Ceremony opens Centennial school year

September 8, 2016

The Brillion News

WRIGHTSTOWN – It was not your ordinary way to begin a school year.

On the first of September, the band was out in front of Wrightstown High School, playing the school song.

But you knew it wasn’t business as usual when you saw the juice and cupcakes.

A host of local officials cut the ribbon at the main entrance to the school, marking the official beginning of the high school’s Centennial school year.

It ends with the graduation of the Class of 2017.

In between, there are a lot of activities planned, beginning with homecoming this Friday, September 9.

Wrightstown Superintendent of Schools Carla Buboltz said the high school was created as a “consolidated free high school” by an order signed by the state Superintendent of Public Instruction on September 13, 1916.

The creation followed an effort by several small Grade 1-8 school districts in southern Brown County petitioning the state for a charter for a high school where grade school graduates could continue their education.

“Here we are 100 years later,” Buboltz said.

The first high school building cost taxpayers $19,000 – and that included all of the furniture and equipment.

“The new high school was described as the handsomest, small high school building to be seen for miles around,” Buboltz said. “There were 40 students. Today, we have 50 staff and over 490 students.”

The entire faculty consisted of the principal and assistant principal.

School board President Tom Gerrits spoke, as did high school Principal Scott Thompson.

Gerrits noted that life expectancies for men were 49 in 1916, and 54 for women. Today, they are 76 and 82.

“Most of the students [in 1916] did not go to school because of World War I,” Gerrits said. “They were soldiers, or worked in munitions factories or tended to the family farms.”

Please see the complete story in the September 8, 2016 edition of The Brillion News.