PCHS Class of 2013 encapsulates the high school experience

Just weeks before graduation, the seniors at Pinckneyville Community High School gathered letters, yearbooks, t-shirts, money, newspaper clippings, sports equipment, photos, exams and other items and placed them in a time capsule to be opened during the Mardi Gras celebration in 2063. The capsule went into the ground Tuesday afternoon.

Superintendent Keith Hagene came up with the idea of commemorating the new school with a time capsule and asked social studies teacher Rob Simpson if his senior class would like to handle the project. Simpson asked the students and they readily agreed.

A list of items to be included in the capsule was created. The students insisted that all grades, faculty, staff and student organizations be allowed to contribute.

Simpson said they chose items that reflect the years they spent at PCHS and some just for nostalgia. The students will be in their 60s when the capsule is opened.

The class of 2013 is the first to graduate from the new school and were juniors when the school issued MacBooks to each student for the first time. They have weathered a lot of change in their high school careers.