Orinda celebrates Miramonte’s 70th

    “It is the dream of every freshman, when he enters Miramonte, to be a senior,” according to one of the school’s first ever graduates after he had finally reached those dizzy heights back in 1959, adding that “in a sense, as the first Miramonte class, we’ve been seniors from the beginning of our freshman year.”
    Yet another student summed up his four Miramonte years as being, “different from anything we had ever experienced when we found we were on our own.”
    Indeed they truly were on their own, at least for that first year when, in 1955, 175 ninth graders from Orinda and Moraga became the newest – and only – students rattling around in a brand new high school in a former pear orchard off Moraga Way.
    These plucky trailblazers soon got used to living on a construction site as, year-by-year, more classrooms and ancillary buildings were added to accommodate the school’s ever-increasing enrollment.
    It seems difficult, 70 years later, to imagine Miramonte High School without a swimming pool, given how many national – and international – aquatic careers have been launched at the school.
    But in the late ‘50s, an awful lot of See’s Candies had to be sold to make that pool possible. Tennis courts soon arrived, and even a football field, although, for that first year at least, Miramonte’s football team lost every single game they played.
    But you can’t keep a good man down. That was just a temporary blip. Irene Ingram Smith, class of ‘59, remembers “a top notch football team and some great coaches” during her four years at Miramonte, while “all the girl talk was about Dixon Farmer – a tall, dark and handsome young man who excelled at track.”
    One glance at the 1959 edition of the school’s yearbook shows how quickly clubs and associations were formed. Dance band, drama club, Junior Red Cross, French, Spanish and Latin Clubs, cheerleaders and pom pom girls – all look fun, educational and absorbing.
    One drawback to being the lead class in a school lacking sophomores, juniors or seniors was, as Smith pointed out, that “there were no older students to help guide us and no older boys to date!”
    Madelyn Sears, part of the same intake, agrees.
    “I remember we girls thought it really wasn’t the best situation being ‘seniors’ for four years because there were no upperclassmen. By which I mean boys. Just the same old people.”
    One advantage to coming in at ground level, though, is that you get to pave the way.
    Many of the Miramonte’s traditions began with Sears’ and Smith’s cohort. For starters, they were invited to choose the school colors. How exciting to be trusted with a decision that promises to live on until the end of time.
    But it was not to be.
    Back in 1955, the “big colors,” said Smith, were fluorescent pink and black “and all the kids wanted them.”
    Miramonte’s teachers (obviously a dull bunch – but probably fairly prescient) decided that green, black and white would be “more suitable.”
    They were right. Of course.
    In 1975, Smith’s daughter, Tracye Moylan, became the school’s first “second generation” student.
    Wandering through Miramonte’s corridors with her freshman daughter, Smith thought “It’s as if I was here just a few weeks ago.”
    But the differences were huge: Smith’s first year, in 1955, saw 175 students and 10 teachers. By the time Moylan arrived 20 years later, those numbers had risen to around 600 kids and 75 teachers. Today, the student enrollment is almost double the 1975 figure.
    Asked how he thinks the school has altered in the past 70 years, Miramonte’s principal Ben Campopiano since 2021 said, “Education has changed dramatically in the last 20 years, let alone 70.
    “Technology, teaching and learning styles, the way we work with parents, the facilities, you name it … but the great thing is that the heart of Miramonte and public education has stayed the same. We are a place where people care deeply about one another and make a positive difference in the lives of kids. That’s the essence of what we do and what drives every decision we make, big or small.”
    And of course where there are graduates, there are alumni.
    MatsNation, powered by the Orinda Network for Education (ONE), is the thriving alumni association whose stated mission is to “foster lifelong connections among alumni, students, former staff and the community, while supporting Miramonte High School and enhancing its legacy.”
    In celebration of the school’s founding year, MatsNation has recently launched its 1955 Fund. As part of this, Development Associate Janey McWhorter has spent the last few months working on a special 70th Anniversary celebration: the Alumni Tailgate event at the Miramonte Homecoming football game on Friday, Oct. 24.
    Gates open at 5:30 p.m., followed at 6 p.m. by the Class of 2026 Senior Night, honoring the class’s football, cheer and sports medicine’s seniors, while the highlight of the evening, the Miramonte varsity football game against Las Lomas kicks off at 7 p.m.
    McWhorter plans to “highlight the school spirit” by bringing back the old tradition of the float parade “with a new twist” and encourages all alumni to come along to cheer on the Matadors.
    So far, there’s no mention of an official reunion for the Class of ‘59, but perhaps some will meet up at the game. Cyndi Clamp, a 20-year veteran with the National Association of Reunion Managers, told The Orinda News that, to date, she has never gone higher than 60-year events.
    “We find as classes move through their reunion years,” she said, “there is more interest in attending their 50 and 60-year parties because they understand the importance of getting together in the same room at the same time with friends from their schooldays … there isn’t the pretense that can come with younger reunions.”
    So will the Class of ‘59 reunite, one last time, come 2029?
    Watch this space.