Since 1993, the school has drawn students from throughout the county for its academically challenging International Baccalaureate program and has sent a student to National History Day almost every year. The school has graduated 33,510 students since its first graduates in 1879, according to the alumni association. Brass plaques honoring former staff members and photographs from the alumni hall of fame hang along the wall. The school's history room, operated by the alumni association, displays a stone block from the first school, the original sheet music to the Terrors' fight song and the wool banner from the 1923 national championship team. In the courtyard is an elaborate archway topped with the clock-tower bell from the ornate 1892 structure.
Students pass under it as they move from class to class.
On special occasions, it still rings out, reminding them, as it has for so many years, of the passage of time. Tempest fugit, Terrors. Matt Mayberry is Pioneers Museum public programs coordinator. Copyright 1999-2001, The Gazette , a Freedom Communications , Inc. Company. All rights reserved.