#SaveCrest: The Alumni Perspective Part I
MERCER ISLAND SCHOOLSFEATUREDOPINION
“Save Crest. Crest saved me.”
Those five simple words encapsulate the resounding sentiment of over 100 responses to a grassroots alumni survey sent out in the wake of the district’s announcement that Crest Learning Center, Mercer Island’s alternative high school, is under threat of closure. For alumni like myself (Class of 2001), it’s baffling that anyone might think the program is expendable, but for many in the wider Mercer Island community, Crest remains a black box. So. What is Crest?
Crest began as a contract high school in 1971, started by Michael and Karen Hagen. Michael and Karen had the kind of campfire warmth that drew in even the prickliest student. Part of that was their gentleness, part of that was that they saw the best version of you before you saw it yourself. Even if all you did was meet with one of them for a contract class once a week, you carried that warmth and that vision of yourself with you all week long.
By the 90’s, what began as independent-study classes evolved into the center of the Crest universe as we know it today: Crest Block. A two-hour humanities class, Block is a project-based program built around community, work-ethic, and highly-differentiated learning. The building, itself, was designed to accommodate this class: one open, central classroom surrounded by teacher offices, every adult in the building literally surrounding students with support. “Crest is there to support students…[who] need community,” wrote Megan Barbara (Class of 2015). Nobody falls through the cracks, and all are welcome. Students show up on their best days and their worst. Both as a student and as a guest teacher, I’ve heard my share of yelling, seen my share of hoods up and foreheads on desks, and I’ve watched every teacher be genuinely happy to see every student, no matter what.
The ethos at Crest is as close to a family affair as you can get in public school. Patrick Rigby, who has taught at Crest since 2009, was a Crest kid himself. He and every other Crest teacher I’ve met and worked with is the gold standard of an open, caring, safe adult. It was that way for me during my time as a student, from 1997-2001, and it’s the same now. As Samantha Bannach (Class of 2023) put it, “I am confident that I would not have graduated high school without the existence of Crest. For me, Crest was an environment where adults could be trusted.” This sentiment is echoed over and over again in alumni testimonials.
I understand why, from the outside, it might be easy to discount Crest. It’s a small, hidden-away building, easy to ignore, often joked about. Inside that building, however, there’s a kind of alchemy happening. Crest’s essential magic is taking kids who don’t fit in at the high school and helping them figure out where they fit into the world. Alec Dugan wrote, “I only spent a year at Crest, but it was one of the most transformative and important experiences of my time at MIHS…it’s an experience that should be the norm, not the exception. Crest gave me the space to explore myself, my interests, and my goals in ways traditional classrooms don’t.” Crest alumni have gone on to be doctors, lawyers, poet-electricians, marine biologists, teachers, and social workers. They’ve gone to state schools—Western, Evergreen, UW—and further afield—Johns Hopkins, Smith College, the Marine Corps. Almost half of survey respondents credit Crest with getting them to graduate. Ten percent say Crest is the reason they are still alive. We alumni have found purpose and success thanks to the community in that building, and many of us have come back to rally around the program as budgetary woes threaten to shut it down.
“If I had not attended an alternative school like Crest, I would likely be a statistic,” Meredith Wetherell (Class of ’93) wrote. Fifty people responded to the alumni survey in the first 24 hours to share their stories, and more stories are being added every day. We have launched the [Crest Alumni Network] to showcase how Crest has impacted us. We are proof-positive that Crest saves lives, that the building is a safe space for students who are not safe elsewhere, that Crest is a vibrant, necessary community, and that attending Crest, even for a little while, can change the way students think about themselves, and what they believe they can achieve with their lives. As we approach the next meeting of the Mercer Island School Board (April 23rd at 5:00 pm), we will continue to gather testimonials from Crest alumni, gather petition signatures from the broader community, and try to keep this necessary, life-saving program alive.
About the Author:
Roz Ray is a local writer and Crest Alum, Class of 2001. Her short stories have appeared in Tahoma Literary Review, Easy Street Magazine, and Black Heart Magazine, among others, and she won the Black List's Unpublished Novel Award for Crime & Mystery in 2025. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing, and teaches writing to students third grade through graduate school. When she's not writing or teaching, she's on a paddleboard, in a boxing gym, or helping her dad remodel somebody's kitchen. You can find more of her writing through her website, www.rozray.net, and she's on Instagram and Bluesky as @writerinworkboots
