The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Rita Dever found herself sitting in her principal's office at the old Mary Star of the Sea High School on 8th Street in San Pedro for the last time.

"It was kind of sad," she admitted, sitting at a table in the teachers' lounge of the new Mary Star of the Sea High School Nov. 28, first day of classes at the Taper Avenue campus.

"When I was a student there, I was always in the principal's office for whatever reasons," she acknowledged with a hearty laugh. "I just had some really, really great times at that school, and then worked with some wonderful students when I came back to Mary Star as vice-principal. So it was kind of sad."

Then her melancholy expression suddenly switched to a half-grin. "But now here at the new school, you quickly forget," she explained. "And this morning doing supervision out front and helping to direct the new drop-off pattern, it was great just to see the excitement of the students and parents."

The San Pedro native, in fact, describes opening day as a dream finally come true. The old school had its charm, but the two-story brick structure was pretty elementary school-like, she points out, and terribly cramped, sharing a campus with Mary Star of the Sea Elementary School.

"It's been a lot of work getting to this day," Dever said. "But just seeing the students here, I think, has reenergized us all. I've gotten a lot of 'thank you's' from the kids, and some even brought me flowers. And the parents were all giving me two-thumbs up this morning. So it's really, really exciting."

Reality check
Father Nicholas Tacito, rector of the high school, agrees it's a special day. The Norbertine priest, too, really enjoyed watching the kids as they personalized their lockers with books, posters, photos and other adolescent artifacts.

"The students were telling me, 'I can't believe we have our own campus,' 'It's like a real high school,'" he said, sitting at an outdoor lunch table. "This morning was reality for them, and everything was new. It's gone so smoothly because we did our homework just to make sure school was up and running so kids wouldn't lose instruction time.

"And just to see the happiness on their faces and how they all just seem to naturally gather in the courtyard to chitchat is something really wonderful," he added. "It's amazing how immediately they've adapted to this place."

Father Tacito says the U-shaped, two-story stucco building and matching gymnasium-auditorium will allow Mary Star to expand and adapt to the needs of the students. The isolated campus is also more secure than the 8th Street site, making it much easier to know who's on campus and who isn't.

In addition, dropping off and picking up students was a "nightmare" at the old high school, which not only was next door to the parish elementary school but also across the street from a public school. Moreover, the high school for the first time will have its own gym-auditorium, which does away with having to schedule basketball and soccer games and concerts around elementary school and parish functions.

"God has been good to us," he said. "Msgr. Patrick Gallagher, our pastor, has been our leader on this whole project. He could have said, 'No, this is too big for me.' And Cardinal [Roger] Mahony could have said no, but he gave his blessing.

"But it's really been the parishioners at Mary Star who have supported the building of this school. They fought and fought for this. There were numerous challenges that we all had to overcome."

'Believe it!'
Colleagues all morning were saying to Dean of Students Shelly Sabra, "I can't believe I'm here; I can't believe I'm sitting in a new classroom." And she kept telling them, "We're here. Believe it!"

Sabra, who also teaches World History to sophomores, said it seemed like a "really good" opening day. No problems with traffic this morning, or, more importantly, with the students. She was amazed at how easily the Mary Star High School community was able to relocate across town without missing a beat.

"The whole environment here is so different," she said. "With the trees, it's so quiet. It's beautiful. It's like you're in a different world up here almost."

Over the summer, Vincent Dever, as temporary plant manager, worked on landscaping those Sycamore and Olive trees. But his actual academic job titles are dean of detention, foreign language department chair, Latin instructor and freshman counselor.

"Oh, it's very exciting today," he said. "You know, we've been waiting about 12 years for this project to come to fruition. So we're just ecstatic. I'm ecstatic. Our facilities at the old school were just kind of bursting at the seams. And the classrooms were cramped and small. But now there's all kinds of possibilities and options for our future."

Over the last decade, the counselor says students have expressed to him more than a little skepticism about whether the proposed high school was ever going to get off the proverbial drawing board. He explains that both they and their parents have been promised a waterfront revitalization and new downtown in San Pedro, neither of which happened.

"So they were leery," said Dever. "But we've been able to come through, thank God."

Peaceful locale
During their first morning break, Claire Bakar, student body president, and Chris Califano, student body vice-president, who are both seniors, were outdoors taking in their new environs, with workmen still planting small trees and raking dirt, while nearby a tall construction machine drilled holes in brown dirt for a covered lunch area.

"Oh, my gosh. The classrooms are bigger, and it's like so peaceful up here," Claire mused. "When I was in eighth grade, they said I was supposed to be here for my freshman year. But it never happened. So we're finally here, and it's so exciting. Everything's so nice and clean and brand new."

Chris nodded. "We've been waiting for this like forever," he said. "And this year at the old school, we had classes in the gym, parish center, and PE even had to be all outside. So it's like really cool now, because it actually feels like a high school."