Bureau Valley marks 25th anniversary

MANLIUS — A perfect storm was brewing in western Bureau County in the early ‘90s with several school districts facing declining enrollments and aging buildings.

Community leaders and administrators began to meet to see what they could to do to provide their students with better educational opportunities.

While there was many obstacles to overcome, the Bureau Valley district rose in the fall of 1995, uniting the districts of Manlius, Walnut, Western and Wyanet as one. Invitations had been sent to other area districts, including Bradford, Ohio and Tampico.

Bob Elliott of Sheffield, who served on the Committee of 10 that spear-headed consolidation talks and became the first president of the BV Board of Education, said the timing was right for consolidation and they had good people working together toward a common goal.

“I think they knew they needed to do something for their kids. You only educate your kids once,” he said. “I don’t think we knew what we would end up with.”

Terry Gutshall, the last principal at Western High School and the first at Bureau Valley (later superintendent), said it helped already having sports co-ops between schools like Western and Wyanet.

“It kind of snow-balled from there,” he said. “People were sitting in stands with rivals on the other side and now we’re on the same team. People started saying, ‘These people from Walnut or Manlius or Sheffield, they’re not so bad. They’re good people.’”

They didn’t want it to be an administrative-led push, but rather a grassroots effort involving community members.

“We told them this is what we could have. This is what were paying for now, trying to maintain these old buildings. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could get together and make it centrally located,” Gutshall said.

Gutshall and Elliott said the vision of the new high school with a state-of-the-art building and approved education sold the idea.

“We showed them the curriculum we could have and showed what he had presently and it wasn’t as good as we had 20 years ago,” Gutshall said.

“We had to have enough vision so the school boards would endorse what we were doing. Kind of a chicken and egg thing,” Elliott said. “We told them, ‘If you vote for this, this will happen. This will be where the school will be,’ and got their imaginations running little bit.”

Elliott said they had good town hall meetings that were well attended with people asking questions. He’s not sure that would work as well in today’s world of social media.

“We would have a very hard time doing this now, because we would have all the opinions on Facebook that would just blow it,” he said.

Breaking old ties

Still, old ties and loyalties can be hard to break. Dave McFadden, who was the Walnut principal at the time, said it was a harder sales job for the town folk than it was for the kids.

“Adults had more history and traditions to deal with while the students blended easier once they were in class and on the athletic fields and courts together,” he said.

“People, of course want to hold on. I’m a Western Ram and graduate myself. There were a lot of memories to those old buildings,” Gutshall said. “But we tried to share, we can build new memories and new buildings. And this is for the kids. The people before us built buildings and got rid of one-room country classrooms for the same reasons we were looking.”

The vote for consolidation had to pass in every district involved and it carried by a solid vote.

Social studies teacher Craig Johnson, who came to Western during the 1990-91 school year and has been at Bureau Valley from the beginning, was a strong supporter of the consolidation effort.

“As a teacher I could see that as our schools continued to get smaller we were going to struggle with offering all the opportunities our kids deserved. The consolidation allowed us to offer new opportunities both educationally and in extracurriculars for our students,” he said.

What’s in a name?

After what Gutshall describes as a historic vote for the consolidation, a big question remained. What would the new school be called? What would the mascot be? What about school colors?

A poll was put out to the community, with the students’ vote at each of the four existing high schools carrying a higher weight.

School colors choices could not be any of the ones from the old schools, eliminating black, blue, red and white.

Other suggested school names were Bureau Ridge, Four Winds and Alliance while mascot choices included Phoenix and Timberwolves.

It was all kept top secret.

“Everybody knew that I knew. I had to keep it in a lock box like it was a presidential election,” Gutshall joked.

All the students from the four schools gathered in the old gym at Western in Buda for the grand unveiling. Bureau Valley was announced as the school name and the mascot was revealed to the tune of REO Speedwagon’s Riding the Storm out and smoke machine.

Fresh start

All the trophies from years past were taken away throughout the district, giving Bureau Valley a fresh start.

“I challenged the kids, ‘Start your own tradition. Start your own legacy,’” Gutshall said.

Spirit for the new school was built around athlete success. Brad Bickett’s basketball team had an unprecedented streak of three straight third-place finishes (2000-02) and the Storm football team won a state championship with a state runner-up finish and semifinal appearance in a three-year stretch to follow.

“Some schools had never won a regional in eons and that was exciting to say the least,” said Gutshall, who helped fuel school spirit by allowing students to dye his hair school colors one year and shave it the next.

Early years

Bureau Valley High School opened with humble beginnings in the old Western building in Buda. Elementary schools remained in each of the four towns, appeasing the town folk who desired to maintain their own schools.

While it may not have the most ideal setting, Gutshall said the kids made the best of their new surroundings.

“I knew it was just a temporarily fix. We decided all the kids would be in one place and that was wise,” he said. “Friends were made. Kids met other kids with similar interests. The kids made it work.”

After two years, the high school made the move 9.5 miles north to their home off Route 40 on the outskirts of Manlius.

“I can still remember standing in hallway when the students and the taxpayers came in to see what they’re tax money had paid for and it was just a sense of pride. Sort of amazement,” Gutshall said.

As old buildings began to crumble, Bureau Valley looked for better ways to house their students. An addition was added onto the high school building to house the junior high and BV South 3-5, opening with the 2019-20 school year.

The district maintains three sites, including elementary attendance centers in Walnut (pre k-5) and Wyanet (pre k-2).

“The building amazes me how good shape the school is. Some people that come in refer to it as the new school, but it’s almost a quarter of a century old,” Elliott said.

Living up to expectations

On its 25th anniversary, Bureau Valley has lived up to everything it had promised, providing its kids with better opportunities than they had before.

“I think we’ve delivered on the promises of the curriculum. If you were operating as Western-Wyanet alone with these declining enrollments, you would have no school,” Elliott said.

“Even though we have had our tough times and issues over the last 25 years, I think Bureau Valley has more than lived up to the expectations of those who voted for and supported the consolidation. The school district is in a great place right now with the leadership of Mr. Stabler and a very supportive school board,” Johnson said.

“As both a teacher and a parent of two BV grads and a BV junior, my kids have had an outstanding school experience both academically and in extracurriculars. BV continues to evolve as a district and has worked very hard to adjust learning throughout the district with technology, etc., to help prepare our kids for the modern world.”

Gutshall, who retired as superintendent in 2010, will forever be indebted to Bureau Valley for his career opportunities, but more importantly, for what it provided for his family.

“Both my sons married girls from Walnut and met them because of consolidation. Maybe it would have happened, but I doubt it. I thank the consolidation for my grandkids,” he said.