On May 22, a large crowd gathered to honor Tamalpais High School and its transformation since the end of construction. Guided by principal Tom Drescher and the support of the Tam community, the grand re-opening showed off the newly renovated school to the public. Tam has been under development and construction for the past eight years and the re-opening was a time to invite the community to see what changes had been made.

     “It’s easy to notice what happened in the front and Keyser Hall being totally redone is obviously the most impressive,” said Tam alumnus David Helleay. “There’s a family history of Tam High and how beautiful it is and how they don’t build schools like this anymore.”  
     “From the front of the school, [it is] hard to tell we did anything at all, [except replacing the] existing Keyser Hall. From the student union side of the campus, it’s much more modern and much more exciting,” said principal architect Kevin MacQuarrie. “The overall goal was to unite the campus and the community.”
     “[When] we celebrated the centennial two years ago, the reality was that we were still heavy in construction,” Drescher said. “This was an opportunity to show the larger school community that [they] are pivotal to having Tam High restored and renovated.”
     “Our roles were reliantly minimum. I think principal Drescher and a lot of the community members did a lot of the heavy lifting,” said assistant principal Corbett Elsen. Everyone who went to the re-opening had their own reason, but they were all connected by their goal of insuring that the Tam students  have all the resources they need to be successful in whatever path in life they choose to take.
     Multiple events were open to the public that day. Early in the morning community members, students, and teachers gathered for a 5.5 mile run.
     “The purpose [of the run] was to bring the community together, and my feeling is that there aren’t enough events that engage the entire Tam community,” said Tam high senior Max Perrey. Student teacher Erik Yergensen took first place and Tam News’ adviser and English teacher Jonah Steinhart finished close behind in second.
     Other events were scattered throughout the day. The new pool was teeming with kids and their parents. A stones throw away, others were showing off their basketball skills on the blacktop and in the Gus and Ruby Scott gyms. In addition, Tam’s jazz band played near Keyser, setting a relaxed mood to the day’s otherwise hectic events.  
     Link Crew also put in a lot of hard work organizing different events during the day including a fact-filled scavenger hunt around the school.
     “The idea was to have a way to get people to move around campus that was fun. So we had clues around campus and kids could go and pick up a clue and follow it to different places that then give historical information regarding the campus,” said English teacher Abbey Levine. “At each station [the scavenger hunt participants] picked up a letter. They had to rearrange the letters that spelled out GO HAWKS. Then they got a cool prize that was a [reusable] water bottle that had been donated with candy inside of them.”
     Towards the later part of the day Link Crew senior Citrina Niles gathered students for “Tam’s Got Talent” at Caldwell Theater.
     “[Niles] had wanted to do a talent show and there were all sorts of obstacles that came up in her way so we had to move the date [to the reopening]. Citrina just worked really hard and she got 15 phenomenal performers,” said Levine. “We had singers, song writers, performers, dancers, senior Anschel Burk did an improv piano show, and it was really neat. I feel everyone who was there enjoyed it and got to see that Tam has lots of great talent.”

This article originally appeared in the June 2010 issue.