Consolidated school gone 44 years ago, but not forgotten
Meadow Branch – More than 30 alumni of Mountain View School gathered for their annual reunion at the Meadow Branch Volunteer Fire Department on Saturday.
Mountain View School didn’t exist for all that long.
It opened in 1953 and operated only as an elementary school during the 1953-54 school year. Beginning with the 1954-55 school year, a high school was also included. The school closed after the 1977-78 school calendar and consolidated with Robbinsville High School.
What’s left of the campus – the gymnasium and cafeteria – is now owned by the Heart Center.
Mountain View School alumni recalled a different world when they were in school. One alumna who attended in the 1960s drove the school bus shortly after getting her driver’s license when she turned 16; her route took 90 minutes to complete. Others recalled that when the schools were consolidated, members of the senior class could choose between transferring to Robbinsville or skipping the rest of their senior year and going straight to college.
Highlanders poured over old yearbooks from the 1960s and shared memories during the gathering.
Jean Grant pointed with pride to the Highlander basketball team. The school wasn’t big enough to field a football team, so basketball was the school’s main draw.
Grant lived near Tapoco where her father worked and though they lived in relative isolation, there was never a shortage of things to do.
She was a member of the Class of 1965. Her husband, who made the All-Conference basketball team, was a member of the class of 1963.
“It was a wonderful place to live and bring up kids,” she said. “I don’t feel like I missed anything.”
John Barrett graduated from Mountain View and eventually got a law degree from UNC-Chapel Hill. He practices law in Sylva, where he now lives. He was a member of the Class of 1973.
“We weren’t big enough for football, so basketball was it,” he said. “We lost that in the consolidation.”
The annual reunion was started in 2019 by Patsy Owens Rogers (Class of 1963), now of Waynesville, and her late brother Richard Owens (Class of 1960; he played Highlander basketball). Their father, Harry Owens, was a school board member.