I was reading my old hometown newspaper's website (kcstar.com) when I ran across a story about my old school district. I clicked on the story and was horrified to discover that the Shawnee Mission School District will be closing down my old middle school next year. Antioch Middle School will be murdered as an entity due to budgetary contraints resulting from declining enrollment. When I attended AMS we had about 750 students. Today there is less than 450. This decline in enrollment is district wide. In 1970 the SMSD had 45,000 students. Today the SMSD has around 23,000 students district wide. Not quite sure what's going on in Johnson County...I've been in Texas the last 12 years.
Antioch Middle School was originally built in 1955 as Milburn Junior High on land domained from the Milburn Country Club. It was a beautiful setting for a school and I often allowed my gaze to wander out the window during math class to watch the bourgeosie play golf. I even caddied at the club for a brief time. I was a proud Milburn Trojan my 7th Grade year. But the next summer they shut down nearby (an early foreshadowing of Milburn's fate) Old Mission Junior High, brought their students to us and converted all the junior highs in the district to middle schools. All 9th Graders moved to the high schools and the middle schools housed only 7th and 8th graders.
They changed the name of Milburn to the boring name of Antioch Middle School (Nancy Kassabaum Middle School was also in the running). They changed the mascot and all the old traditions. They took off a giant Trojan Soldier sculpture off the front wall and ripped out the Trojan Warrior embedded in the front lobby tiles...the one that if you stepped on you would be beaten up by older students. Milburn was dead and Antioch born...until now when they plan to kill it off completely next year.
To add insult to injury all those Antioch students will now be shipped to our hated arch rivals...Hocker (as in hocking a loogie) Grove Middle School. Hocker...the dump that got to keep their school's name in 1986 because of the rabid parent protests. That's like shutting down OU and sending all the students to ut if not actually a million times worse.
The news of this closing depressed me more than I would have guessed. Schools house a lot of memories. There is nothing sadder than an empty classroom or an empty school building. Think about the millions of stories that took place in those rooms. At least we'll have the memories. The last time I saw the building was seven years ago...and then we only passed by on the road. I'm thinking I may have to make one last pilgrimage before the end comes. At least my 8th Grade Record in the 440 meter four-man relay will now be frozen forever never to be broken.
R.I.P. Milburn Junior High 1955-1986
R.I.P. Antioch Middle School 1986-2011
To add insult to injury all those Antioch students will now be shipped to our hated arch rivals...Hocker (as in hocking a loogie) Grove Middle School. Hocker...the dump that got to keep their school's name in 1986 because of the rabid parent protests. That's like shutting down OU and sending all the students to ut if not actually a million times worse.
The news of this closing depressed me more than I would have guessed. Schools house a lot of memories. There is nothing sadder than an empty classroom or an empty school building. Think about the millions of stories that took place in those rooms. At least we'll have the memories. The last time I saw the building was seven years ago...and then we only passed by on the road. I'm thinking I may have to make one last pilgrimage before the end comes. At least my 8th Grade Record in the 440 meter four-man relay will now be frozen forever never to be broken.
R.I.P. Milburn Junior High 1955-1986
R.I.P. Antioch Middle School 1986-2011
