CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — As CCISD prepares to move students into its new 450,000 square foot Mary Carroll High School campus, alumni are saying goodbye to the old one.
Liza Guerra is touring the old campus on Weber Rd. with her husband and eight siblings who are all Carroll High School graduates. "It's just a reunion. Like a family reunion, but with all our fellow graduates," Guerra said.
She even had custom shirts made for her family. "My sister had somebody make them for us cause we wanted everyone to know we're one unit, you know, part of a family, and the years that we graduated from," Bertha Garza Patrick explained.
Graduates from decades of Carroll High School history toured the campus one last time, Saturday. Denise Saldana was in attendance with her daughter to see old friends and relive cherished memories.
"All the memories came flooding back from 1985 and before, and it's just fantastic to be able to relive some of that with our friends," Saldana said.
For her daughter Olivia, it's a chance to learn more about her mom. "I think it's a little confusing for her to picture her mom being in high school that far back." Saldana added, laughing.
Some alumni visited after graduating more than 50 years ago. Helen Heffner was attending Carroll High School during a significant moment in American history.
"I was a senior when President John Kennedy was shot, and I remember that so well. I was coming out of class and there was a student running through the hallway shouting, 'The President has been shot!'" Heffner recalled.
Despite the gravity of that moment, Heffner said she was happy to come back and see her old classrooms and new additions to the school. She even got a chance to see the new campus while she was in town.
"We took a trip to the new school this morning and it's huge. It's just so big, it's going to be beautiful," Heffner said.
Now that the new campus is almost finished, it's currently unknown what CCISD's plan is for the old one. Teachers said they hope the building will be repurposed and used for something else since it will no longer be a school.
Alumni who showed up to the event were grateful to have their last walk through, and in the words of all these Carrol High School graduates, "Once a Tiger, always a Tiger," Guerra declared.
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