With the school year wrapping up, students are saying goodbye to their current classes and teachers. While many of them are glad to be going on summer vacation, it can often be more bittersweet for seniors, especially those that have been in the Pattonville system for as long as they can remember.
Over 100 Pattonville students have been in the Pattonville School District since kindergarten. Seniors Joey Stewart and Allison Schrumpf are two of them. Both Stewart and Schrumpf have been in the Pattonville District since pre-school, making their final goodbyes harder than others’.
Out of all 15 years Schrumpf has been in the district, some of her favorite memories come from her grade school years at Remington Traditional School through their ALPHA program.
While some of Schrumpf’s favorite memories come from her earlier years in school, Stewart’s come from his high school years. “About 99%” of his favorite memories have come from high school, specifically from the band program.
“There’s just a lot of crazy journeys and adventures that go on in the high school band program…and that’s just created a special place in my heart,” Stewart said.
With all the good and meaningful memories they have shared through their years of schooling, Schrumpf and Stewart have also experienced some pretty hard challenges in the school setting.
“The biggest challenge for me in high school has been splitting time between classes, clubs, and sports, all while finding time to spend with friends and family,” Schrumpf said. “I think while I have tried to put my best effort into all of these things, I feel like I am always leaving something behind or not putting as much time into it as I should.”
As Schrumpf came into high school self-disciplined, knowing her goals and areas of interests she wanted to pursue. For Stewart that was something he had to learn and grow from.
“Some of the challenges I faced were trying to teach myself and [learning] how to properly discipline myself,” Stewart said. “I really had to teach myself how to put in effort and actually effectively practice [for band], and I’d say I’ve done pretty well so far.”
While taking time to reflect on their past years in school, seniors also have to think about and make decisions about what’s next for them after graduating.
Stewart said after high school he plans to attend the University of Central Missouri to get a bachelor’s degree in music education, a vision of his since freshman or sophomore year.

Stewart added what also led him to want to go into music education was “all the crazy, wacky experiences, but also seeing just the sheer commitment of the [staff]… there’s just something special about band that you don’t find in many other classes.”
Through being in the Pattonville District for so long, Stewart has been able to utilize the opportunities that Pattonville offers to get as much experience as possible. “I’ve been able to get teaching experience through the A+ programs, I’ve also been able to do some band tutoring-ish as a drum major, and help with the summer band programs teaching incoming middle schoolers so that will definitely help in my career.”
While Stewart picked the music route, Schrumpf decided to look into the sports and sciences path.
“After graduation, I will attend Lindenwood University to major in Data Science and be a part of the women’s soccer team. I have known that I wanted to play college soccer since my freshman year, so when the recruiting process started, my club team started going to events to get scouted by coaches. Throughout the process, I fell in love with the campus at Lindenwood and thought that it would be a great fit for me both academically and athletically.”
While in her decision process, Schrumpf kept in mind the kind of environment she wanted to be around which aided her in her final decision of her selected major choice.
“For me, I knew I didn’t want to be in the medical field, learning about history or writing stories on a daily basis. I was looking for something math related, but also allowed for some creativity and problem solving, so I landed on Data Science,” Schrumpf said.
Being involved in several various things allowed Schrumpf to make friends, connections, and discover things about herself that aided her in figuring out where she wanted to spend the next years of her life.
“I learned that I really enjoy project planning and leading groups of people, whereas before, I wasn’t sure if that was a role I wanted to take on,” she said.
With the amount of involvement both Schrumpf and Stewart have taken on over the past several years, will make it hard to say goodbye in their final days as a Pattonville student.
“My hardest goodbye is going to be to my friends who I’m not going to be able to see everyday,” Schrumpf said. “These are the people I see in class, tell my highs and lows of the day to, and the people who I can always count on to support me.”
For Stewart, the hardest goodbye for him will be to the bandroom.
“I’m gonna miss it a lot,” Stewart said. “It felt like a second home to me; just always somewhere I go at the beginning of the school day and at the end of the day.”