The first chapter of a book is what intrigues you, but the final chapter makes the whole book worth reading.

The first school year of Castaic High School’s inaugural class has begun. Everyone has been waiting for this story to begin. The people in the district who worked so hard to push the project through, the teachers who have been planning for months, and the prospective students have all been patiently waiting. After over twenty years of hard work—the first bell has finally rung.

With the opening came questions. When will the cafeteria open? How does standards-based instruction actually work? Is it really this windy all of the time? Instead, we should be asking ourselves are: What school culture are we establishing? What legacy does the class of 2023 want to leave behind?

It is the responsibility of the inaugural class to establish the culture of our school, and it will happen whether we are conscious of it or not. Establishing the culture does not just fall onto the shoulders of those in ASB or athletes, but on us as a collective student body. All the students at Castaic High School are creating the culture. We are deciding right now whether CHS is a place where passion, creativity, and capability will take root.

Everyone at Castaic brings with them a diverse background, characteristics, and opinions that define what it means to be a Coyote. Every single student at Castaic High School influences the campus culture. The choices we make set the tone for our school and will establish the expectations for future generations that pass through its gates. We must set high expectations, prodigious standards, and be exceptional role models.

The culture we establish will become our legacy.

As the first graduating class, our legacy will be remembered and we must be active participants in designing one that accurately expresses our values. The way we act in and outside of school becomes our legacy. The way we utilize our resources becomes our legacy. What we make of this new beginning—this new opportunity for success—becomes our legacy. If we choose to set our intentions now, we will be able to leave a legacy that makes us proud.

The end of the year is just around the corner, but the inaugural class’s journey has only just begun.

Ultimately, we won’t remember we didn’t have a cafeteria, understand standards-based instruction at first, or realize how windy it will be. What we will recall is the culture we instill in the fabric of Castaic High School.

The first classes have been taught, the first rally has been thrown, and the first end-of-the-day bell has rung. The story of Castaic High School has started. We are writing it.