When the Class of 1996 first walked into MHS, then with no G-wing, theater or Social Studies wing, they walked into a blank slate.

“I remember the excitement that comes from basically doing something that none of us had ever done before, which is  starting a high school from scratch,” former head principal Dr. Dan Deschamp said. “Everything was a first, everything from a first first class to a first first bell to a first first game to a first first whatever it might be.”

The year before MHS opened the students were able to pick out the mascot the school mascot.

“We had a fairly large committee of students that pretty much processed and picked things like the mustang, or the school colors,” Dr. Deschamp said

There was a lot of excitement around the new school, with many events drawing a large crowd.

“We had a barbeque where the parents and the students were invited and we had literally a turnaway crowd; it was a really neat evening of celebrating the beginning of this new school,” Dr. Deschamp said.

Another major difference between the school the first graduating class attended and what the school is today is the student body.

“It’s grown and grown and grown…we were probably around a little over 800 students, and now we’re at 2,300, so we’ve added on multiple times,” Kim Hotze, 23 year MHS German teacher said.

In those days the school was a much different place. The building was not divided by departments, and teachers had a closer relationship to the students.

“I knew not just the kids in my classroom. I knew kids all over the school, from everywhere, and you really felt like you had more relationships with the kids outside, it was really nice,” Hotze said.

Her lengthy tenure has put Hotze in a situation where she now teaches the children of her previous students. She refers to them as her “grandstudents.”

One of those “grandstudents” is Adam Humrich, junior, whose father was a part of the first graduating class.

“I think it’s really neat to have him walk the same halls I did all those years ago,” Jason Humrich, Adam’s father and 1996 graduate, said. “I’m just glad I don’t have to support another school like lafayette, or God forbid a parkway school.”

Some teachers who have been teaching at MHS since it first opened now see their former students work side by side with them as teachers.

“That means you’re old,” Scott Cleer, social studies teacher, said.

Emily Jorgensen, language arts teacher, is the only current teacher who was part of the Class of 1996. Jason Rudolph, who taught at MHS earlier this year, also graduated in 1996.

A product of the early MHS years was Rockwood’s current superintendent, Dr. Eric Knost, Teacher of the Year in 1996.

“A lot of students don’t have a clue that I taught at MHS during its inaugural year,” Dr. Knost said. “I do like it when I come across students who do know and have questions about what MHS was like.”

He said it seems like it was so long ago to students, but for him MHS still seems like a new high school.

“[1996] was a really special year for the staff and students since it was the first graduating class, and we all had been a part of the inaugural years of MHS,” Dr. Knost said.

Something most students and faculty remember from the early days of MHS were the trailers that were set up where the theater is found today.

“From what I understand part of the original plan was to build that [theatre area] but they didn’t have the money to do it so they basically had to build the school incomplete so the temporary solution was putting trailers up,” Tim Grimes, 1996 alumni said.

Grimes described the trailers as “used”, with their origins unknown, being a “huge eye sore”.

“I never had a class in the trailers, thank god,” Grimes said.

Grimes has many fond memories from his senior year at MHS.

“There was a kid who went out on the track and he stamped on the snow ‘96 sucks’, for the whole school to see,” Grimes said. “A bunch of guys got together and we decided we had to come up with some way to respond, so we printed out his picture from the yearbook and wrote on the side of it ‘96 sucks?’, put it in a ziplock bag and put one on each urinal between classes.”:

Today, Grimes is happy about MHS’s recent success, reflected on the school’s high test scores and graduation rates.

“I’m proud to say I went there because of the continued success of the school and I’m hopeful will still be here in a couple of years so my daughter will be able to go there as well,” he said.