High school students return for new year

WENATCHEE VALLEY — The first day of high school still begins with a picture.

Sometimes Mom or Dad takes it. Sometimes a friend does. Sometimes, by senior year, an entire group assembles for one last version of a ritual that began when backpacks were nearly as big as the kids wearing them.

That ritual played out again Aug. 26 as students returned to high schools across the Wenatchee Valley for the 2026-27 school year.

The morning began more quietly at Cashmere High School, where students arrived beneath the gaze of the Bulldog statue outside the school. Orange and black were everywhere, from school colors to the clothes and decorations marking the beginning of another year.

Outside, Cashmere cheerleaders gathered for pictures of their own before the school day began. Elsewhere around the entrance, parents stopped for photographs and goodbyes while students arrived alone, with family or in small groups of friends.

Cashmere's freshmen had already gotten an introduction to the building during freshman orientation Tuesday. Wednesday put them into the full current of a school morning alongside sophomores, juniors and seniors.

For seniors, the morning carried a different kind of milestone. Cars bore messages celebrating the Class of 2027, and students gathered for pictures marking their last First Day of School.

Then, a few miles down the road, the scale changed.

At Wenatchee High School, purple and gold filled the entrance as cheerleaders lined up to greet arriving students. Elwood, the WHS Panther, joined them, welcoming students as buses pulled in, cars moved through the morning drop-off and teenagers converged on the building from several directions at once.

There were waves and hugs in the crowd, phones held up for photographs and parents lingering just long enough to capture one more first-day picture before their students disappeared toward the school.

Buses opened their doors and deposited another round of backpacks. Friends spotted one another across the crowd and gathered before heading inside. Seniors posed together, preserving the beginning of their final year before the morning bell turned the occasion back into an ordinary school day.

For freshmen, Wednesday was the beginning of a new routine. For seniors, ordinary details carried a different meaning.

There would be another bus ride home that afternoon, another practice after school and another morning arrival Thursday. But there would not be another first First Day of School.

That helps explain the painted windows, the carefully arranged group pictures and the parents still taking photographs of children who are now old enough to drive themselves to school. A tradition that can feel mandatory when a parent is documenting the first day of kindergarten becomes something students begin claiming for themselves at the other end of their school years.

Fall sports had already provided an early start to the school calendar. Football practices began last week, with other fall sports starting Monday. With classes now underway, clubs, performances, competitions and other activities will follow, quickly filling a calendar that stretches toward graduation in June.

But before all of that came Wednesday morning, and one more first-day picture.

For the Class of 2027, it recorded the beginning of their final year.

For the Class of 2030, it recorded the beginning of high school.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media