' strike that coincided with the opening of East's doors.

Lewis noted that the teachers' strike was largely concerned with salary, but that many of the teachers who were moved to East were unhappy with the situation, much like the students.

The reunion committee has also extended invitations to those teachers who were part of the transition to three high schools.

"They helped to reassure us that we would be fine," Rossetti said. Many of the teachers who were teaching during the 1970s have retired or moved on to administrative positions in different school districts.

For those of the Williamsville North, South and East classes of 1977 who have not yet received information about the reunion, the committee has established a Web site with a contact list, registration information, accommodations and itinerary of reunion weekend events at www.wnwe77reunion.com.

e-mail: etaufa@beenews.com