For years, Chimacum Middle School students attended “Eagle Days” to get ready for upcoming school years, whereas Chimacum High School students went to “Cowboy Days” for the same purpose.

Now it’s all one big event.

Chimacum students entering grades 7-12 all attended the “Cowboy Day” Aug. 29 at what’s now the Chimacum Junior/Senior High School campus, with Principal David Carthum joining the school’s staff and PTSA volunteers to help answer any questions.

“Why would my son have multiple PE classes?” one parent inquired.

“Computer error,” Carthum said. “I saw one student’s schedule that had more than one band period during the day. The counselor should be able to straighten that right out.”

“If you want to register, touch base with school clubs, get information on bus routes, pose for photos, obtain schedules or make class changes, this is the day to do it,” Carthum said.

Paraeducator RaeLynn Whiteside was but one of the folks assisting families in filling out forms, as Jesse Graves accompanied her son, incoming 10th-grader Marshall, through the “Cowboy Day” process.

“It’s been fine so far,” Jesse Graves said. “It all feels smooth, but then, we’ve done this before.”

Marshall Graves was relatively indifferent to the prospect of sharing his high school with seventh- and eighth-graders for the first time, but he’s really looking forward to returning to sports.

“It’s all new to everybody,” Whiteside said.

“This year, we offered an orientation for the seventh- and eighth-grade students, because we’re all Chimacum Cowboys now. This just looks like a normal Cowboy Day, only more crowded.”

Carthum recalls the “Eagle Days” and “Cowboy Days” being an annual tradition at the middle and high schools since he arrived at Chimacum in 2012, and confirmed with other staff members that separate orientations well predated his arrival.

In the wake of her annual back-to-school clothing swap for Chimacum students earlier this month, Elma Beary was on site to dispense school supply kits with members of the PTSA, with each packet of supplies tailored toward the students’ grade levels and their teachers’ needs.

Beary encouraged more parents to take part in the PTSA, and noted that the parents she’d seen “seem a bit apprehensive, but that’s the same as every year. They also seem very positive.”

Calia Corden, incoming seventh-grade daughter of PTSA member Val Corden, admitted to some apprehension, even as she helped her mom with school supply kits.

Calia is part of the first seventh-grade class that will attend the newly combined Chimacum Junior/Senior High School.

“I’m kind of scared of going to school with the older kids,” Calia said. “And I worry that I might get lost in this school, because it’s so big. But I’ll get to be with my friends who are in eighth grade now, who I knew from before.”

Ellivia Spitzbart, director of the school’s drama club, was accompanied by incoming junior Evan Hall and incoming sophomore Andrew Harding as she promoted the club’s winter and spring plays.

“We’ve always opened our doors to middle school performances, so the two schools coming together doesn’t change much for us,” Spitzbart said. “We’ve had third- through 12th-graders sharing our stage in acting harmony. It’s a wonderful extracurricular opportunity for those who aren’t involved in sports.”

With shows like “Jack and the Beanstalk,” Spitzbart emphasized the family-friendly nature of the drama club’s productions, which are also rudimentary enough to teach young actors the “mechanics of drama.”