Hundreds of former Brunswick High School students packed the Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie 3505 pavilion on Pearl Road last Friday evening for the 23rd annual all-class reunion, an event that drew alumni ranging in age from their 50s to their 90s and from as far away as other parts of the country. The gathering opened at 6 p.m. and, as it has for more than two decades, brought together generations of graduates who once walked the halls of the same sprawling campus — a campus now on borrowed time.
The reunion, organized by Jan Hovater Middleton and her committee, has been held on the first Friday of August for 23 years, according to Cleveland.com. This year's crowd included a particularly strong showing from the Class of 1979, which began gathering early in the evening, while the Class of 1976 emerged as the reunion's most prominent group as it celebrated its golden anniversary. Vivian Leeds Matz, Sandy Pick Bartall and Karin Prill Gosnell were among those who sat together at the event, swapping stories decades in the making.
Among the evening's more memorable threads was the story of Sherry Noerenberg and Jack Hale, who first dated as a sophomore and junior before breaking up during their senior year and each going on to marry other people, per the same Cleveland.com account. Jack Hale gave Sherry Noerenberg an engagement ring during their high school years, and after his wife died and Noerenberg divorced, the two rekindled their relationship decades later. Noerenberg had kept that engagement ring for more than 50 years, and the couple married on July 19, 2025.
A Farewell Tour of a Vanishing Campus
Adding weight to this year's gathering, Brunswick High School Principal Keith Merrill — himself a Brunswick graduate — conducted tours of the current high school building for alumni during the reunion period. The walkthroughs, announced in July 2026, gave community members and former students a chance to see the original building one last time before its upcoming demolition, according to the Medina Gazette. District officials framed the open houses as a community farewell initiative ahead of the building's teardown.
The current high school, built starting in 1967 as three separate structures eventually connected under a single roof over 14 years, stretches roughly a quarter-mile end to end. That sprawling footprint has long been blamed for structural inefficiencies, roof leaks and lengthy passing periods between classes, the Medina Gazette has reported, and school administrators have noted that critical electrical and mechanical systems exceeded their expected operating lifespans by decades. Brunswick High School remains the only public high school in the Brunswick City School District and the largest in Medina County, with enrollment nearing 2,000 students during the 2023–2024 academic year, per the Wikipedia entry on Brunswick High School citing MedinaCountyLIVE reporting.
New $102 Million Campus Set to Replace Aging Building
The teardown is tied to a $102 million bond issue voters approved in May 2023, which unlocked state funding from the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission covering 39% of eligible costs after state inspectors determined renovating the 55-year-old building was cost-prohibitive. State guidelines had found that renovation costs would have exceeded 66% of the cost of building an entirely new facility, according to the district's own construction project updates. The replacement complex will span 302,000 square feet across two stories, designed to house around 1,800 students with a 1,000-seat auditorium and a 2,000-seat competition gymnasium.
The new building is scheduled to open for the 2027–2028 school year, a timeline pushed back from an earlier August 2026 target due to state design review procedures and local permitting requirements. District leadership opted against a mid-school-year move to ensure a smooth transition, the Medina Gazette reported. Demolition of the current building will follow the new campus's opening and continue into 2028, ultimately clearing space for six tennis courts, a synthetic turf field and a full-size baseball field.
For property owners footing the bill, the 36-year bond issue works out to roughly $18 per month for every $100,000 of assessed property valuation, according to MedinaCountyLIVE. A local volunteer group called Brunswick for Excellence led the advocacy campaign that helped get the bond issue passed. The high school overhaul is just one piece of a broader district facilities master plan that also includes classroom additions at Applewood and Kidder Elementary Schools and a new board of education facility completed in early 2026.
A Tradition Alumni Say They'll Keep Coming Back For
Despite the looming demolition, the reunion tradition itself shows no sign of slowing down. Alumni who attended this year's gathering said they were already looking forward to meeting again next year, according to Cleveland.com's account of the evening. The Eagles Club pavilion, run by a fraternal organization established in Brunswick in 1977, has become something of a fixture for the reunion and regularly hosts other civic events and fundraisers around Medina County, per ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer.
Once the new high school opens in 2027, the current building where generations of Brunswick students spent their formative years will be gone within a year, replaced by modern athletic fields. For now, though, the annual reunion remains a chance for alumni spanning seven decades of graduating classes to gather one more time — a tradition that has outlasted the building itself.
